I am in a recovery week as part of the build phase (month 1) in the increase ftp 3 month plan. I have had to be more flexible with training days so as recommended on the podcast try to use trainnow.
Both times I used this week it suggested first V02Max and second venado -2, neither workout seem to fit with the weeks general purpose as the scheduled workouts are all low endurance.
Train now doesn’t look at your training plan so it’s going to ignore your recovery week.
It’s only thinking about what is the best ride for me right now that I am capable of.
Better option is to select the endurance ride or drop in an AI sustained endurance ride at the length you want onto your calendar.
Usually it’s not a great idea to add extra volume onto your recovery/deload weeks. Could move rides around on your calendar to fit what you need and adjust times, ie shorten from an hour to 30 minutes.
Thanks Elgro, your comments make sense for sure. I guess I picked up the trainnow instruction incorrectly from the podcast. I will just move the scheduled workouts around to match my week
Recovery weeks still include intensity. Just at a lower volume than other weeks.
For an average person no, it won’t include any intensity. If you’re tapering yes, you include some intensity to keep the body sharp, but if you’re recovering…. adding intensity does not help you recover. At most, you might do a couple 30s bursts with a couple of minutes rest for your final recovery ride of the week to prep yourself for another real workout, re: openers.
Even amateur riders or less well trainer individuals would benefit from maintaining some intensity during a deload week, completely removing all intensity is counterproductive.
Why is every pro discussing their recovery weeks lately been focusing on “recovering harder” and “spending more time resting”. Wouldn’t you think if you were right they would be saying “no, no, I’m making sure I do my intervals!”
Your advice fly’s counter to the entire purpose of training – chronic overload. If you’re trying to chronically overload yourself, you’re not adding anything significant in the miniscule amount you’re doing in your rest week, while you’re also making it quite clear to your body that you aren’t resting. You don’t undo strain to your nervous system by adding load to it, and one of the critical things about REST is to let your nervous system deload. Adding any strain to it basically undoes that improvement.
I suggest looking at some actual professional training data if you want to use that argument.
I think one of the issues here is the definition of “week" 
As in when does my last loading week end (not everyone finishes their last ride of the week just before dinner on Sunday) and when does the next block start (not everyone has Monday as a rest day)
I find that if I go from, say, Saturday of Week 11 to Tuesday of Week 13 of a plan with zero intensity, that’s just too long for me. Even openers at the end of Week 12 would be insufficient to get my legs back under me. I need a workout at the tail end of Week 12. Not a long workout, but a proper workout. I balance that out by making the first 80% of my recovery week super-chilled.
But I love that everyone is different. What suits me would be suboptimal for others, and that’s great.
I’ve seen TrainNow throw VO2 or climbers into a recovery week if it thinks you’re fresh, but I treat recovery week as non negotiable and ignore anything that looks like intensity. I’d either pick an easy endurance/spin option or just take the extra day off then let the hard stuff come back when the next block starts.
TrainNow doesn’t know what a recovery week is.