Hey folks
Been part of the AT group for a few weeks now and have a question regarding training levels I.e achievable level. I am on a recovery week SS 1. The endurance rides this week are below my current training levels and are thus shown as Achievable.
Still trying to fully understand the training levels but does this mean that this workout is now too easy for me and that I should be trying to find another one that is in the “Favourable” category?
Thanks for your help
Kevin
It is an interesting question. I tend to overdo things and when it is a recovery week it seems counterintuitive to be pushing PLs. I cant help you but would like the answer.
This a feature of the training plan - not every workout should be at your current training level, particularly during a recovery week.
If AT wanted you to do more stressful workouts during a recovery week, wouldn’t it adjust your plan and put those in or recommend that change?
I wouldn’t up the intensity of a recovery week. Maybe add more time to the workouts if you’re feeling really good.
Agreed. And for what it’s worth, I have had that happen for the Sat endurance ride in a recovery week - AT bumped up the level to a Stretch workout. Queried it with support and they said it was intended for there to still be the potential for progressions in a recovery week. Quote: “The workouts are supposed to still be “challenging” for an endurance workout, but not with too much TSS.”
So to the OP, I’d say stick with the plan during the recovery week and you may find it adapts later in the week anyway. (And if not, just soak in the recovery!)
In my experience so far the recovery week workouts (in Build) haven’t been adjusted upwards by AT, at least not in the I think 2 recovery weeks I have had on my plan since being on AT - and nor should you do it manually really: if you think about it, why would you want to be doing e.g., Stretch workouts when you’re supposed to be recovering? As noted above some of the plans seem to have slightly different goals though, I see my next recovery week (in Specialty) has some harder looking workouts in it. So I would follow AT for now.
Only caveat is a lot of people seem to have better Endurance than their PL suggests simply because they’re doing most of their endurance work outside of TR (longer unstructured outdoor rides etc), which isn’t accounted for currently by AT. But even still, recovery workouts are supposed to be easy!
No - in general, just because a workout is rated Achievable it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it, it just means it should be achievable for you. My plan still has a number of Achievable workouts in it alongside the Productive/Stretch ones - you probably don’t want or need to be doing Productive or Stretch workouts every day! I also often pick Achievable ones if I am adding in extra workouts, on the basis that I want to make sure I can hit the scheduled harder workouts properly.
This is your first clue.
Achievable means you’ve done this workout level before, so if you’ve done say Endurance 4.0, anything 4.0 or less will show as achievable.
Why would you want to push yourself further during a recovery week? Not every ride has to be harder (productive) than the last one to make progress
Kinda seems pointless to have a plan, and ignore the plan.