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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In my field, the rule of thumb is often 5 time constants for a process to be considered "complete." So we're talking 5-10 weeks for full recovery from acute fatigue.
The problem is that your fitness fades with a different decay constant (28-45 days). So (according to the model) you are still getting incrementally less fatigued after 3, 4, 5 weeks. But you're also getting less fit. Only for the first 2-3 weeks is the recovery from fatigue more than enough to make up for the loss of fitness.
In my field, the rule of thumb is often 5 time constants for a process to be considered "complete." So we're talking 5-10 weeks for full recovery from acute fatigue.
The problem is that your fitness fades with a different decay constant (28-45 days). So (according to the model) you are still getting incrementally less fatigued after 3, 4, 5 weeks. But you're also getting less fit. Only for the first 2-3 weeks is the recovery from fatigue more than enough to make up for the loss of fitness.
