The TSS™ Project

Lean Mass Watch or A Lesson in Watts/Kilogram

2011-07-26T08:35:00.000-07:00

So, as a vacation this year, I took the kids on a 5 day/4 night hiking/climbing trip into the San Juan Mountains of Southwestern Colorado. Specifically, into Chicago Basin (some photos here) with an eye on completing one or four of the 14er's that rim the basin's upper reach.

Prior to catching the Durango/Silverton Train to Needleton to access the trail head, we spent a few days on the front range doing a bit of acclimatization. For me, this involved getting a nice ride in within the first 24 hours (a 40 mile round trip ride up Deer Creek Canyon to the summit of High Grade from our host house). Additionally, I participated in my good friend's annual birthday ascent of Mt. Evans on the 4th where I set a new lowlander record for myself of 2:48:ish.

So: ride day, rest day, ride day, drive to Durango day (rest), hike into Chicago Basin, rest day, climb Windom, Climb Sunlight, Descend to Needleton, rest, drive home, rest. After the final rest day, a SST ride is planned at home altitude. Should be basking in hematocrit, right?

One more thing, to save weight on our hiking /climbing trip, we went the freeze-dried route on dinner and breakfast with home-made trail mix and a few energy bars for lunch and filler. Once there I discovered that the freeze-dried dinners provided exactly 220-250 calories of energy per serving. Factored in with the instant oatmeal, trail mix, and energy bars; I am pretty sure I was taking in about 800 calories per day. Maybe. The hiking and climbing were burning around 1200-1500 per day (estimated). Needless to say, there was a deficit there.

Back to the SST ride on the second day home from Colorado. Basically, I set the target based on the FTP that I had set at 167 lbs. Oh, and there was the whole walking/hiking more in five days than I had in 5 years that threw my legs and body into quite a tailspin. Anyway, had I bothered to check, I would have discovered that the calorie deficit, and maybe the altitude, had taken 5 pound of lean body mass off of me. This had the effect of rendering the SST ride into a prolonged FTP interval, which resulted in my turning the ride into an easy recovery spin.

Which is to say, keeping an eye on weight and calculating slight fluctuations in FTP based on the watts/kilogram ratio is a great idea, especially on the eve of the FTP reliant Texas State Individual Time Trial Championships.

Bloated, Grumpy, and Sleep Deprived or Using TSB to See the Future

2011-02-07T18:52:00.000-08:00

Been watching the TSB in relation to various routines during this project. Things I have noticed and have integrated into my training approach and workout deployment:

L5 and L6 workouts are best done on a positive or zero balance TSB day. There are times in the midst of an overload block, that the go-ahead for these routines will occur when TSB is negative (low single-digit negative), but usually just an abbreviated version.
The night/day after going -10 or more TSB, I can count on 1) leg buzz, 2) brain buzz, 3) bloating due to the spike in my appetite for salt and the satiation thereof and 4) general grumpiness accompanied by 5) bags under the eyes.
Too much negative TSB will lead to TSS portfolio imbalance, which leads to doldrums, which; if left unaddressed can lead to over training.

So it came to pass, early last week, that I saw my participation in the Alsatian Country races would be setting me up for -15 TSB today. This gave me time to get my affairs in order: eat lots, drink lots of water, and warn she who must be obeyed of my impending moodiness.

Looking forward to some recovery rides this week.

Home Brew

2011-01-30T06:40:00.000-08:00

Always searching for new ways to deliver energy and stave off fatigue while racing and training. Last season, I discovered the magic of Citrulline Malate and Beta Alanine.

Mixing these into my bottles was the original approach, but I have also found that a bit of sea salt added to my in-activity supplements helps to keep the cramps at bay as well. No way am I adding salt to my water bottles.

To solve this issue, I experimented with my own home brew during last week's season opener. Seemed to do the trick and bring a fast and noticeable recharge, so I modified it slightly for yesterday's Endurance 2x20+5 and corroborated last week's results. I'll stick to it. Here's the brew in a nutshell:

Using a Gu Flask or any other comparabably sized, refillable gel flask...

Fill with 1/4 water
A good dash of sea salt
Prescribed portions of beta alanine, citrulline malate, and bcaa

Shake to mix then top off the flask with honey. This leaves the water bottles free to carry, well, water or maybe an electrolyte mix and delivers great metabolic energy and recovery substances along with nutrition from the gel flask.

Plus, I'm pretty sure it's cheaper than buying gel packets.

"Rebalanced?" or "It's Only January 22nd!"

