July 5, 2026 · 6 min read

How to Plan a Recovery Week with the TSS Chart in Front of You

A recovery week is planned on data, not on a hunch: cut weekly TSS by 40–50% from your last hard week, trimming mainly intensity, not volume. The single goal is to let ATL (fatigue) fall faster than CTL (fitness), so TSB goes positive (+5 to +15). That's when the adaptations from previous weeks "land" and you return to training fresh, not broken.

On the PMC chart, form is a game of three curves: CTL (long-term load, ~42 days), ATL (short-term fatigue, ~7 days) and TSB = CTL − ATL. In a hard block ATL climbs fast and TSB dives. A recovery week is a deliberate drop in stimulus so ATL falls, TSB goes positive, and CTL barely moves. It's not "a week off" — it's a planned part of progression.

How much to cut TSS, exactly

If your hard weeks are, say, 450 TSS, the recovery week targets 230–270 TSS. How to distribute it:

• Cut intensity, not volume — remove VO2max and threshold sessions, keep aerobic Zone 2 riding. The movement stays, the cost drops.
• One "spark" — 1 short session with a few openers (e.g. 3×3 min) so you don't go muscularly flat, but with no load.
• Don't zero out — full rest drops CTL more than needed and you slide into detraining. Zone 2 maintains fitness.

How often should you take a recovery week?

The standard is every fourth week (a 3:1 rhythm) — three weeks of rising load, a fourth for recovery. Older or more fatigued amateurs handle 2:1 better. The signal to unload early: TSB below −30 held for several days and falling interval power despite effort.

How to tell recovery worked

Don't guess — check the data at the end of the week:

• TSB positive — it should reach around +5 to +15. If it's still deeply negative, the week was too hard or the previous block overloaded you.
• Resting heart rate — back to your rested-period norm; elevated by 5+ BPM suggests recovery is still ongoing.
• Check power — a short opener (e.g. 3 min) done at the end of the week "goes easy" at normally hard power.

Does fitness (CTL) drop during a recovery week?

Yes, but slightly and temporarily — CTL will fall a few points, the price of shedding fatigue. It's an apparent loss: fresh, you return to harder training and quickly make it back. Worse is grinding on with no unload — it ends in stagnation, and the recovery basics still matter (sleep, food) as covered in the piece on sleep and athletic recovery.

Summary

A recovery week isn't a reward for hard work — it's the tool that "closes" adaptations. Cut weekly TSS by 40–50%, trim intensity while keeping aerobic volume, and make sure TSB goes positive. Instead of asking "am I rested yet," look at the PMC chart: positive TSB, resting heart rate returning, and check-power going easy are the hard signal you can start the next block. A planned unload every 3–4 weeks is the difference between progression and spinning your wheels.

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