Once logged into your training plan you will be able to access your daily and weekly training workouts and descriptions. I recommend you first go to the "account settings" link found in the "your name" link on the landing page. In this section, you can create or change your password and click the option to receive daily email reminders if you so desire. When manually logging your workouts you may want to input your workout's “actual” time or better yet your time in each heart rate and/or power zone (for endurance workouts only). You can also manually record your workouts in the Training Peaks Mobile app for iPhone or Android. Also, we highly recommend recording your continuous endurance or interval workouts using a heart rate monitor. We have some recommendations on devices and apps that work well with this coaching platform. This will enable one easy step to update your coaching plan.

 

If you have synced your heart rate, pace, or power monitor apps to the TP platform then this data will be automatically updated on your log when you save it on your device and it uploads to your device app. See the Setting Up Your Training Devices Lesson to follow. 

If you do not use a heart rate or GPS device you can still manually record your workouts. See how below. I do, however, highly recommend that you track most of your workouts (especially the endurance or cardio oriented) with an HR monitor and/or a load tracking device (speed, watts).

 

1. If possible try to rate your quality or level of; sleep, fatigue, stress, soreness, resting pulse, even your body weight. You can track these and other responses from the “metrics” section found in the “+” workout on your workout log. Tracking these values is most important during periods when pushing to higher training volumes and/or intensity levels (e.g., build phases).

2. Record your comments in the “Post Activity” Comments box.

3. Record your distances (if you know them) covered in the proper distance boxes.

4. Record your time in each zone.

5. If you are recording a bike workout you will also have the option to include average watts and kilojoules.

6. Don’t forget to click on the "Save" button to save your data.

Remember - It's much more efficient to sync your tracking device to Trainingpeaks. If you are not sure how to do this just search the web for "How do I sync my - your device - "With trainingpeaks"

Weekly Order

Try to follow your weekly plan in the order it is prescribed. If you miss a workout do not try to make up for it on another day. Just consider it a “lost” day and carry on. If your "reality schedule" requires you to move workouts around just be sure you follow this rule - try to provide zone 1 recovery days following any hard more extensive than usual days.

If you are enrolled in the PoP Lab Coaching Program go ahead and contact your coach to see how best to move around the schedule.

Workouts

You will notice there are often multiple workouts in a day. Try to follow the order that they are listed. Occasionally, if necessary, you can flip workouts to another time of day but in many instances, the order will dictate the priority of the workout so that you are “fresh” for your highest priority workouts. Also, you will notice the workouts are all lined up in the morning. The morning times are typically the best to ensure compliance. However, you can move the workouts to whichever time works best for you. Just remember to keep the high-priority workouts in the earliest position of the day. Do not forget to input your actual or estimated time in zones for each endurance workout. Again, the best scenario is to upload or sync your heart rates from your monitor and upload those values into your training log.

Training Progressions

As you will see the training plan adjusts from one phase of 3-4 weeks to the next, with specific progressions in overload during each phase. Typically these phases consist of 3 weeks with a week to week building of intensity or duration or both followed by a week of backing off for recovery. Often during these 3-4 week phases, your workouts may only change moderately in the type of exercises to help build familiarity with your training structure and to give your body time to respond to it (i.e., training effect). This format will help you to:

• Improve your muscular efficiency and motor skills: Through the repetition of specific sessions in your program, you start to build sport-specific motion into your muscle memory.
• Increase your physiological-intuition: You can develop your ability to “feel” how you are doing on any given day since you are familiar with what is “normal”.
• Track performance: Your training sessions can be very useful benchmarks.
• Gauge your fatigue: When you are able to compare your performances across familiar sessions, you can quickly determine whether you are tired because you are pushing your speed above your norm or because you are fighting off fatigue due to illness or an overtraining response.

Workout adjustments

If unplanned time constraints, feelings of fatigue, or a hint of a cold shows up for your workout – plan on adjusting the workout to include a shortened version that will stimulate the same system you intend to train. For example, if your workout calls for four 5 minute LT intervals you might decrease the interval time to 1 minute and complete 4-5 repetitions just to keep the system engaged.

Off Days

In many instances, it is not necessary to avoid any activity at all during a day off. As a matter of fact, recovery can be enhanced by incorporating easy activity or low (zone 1) intensity training into your day. So unless you have come down with an infection or flu, or are very fatigued you can and should find a way to include some physical activity.

Training intensity and monitoring

Knowing your intensity level and being able to evaluate your training effect requires learning how to use tools like heart rate monitors, speed and power meters, as well as your own perceived exertion level. By combining these and other feedback methods you will not only be able to dial in your prescribed training levels for each workout but you will also learn how to judge the cumulative stress effect of your workouts. It will take a while to become familiar with how to use these tools, both the mechanical procedures (button pushing, downloading, etc.) and to be able to interpret the signals for an effective understanding of your training adaptations. Environment, hydration, fueling, and stress can all affect the heart rate response and this takes a while to fully understand.

If you are in the Online Coaching program then your coach will be available to help you learn quickly if you ask them questions. So don’t be afraid to let him/her know that you are not quite sure why the heart rate responded the way it did (e.g., why pace changed while heart rate stayed the same, etc.).

Reminder - those enrolled in the Online Coaching Program can contact your coach any day and he/she will get back to you with 24 hours.

To determine your training intensity zones (e.g., heart rate, RPE, pace, or power) the best method would be to get tested at a lab or clinic where they can evaluate your metabolic and cardiovascular response to exercise. This is typically done using lactate finger blood testing and/or oxygen analysis (VO2) testing. If you have access and the means to participate in this testing it would be ideal.