How trained are you and what TSS do you normally aim for per week?
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During season, my CTL typically ranges from 72-80. 41 years old, married, kid, full time job.
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but TR doesn’t show CTL. it shows 6watt avg. So what is a good number?
Typically, 400–500 TSS per week. I am on a mid-volume plan that I pad with endurance rides. Often I will do my weekend endurance ride outdoors — and tack on an hour or two.
I’m quite trained, my season low has been 4.3 W/kg with a high of 4.5–4.7 W/kg. For reference, I am 41 years old, have 2 kids, a wife, a turtle and 2 bikes. 
We had another baby last November, so I am still trying to find out how much I can train this year. I’ve been adding endurance rides, but I currently don’t have as much time to ride outdoors as I had when we just had 1. Otherwise my weekly TSS would likely be higher.
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Lots of TSS here… I’m finding that 3x sessions a week really drains me. I’m not particularly trained but don’t recover fast, therefore can’t tolerate lots of TSS.
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Around 400/500 TSS.
It’s been almost a year I didn’t do any intensity intervals because of various crashes and injuries.
I’m 25yo, been cycling regularly since 2018, done 2 years with structured plans made by myself ( 2019/2020 and a bit during 2021 ), am around 3W/kg, have a job as a food courier.
So I basically ride around 10h a week for work with some Z2 and Z3/4, and now that I’m partly recovered from crashes I’ll start to add 1 then 2 intensity sessions a week.
It was 1142 last week, this week the aim is 277, week after 543. I progressively increase the load over a period of weeks, ease back to absorb it, then ramp again. With tapers around my events etc.
In my mid 50s and I ride ultra endurance events.
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Too much sometimes, actually looking back in my calendar most times 
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I don’t aim for TSS. What I do aim for in the following order of priority is:
- Getting in 2 key higher intensity workouts (unless it’s a recovery week) that are appropriate to my goals and where I am in the season.
- Getting in a longer endurance ride, typically 3+ hours
- Filling in the rest of the week with endurance and recovery rides depending on how I’m feeling. I like to ride 6-7 days/week for mood and routine as much as anything else, I prefer active recovery to rest
In practice this approach typically leads to 8-12 hours and 4-600TSS per week. Towards the bottom end of that range in winter when it’s dark and wet and I’m often just focused on getting the quality work done. Towards the top of that range in summer when the weather’s good, the days are long and most of the riding is outside.
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10-16hours/week, 600-900TSS/week with occasional up to 1300TSS/week.
It really does not matter though. As they say, “not all TSS is created equal”. Most of my TSS comes from long Z2 rides. Thanks to those, I can ride multiple weeks in a row very long distances every day. But compared to amount of time I put into those rides, my FTP is relatively low and I am quite slow compared to many guys who ride half that I do.
To keep increasing your FTP, you do need higher intensity rides that does not yield same amount of TSS as long Z2 rides. Still, TSS is valuable metric: weekly increases (ramp rate) should be limited, so you would not jump ahead with load from your fitness (see Why Ramp Rate is an Important Training Metric | TrainingPeaks)
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This makes sense. The problem I have is that my long ride tends to be pretty tough, lots of threshold, vo2max and neuromuscular so takes some recovery and then 2 other short high intensity sessions are pretty difficult.
Very interesting re ramp rates. Too bad we don’t see this on TR.
I tend to have ~700-900 TSS per week with ~15 hours of training. In season CTL is usually ~100.
That said, I am trying to bring it down a bit this year…the last 2 years or so I have noticed I don’t recover quite as quickly as I used to. I could go hard pretty regularly, but definitely need to pick my battles a bit more now.
As an example. Despite a gorgeous day yesterday (and a new bike!) I could not get motivated to get on the bike. WS just really tired from the hard group ride the day before….
Luckily, it is a recovery week this week so will definitely dial it down a notch.
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This season (33 weeks) so far I have averaged 700 TSS per week. I tend to work with a 3 week on, 1 week off (recovery) pattern so averages out a little higher for a 4 week block then tapers off. Puts my CTL in around the 100-120 range on about 12-16hrs per week.
I don’t chase TSS but it does frame some of my time/ durations of z2 when outside of (or when adding onto the end of) my key workouts scheduled for a defined training block.
Assume that’s because you’re doing your long ride with a group so the intensity is somewhat out of your control? I’d probably just take the view that that ride is effectively 2 rides in one (intensity and endurance) and only do one other high intensity session. That’s what I do when doing a road race or group ride which is both long and has a lot of intensity. Probably not an optimal training strategy but if that ride is fun and motivates you then better to keep it and work around it than to drop it IMO. Or pick the middle ground and alternate between doing it one week and doing a more structured approach the next. If you find that “only” 2 sessions with high intensity is leaving you feeling fresh with appetite/capacity to take on more training load, then you can always do a Tempo or Sweetspot session as your third workout to get a bit of extra training stimulus without as much fatigue as you get from doing Threshold/VO2/Anaerobic intervals.
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About 450-500 TSS consisting of ~7-8 hours in z2 and 1-2 hours of intervals.
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It’s different for each person and it depends on what kind of training you’re doing.
For the purpose of maintaining general skills, I think the appropriate weekly TSS is in the 300-700 range.
Last year as a fit MOP Ironman triathlete around 250+ was a solid bike week 350+ would be gaining new fitness, FTP…
TSS isn’t really a useful stat any more, at least when you’re an indoor trainer it’s too broad. A few vo2 interval sessions can be low TSS but build fitness well.
It might still be useful for people who ride outside all the time though, I track it just because I have for years but I don’t get any value from it.
Sooooo…am I doing it right if my rest week TSS came out to 899? 
Took it easy for most of the week, but then did the usual group ride on Sat (80 miles) that we extended into a century and then did 72 miles on the gravel yesterday.
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