Here’s how AT can identify pauses, etc. if you have pedal to start / pause workout enabled: the fit file encodes the time code for the measurement, and there is a standard time interval between measurements. So if AT sees two sequential measurements where the time difference is greater than the expected value, it knows there was a pause in recording, and it can also figure out the length of the pause.
Nothing magical, just math 
That’s a good point. I am quite certain that the first workout would be the hardest for me as it’d be the most boring. For endurance workouts I’m mostly fighting boredom and perhaps rear end discomfort once I get close to the two-hour mark.
For endurance workouts, it also depends a little on my mood whether e. g. I’d prefer Andrews to Phoenix -3: some days I want to listen to a podcast and prefer to focus on whatever it is I am listening to. On others I want to do some (e. g. cadence) drills, so having frequent changes in effort are easy ways to give some external timer for your drills.
Yep I’d find that 60 minute fixed z2 interval almost impossible I think… I’d find it easier if it just rolled up and down by a couple of watts every ten minutes… I also find the long fixed intervals easier at higher power where you have to put a bit more into it.
I usually sub those type of rides in the plans out for one of the Baxters, Colosseum, Homers Nose etc for this reason.
We’re getting a bit off the topic of workout/ride completion surveys, so please return to that focus per this thread.
Thanks, was doing my head in trying to rate the ride against what I expected… very difficult to be consistent. Rating how it feels using the chart you put together has been much easier.
I would interpret the “1 more set” as one more of the over under sets, as those are the work focus.
This is a set:
AT is asking if you can Do another Set?
Greets!
Great post regarding the responses, super helpful!
Question about the second set of survey questions which appear when you choose "very hard’;
recently i did a SS workout which gave me a bunch of power PR’s. It was very difficult (EDIT; this was Malkhet Hills 9.2, which AT says was achievable since I had done Wright Peak 10.0 four days earlier). This is also the first workout during the 5th week of SSBII (modified with workouts i chose to reflect my high competency for SS work). I gave this a “very hard” because i really wasn’t sure i could have done another interval. In the second survey I chose “intensity” as the reason.
Now this workout shows “too intense” in the summary.
Does this mean AT does not want me to be doing workouts this intense ever? Even during the end of a very hard block? Should i only be trying to do workout which i can list as “hard” in the survey afterwards?
This seems like AT is discouraging me from really pushing myself.
No not at all! It takes that into consideration for any potential adaptations to workouts of the same system that are in the near future (totally depending upon your calendar, what phase you’re in, and the duration between the types of workouts). Just AT keeping tabs on you to either space out those higher difficulty workouts or step off, but the ultimate goal is to keep developing those systems higher and higher.
Got it. Thanks for the reply.
Its confusing then why a workout which was “very hard” due to “intensity” is then automatically labeled as “too intense”.
I was thinking about how I would respond to the post-ride survey today whilst cooling down and thought it would be a really useful addition to be prompted / reminded about the different ratings and their meanings in the final minute or two of a workout.
I’m not sure if this has been covered as it’s a long thread. I just completed Grassy Ridge Vo2 workout, but I did the intervals somewhat progressively harder during each set and above the target power. I marked the workout as ‘hard’, but only because I made it hard. I don’t know what it would have felt like if I followed the workout at the prescribed power, so I was hesitant to mark it as moderate. Also, I assume AT knows I went above the target power, so does it factor in my "hard’ response and the fact that i went above the target power?
At the moment, AT doesn’t take into account “super passing” a workout. So instead of exceeding the workout targets, you are better off selecting a harder alternate workout and completing that.
In this case, AT will see you mark the workout as prescribed as “Hard”. Not that you did a harder workout.
When AT was introduced, Nate mentioned “super passes” where you do what you have done but I believe these haven’t been implemented yet in the sense that AT doesn’t recognise them. I’m not sure if AT recognises the case where you increase the target intensity either.
The survey response is hard to determine. Could you have done another set (at the original intensity) or would you have struggled?
Remember that AT is conservative in pushing you so it may be that you haven’t done enough workouts like Grassy Ridge for it to know your capabilities. TR/AT would rather that you complete an easier workout than fail on a harder one. As @AlphaDogCycling notes, either select a harder workout or do the workout as prescribed and let AT assess it. There’s a bit of to-ing and fro-ing before things settle down when you do this.
I suspect (though TR have never stated it) that AT also looks at how far out from any events you are so if your ‘A’ event is six months away it’s not going to push things this far out. I saw quite a few harder workouts being recommended about a month to six weeks out from my last ‘A’ event for example.
Yeah, I guess that’s the tricky part - I didn’t do the prescribed intensity, so it would be pretty hard to know if I could have done another set. For my next vo2, I’ll simply do as prescribed, and not exceed the targets so I can answer the survey with more confidence.
This being said, I do find this scenario a bit of a gap in the AT execution. The whole “could you do another set” benchmark doesn’t always work - especially when you are doing 2x22 minutes at 98% of FTP SS workouts that I’ve been getting lately or some of the longer and more intense over/under workouts.
You far exceeded the workout, to me that’s a “Moderate” rating which was supposed to “Hard” for you at the original intensity. If you recover from this well then I’d use Alternates and chose a harder workout next time.
The “could you do another set” bit isn’t from TR but comes from people like chad mcneese. TR’s take on it is here - https://support.trainerroad.com/hc/en-us/articles/4404884465563-Post-Workout-Surveys but really so long as you are consistent. i.e. not giving something like Pettit “All Out” then it won’t make too much difference in the long run as AT will see you rating workouts that it thinks are “Very Hard” as “Hard” etc and so adjust accordingly. (I think!)
