3 Times You Want to See Your Little Blue Line Take a Nose Dive
Monday, August 13, 2012 at 4:24PM ;)
Athletes who use the TrainingPeaks Performance Management Chart effectively have a huge potential advantage over their competition in their ability to view the bigger picture in one glance. A big part of this wide perspective is having the ability to track changes in fitness by looking at trends in Chronic Training Load (CTL).
The “little blue line” on your Performance Management Chart offers a good proxy for your general fitness at any point in your training plan. As such, a common (and generally valid) goal is to see a steady and consistent increase in this CTL number as your training progresses. However, as a coach who looks at a number of these charts over the course of a season, I can tell you with a good level of certainty that there are times when you will actually want to see your little blue line take a nose dive, or put another way, there are times when you will want to make the decision to give up a little short term fitness in the interests of long term results.
The reason that you might actually entertain the “ludicrous” idea of consciously giving up some of your hard earned fitness comes down to the simple fact that fitness is only part of the equation. The other side – fatigue, is something that must be both considered and managed over the short and long term.
So, without further ado, what are the three situations that you may want to let your little blue line head south?
Following a training camp or crash cycle
Any training that is significantly bigger or more intense than your normal training load will require a recovery period that is longer or of lower volume/intensity than your normal recovery week. While this borders on common sense, it has been my experience that athletes who are savvy to the intricacies of the performance manager chart are very reluctant to take appropriate recovery following an overload period for fear of losing some of their hard earned CTL. However, it is a reality that just as that level of fatigue in these periods is not sustainable over the long term, neither is that level of fitness. It is especially important that at the end of an overload period, an athlete takes the necessary recovery time to return to a neutral level of freshness (i.e. TSB ~0) In doing this, the athlete will generally lose some CTL. On the positive, when CTL is averaged over a longer period of time (e.g. a month or training block) the net gains from the inclusion of these training camps will still be greater than a standard 3:1 block, the CTL line will just be a little more “wavy” in nature.
Following a training season
While less of a problem for coached athletes, one of the most common issues for self coached athletes is falling into the trap of the “never ending season.” This trap is made all the more enticing for those athletes keeping a vigilant eye on their little blue line with a firm resolve to keep seeing it go up and up. However, even for those athletes who religiously employ recovery methods and strategies within their training program, there is a long term fatigue component that keeps adding up and can only be shaken with semi-regular extended periods of recovery – that is, a transition period or off season. Failing to adhere to this golden rule can lead to stagnation, burnout or, at the extreme, such damage to the recovery processes of the body that the athlete falls into a chronic fatigue pattern that can take years to shake. In other words, employing these longer-term periods of recovery of four to six weeks per season is serious, important business, and yes, shutting down the plant for four to six weeks will see your little blue production line take a (necessary) nose dive.
The two guiding principles in this situation are: 1) The fatigue shed from the previous season must be as close to complete as possible (i.e. ATL approaches zero), and 2) The starting CTL for each season should be slightly higher than the last. This is the concept of residual fitness, i.e. even when starting from a fresh slate, the athlete carries some fitness over from year to year. Think of it as that nice little surprise of a few dollars' interest on your investment.
Before and after a race
The third situation in which you would want to see your blue line decline a little is before and/or after a key race. The before/after part is a key distinction of B events (training races) versus A events (key races), especially so for the long course athlete. For almost all athletes, long races of greater than 90 minutes' duration require some extended recovery. Depending on the fitness of the athlete and the length of the event, this extended recovery may fall within the range of a normal recovery week. Based on my experience, this is the case for an average-sized fit athlete racing an Olympic distance or shorter event. In this case, providing no significant taper is included, the athlete may simply see a plateau of the blue line. However, for events such as half or full Ironmans, marathons, and other demanding endurance events, the necessary recovery time will often be long enough that the blue line will recede a little. Additionally, if an athlete wants to race at his or her highest possible level – peaking for the event – he or she will want to “rest into” the event as well - that is, trade a little (blue line) fitness for some (yellow line) freshness.
While it’s important for an athlete to race their best, these small trades can add up and chip away a little at the athlete’s fitness; carefully choosing what length races you want to include within your plan, as well as what races you want to peak for, are two very important decisions when planning an effective long-term training program.
Think Long
In summary, resolving to see your blue line on a non-stop rise to the stars is a fool’s errand. The best way to keep your blue line offensive improving over the long term is to incorporate a few planned and strategic retreats along the way at key time periods - specifically, after larger-than-normal periods of training, at the end of each training season, and before/after key events. By doing this, you will avoid the significantly more costly downward spirals that are brought about by overstress and over-training.
The Performance Managment Chart is available to Premium TrainingPeaks users; you can learn more about the benefits of going premium with our comparative features chart.
Alan Couzens, M.S (Sports Science) is the team Exercise Physiologist/Coach with Endurance Corner in Boulder, Colorado. Alan advises top age-groupers and professional endurance athletes on how to apply the latest in exercise science to get the most from their training.
Reader Comments (2)
Good morning Alan, thanks for your insightful comments. I am using the performance management chart to evaluate my "little blue line", but also my chronic fatigue, especially after an injury last year following several weeks of overtraining without a measure of accumulated fatigue (I am not very good at "listening my body"!!!).
I have an observatio however, I use TP online and WKO+ and both programs do a different calculation of the CTL and ATL data. At this very moment I have a CTL of 87.6 in WKO+ versus 44.5 in Training Peaks (V 3.0...). I do mixed training and some TSS are calculated fom hearth rate (hrTSS) while others are calculated from running speed (rTSS). What I see is that one program mixes both while the other normalizes the results. As a consequence, my CTL curve has different slopes in both programs. Which one should I trust?
Best regards!
Andrea (alettriste in TP)
Recovery and the management thereof is extremely important. I do however feel that the topic is being overly discussed by coaches and experts alike. Appears to be in vogue at the moment.
How about an article on the importance of Consistency. How does an inconsistent PMC look in comparison to someone training consistently. How would the chart look if the person wanted to bring about improvement (suggested ramp up).
Another 'different' article would be one on, How far can you raise your CTL, considering fitness, starting point, training time available etc. (suggested ramp up)