2011-01-28T15:30:00.000-08:00

Per the previous post, the week of 17 January found me refreshed and rebalanced from the bike camp days of Christmas break. Enough so that following a short set of VO2 intervals on Tuesday, the TSS budget told me I had just enough points to spend to participate in the Copperas Cove Classic on Saturday 22 January. Not only that, the rebalancing had me running into Saturday at 17 CTL=no excuses.

So, I kicked back for the week and sort of let my body recover from the physiological molting I had sent it through and chatted here and there with the team about strategies, if any, we should employ at the first race of the 2011 season. So, it was quite a treat to roll of the line with Toddo, Fat Daddy, the Kaptain, Kilo, Mike and our new teammate Flaco representing the wrecking crew.

The tale is pretty much in the graph below. Some attacks here and there with Flaco showing a willingness to work at the front, cover and get into a few small breaks. So it came to pass as we rolled through Pidcoke towards the first Lampasas River crossing, I thought to myself: "This upcoming right hander would make a good attack opportunity and I am sure some of these 68 racers are thinking the same thing." So, I rolled up to the front to prep myself for the inevitable.

Problem was, I apparently was the only one thinking this. Once I had settled out of my attack through the corner I looked back in anticipation of seeing a long line of strung-out shadows only to see: sunshine on the pavement. The first thought that came across the wires was: "I have no business out here, it's only January 22nd..."

By then, a lone shadow had joined mine and low and behold it's the grinding mercurial teammate of last year, Greg P. pushing his trademark 23 rpm cadence. So I thought: "might as well give it a go" and we got on with the going.

Funny thing is, in all the 40 minutes prior to when Brownie and Fat Daddy bridged up to us, I really didn't feel too physically stressed. Just focused on holding the numbers at the FTP frontier and prayed we would make it past the caliche sections on Harmon Road prior to getting caught by the pack.

Fat Daddy and Brownie made contact with us just as we were coming out of the second caliche sector, at which point I thought: "you know, this is a nice little group, we might just have a chance here."

Problem was, I wasn't the only one thinking this. The vet and his pet Wookie decided that this was a dangerous scenario. Fortunately, by the time they dragged the pack up to us, it had been thinned down considerably. At which time I knew my job was to hang in and try to deliver Toddo to the sprint at the end.

Well, things didn't work out so well in the last 200 meters of the race and the team went home empty handed. Except for that last 200 meters, the team looked and worked great though.

Graph notes:

The long break really stands out as a period of calmness in the chaos (starts at roughly 50 minutes)
The 5-10 minutes that the foursome of me, Fat Daddy, Greg, and Brownie were together is slightly discernable after the altitude spike that is the small burg of Izoro.
Graphic chaos resumes once the vet and his Wookie bring us back into the fold at 1:29.

Rebalancing the Portfolio

2011-01-17T08:05:00.000-08:00

So, the Christmas Break bike camp tempted me into overspending my TSS budget, significantly, for two consecutive weeks. Once again, felt great while on paper the red lights were flashing and the alarms were clanging; warning me that I was edging oh so close to the overtraining precipice. So, I decided to take the two weeks that followed the break to rebalance my TSS portfolio.

Even so, I thought that it would be interesting to see what sort of numbers I could see from an FTP test at the end of the first week of rebalancing. It was about 8 minutes into the test that I discovered the rebalancing needed to run its course. So, I shut it down and spun around for a few miles then took 3 consecutive days off. Nothing, nada; not even any core training. This allowed me to redo the FTP test this past Saturday. Not overwhelming, but not dissapointing either...managed to see 3.77 w/kg. Still a ways off from where it needs to be, but hey, it's January.

Here is the PMC with the obvious over-spending/rebalancing weeks:

Moving into another relatively easy week (originally a recovery week following the previous two, which were supposed to be more intense, but were tamed down by the rebalancing act), sticking to the plan and keeping a close eye on the numbers.

Joule 2.0 Frustration, Continued...

2010-12-24T06:48:00.000-08:00

After successfully calibrating the new Joule 2.0 via the Power Agent software, it appeared that the discrepancies between the Edge 500, WKO+ and the Joule 2.0 were resolved.

However, a new discrepancy has cropped up and these relate to long, easy to endurance rides.

After Saturday's bike camp in Fredericksburg, (4:15:00), the Joule 2.0 credited the ride with 20 more TSS than did WKO+. Unfortunately, the ride file was deleted after the WKO+ download, so no visual evidence of this discrepancy is available.

