[dwpyle]

I’ve been using Training Peaks for about 6-7 weeks and just started the 24-week marathon plan last week. Now, every workout I’ve done that follows the plan is colored orange and is labeled a Breakthrough Workout. I’m not sure what constitutes a Breakthrough Workout, but how can every workout be a breakthrough?

Topic

[Anonymous]

Anonymous on May 24, 2018 at 1:18 pm #10040

Have you Googled Training Peaks Breakthrough Workout? These are workouts that have a strong training effect. If you do not have more than 6 weeks of workouts the TP CTL model does not “know” you well yet. It assumes you started this plan with zero fitness so in the early weeks it thinks your CTL ramp rate is crazy fast and so may think you are training too hard. Within the constraints of the model it thinks you might be overdoing it. Have you set your zones correctly on TP? Either by HR or pace? TP is an incredibly powerful tool, but like any tool you have to take the time to learn how to use it. There is vast amount of tutorial content on TP and Youtube about how to make the best use of this tool. Should you decide to dive in and learn you will be rewarded with a better training experience.

Scott

[dwpyle]

dwpyle on May 24, 2018 at 3:00 pm #10042

Scott – I did Google it and that was the reason for my question, although I wasn’t particularly clear. My runs the are being labeled Breakthrough are not different than the runs I’ve been doing the last 6 weeks (either length or speed – which is slow 🙂 just that now I have the 24-week marathon plan loaded all runs are labeled Breakthrough. For example, last Saturday I ran 4.79 miles in 57 min with a hrTSS of 57. Due to an error on my part, I restarted my watch and then ran 8.46mi in 1:38 with a hrTSS of 119. The first run (which mapped to the training plan) was labeled a Breakthrough but the second was not. Is there something special about the planned workouts?

[dwpyle]

dwpyle on May 25, 2018 at 6:52 am #10051

Thinking about this on my run yesterday I think I found the issue. I have been running/training since January and am doing much longer runs than the plan calls for. I guess that this is why every run is a Breakthrough since every run is double or more what is planned. Does that make sense?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous on May 29, 2018 at 2:47 pm #10096

I suspect you are correct that doing far in excess of the planned distance may trigger the “breakthrough” notification. I coach a lot of folks and rarely see this notification pop up. But your description makes sense.

Scott