Should my weekly TSS always be rising?

I’m coming towards the end of my Sustained Power Build (mid), having completed the SSB 1&2.
My recent TSS, has been rising and is now around 550.

I plan to do the Century Speciality next in the run up to my first A race in mid April.

As I hope to get in more outside rides and would find the 5 sessions a week from the mid a bit time demanding, I plan to do the Century low.

My question is: should my TSS be rising (or at least be level to the 550)?

The ‘Century low’ would look more like 300 indoors with a further 200-ish outdoors. This would be fairly steady each week. Would I continue to see gains or would I be taking my foot off the pedal too much?

Thanks,
Charles

TSS should be rising slowly during base and build cycles. In TR, it is rising for three weeks, then drop a bit for the recovery week, then rise again for three weeks, etc. During off season, TSS should drop fairly low to allow for long-term recovery.

If you follow the TR plans, a bit of TSS progression is already build in. For your outdoor rides, I would also stretch them a bit maybe every other week. That could mean a longer ride, or higher speed, or more hills. Mix it up a bit and keep your goal event in mind.

If you take your direction from TR, then I would keep the outdoor rides during the TR recovery weeks easy. This means a TSS drop for that week, don’t feel tempted to make up for the easy TR workouts with a hard outdoor ride.

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From what I understand i agree with Splash.

I will add that more intense work would have you do less TSS than less intense workouts - so as long as the training type SweetSpot / vo2 etc is the same as the week before then YES it should be rising.

Yes there should be a ramp rate for TSS provided it is the same type of stress - doesn’t always work for me though because if I do a long group ride there is quite a lot of TSS even though the long term fatigue isn’t as high as say 90 mins of o/u with a lower TSS. I often sub out the 2hr SS Sunday ride for outdoors and that has a higher TSS even though I don’t feel any more fatigued at the end.