However, evidence was captured during/after Tuesday's ride. Here's a photo of the Joule 2.0 readout with 183.2 TSS indicated for the entire ride:

Here is a screen shot of the WKO+ summary for the same ride:

The evidence suggests that the longer rides at lower intensities produce a more of a TSS discrepancy than do the shorter, more intense rides.

Currently experimenting to see if nudging the FTP upward in the Joule 2.0 will cause it to track a bit more closely, THEN I'll dig into the whole NP issue. Sheesh.

That's More Like It...

2010-12-17T17:59:00.000-08:00

Funny how aligning the parameters (FTP, wheel diameter, speed from a single source) result in a more consistent data stream:

Still a point difference between the on-board readout and the WKO+ rendition, but no big deal. NP is within one point as is average power...this one is hard to figure as both are sampling at 1 second intervals, but I am thinking the auto start and auto resume functions might differ enough between the two units to result in this fairly insignificant inconsistency.

12/19/2010 Update: BUT, as Andy mentioned in a forum post (to paraphrase): "Did I mention I had nothing to do with the development of the Joule?"

Yesterday's long ride out of FBG told the tale of the differing approaches that the Joule and WKO+ take to calculating TSS. Need to dig or post up in the forum to find out how the Joule is calculating, I'll see what I can come up with. Anyway, yesterday's ride, according the on-board data provided by the Joule was right at 188 TSS, which I thought was a bit high (I had forcast 3.75 hours at 150). However, once the file was downloaded into WKO+, the truth was revealed: 161.5 TSS. Hmmm.

Exit question. If the TSS formula is proprietary intellectual property, shouldn't it follow that the TSS label is as well?

Guess the TSS?

2010-12-15T07:00:00.000-08:00

Took the new Joule 2.0 out for a recovery ride yesterday, eager to try out the its TSS-on-the-fly capabilities. Just for fun, I activated my Edge 500 to see what WKO+ would tell me about how the two computers, well...computed.

Here's a snapshot of the two files:

Okay, only a marginal difference in TSS between the two files according to WKO+, BUT, the Joule 2.0 told me that I had hit 80 TSS during the ride. That's nearly a 9% margin of error.

It appears that while I can rely on the Joule to give me the same readings as the Edge in WKO+, as of yet, I can't rely on the on-board TSS readout to help me spend my budget.

Then there's the wattage. Pretty significant difference there in average watts though NP is fairly close. Not sure what to make of that, might be related to the disparity in cadence data from the two units (both were reading a Garmin GSC-10).

So after a little digging int the Wattage Forum, it appears I will have to download the Power Agent software, input my FTP there THEN upload the parameters to the Joule. Not sure if this will address all of the issues, but while it's a far cry from one-click shopping, it's worth a try. Funny, couldn't seem to find this info in the Joule user manuals...oh well.

Stay tuned for an update.

Marginal Progress

2010-12-14T08:22:00.000-08:00

Seems like I always remind myself to ease into the FTP tests when I schedule them. Seems like I always forget said reminder when I begin the test.

As it turns out, the ball-parked a target wattage where I thought it should be and slightly overshot it during the first 8 minutes of the FTP test. Of course, the rest of the test was spent in an effort to keep my head above water and only saw a marginal w/kg increase. Sort of disappointed in the number, but more attributable to my lack of restraint than fitness.

Next test in about 6 weeks or so...for now, my FTP w/kg keeps me challenged nicely, thank you.

Oh, that high HR during the warm-up wasn't excitement or anticipation, it was some sort of HR monitor malfunction. Funny how HR dropped at the outset of the 5 minute pre-FTP blow out effort.

Speaking of which, a nice new high number for the blow out effort. Consolation prize?

The Numbers Won't Lie

2010-12-10T07:09:00.000-08:00

Well, the TSS Project started in October. With a bit of tweaking, fine tuning, and efforts designed to reach The Next Level, it is time for an FTP diagnostic.

Coming off of a recovery block, it looks like the planets are aligning in such a way as to provide no excuses for tomorrow's upcoming test:

Stay tuned...no idea what sort of % change will be revealed nor in what direction said change will move.

Also, with 142 TSS left in the account for this week, tomorrow's test might leave just enough left over to spend at the cross race at Moya Park on Sunday.

Stacked FTP Workouts

2010-12-01T10:29:00.000-08:00

Just off of a 36 hour block of 3 FTP specific workouts. First, I would like to state that I won't be prescribing these with a great deal of frequency for myself or anyone else and, perhaps, these might best fit into a "build" as opposed to a "base" training block. However, I might reconsider the latter part of the statement pending upcoming FTP tests following bike camp.

