[jenbelle]

I’m in week 6 of a 9 week 5K plan using HR as primary metric to ensure I can train progressively without overdoing it (age 52). I started about 3 months prior to signing up for the plan after a 20 year gap in running and several years since I was engaged in a consistent cardio routine. Since signing up for the plan, my first six weeks’ improvements in fitness have been significant. Both endurance and pace are improving, but I’m consistently scoring Orange in TP because my rTSS is too high. Should I be scoring each run on hrTSS instead? When I change the metric to hrTSS the run scores Green per plan. I’ve updated my HR zones based on recent talk test, and have adjusted pace zones somewhat though I haven’t spent a lot of time there and they’re not quite right. Appreciate your guidance.

[David Warden]

Jen, welcome back to running!

I would not worry about the color coding in TP. It just means that your predicted TSS was lower than your actual TSS. Because our plans use zones, you have a broad range of intensity to execute your workout. A Zone 2 hour run could have anywhere from 40 to 60 TSS, from lower Zone 2 to upper Zone 2. Both actual TSS values are correct, one athlete just performed the workout at the low end of Zone 2, the other at the high end.

TP tries to predict your TSS (and it does not adjust or learn, it’s a static predictive formula) and if it guesses wrong, you miss the “target” and it changes the color. Further, TP does not use the same formula for Pace and HR, so you will never have the same predicted TSS for HR and Pace. So, the problem is not you, the problem is TP.

Just pick one or the other and ignore TP. In fact, I’d turn off the color coding for TSS altogether.

David

[Matt]

You can also change your compliance in Training Peaks to be time based and not TSS based.

[Author]

Posts