So I’ve done some reading around and can’t seem to find any definitive guidance/opinion/science on the impact of long distance hikes in terms of TSS.
For some context, assume the athlete is training swim, bike and run but every now and then throws in a 4-6 hour hike over varied terrain. Some HR spikes on the inclines but otherwise low Z1 HR all day.
Logging as Level 1 intensity will yield a not-insignificant TSS score (a 5 hour hike yields a similar TSS to a 2.5hour Z2 ride).
Is this an accurate way to log TSS accumulated through hiking, or do the numbers need a hair cut and revising down slightly to reflect the fact that most of the time is spent at a very low Z1 HR?
It doesn’t seem right to log a long hike as 0 TSS as it certainly feels like productive work, but wanted to see what everyone’s thought are on this.
I did 2x 30 min fast walk (or light run) as part of my commute for a while, and also thought that I accumulated not insignificant fatigue due to it. I treated it as a slow run, recorded a couple of them as a run on my watch, and then just used the TSS I got from TP for that.
Think you can actually classify it as a walk in TP.
TSS was designed for cycling and has no equivalent in other sports. People want there to be an equivalent so they came up with runTSS, swimTSS, TrainingPeaks also have hrTSS. None of these are equivalent even though they use the same acronym. 1 TSS on the bike will not equal 1 TSS for hiking.
That understood, it then doesn’t really matter how you calculate your hiking TSS, as long as it is consistent for you it can be meaningful. I’d suggest you use the TR Calendar and assign the hours and RPE you feel to generate a TSS score.
You could also create a free TrainingPeaks account and have it determine the hrTSS (as long as heart rate is accurate), and then copy it over to your TR calendar.