[Tammy Barnhart]

Just need a little clarification the workout today was for 1:30 on a hilly course. I choose to do Mailbox. On the workout it says that my TSS should be 83 but on my summary it says rTss with 11 as the completed workout. Also on the workout for Saturday I choose to run for my workout. The plan says to have a TSS of 48 but my summary has it in as rTsswith a number of 99. How are these numbers created are they from our drift test? My planned numbers and completed number are not even close. Are these numbers crucial for our training? And finally one more question if the plan says 1:30 in zone 2 that I am assuming is round trip so if you go up for 45 min in zone 2 but come down of course your heart rate will fall under zone 2. Is that how the workout out should look like or should the whole workout be in zone2?

Topic

[Umer]

Umer on November 14, 2021 at 10:34 pm #59320

Hi Tammy

I am sure the coaches will answer, however, just adding my observations. I had the same issue and realized the rTSS is race pace based TSS, which training peaks auto-input. Since we will be mainly doing uphill/weight hikes; the pace shouldn’t matter much. Kindly change the rTSS to hrTSS, which is heart rate based. It will give you more accurate results.

Please remember hrTS is calculated based on your “Threshold Heart Rate” & not the Aerobic Threshold. The “Threshold Heart Rate” in your “training peaks-settings-zones” should be your Anaerobic Threshold.

Also, once the hrTSS is calculated, don’t forget to add “Fudge Factors,” to workouts i.e.

A purely aerobic run/hike/ski while carrying minimal weight: Calculate the TrainingPeaks hrTSS and add 10 TSS for every 1,000 vertical feet of gain.
A purely aerobic run/hike/ski while carrying more than 10 percent of body weight: Add 20 TSS/1,000 feet.

[Edgar Carby]

Edgar Carby on November 15, 2021 at 9:12 am #59345

Tammy,
I had a few light bulb moments with rTSS vs hrTSS. Once you get your zones entered correctly BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY your HR threshold (do the AnT test or try AeT plus 25 if you’re not sure) in the settings of TP, you will get accurate TP data.

I did several AeT tests and came up with 140 as my AeT and then added 25 to get 165 as my threshold. That got me to +/- 50 hrTSS per hour on my AeT workouts which I understand the UA coaches look for as a good indicator that your zones are correct.

If your threshold HR is off, you will either get too little TSS (not representative of your fitness, also might tempt you to really hammer yourself to drive CTL) or you will get too much TSS which which show up as more CTL than you have earned and give you an inflated fitness measurement.

If you are logging a run in TP, you must manually change the rTSS to hrTSS.

Also, recall that TSS is relative so my 100 TSS workout might only get you 70 TSS. It’s a good way to compare old you with new you but not a good way to compare different athletes.

This whole discussion is also a good reminder that TSS can be manipulated.

[Nate Emerson]

Nate Emerson on November 16, 2021 at 9:43 pm #59406

In this MTG program, everyone should be switching the rTSS to hrTSS. Thanks for chiming in Edgar and Umer! It sounds like you both have a good grasp on this.

Using hrTSS, having a good estimate of AeT and AnT, and understanding fudge factors all give us a good estimate of the load for a given workout. hrTSS is the best metric for us to accomplish it. This is a great way to compare workout to workout (e.g. uphill hiking to uphill hiking, or rolling trail runs to rolling trail runs) for a given athlete, giving the athlete a great way to compare chronic training load at different parts of a program. One caveat: Try to minimize breaks during long days so you don’t artificially increase your hrTSS, or stop recording if you take a long summit break. Recording lots of long, casual breaks could add enough hrTSS to negate adding the fudge factors.

rTSS *can* be a great measurement for road and track runners, but it doesn’t work for mountaineers. Umer alluded to it – it’s supposed to be based off running pace. It would be too convoluted to try to get AeT and AnT Hiking paces entered. If you are doing your AeT and AnT Tests running on a track, you can actually find your AeT and AnT running paces and get those zones into Training Peaks. But that only works for running workouts on road runner terrain. rTSS should work with low-angle hills, like “heartbreak hill” in the Boston Marathon (4.5%). But beyond that, it seems like rTSS starts to break down quickly, especially on trails.