Quantifying Your Running Fitness with WKO+

In his latest article, Matt Fitzgerald explains the importance of complementing your Chronic Training Load (CTL) monitoring with periodic race-specific workouts in order to get the most complete assessment of your running fitness. By balancing your focus on CTL with these periodic test races, you can achieve the right mix of volume and intensity to optimize your race performances.

The Performance Management Chart in Training Peaks WKO+ quantifies your running fitness in a simple, accurate, and innovative way. Its important, however, not to rely too heavily on the Performance Management Chart variable that represents your current fitness level, which is chronic training load (CTL). Thats because CTL quantifies your general running fitness, or training fitness, rather than your race-specific fitness. To get the fullest reading of your current running fitness, you need to complement your monitoring of your CTL with periodic race-specific test workouts.

The Performance Management Charts calculation of running fitness begins with the assignment of a training stress score (TSS) to each run you download from a speed and distance device or enter manually. TSS is a product of an equation that factors in the intensity and duration of the run and weights these factors according to what the scientific literature says about the degree of stress each imposes on your body. Your chronic training load (CTL) is then calculated as a rolling average of your run-by-run training stress score over the past 42 days with a decay constant that gives your most recent training greater weight than less recent training. That number represents your general or training fitness level.

To get the fullest reading of your current running fitness, you need to complement your monitoring of your CTL with periodic race-specific test workouts.

There is a temptation to try and raise your CTL as high as possible. The fitter, the better, right? A higher CTL is no guarantee of better race performance, though. First of all, you could raise your CTL through the roof by overtrainingthat is, by accumulating a huge deficit of fatigue that will be indicated by a large negative value of your training stress balance (TSB) in the Performance Management Chart. But even if you raise your CTL through the roof slowly and steadily, so that your TSB does not drop too low, you wont always race best with the highest CTL. Thats because volume influences TSB more than intensity, yet intensity is just as important to race performance as volume, especially in shorter races.

Lets make this point concrete with an example. Below are two sample training weeks. The first contains a high volume of exclusively moderate-intensity running and the second contains a moderate volume of running but includes three higher-intensity workouts.

Week 1

Base Run 6 miles Pace Zone 3 TSS: 61

Base Run 10 miles Pace Zone 3 TSS: 104

Base Run 6 miles Pace Zone 3 TSS: 61

Base Run 10 miles Pace Zone 3 TSS: 104

Base Run 6 miles Pace Zone 3 TSS: 61

Base Run 6 miles Pace Zone 3 TSS: 61

Long Run 20 miles Pace Zone 3 TSS: 211

Week 2

Base Run 6 miles Pace Zone 3 TSS: 61

Lactate Intervals 1 mile @ Pace Zone 2 8 x (600m @ Pace Zone 8/400m @ Pace Zone 2) 1 mile @ Pace Zone 2 TSS: 74

Base Run 6 miles Pace Zone 3 TSS: 61

Threshold Run 1 mile @ Pace Zone 2 5 miles @ Pace Zone 6 1 mile @ Pace Zone 2 TSS: 82

Base Run 6 miles Pace Zone 3 TSS: 61

Base Run 6 miles Pace Zone 3 TSS: 61

Progression Run 8 miles @ Pace Zone 3 + 2 miles @ Pace Zone 4 TSS: 109

The total TSS for Week 1 is 663. The total TSS for Week 2 is significantly lower: 509. Yet a runner who is preparing for a 5K, 10K, and perhaps even a half marathon would almost certainly race better on a training program that looked like Week 2 than on a training program that looked like Week 1, despite the fact that the Week 1 program would result in a much higher CTL. Thats because the Week 1 program is entirely lacking in high-intensity training in the range of race pace.

To ensure that your training is improving your race-specific fitness, not just your general running fitness, perform a race-specific test workout once every four weeks or so. This is a challenging workout that, by virtue of its design, indicates the average pace you are currently capable of sustaining over the distance of your goal race. For example, if youre training for a 10K, your test workout could be 5 x 2K @ 10K race effort with 2:00 jogging recoveries. Look for a trend of faster splits each time you repeat the workout.

By monitoring your CTL and performing regular race-specific test workouts, you are sure to train right to achieve your race goal!

About Matt Fitzgerald
Matt Fitzgerald is a journalist, author, coach and runner specializing in the topics of health, fitness, nutrition, and endurance sports training (read more about Matt on his blog). Matt uses TrainingPeaks to train, coach and deliver pre-built training plans for runners including training plans built specifically to be used with a Garmin Forerunner.