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High Ride Training Stress Value

Training Stress Score (TSS)® is a quantification of exertion. Learn more about TSS and other training acronyms. What can cause a high TSS? If you are using VirtualPower and getting unusually high TSS values, there is a chance that the magnet is clipping the speed sensor. This will generate inflated speed readings which will translate to high power readings. Since TSS is based on power output over the course of a workout, inflated speed readings will make for an inflated TSS. How to exclude a workout with a high TSS If your ride has an inaccurately high TSS value, you can exclude the workout from your Personal Records so your data is not skewed. You can exclude a ride from your PRs when you view the ride online from the Past Rides page. Screen_Shot_2019-09-12_at_10.30.05_AM.png

Post Workout • Last updated on Aug 13, 2026

How to Use and Track Training Stress

Recording/analyzing training stress is important in becoming a faster cyclist. Visualize fitness progress by tracking indoor/outdoor Training Stress Score (TSS)®. Import your outdoor rides into TrainerRoad Sync your TrainerRoad account with Garmin Connect and/or Strava to import your outdoor ride history, and all future outdoor rides into TrainerRoad. Training Stress: What is it? The Training Stress Chart shows you how much work you've done on the bike and how that work affects your fitness. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCxdScieln8 Key Features: - Visualizes how consistent and high quality your training has been - Displays much work you've done per week of training - Shows FTP changes and your training leading up the change - Allows you to drill into any indoor and outdoor ride directly from the chart Training Stress Chart Walkthrough Find Past Indoor and Outdoor Rides The Training Stress Chart makes it easy to find the indoor and outdoor rides you did during your season. Click on the graph to drill into each week of rides. help-tss-overview-gif.gif See the Training Stress of All Your Rides Dark green represents the Training Stress of rides completed with TrainerRoad. Light green represents the Training Stress of rides not completed with TrainerRoad; these rides also show up on your chart with a green dot next to the Training Stress of that ride. help-tss-2.png Analyze Training Consistency The Training Stress Chart shows you where you've been inconsistent and how that impacts your FTP. In this graph, the grey 6 wk/avg trending line confirms the rider has "ups and downs" in their training. help-tss-3.png Spot Patterns In Your Training It’s easy to see when you’ve been consistent and inconsistent with your training and drill into those weeks to reflect on why that was. help-tss-4.png View Training Leading Up to a Change in Fitness The Training Stress Chart shows you the relationship between the quality of your training and FTP increases that result from it. help-tss-5.png Stay Accountable for Your Weekly Training Stress Goals If you have a personal goal to try to maintain a certain Training Stress between now and your key event, the Training Stress Chart helps you stay accountable to that goal. help-tss-6.png

Performance Analytics • Last updated on Aug 13, 2026

Can I Add Training Stress Estimations to Multiple Rides at Once?

There is no way to add an estimated Training Stress Score (TSS)® values to more than one ride at once. If you have a backlog of outdoor rides completed without power data (and thus, no TSS data), it's best to either estimate TSS for each ride individually, or leave the TSS blank for these rides. Why? We don't support adding "bulk" TSS data because we feel this wouldn't give riders an accurate enough picture of their historical TSS. In order for our TSS estimation tool to be most helpful, rate of perceived exertion (RPE) information from the rider should be input for individual rides/events, and soon after the ride or event is completed. This way the effort level is fresh in the rider's mind, and they can input the most accurate RPE level.

General Usage FAQs • Last updated on Aug 13, 2026

Power-Based Training Acronyms

There are far too many acronyms in the sport of cycling, so here is your cheat sheet for all the important ones FTP: Functional Threshold Power - This is theoretically the maximum steady-state power you could hold for about an hour - It is a way to quantify your current level of fitness- many of your other zones will scale fairly linearly relative to your FTP - All of your rides are based on a percentage of your FTP IF: Intensity Factor® - This is a way of quantifying how intense your ride was - The scale is based on this: An IF of 1.0 would be equivalent to performing at FTP for 1 hour. Aka, your body could not possibly work any harder. - A 0.8 IF would represent a ride that averaged 80% of your Functional Threshold Power TSS: Training Stress Score® - This is the amount of stress that a workout inflicts on your body - With a large TSS, there is a greater opportunity for growth but also a greater need for proper recovery - Calculated based on a combination of IF and duration NP: Normalized Power® - This metric is similar to average power, with one minor difference - This metric "weights" different power zones differently. It gives more weight to your harder intervals and more closely represents the physiological toll - The purpose of this is to attempt to estimate the power you could have produced had you been constant throughout the ride - This allows you to more honestly compare one ride to another since the rest intervals have less of an effect on the overall average

