Above is a modified screen shot from Training Peaks WKO 3.0.  The software compiles your data and has many different charts and analysis you can use to dial in your training.  I will only discuss two simple charts that I find essential in tracking my training stress and recovery.

Let’s begin with the chart above.  It displays the amount of hours and mileage trained in the “Recent Weeks” and then the weekly data is compiled for the “Recent Months”.  When training there are two very basic variables — Duration and Intensity.  Looking at the data above Duration is quite easy to pick out since it is labeled.  Intensity however is a little trickier to discern from the data provided.

Let’s look at several ways to determine the intensity from the data provided.  One way to gauge intensity is to look at the Training Stress Score (TSS).  Your TSS will tell you how hard and how close you were working in relation to your Functional Threshold Power (FTP).  A TSS score of 100 means you were working at 100% of your FTP for one hour.  So when seeing your duration compared to your TSS you can make some assumptions to your training load and your intensity.

Another way to loosely determine your intensity would be to look at your Heart Rate average for the week.  The higher the number the higher the intensity  – simple.  Another way would be comparing the number of hours to the number of kjs.  For example, Week ending 5/30 had fewer hours (18:38) vs week ending 5/16 (19:03) but 5/30 had more kjs than 5/16 10,551 and 9810 respectively.  And lastly, you can look at the 1 minute, 5 minute, 20 minute and 60 min peak power numbers.  You will note that the week 5/30 has the highest peak power numbers for the previous 5 weeks.

The same analysis can be used on the “Recent Months” total provided below.  Incidently, you may notice that 609 watts is the highest recorded  1 minute peak power.  It is a personal record and I have charts and a little write-up here.  The rest of the data indicates the month of May was a solid month.  The totals for the month of May were 53 hours, with 810 miles (everyone understands miles) Avg Heart Rate 154 bpm with a fairly high 2886 TSS for the month (as compared to the most recent months).

Now let’s look at the chart below.  It is the Performance Management Chart for the month of May.

BLUE– the chronic fatigue on your body (last 42 days)

YELLOW– the amount of rest/recovery

PINK — the training stress on your body over the last 7 days.

You will note beginning with May 1st, I have been increasing the amount of training stress and the rides have been getting harder and harder yielding higher Training Stress Scores. Pink line displays higher peaks, the yellow displays lower drops and the Blue line steadily goes up.  All good indicators as I build up the duration and intensity of my training.