Bad Workouts + What Those Stats Really Mean | The Consummate Athlete Newsletter
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THE CONSUMMATE ATHLETE
Live a healthy, adventurous life
BAD WORKOUTS AND UNDERSTANDING "FITNESS, FATIGUE AND FORM"
Hello, hello!
Winter is really starting to sink in for most of us, and let's be honest, trainer and treadmill workouts can be the hardest ones to get through feeling like it was a 'good workout.' So, after hearing about a lot of 'bad workouts,' from Zwift fails to power numbers not being as expected to just feeling cruddy, we decided to do a podcast about why bad workouts are, in some ways, essential to making progress as an athlete. Give it a listen here: Why You Need Bad Workouts
And check out below for some more tech-y Training Peaks terminology broken down!
Thanks so much for being part of our crew—hope you're having an active, healthy start to 2021!!
-Molly & Peter
PS: If you're hoping to build your club or team, or you're hoping to create your own program this season, check out Molly's New Course on Prokit, The Athlete’s Guide to Sponsorship!
What Training Peaks Means By Fitness, Fatigue and Form
Often when people are looking at their Training Peaks data, they end up wondering what the numbers mean. What exactly are the Fatigue, Fitness, and Form numbers in Training Peaks? And even without understanding exactly what the numbers represent, the next questions become 'why is the fitness number decreasing?', or 'why is my friend's score higher?'
Don't panic. Here, we're going to break down what your Training Peaks Fitness Report really tells you.
Fatigue, Fitness, and Form (also know as Chronic Training Load, Acute Training Load, and Training: Stress Balance, respectively) are metrics in Training Peaks taken from a daily Training Stress Score and reflected in the Performance Manager Chart (PMC). These numbers reflect your training load over 45 days (Fitness) versus your last 7 days (Fatigue) and the balance of these (Form).
Said simply, if you train a lot this week at a training camp, then you are tired (your fatigue is high) and so your form is not going to be at your best, but after taking a week off, you will see your form recover as the fitness (average of last 45 days) comes up and the last 7 days decrease. (OK, that's hard to say in a simple way.)
If you are collecting good data, this can help you know how and when to progress your training load gradually up during base phases (general preparation) and then recover adequately during your race phases.
For common questions and problems, read the rest of the article right here
If you're interested in finding out more about how these numbers apply to your training, book a call here to talk through your Training Peaks data or find out more about coaching!
Want to talk about your current training plan or season goals? Book a call this week!
CATCH UP ON THE CONSUMMATE ATHLETE
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ABOUT THE CONSUMMATE ATHLETE
At the Consummate Athlete, the goal is simple: help people lead their best active, adventurous lives through coaching, videos, podcasts, articles, and events. Check out our book, Becoming A Consummate Athlete. (If you got the book + found it helpful, do us a huge favor and pop over to Amazon to quickly leave a rating or review (every single one makes a huge difference!)