Training Stress Score (TSS) and Performance Management Chart (PMC) Now Available Online for all Professional Edition Users!

TrainingPeaks Professional Edition Subscribers can now track Training Stress Score (TSS), Normalized Power (NP), and utilize the Performance Management Chart (PMC) for all of their clients online. Not only are these great features now available online, you can also calculate TSS/IF even if you don’t have a power meter, using either heart rate or pace-based TSS functionality.

By using the TrainingPeaks workout scoring system you can now calculate a TSS value for virtually any sport or activity and watch the Performance Management Chart take shape for each of your clients. This is the same system used to track the fitness programs of many of the Tour de France cyclists for more than 5 years.

Your clients don’t need an expensive power meter like the pro cyclists use either. In fact, by leveraging TrainingPeaks new heart rate based TSS (hrTSS) calculator, any workout that contains heart rate data can be assigned a score. Once the athlete’s threshold heart rate value has been set on the zones page, hrTSS can be calculated based on time in each zone or a TRIMPS-based TSS (tTSS) value can be calculated by just knowing the average heart rate and duration of the workout. Additionally, pace can be used to calculate a pace-based TSS value for sports like swimming and running. TrainingPeaks.com also contains the original running TSS (rTSS) found within WKO+.

Finally, no device is needed at all. Once your clients understand the simple scoring system, they will be able to fairly accurately assign themselves a daily score through perceived exertion and by knowing the duration of the workout. Here are some tips to pass along to your clients:

• Cyclists and Runners can earn 100 TSS for an all out effort during a 60-minute workout. Of course most workouts are not completed at an all-out intensity level, so most workouts will probably accumulate less than 100 TSS per hour.


• Think of intensity as a RPE value on a scale of 1-10, “10? being the hardest. If you exercised at a level 5 for an hour, then you would accumulate 50 TSS. It wouldn’t matter if you were training for the Tour de France or to simply lose weight.


• You can earn more than 100 TSS within a single workout, but never more than 100 TSS per hour.


• No matter what your sport may be, you know what a maximum one-hour effort feels like. This equals 100 TSS. Now you can relate every workout to that gold standard. For example, if you walked the dog for an hour at an easy to moderate pace you might reward yourself with a score of 30 TSS.

The really powerful benefit of tracking your clients daily TSS is your ability to leverage the TrainingPeaks Performance Management Chart to easily track their relative fitness progression over time. TrainingPeaks’ advanced formulas will accurately calculate fitness (known as a Chronic Training Load or CTL), fatigue (known as Acute Training Load or ATL) and finally a freshness or form factor (known as Training Stress Balance or TSB).

We all know that health and fitness aren’t created through occasional exercise and that is why your clients have hired you. Your job is to manage their long-term fitness goals and to keep them motivated and out of trouble. Even if your clients never look at the charts within TrainingPeaks, the Performance Management Chart can be one of your best kept secrets. Consistency and progression over time are the real secrets to long-lasting fitness and health.

To learn more about Training Stress Score and how to use the Performance Management System please visit the following pages:

• How does TrainingPeaks calculate TSS?
• How can I add the TSS option? You’ll need to add the “Stats” section to your Quick View on the Calendar.  Also, try this video.
• How can I backfill past TSS values?
• Learn more about Performance Management Chart
• Archived Webinars and How To Videos