[Jason]

Hi everybody, I’m looking for some guidance/comments on my use of TrainingPeaks as I begin training for the year. For background, I used TrainingPeaks with the 24-Week Expeditionary Mountain Training Plan last year for a Denali trip and became pretty familiar with the program, UA fudge factors, etc. This year I’m focusing heavily on running and am signed up for the Eiger Ultra Trail E51 race this summer (51k, 3100m vert). I have 28 weeks until the event so I’m doing an 8-week transition according to the guidance in TFtUA, then a 20 week plan as laid out in the book. I’ve got a few questions that I hope y’all can help with:

1. I opted to use the basic 400-hour/year training volume from the books based on inconsistent training after Denali last year as a starting point for my plan this year, so for the first week I’m using 50% of average weekly volume (8 hours) as a starting point. I’m adding the two recommended strength sessions on top of that so the first week looks something like 4 hours of aerobic work plus an hour of strength work on top. Would you recommend proceeding like that or adjusting all of the running time based on planned strength time?

2. I usually go to the climbing gym and/or outside about three times a week but I’m not focused on specifically training for it until after my race. I don’t plan on logging training time for those efforts, but would you recommend adding in any TSS values? I’d prefer my CTL value to purely represent prep for the race, but I understand how the fatigue value could be useful with it included.

3. Same question for resort skiing over the next few months, though that’s more of a 1-2 a month deal.

Thanks!

Topic

[Mariner_9]

Mariner_9 on January 7, 2022 at 9:22 am #61719

re: 2 and 3, “would you recommend adding in any TSS values” – yes. I realise you want to track your running-specific training but I think you should be tracking the stress/impact on your body of all your exercise, as you note. You can always track the climbing or skiing and running training separately in a spreadsheet. As TP is not entirely accurate, I do this anyway (e.g. if you go skiing, TP will record the ascent in a chair or gondola, which you obviously want to exclude!).

[sgw]

sgw on January 8, 2022 at 2:37 am #61765

Replying here to “subscribe” to this thread. I also signed up for a TP subscription and imported the last months of activities to get a picture. At a first view it seems I should rest more. But … how? 😉

[RF]

RF on April 22, 2022 at 8:08 pm #65879

Let me try this again, and hopefully this is not duplicative. My apologies if so…this seems like as good a spot as any within UA to pose this question –

I have recently suspected that Training Peaks is not providing the same TSS “credit” for similar training sessions, perhaps materially. I completed a trail run that I somewhat frequently run today, and noticed that I ran the same course 5/13/2021. I ran it in 2021 at an average HR of ~134 and today at ~141, today not looking at my watch the entirety of the run, and obviously capping my HR in 2021. My pace on the 5.91 mile course in 2021 was 10:40/mile, whereas today it was 9:10/mile. I finished today almost exactly 9 minutes faster than a year earlier, or 1:30 per mile. HR TSS in 2021 was 82, whereas today it was 65. Caloric expenditure was almost exactly the same.

So, what accounts for the difference in HR TSS? Is Training Peaks trying to kill me as I approach summer intending to be at or above 2021 fitness?

Thanks in advance.