I switch between running and biking for my primary training depending on my time and interest in the moment.
Right now I had a long block with a lot of biking and a bit of running.
Now, I want to switch focus for running.
However, I want to progress in a good manner to avoid injury. Therefore I would like to set load targets for the individual weeks.
I know that I just click the week, and then I can set weekly targets - however, those a little hard to get an easy overview of - like a graph or something similar just for running?
I cannot figure out a good way to get an overview of the training load and other good metrics for planning out the training - like if I want the overview for the next 3 months on my planned training load for the particular activity?
If I open op a new tab on the Fitness page and filters for Running activities, my charts on the Fitness-tab with all activities also gets filtered?
The weekly load targets are included in the PMC and load data on the /fitness page. If you add a custom load chart you can see the progression. Here I have set weekly targets for the last week of March and 2 weeks in April:
Is it possible to make the “Form” chart look the same as the chart shown below the PMC-chart to get a grasp on the form only for running - and whether the training load is optimal.
On a second note - how often do you let your fatigue drop?
At this moment, my fitness plateaus because I am unable to further increase training hours. I’m at 10-12 hr a week, which is already a daunting task to find enough free time. Consequently, I’m rarely in the green… Read the guide section on Fitness. You can’t stay forever in the green. But that doesn’t mean that you’re no longer improving.
General rule is cycles of 3 or 4 weeks where the last week is a recovery week. Build up fitness for 2 or 3 weeks, then recover by keeping fitness steady or slightly decreasing. Start over and keep doing that until you are at your limit for available time. Then do some smart intensity boosts but don’t fall into the trap to keep adding intensity for the sake of higher Fitness. That trap will lead to overreaching/overtraining/injury. Do regular ‘performance’ checks to make sure you are still improving, regardless of a plateauing fitness number.
Understand that Fitness is Load based and Load is referenced to FTP. If FTP increases and training volume plateaus, load will stagnate and so will fitness. But an increasing FTP still is increasing performance. You are delivering more work, but that’s not shown in the Fitness number!
This is so important to understand!
I am curious on how much to pull back the load in the deload weeks? Right now I did some deload as you can see in the load bars, but should I try to bring it back even more to go to the fresh zone, or is grey enough.
I know it all depends and is individual. Just trying to understand the model better.
I am not worried about a fitness plateau, I am training to get faster and more endurance, so that is my measurement for progress.
@david Tried to adding a custom chart with Ramp rate. which I think is not respecting the chosen activities. This was inspired by this post - Ramp Rate Calculation - #2 by david
It seems that i more or less replicates optional Ramp-rate. As you can see in the running activies, I am planning on doing more running that lately, but still the ramp goes in to minus.
@david I think the case might be the same with ACWR (that it is not respecting the activity type). I have chosen running activities, and the graph shows a high ACWR in weeks where I primarily biked.
Ramp rate and ACWR are already the result of calculated metrics (from all activities) and you can’t filter out per activity. Basically there’s no Ramp Rate number per activity because Ramp Rate is the result of the Fitness numbers for all activities.
You need to redo the complete math from load, which is an activity specific metric. Just like you had to recalculate Fitness/Fatigue/Form from Load to get them for running activities alone.
@MedTechCD, I also asked this as I really value your input. Maybe you have no opinion on the matter, or maybe you missed the question and have something to say about it?
The goal of the recovery weeks is to give your body time to recover and adapt. General guidelines are to reduce volume to ~70% of last week’s volume, and avoid all high intensity except for a couple of short sprints. But it all depends on how good you are at recovering and ‘feel’ is the most important factor. Many athletes forget that they get better during recovery, and break down during training… The name of the game is finding that balance that will keep you going over a long time. Building at a sustainable rate is the only way in the long run.
Make sure that the recovery week gives you enough recovery to perform well at training in the next loading block. Poor training, lack of motivation, mood problems, etc. are usually the result of too much fatigue.
