I’ve got a question about how adaptive training responds to a certain situation. Sometimes my group of friends will have a group workout that I join, but I just spin through it on resistance mode with my smart trainer and socialize. TrainerRoad then asks if I was sick or something when the workout is done, and I select the “I’m not fatigued” or the “this wasn’t difficult” option, I forget specifically what the text is. How does adaptive training read into this? Does it weigh the workout less? Does it think I’m getting slower and offer me easier workouts?
How do I sandbag group workouts and still provide adaptive training effective feedback?
(1) Don’t answer the survey question.
(2) Allow the workout to sync to Garmin, TrainingPeaks, or something similar.
(3) DELETE the workout from your TrainerRoad career
(4) Export the FIT file from your Garmin, TrainingPeaks, or whatever.
(5) Upload it to TrainerRoad with a title like “My Fun Ride with Friends”… so it doesn’t associate with a real workout.
(6) Don’t answer the survey on your uploaded FIT file ride.
Hey there,
there’s a really simple and easy answer to this! Just select the “I didn’t struggle” survey response, and the workout won’t negatively affect your upcoming Adaptations.
c’mon @SeanHurley . Any solution that doesn’t involve uploads, downloads, fit file modification, changing the suffix of a file name, and maybe even hex editing… well, that’s not as much fun!
(p.s. seriously, thank you for that insight. It’s good to know that “I didn’t struggle” is like a Get Out of Jail card with AT)
They enjoy it! I have a triathlon friend group that has different but similar goals for the summer, so we all try to follow sweet spot base low volume or traditional base low volume in the winter together. We can’t always do all the workouts together so sometimes we’ll have a 4pm group and a 5pm group. I did the 4pm workout, then joined the 5pm group but just did endurance intensity. We talk during interval breaks, warmup, and cooldown. Or, if we want to join the group but are too tired for intervals we do pivot and just spin on resistance mode with the group while the healthy ones do the actual workout.
That’s what I’ve decided to do too, but I wasn’t sure how skynet (trainerroad AI) interprets this response. Thanks for confirming that this choice gives me the desired outcome!
I have a similar situation with a friend. Last year we were on the same plan and remained broadly in sync for 5 months choosing whichever workout we fancied each time. Our progression levels remained close enough to be able to do this and still have productive session.
However this year we have significantly different progression levels for VO2Max and Threshold and therefore very different workouts each week.
TrainerRoad confirmed that the ‘best’ way to do a Group Workout with significantly different levels is to use Intensity %. We are choosing workouts in between our planned workout and then adjusting the Intensity to make them productive for both of us.
Has anyone else tried this?
I have also asked TrainerRoad podcast if AT could automatically adjust the Intensity % for Group Workouts so that everyone has a productive workout. Let’s hope they select my question and clear up the best way to handle Group Workouts.
Obviously individuals can still adjust this up or down during the workout as normal depending on how they are feeling as they work through the session.
