What Is Chronic Training Load (CTL) And How To Use It To Improve Performance

Topics Covered In This Episode:

• How is CTL calculated?
• The difference between fitness and CTL
• What's missing from the CTL metric
• How to interpret CTL
• What are typical CTL scores for different athletes
• Additional metrics you should be tracking to measure performance gains

Show Links:

• See a chart of target CTL scores here
• Podcast Episode: How To Improve Your Cycling FTP
• Podcast Episode: How To Train VO2 Max
• Article: Cycling Training Terms and Acronyms Explained

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, or on your favorite podcast platform

Note: Several cycling training terms used throughout this post are trademarked by TrainingPeaks, including Training Stress Score®, Normalized Power®, and Intensity Factor®. Additionally, terms including Acute Training Load, Chronic Training Load, Training Stress Balance, and Efficiency Factor are featured in TrainingPeaks software. In some cases, metrics that represent similar concepts are used in other apps.