#TRAINING STRESS BALANCE FORECASTING HOW TO#

Time in this range should be rather brief. The range between -10 and +10 is generally a transitional phase. I don’t know if this is physiological or psychological. For some unknown reason there are athletes who perform best when their TSB/Form is just barely positive, around + 5 to +10. I’ve found that usually produces the best results. When I’m tapering and peaking athletes for A-priority races I like to have their TSB/Form at around +15 to +25 on race day. So what? What do the TSB numbers mean and how can you use them to be race ready? Let’s dig a little deeper using exact TSB numbers as guidelines.

If TSB is positive then you are probably rested and perhaps on form-if it doesn’t get too high. If TSB is negative you are likely to be tired and probably not race ready. Once the software has done the math the remainder is your TSB (by the way, the resulting TSB value is for tomorrow-not for today.) It can be either a negative or a positive number depending on which is greater-CTL or ATL. Both ATL and CTL are expressed as TSS per day (TSS/d). So how is TSB determined? It’s the result of subtracting today’s Acute Training Load (“Fatigue”-the red line) from today’s Chronic Training Load (“Fitness”-blue line). Training Stress Balance (TSB), the yellowish line on the Performance Management Chart, is merely a way of describing your race “Form.” What’s form? In a single phrase, it is race readiness.

#TRAINING STRESS BALANCE FORECASTING HOW TO#

This is a powerful tool for serious athletes and coaches once they learn how to use it.

It’s the last of three-part series on the Performance Management Chart on the TrainingPeaks site and on WKO software.

The following appeared a few days ago on the blog.

Training stress balance forecasting