Power 101 • Last updated on Aug 13, 2026

Common Training Acronyms Defined

TSS, NP, IF, and FTP are terms created by Dr. Andy Coggan and are specific to cycling. Functional Threshold Power - FTP Functional Threshold Power, or FTP, is the maximum average power you can hold for one hour. So if you can hold 300 watts for one hour, that means your FTP is 300. FTP is the best single marker for fitness in cycling. The higher your FTP is, the stronger you are. In TrainerRoad, we use your FTP to scale workouts. Our workouts are structured as a percent of FTP. This means that when your FTP increases, the workouts get harder to maintain the same difficulty. Doing an all-out one-hour effort is really, really hard. It's hard to get an accurate test without it being in a race (much less indoors on a trainer). Because of this, we use the Ramp Test for FTP testing. The Ramp Test is both accurate and easy to complete for both new and experienced cyclists alike. If you would like to read up more on the Ramp Test and why we prefer it, click here. The other two most common tests to help estimate FTP are the 20 Minute Test and the 8 Minute Test. These are considered standard for FTP testing in the cycling world. We take averages of the all-out work intervals in each test and multiply them by a factor, usually .95 or .90. This gives us a good estimate of FTP. Normalized Power - NP® Normalized Power gives you an average power number if you would have ridden at a constant power output. For example, in a crit, you would have lots of power spikes and lots of coasting. This would result in a low average power. Normalized power was developed to try to figure out how much stress was actually put on your body. By using some math and weighting the really hard stuff more than the easy stuff we can figure out what your power output would have been if you would have ridden steadily the entire time. For TrainerRoad, this number is really helpful because most of our workouts have intervals with rest periods in between. Normalized Power gives you a way to compare efforts between workouts. For example, if one workout has a NP of 223 and another workout has an NP of 243 you put out more power for the second workout. Intensity Factor - IF® This is how intense a ride is. A ride with an Intensity Factor of 1.0 would equal an all-out effort for an hour. If you did an hour at .8 IF that means it was about an 80% effort. TrainerRoad has the Intensity Factor of each workout specified. This helps you gauge the difficulty of each workout. Training Stress Score - TSS® TSS is the amount of training stress generated from a workout. The higher this number, the more potential fitness you may have earned from a given ride. To gain the most fitness, you want to earn the most TSS possible. All of the workouts on TrainerRoad have a TSS score on them. This means that if you were to ride the workout exactly like it is prescribed you would earn that amount of TSS. How do TSS and IF relate to each other? Some rides can be intense, some can add a lot of fitness, some do both. A workout that is just 30 minutes long can be really intense and have an IF score of over 1.0, but that doesn't mean you'll earn a lot of TSS from it. By contrast, you can have a 2-hour ride that's not very intense, but will earn you a lot of TSS. Didn't find what you're looking for? You can find more acronyms for workout drills here.

Your First Ride • Last updated on Aug 20, 2026

How to Estimate Training Stress Without Power Data

Ride outdoors with no power meter? Our tool will estimate outside training stress from GPS files. Track training credit for every ride! Training Stress Score (TSS)® is derived from power, so without power data, we are unable to automatically generate a TSS value. Enter our TSS Estimator! (If you're not already familiar with TSS and its components, check out Training Acronyms Defined before reading any further.) TSS Estimator The TSS Estimator is a tool that allows a user to make a TSS score for a workout. You can input your FTP and your perceived effort for that ride (on a scale from 1-10), and TrainerRoad will estimate a TSS value for your work! This TSS value will, by default, count towards your weekly TSS and appear in the TSS chart. Using the TSS Estimator There are two ways to access the TSS Estimator: 1) If you navigate to the Past Rides tab on the TrainerRoad website, you will see an "Estimate Stress" option on any ride that does not have power data. Simply click on this, and it will bring you to the TSS Estimator. 0-tss-estimate.png Additionally, while you're on the past rides page you will see a message about rides missing TSS. If you click the "View Rides" button this will bring you to a page with all rides missing TSS. 1-tss-estimate.png 2) You can also access the TSS Estimator from within an opened ride. If you open a ride that does not have power, you will see an "Estimate TSS" button right underneath the ride graph. 2-tss-estimate-ride.png Estimate TSS Once you have the TSS Estimator open, you'll be asked to confirm your ride's name and your FTP. Once you've input your FTP at the time of the ride, you will see an option to "Choose Intensity". 3-tss-estimate-modal.png When assigning a ride an intensity, you will be asked how difficult the ride was on a scale from 1-10. This is the "industry standard" 1-10 RPE scale in the world of cycling. Of course, assessing difficulty on a 1-10 scale can be pretty subjective, but do your best to be as accurate as possible here. 4-tss-estimate-modal-2.png Once you choose your intensity, you should see an estimated TSS value displayed directly underneath the intensity selector. If everything looks good, check whether or not you want to include this ride's TSS in your Career, and select update. (Note: By default, the ride's TSS is set to be included in your Career.) 5-tss-estimate-modal-3.png