Anyhow, Monday a.m. was a 90/90/90 workout on the rollers, discussed here. This workout has the potential to offer a lot of opportunity for FTP growth based on the way it progressively loads 3 systems in one workout with no unpleasant crispy aftertaste.

Monday p.m. was the the good ole 2x20 workout, shown below.

Nothing really spectacular to report except that:

The first 10 minutes of interval 1 was a bit of a challenge...most likely from a combination of the accumulated fatigue from the 90/90/90 workout and the foreshortened warm-up (12 minutes).
Cadence dropped to a lower than ideal range to hold the power. Again, this is likely due to the factors mentioned above plus the inescapable topographical conditions mentioned in the bullet below.
I have given up on finding a "flat, uninterrupted course" on which to complete these intervals (note the elevation graph). Fact of the matter is, the high spinning on the downhills to keep the range is training the cadence nicely and makes the climbs (which, incidentally, lower the cadence average), treats to be anticipated. Oh, and since diving into a downhill, 35 mph off camber corner at the prescribed wattage range might do harm to my racing condition this spring, I occasionally, and for as short of a time as possible, stop pedaling, brake, and navigate the turn in a survivable fashion.

Yesterday afternoon (Tuesday) was a relatively easier 45 minute SST session:

Same issues with terrain and cadence challenges, but it felt pretty good. The choppiness at the end of the interval effort was due to the fact that I truncated the outbound leg of this out and back effort by 5 too few minutes, causing me to have to navigate a return route neighborhood whilst attempting to hold my range. Messy.

Ends up that the hangover I anticipated never arrived. Looking forward to a power blind easy recovery spin on the rollers and some core and plyometrics work later today in the man-cave.

Let's see, 250 TSS points spent out of a budgeted 476 for the week...makes me look forward to some long, easy endurance this weekend.

Maintenance vs. Progress

2010-11-26T09:53:00.000-08:00

Have a few stacked FTP workouts out there on the horizon, awaiting my arrival. It occurred to me via the concurrence of a few sources that while throwing one or two FTP workouts into a week might be good for the status quo; the path to a higher FTP plain might lie in arranging for some consecutive workouts as in 2 in 24 hours or 3 in 36. The safety blow off valve for this will likely be the high TSS burn rate that this will cause.

Of course the upside to the high weekly TSS burn rate will be more time for the little household projects that seem to march my way in a never ending line, and the naps that necessarily come with them.

We'll see. Stay tuned. Update coming on Wednesday if all goes as planned.

Hangover

2010-11-23T07:04:00.000-08:00

Okay, so yesterday's workout was a 60 minute SST ride. Felt great, cruising along so when the 40 minute marker passed, I think "why not just do the last 20 minutes close to your 2x20 target?" So I did, felt great, a little challenging, but no big deal.

Warmed down easily on the way home with my dusk light, ate, chilled, and went to bed.

Sleep, however, was fairly well disrupted by leg buzz; likely due to going over budget during the workout on the intensity front. Should have stayed around 89%, but ended up pushing the pace to 93%. Bonus, I went 15 points into the hole on my daily point allocation...points I'll need to burn off the Thanksgiving fare later this week. Sheesh.

Must remember: Don't. Color. Outside. The. Lines.

That or I should retest my FTP...hmmmm.

Trying Not to Pedal

2010-11-22T17:14:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I am a month into my first year of training based on an annualized allotment of TSS points. Wierd. Different.

First of all, I feel rested most of the time, which I like. Secondly, for now I am spending less time on the bike, but the time is quality. Third, my endurance rides are way easier.

Seems like my "quality time" in the regimented workouts spends most of my weekly TSS allotment. Problem is, I like my at least once a weekend 3 hour or more long ride. So, when I am staring at a balance of 122 TSS points and the need for a long ride, restraint becomes the watchword. On these rides, I

keep the watts low, just over the recovery range
coast when I can
enjoy the scenery
recite the following mantra: "fat goes away whilst the mitochondria play (and propagate)"

This has brought a new found pleasure in the long rides. No more staring at numbers (unless it is to check that I am not exceeding my ceiling).

So far, so good...

The Time/Intensity/Pie Slice Calculator is Here!

2010-11-15T13:12:00.000-08:00

Check it out...

The TSS Calculator is now taking orders...

2010-11-11T12:14:00.000-08:00

Check the link to the right>>>>>>>
Click the TSS Workout Spreadsheet link once you have submitted the TSS Calculator Input Form.

Next project: The Miles/Pie Slice Calculator