Discussion: Trimp

Neat, maybe. What do the three parameters mean - red and green lines, orange bars? How do you use the info?

Orange bar is the loading for the day. If you hover over the bar you can see values for the TRIMP (training impulse) for the day as well as cumulative fitness and fatigue values, which decay over time. Freshness is the difference between fitness and fatigue. If freshness is positive, that's good, negative means you're pooped out. The graph lines show the trends. You can also see training impulse for each activity in the far right column of the training summary table under "load".

I'm using this to see if it's a good indication of overtraining. Am I tired because I've overtrained or just because I'm lazy? Can I push harder or would it be counterproductive? Is it time to rest up for a race?

You can try this by entering values in the far right column under [settings (next to your log-in name)][edit intensities & HR zones]. I just put in 0-5 for starters. Kenny has different values based on Daniels, but I lost my copy of the book.

interesting....Kenny has so many great tools on attackpoint.

Currently this is retrospective. So always a week out of touch, like for today but will be current almost for tomorrow. Will it be moved to a more real time resource - so I can figure out why I feel so tired today. Is it too much activity or the yuck weather?

You can see the current week also, just click from the horizontal bar graph lower on your log.

Ah. Got it. I take it that green is fitness and red is fatigue. That accounts for the weary feeling today.

I saw that you explained the loading, but how are the other determined- the fitness and esp. the fatigue? My graphs indicate I've been fatigued for the last few days though fitness hasn't changed.

These are long (~6wk) and short-term (~1.5wk) exponential moving averages of trimp. So you can think of fatigue as your current load--that which is recent enough to make you tired--and fitness as the load you have been sustaining long enough to be mostly adapted to. Freshness is just the difference between those two.

Hover or touch the graph to see the values, though keep in mind that the units are arbitrary and relative.

Thanks - I think. OK - how do you measure either? Or at least quantify them enough to do something with them?

You can see the data on your monthly log as well. If you look ahead at the projected August curves, you can see fitness dropping slowly in almost a straight line while fatigue resolves much quicker.

Practically speaking, here is what I do with mine:

If I am trying to build up, which turns out to be most of the time, I like to see that I am slightly in the red (red on top). But I also like to come back closer to even before hard sessions. I have used the red line as an excuse to postpone an interval session one day or take it a bit easier the day before a local race. For a goal race/weekend I like to be farther into the green.

All sounds good and useful. The thing I'm trying to figure is the factors or weightings that affect the scores. They are sensitive to the loading score put in the Settings. But also on the HR ranges. So it seems important to get those right. Nice but since the lines are relative readings, the important part is the determinants that affect the scores. As in, if I have high fatigue, is that because I'm tired from the workouts or due to the numbers in the algorithm?

I plan on using 1 thru 5 for the weighting factors and see if the result accurately reflects how I feel. If not, I'll adjust the factors. l left the HR ranges blank. I rate a workout by aerobic effort, but also by exertion, as in weight lifting. So I can have a hard workout and log it as a 4 and not really elevate my HR. I think that's okay for the TRIMP calculations.