Estimating TSS for reduced workouts

Training
#1

Inspired by Neil Doering’s gallant Knighthood attempt (shared on the Facebook page), an idea to do this myself began to germinate in my mind. Starting with the upcoming ToS I have to understand how much I can handle. I have faith that the prep plan will get me to the starting line, but I’ll need to plan my workouts, so I have this question.

Each plan has an expected TSS, if I reduce the IF of the workout, should I expect the TSS to be reduced by the same amount? For example, if a workout has TSS of 80 and I reduce the intensity to 75%, does that mean the planned TSS will be 60?

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#2

TSS scales by square of IF (NP/FTP). 75% intensity would lead to 56% for TSS. But then TSS is a Totally Silly Score so don’t pay too much attention to it if HIIT workouts are in the mix.

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#3

While it is true that TSS is misleading with HIT workouts, I have found that TSS is, for me, a useful indicator to predict fatigue several weeks in the future.

If a future TSS score corresponds to a level that I know will fatigue me, I will be fatigued. I will then adjust my future plans. Depending on the amount of HIT training, I might fatigue earlier, but at least I have an upper limit for planning.

#4

@Heretic , you captured my thoughts perfectly. TSS is not a perfect measure but I find it a useful guideline for predicting fatigue associated with workouts in the future. I’m just looking for a way to predict the TSS from workouts if I reduce the intensity.

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