During yesterdays chit chat group ride from Joyride Bicycles I produced a training stress score of 73. Here is how TSS is figured out mathematically: .57 intensity factor^2 x 2.25 hours x100 = 73 TSS.
How much energy did I use? You don’t need a calorie measuring device to do this. I burned approximately 1100 kcal. The human body stores approximately 350-400 grams of carbohydrate. At 4 kcal/g that comes out to 1400-1600 kcal as carbs stored. Let’s make it 1500 kcal that I store for, arguments sake.
TSS basically represents glycogen usage. So 100 TSS = 100% usage and thus 15kcal, in this example, is equal to 1 TSS (15kcal x 100=1500 kcal). If I take yesterdays chit chat ride TSS of 73 and multiply it x 15kcal/TSS I come up with 1100 kcal that I burned during that ride.
To find out more on how to use power in your training and the metrics related power visit training peaks.
Marc