In threads where training philosophy comes up, discussions of TRIMPS and TSS and other training models occasionally intrude. These models are not very well known, and even more poorly understood, so probably SolarEnergy, qbrain and I are just talking to each other and killing threads in those conversations. In any case, I figured I would present a brief overview of what it is that we're talking about when this terminology starts showing up.
Best case, this will introduce these models to the subset of swimmers (or coaches) who would be interested enough to use them, but didn't previously know enough to do so.
Plus, even if you're not the type to be interested in quantifying your training, it can be useful to think about workouts in this general framework.
And, at the very least, this might serve as a place to discuss some of the details without worrying about driving those other threads too far off-topic.
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I agree with qbrain that tapering is definitely about repairing something at the muscular level, NOT about restoring glycogen. If it were just glycogen, then tapers would consist of 3 days off.
Repairing muscle microtrauma may not be the same healing a scraped elbow, but it's also not the same as restoring creatine kinase activity.
There's a reason that the time constant for acute fatigue is 7-15 days in these models. It's because that's what has been found to fit the rate of recovery in the athletes these models were fitted to. And this is just a decay constant -- not the time required for full recovery!
That said, I do think it's dangerous to trust these models to plan your taper. The impulse-response models all say you should completely stop training 2-3 weeks out, as soon as each lap will earn you more fatigue than fitness on race day. That's obviously a little bit simplistic, and goes against lots of real-world experience.
I agree with qbrain that tapering is definitely about repairing something at the muscular level, NOT about restoring glycogen. If it were just glycogen, then tapers would consist of 3 days off.
Repairing muscle microtrauma may not be the same healing a scraped elbow, but it's also not the same as restoring creatine kinase activity.
There's a reason that the time constant for acute fatigue is 7-15 days in these models. It's because that's what has been found to fit the rate of recovery in the athletes these models were fitted to. And this is just a decay constant -- not the time required for full recovery!
That said, I do think it's dangerous to trust these models to plan your taper. The impulse-response models all say you should completely stop training 2-3 weeks out, as soon as each lap will earn you more fatigue than fitness on race day. That's obviously a little bit simplistic, and goes against lots of real-world experience.
