boy oh boy I hope @IvyAudrain is passing this along to the UI devs … clearly there is a lot of confusion and uncertainty. Not to mention the uncertainty around “Only say easy/moderate if you want positive adaptations”
She has been very involved with this, as is evident in the related thread I linked.
Again, survey discussion needs to be moved to the other thread. I may actually push the comments about it from here to that thread if the system allows me to do so. That thread is a wealth of discussion and official info from Ivy.
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Just a quick reply to “bookend” the section of posts that I merged here, from the AT thread.
Depends on the level comparison in my experience. If I mark a productive as hard then it almost always makes the next sessions easier.
My experience on marking a workout hard:
Yesterday I marked a Stretch workout as “hard” (I used workout alternates to exchange a planned workout for a stretch one) and it increased my levels as well as swapping out the next sweet spot workout for a MUCH harder one.
So clearly adaptations can be triggered off of “hard” ratings
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I think this is likely true. The software has expectations on the survey response based on the WL and your own PL. Stretch and Breakthrough workouts rated hard or easier would go as a pass and result in a PL progression. Achievable and productive workouts rated hard or higher will trigger the “struggle” survey and may result in no increase or a decrease depending on how you fill that out.
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You’re correct on that, I think we should clarify here what a true recovery ride means in that context, which is: ‘glass cranks’, soooooo few watts, the lowest and slowest of short spins imaginable (not even registered as a TR workout lol). 
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Right, the relative Workout Level compared to your current Progression Level absolutely matters. Those specific “Difficulty” categories are based upon that comparison. So, a “4 - Very Hard” response for an “Achievable” workout vs “Breakthrough” workout should lead to different results from AT.
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hence the confusion… Dans is ‘the easiest’ in the TR active recovery library:
and my coach has me doing true 30 minute recovery rides at 6 TSS / 0.33 IF. Its like doing the limbo “how low can you go!”
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If you know, you know. How slow can I ride to the coffee shop?
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Just about need rules to qualify as “Recovery” rides:
- No chamois allowed.
- Comfort bikes only.
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A TrainerRoad approved true recovery ride. Score 11/10. 
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Wrong thread! How did you get 7mph out of 34W 
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Slowly!!!
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FWIW, as the OP, I think I can say that not only has my original question been answered (Thanks, Ivy!), but a remarkable number of variations on the same question have been asked and a remarkable variation of the same answers have been given.
From now on, I’ll banish the thought of expected difficulty from my mind when I ask the question and will focus that mental energy on recovery and planning for my next workout/ride/race.
Thanks all!
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What does “positive adaptations” even mean… they adapt to get harder? There’s a progression built in anyway, they get harder as it is. Surely all adaptations are positive if they make your plan achievable and make you faster.
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Scenario 1: You choose “Moderate” and your level goes up, and there’s a possibility that future workouts get swapped out for higher levels
Scenario 2: You choose “Hard” and your level stays the same or goes down, and future workouts either stay the same or possibly get easier
I think all other things being equal (given that it’s a subjective response) most people would be biased to responding more in line with scenario 1 vs scenario 2
That does make sense - “3 - Hard” is basically the intended result for a lot of the key workouts (training is meant to be hard!). So it makes sense that if you’re ranking a Stretch workout hard (rather than very hard or all out) it probably means your PL is too low, since Stretch workouts should be… a stretch…
I think the assumption here is that we may only be “progressing” if we are getting increases in our Progression Levels at the completion of each workout. Just guessing, but that seems to be a theme (spoken or unspoken) where people expect and increase and are concerned if there is no change.
To be honest, I don’t know what TR actually expects because I am not sure we have seen enough unadulterated AT use to establish trends or knowledge base. Hopefully Ivy or others can shed light here.
This goes a bit to some of the concerns voiced about the PL’s, where we may see people aiming to increase them for the sake of increase, more than just following the TR plan and progression that they have wired into the system. Not saying that is happening widely, but there have been some concerns about “gaming” things to get higher PL’s for the sake of higher values, vs the real aim or progressing actual fitness and related ability.
There are so many unknowns here, that it’s easy to get confused or make assumptions about what we think should happen and raise questions when that isn’t the case. I expect that the basic approach is to get some Progression Level increase from week to week, but not necessarily with every “work” workout (excluding the specific ones set as Achievable like most short Endurance ones).
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