February 14, 2010
Weekly Training Summary (61.98 miles / 10:07:06)
Another solid week for February. Most time of the year for a week, but not most miles. 3 trips up Green ate away at the mileage but up’d the time. Cool with that. Most vertical feet for the year. Decided to take today off. Could have ran but trying to take rest a bit more seriously these days. Plus, I feel like I get a better long run in tomorrow if I get a break beforehand after several back to back days of decent intensity.
Up till now in my career, rest seemed like it was for the weak. Mostly because it doesn’t add to any significant graphs or totals. If you live by those numbers, you tend to orientate yourself towards increasing them. However, after the BTR talk, I really took to heart the rest idea now that I can quantify it in some manner. Finally, a graph/metric that I can improve with rest. I like that. So I think this will be my new weekly graph summary. It really brings together the whole picture. I was using TrainingPeaks on a trial basis, but GZ showed me that SportTracks has the same feature via a plugin so I will save my money for another pair of shoes!
CTL = 74 / ATL = 112 / TSB = -38
What I like about that?
The ATL (short term), the red line, is up and to the right. Has those humps forming during the week and each week over week is higher than the rest. I want this line to look like 3 stair steps over 3 weeks going up. Then a rest week — which I haven’t wrapped my head around. Supposed to cut back by 50% this week in that case. I don’t know. I will get my long run and mountain runs in. Not sure on the other days. If the weather craps out, then I might consider it a bit more.
The CTL (long term), the purple area, is up and to the right. A little nervous as it is gaining on ATL just a bit. Means my fitness is growing faster than my fatigue — which is nice but seems a bit too early for that. This is what you want in the taper. So I might argue I am not doing enough workload right now.
TSB, the brown from the top, hanging in that mid 30s to mid 40s range. Its a comfortable range. Never sore. Not killing me but not making me feel like I finishing each week with nothing left. This is the crux of the issue. If the 3 week build on ATL was steeper and TSB was lower, I might go for that rest. My high TSB for the season is -52 per SportTracks (TrainingPeaks had it higher, but its calculation must have been slightly different) with all my new constants in place. So that kind of tells me that I am not pushing it hard enough in the 3 week build, so I shouldn’t take the full 1 week rest that is due with that.
I am new at analyzing these numbers but it is a new and fun aspect to the data that I am enjoying. It should be really good come taper time. I know many will say…”its really about how you feel”. Sure. But having some quantitative numbers to guide you helps paint the picture.
And finally…the Colorado RV Trip 2010 is all booked! Longmont to Lake City to Leadville! And a few stops in between. Should be an adventure!
