So I’m seeing a lot of folks, both here and other places online, who are wildly unhappy with the new AI approach: bad workouts, bad predictions, bad volume, etc.
Perhaps I’m either not noticing the issues, or perhaps I’m just one of the lucky ones, but I’ve found the new AI approach actually working quite well for me. The hard workouts are hard, sometimes very hard, but I haven’t failed one yet. The endurance days are appropriately difficult. It seemed to take a while but the length of the endurance rides is slowly increasing as per Dynamic Endurance. I’m training for a 200 mile gravel race, so longer endurance rides are a must for me.
I get some yellow days because I sometimes run on my “off” days, but I consider them as advice to consider my level of rest rather than instructions to automatically back off. That’s mostly on my endurance days as I try to ensure that I hit my hard days rested enough to have good legs, as I feel those are important days to do well on. I’m doing a Masters plan because I tried doing 3 days a week of hard days last winter for a while, and I wasn’t able to recover enough for that to work for me.
I haven’t done an actual FTP test of any sort in a while, depending on the AI FTP detection to gauge my progress. But the power meter doesn’t lie (or if it does, it’s at least consistent), and I’m definitely getting stronger each month.
So, am I along or do some of you also feel like you’re getting good workouts and good progress from the changes to TR?
However, if things are working out for you you’ll not bother posting just to say you’re motoring on.
I know there has been a few edge cases here with odd unexpected outcomes but mostly it’s just change and human nature doesn’t really like changing. In the spirit of being excellent to each other I’ll leave it there!
I’m happy with it. I got quite a large bump with the first frp prediction 10% which initially I was very anxious about but the workouts have been fine. Like you said they’ve been hard, I had to lower one and failed one but this was due to a sickness building up.
I don’t play around with my calendar much, I just get on with it. I’m not bothered about what my true FTP may be. I’m getting fitter and stronger and that’s all I care about.
I have always trusted my training to TrainerRoad and the results have always been good. I was a bit skeptical since on January 18 my FTP went from 244 to 249 and 3 days later the new system changed it to 257. I have one workout left tonight before a predicted 269w so it’s too early to say how this is going so far. What will say is that all workouts up to now have been completed and nothing appeared off.
TrainerRoad has always been good to me so I am going all in and trust that it still is. Not fair to hate on it without giving it a fair chance.
I’m loving it. I don’t use FTP for anything outside of Trainerroad so it’s just a number that my training hangs off. I must admit my ego took a hit when the beta took 15 points off it, but I’m back working at just above my old number just 4 weeks later.
I really like the predicted AIFTP because it gives me an incentive to do workouts instead of skipping them when I wasn’t feeling it. It might wear off but right now it’s doing a great job of keeping me on the bike.
I now care a lot more about how I rate workouts and I actually get concerned that I’ve rated them too high or too low. I’m still thinking about yesterday workout. I really think this is a major key to getting your workouts right.
I’m definitely happy with it. Dynamic Endurance is still having some weird behavior for me, but other than that, I’ve been enjoying the new system. I didn’t experience a large FTP swing one way or the other with the new AI FTP though, so that potentially colors my experience a bit.
Yeah, I find the predicted FTP to be motivating as well. Wanting that number to hold steady can give me a little “extra” to complete a difficult interval. And if I do get to the end of an intervals workout with a bit left in the tank, I’ll up the difficulty a few percent for the last set to try and push my predicted FTP up a watt or two. It’s just a mental game, but much of indoor training is about finding whatever makes you do the work to get better.
I also noticed in the workout details that in the Workout Levels there was a comment on a recent workout that a couple of pauses had lowered my score. I was helping my wife with a mechanical issue on her trainer, but I timed those quick jumps off the bike to be in the recovery between intervals. Even so, I got dinged a bit for it. It’s nice to have confirmation that things like that do, in fact, affect how your workout is evaluated.
Was initially skeptical but I think that’s just because I enjoyed the product the way it was before, after a month I’m enjoying it quite a bit. All the debates over FTP vs AI FTP are getting old, I’ve historically used FTP to set pacing targets but I can’t recall the last time I did a race where I stuck to that target exactly. I always go harder or easier during the event based on feeling, which I think is how it should be anyway. And during XCO races I’m not really looking at my power during the race very much, not a lot of time to stare at my head unit in that format but I do take a peek at my NP during the race.
The only thing I’ve been manually adjusting has nothing to do with AI but more with the general structure of my plan. I don’t really enjoy 30-minute .70+ IF endurance rides sandwiched between hard interval days, I’d rather do an hour at .55 IF so I’ve just pinned “Altair” on my endurance days. TSS is about the same as the shorter ride, and I just like to go a little easier when I have 2 VO2 and a hard-start threshold workout each week.
I’m in the same boat, initially thought predicted FTP was just a fun little gimmick or “mini game” you could play with your calendar, but I’ve found myself getting a little extra motivation on days where it’s been lacking, and I’m usually glad I made myself workout after the fact.
I’ll be honest, I moved a workout up yesterday because I was off. But then checked to see if 60 minutes was fine vs 90 scheduled for when it was today. When I got the same number I decided to do 60. I think partially it was due to the 2nd workout of the week being fresher. So it bumped up slightly my second hard workout of the week.
I’m loving it, the past few weeks have been the most productive training block I’ve had in a while. I have very little to complain about at this point.
If you read the forum, it shouldn’t be working for me at all.
I’m older, at 60, and I move and/or adjust workouts constantly to accommodate my bizarre work/sleep/no sleep schedule, ranging from 10 hour days with 14 hours of call attached to 24 hour call shifts, to three days off in a row. Six days a week, my workout window happens, when it happens at all, around 3-4 am start time, depending on whether I got any sleep.
This necessitates frequent workout changes and/or adjustments, often the morning of that workout.
As I said above, this just should not work…
…but it’s been stellar. I was in the beta and have had my first AIFTP detection, and it was right in line both with the prediction and my expectation. I’ve been training on TR for just over a year, and when I do the work, I’ve seen a handful of watts most months over that time frame (excepting some time off last Summer). I think that’s a reasonable expectation for an old dude who really stretches to get over 6 hours a week in, and who still likes to actually ride his bike occcasionally for more than training!
Anyway, I’ve seen nothing different here other than an extra watt or two predicted and detected over my previous experiences, and my current prediction is trending in the same manner. I’m getting more consistently harder but certainly achievable workouts that are “hard” and I haven’t had a failure yet under the new system. I tweak my plan constantly trying to respect recovery and endurance and not torpedo my progress by doing a hard workout on an hour of sleep.
I’ve been pretty happy with everything, but just like before the change, I feel like TR tries to push me too hard on my “easy days”, so I’ve lowered that one slider. I kind of like your idea of just pinning one that I know works better for me. I think I’ll give that a shot and see how it goes. I rated an Endurance ride as Moderate today and it dropped my predicted FTP. If I’m honest, I don’t really care. I’d rather have good workouts and maintain my consistency than start to feel overtrained just because I don’t want my AIFTP to drop
I also wish it was better at managing runs, or at least how fatigue detection works for runs.
For me, it’s been spot on. I think for most people it just works and they aren’t on the forum or on social posting about it. Most of the “complaints” I’ve seen are misunderstandings, not spending time to let the system work (1 or 2 workouts that were off and “every workout has been terrible!). I think if most people just trusted the system and used it for a full month without trying to game it, they would end of liking it if not loving it. Yes is it an adjustment. And it may take some time to dial in for you, but the vast majority of people are really like it. You just aren’t hearing from them.
I really think this is a major key to getting your workouts right.
