The Power Meter Handbook: A User’s Guide for Cyclists and Triathletes

determined by the subtraction of the previous day’s ATL from that sameday’s CTL. If ATL and CTL are exactly the same, then TSB is 0 and the bars rise to exactly the dashed line across the chart (the zero TSB line). Any time TSB is above that line, meaning a positive number, the athlete is on form. When TSB is rising, the athlete is “coming into form” even though TSB may be below the zero-balance point, meaning a negative number. Coming into form means moving toward being race ready but not being quite there yet. We need to include periodization to keep TSS on track during the taper period, as we’ll see next.

PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT
    So where do you want your form—your TSB line—to be? If the TSB line goes too high, you will also lose a great deal of fitness. That’s not good. What I like to do is to design the training program for an athlete so that form (TSB) on race day is between +15 and +25. That usually means a loss of CTL (fitness) of only about 10 percent. That’s acceptable. If the fitness deficit is much greater, we can expect a significantly diminished performance despite a very high TSB.
    To plan for a +15 to +25 TSB on race day, I use the calendar view of the software and put in what I think the TSS should be for every day during the taper period. This period usually lasts 2 to 3 weeks, so it involves estimating TSS for several days. Then I look to see how these estimated daily TSS workloads affected CTL and TSB on the Performance Management Chart. If the result isn’t what I want (TSB at +15 to +25 and CTL dropping no more than 10 percent), then I tinker with the daily TSS projections until I get them right. The final step is to design daily workouts to create those TSS and CTL values. It’s a somewhat long and laborious task but a highly effective one, I’ve found. I expect that in the not-too-distant future the software will be able to do much of this for you. But as of this writing, we’re not quite there yet.
     
    I EXPECT YOU CAN NOW understand why I explained at the start of this chapter that what was going to be discussed here was quite advanced. This is cutting-edge training. It’s the kind of stuff that only a handful of the best coaches in the world do in training their athletes. Very few athletes even know about such planning. And even fewer do it. It isn’t easy and certainly takes some time and a good deal of understanding about training. But it can be done by anyone who has a power meter, software (WKO+ or TrainingPeaks.com ), and a strong desire to perform at the highest possible level.

APPENDIX A
POWER-BASED WORKOUTS
    The following workouts are categorized by training ability, as described in Chapter 4 . These represent only a few of many possibilities. For more examples, see The Cyclist’s Training Bible, The Triathlete’s Training Bible, or The Mountain Biker’s Training Bible. The web site TrainingPeaks.com also provides hundreds of my workouts in a menu format.
    For the advanced rider, workouts may be combined to form longer sessions. Combinations are most commonly done in the build period. For example, after warming up, a road cyclist may start with anaerobic endurance intervals followed by muscular endurance intervals and then finish with power sprint training. A triathlete may start with aerobic threshold and then do cruise intervals followed by aerobic pacing. The purpose of combining workouts is to make the session more racelike.
    A proper warm-up before starting the workout is assumed and so is not included in the descriptions that follow.
Aerobic Endurance Workouts
    Aerobic threshold. Ride steadily in the lower half of heart rate zone 2 (using the Friel heart rate zone system; see Appendix B ). See your sport-specific chapter ( 8 , 9 , or 10 ) for the duration of this ride. Power may vary during the ride. That’s acceptable so long as heart rate stays in the proper range.
    In the post-ride analysis, check your Variability Index, Efficiency Factor, and decoupling. The purpose of this workout is to improve aerobic endurance.
    Aerobic pacing. Ride steadily in power zone 2 for a race-appropriate duration. This is typically 2 or more hours. Rehearse the use of the 50-40-30-20-10 Rule and proper use of your steady-state matches on hills.
    In the post-ride analysis, check your Variability Index, Efficiency Factor, and decoupling. The purpose of this workout is to maintain aerobic endurance.
Muscular Force Workouts
    Force reps. These may be done on a hill or