Planning by TSS

Hello there !

At the moment, in order to generate a plan, you have at least to:

  • set your min/max volume
  • define the race/sport you want to compete for
  • set the race day

What about deciding which is the desired fitness level you want to have by that race day instead ?

Something like: hey, AI coach on xth of September I want to have a fitness level of Y.
Then the ai-coach should provide some hints about the expected volume and ramp rate to achieve the deisred target, higligthing any critical aspect, if any, eg: ramp rate > 8.

thanks

F

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Hey @thekappe

Would love to hear more from others in here on this idea—especially how it could be implemented in a way that protects athlete health.

This is my personal opinion, so please let’s have a conversation about this.
I think it is important to be cautious about designing training purely around desired theoretical fitness number by a fixed date.
This kind of approach can easily lead down a dangerous road, especially if not grounded in physiological feedback and recovery data.
Fitness isn’t a static number to chase, it’s an adaptive process. Chasing a static number by a certain date or threshold pace/power can lead to overtraining and injuries. More and harder is not always the answer. Chasing a number can lead to adding “a little extra here and there” when body is not adapting - just because we are a type ambitious athletes…
Been that road. It got ugly. :wink:

We humans are complex creatures. Our bodies don’t always act the way we want. Adaptation is not always linear. Adaptation can take much longer time than we desire.

I do agree there’s value in giving athletes insight what is required on event day to reach certain outcomes but not as a prescription but an estimation.

Goal setting should be based on your physiology, not arbitrary numbers.

Happy to learn more insights and change my mind so let’s talk !

MJ

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Thanks @Marjaana ,

I’m studying a lot in this period about endurance training (but hey, I’m just a newbie !) . One thing that I can’t understand is how/when you can judge an athlete as “ready” to do something ?

As far as I know, some people use a table with the annual TSS as guide (8h+ event 40K-60K TSS), others use a target CTL for the race and then get backward to find the best day to start training.

What about athletica ? How does it define the right TSS for each week/period ? How do I know if the final CTL will be sufficient to handle the race ?

Thanks,

F

1 Like