Performance Analytics • Last updated on Aug 13, 2026

Workout Levels

Workout Levels are a metric within TrainerRoad that provide a way to easily compare the difficulty of workouts. Workout levels compare the relative difficulty of workouts within each energy system and training zone. They range from 1 to 10, with 1 representing an easy workout and 10 being a very difficult one. How are Workout Levels calculated? Workout Levels go beyond traditional metrics, like Training Stress Score (TSS) and Intensity Factor (IF). They utilize TrainerRoad AI's data-driven insights and incorporate nuanced factors such as repetition, interval length, and recovery time to quantify the relative difficulty of each TrainerRoad workout. The result is workout difficulty rankings that are based on real-world experience and easy to understand. Workout Levels are unique to TrainerRoad, using a formula derived from machine learning and based on our extensive data set. Where are Workout Levels displayed? The primary Workout Level for a workout is displayed on the workout profile alongside other workout information such as duration, TSS, and IF. You will see the workout level on all TrainerRoad workouts: Screenshot 2026-07-16 at 3.09.40 PM.png Workout Levels on the Calendar You will also see a workouts primary Workout Level in the upper left hand corner below the title of the workout when viewing an individual workout: Screenshot 2026-07-16 at 3.11.31 PM.png Primary Workout Level for an Individual Workout Note: The only structured workouts without Workout Levels are FTP assessments and custom workouts. When viewing a TrainerRoad workout you will also see the other Workout Levels targeted in any given workout in the Workout Levels chart below AI Predicted Difficulty. These levels show the performance targets for that particular workout relative to your current FTP: Screenshot 2026-07-16 at 3.18.07 PM.png FAQ How are these different from my individual Athlete Levels? Your individual Athlete Levels are a representation of your capabilities within the context of Workout Levels. Workout Levels are ML-driven quantifications of the relative difficulty workouts. Athlete Levels show your relative current abilities across Training Zones. You can check your Athlete Levels in your Career in the relative zone to check what difficulty of workouts are right for you based on your current abilities. Are Workout Levels always comparable? While Workout Levels do give you a good sense of how a workout might compare relative to another workout in TrainerRoad, Workout Levels are not strictly comparable even within one zone. How a workout feels to you can vary from one workout to the next based on the overall structure and duration of the workout. For this reason we recommend using AI Predicted Difficulty alongside Workout Levels for more insight into how your planned training might feel. Are Workout Levels personalized to each athlete? No. Workout Levels are assigned to a specific workout based on its difficulty and are calculated regardless of an athlete's abilities. Individual Athlete Levels are unique to each athlete. Your Progression Levels give you an indication of what workout difficulty you will be capable of completing. Will my custom workouts have Workout Levels? No, custom workouts do not currently have Workout Levels. Will Outside Workouts have Workout Levels? Yes. Every Outside Workout in the TrainerRoad workout library will have Workout Levels assigned to them. If you find an Outside Workout that doesn't have Workout Levels, please contact [email protected]

TrainerRoad AI • Last updated on Jul 16, 2026

How to Estimate TSS via RPE on Calendar

You can easily estimate your Training Stress Score (TSS)® for outdoor rides directly from your Calendar. To estimate TSS for an activity, simply right-click on the activity in your Calendar and then select "Edit Workout." If your outside activities contain heart rate data, you can select "Heart-Rate-Based" to use our Heart Rate-Based machine learning system to estimate all activities with Heart Rate. You can control these settings in your account settings here. Otherwise, you can use RPE to estimate TSS as well. If you're looking to estimate TSS for running activities you can use RPE.

Calendar • Last updated on Aug 13, 2026