Methodology
How TPF actually works.
Every serious hybrid athlete hits the same wall: the conditioning starts wrecking the lifting, or the lifting stalls the running, and nobody can tell you exactly why. TPF Operator runs on real exercise science — how running and rucking add up across energy systems, how lifting and conditioning compete for the same recovery, how Monday’s ruck shows up in Tuesday’s squat. None of it is guessed. The science does the bookkeeping. You make the calls that matter.
The principles are few.
Tactical training isn’t a mystery. Apply the right stimulus, recover, push the load up, keep showing up. Four principles. The methods you build out of them are infinite — the principles themselves barely change.
Most of what you’ll read online is over-simplified, misapplied, or made artificially black-and-white. That’s where most athletes get stuck. TPF encodes the principles. You pick the methods.
How we know it works.
Every engine component is checked three ways.
- Against the research. Every formula and weighting traces back to peer-reviewed work on stimulus, recovery, periodisation, and energy-system physiology.
- Against real coaching practice. We run mainstream protocols through the engine and verify the outputs match what those protocols are known to produce.
- Against the maths. Worked examples computed by hand. If the engine drifts, we investigate and recalibrate — or document why.
What the engine actually does.
Strength & hypertrophy
The TPF Effective Sets™ system credits every working set on what actually drives growth — how close to failure you went, how heavy you lifted, how long you rested, and which muscles each lift really trains. Compounds count differently from isolation. Stretch position counts differently from short. Volume landmarks (the floor, the sweet spot, the ceiling) are tuned to your training age — not pulled from a textbook.
Strength and hypertrophy don’t grow on the same curve. The engine knows it — separate dose-response models for each, anchored to the Schoenfeld 2017 hypertrophy meta-analysis and the Ralston 2017 strength meta-analysis, and scaled to your experience level. For Operator athletes, strength volume is held lower so conditioning has room to live in the same week.
Recovery cost
Every set adds to a running fatigue total, weighed against the capacity that comes with your training age. Daily and weekly views colour the picture green, amber, red — sustainable, high, over the line. Built on the Banister fitness-fatigue model (1991) and the Foster session-RPE literature (2001+). Conditioning lands on the same scale as strength — a hard interval block or a long ruck shows up next to your heavy squat day, weighted honestly.
Conditioning
Every conditioning session lands across four energy systems — long aerobic, aerobic capacity, anaerobic capacity, anaerobic power — so a Z2 ride and a Tabata block don’t get pretended into the same thing. EPOC counts. Rest ratios count. Reps count. Built on the Edwards TRIMP framework and the Buchheit & Laursen interval programming work.
Runs are scored by zone and duration. Easy mileage builds the base; tempo and threshold work hits the middle; intervals and race-pace efforts push the top end. Rucking is aerobic endurance with a load modifier — heavier kit at the same pace costs more and stimulates more.
Seven of the most-used conditioning protocols — Norwegian 4×4, Tabata, MAF Z2, Yasso 800s, hard continuous intervals, Cardiac Output Method, 5K race-pace work — are pre-validated against the engine. The output matches what those protocols are known to deliver.
The cross-over
Lifting and conditioning compete for the same recovery. Heavy cardio before heavy strength dulls the strength adaptation — the engine knows it, and tells you when your session order is fighting you. The interference effect is modelled per the Wilson 2012 and Schumann 2022 meta-analyses.
Fatigue doesn’t reset at midnight either. Monday’s long ruck still hangs on your legs Tuesday morning. Wednesday’s intervals show up in Thursday’s tempo run. Nothing in the week is scored alone — the engine sees the whole picture.
What we don’t claim.
- We don’t predict injury. We flag sudden spikes in load. We don’t pretend to know when you’re going to get hurt — the evidence for that just isn’t strong enough.
- We don’t replace a coach. A coach who knows you, your life, your stress, and your technique is irreplaceable. Use both if you can.
- We don’t model what we can’t see. Sleep, food, life stress, technique, genetics — those stay with you. You know your context better than any app does.
The plan you’ll do is the plan that works.
TPF Operator hands you the engine and steps back. Build the week that fits your tempo, your selection timeline, your kit. The science counts the load. The calls stay with you.
Be your own expert.
Want to see the papers? Every weighting and curve in the engine traces back to the literature on the research page.