That would not be too surprising - I think most people (myself included) find regaining it a bit quicker than gaining it in the first place. Getting past that point though…
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Thanks for this detailed reply! I appreciate it.
I probably have some benchmark workouts – I’ll look through the past calendar and see what I can come up with.
Have you used workout alternates in the “stretch range”?
I’m so bored without people pretending step count means anything other than “you didn’t sit on the couch all day.”
Ok, that’s a lot of steps. I mean, stairs. 
I recognized very early when AT hit my plan that my “self-awareness” was probably as accurate in the early stages as the AT was. I just used alternatives and PLs to guesstimate what I was capable of for any given workout. Picked a bunch of stretches in a row, or alternating with productives for each workout type. And I seem to be in the right area now.
So we have similar comebacks, although for different reasons, where I felt the same way as you. I had a rapidly declining FTP all last year and was barely riding, then completely stopped Jan 10 and didn’t start any exercise again until end of March.
The first week was laughably easy, so then I went straight to stretch workouts, I even did a few breakthroughs. In 4 weeks I went from SS 1.0 to 9.8 and threshold 1.0 to 6.0. I think during week 5 I did rate some of those as hard.
The funny thing is because I progressed so exceptionally fast, AT thought I was going to do the same during SSB 2, ha! I had to slow down that ramp rate just a tad. So I’m think you may just end up having a slower more gentle build doing it your way, orrrrrr you could go my path and just chose breakthrough workouts until they feel challenging for what they are.
What level did you get to at the end for sweet spot? It seems like threshold was only at 3.4?
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Yes, agreed, # of steps indicates nothing… I simply meant that my legs should have been toast after that workday and then that workout, and instead they were just fine.
As for stretch alternatives, AT is currently indicating that Petit is a stretch (seriously, PETIT), so that’s where we are right now.
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Last threshold was Reinstein at 4.5 and last sweet spot was Tallac -1 at 5.2 (both tagged as stretch, but productive would have been a more accurate).
It’s clear now that I needed to be more proactive in subbing alternatives, adjusting %, etc. – I was so used to (and happy with) pre-AT TR in the sense that I could just hop on my trainer and ride without thinking about it.
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Sorry, I may not have made my emphasis clear. Doing SUCCESSIVE Stretch workouts should result in a sigificant bump in progression levels.
A Stretch workout should be at least 1.5 PL’s above your current level. So doing a Stretch workout (and rating it Easy) should result in a 1.5 bump to your PL’s. Selecting another Stretch threshold workout the following week should result in another 1.5 increase - a total of 3 PL’s. And that should be significantly harder than where you started, and it is probably better to approach your correct level from below, than risk failing a breakthrough workout.
Just looked at my own PL’s - I am in base phase atm with no threshold work, so my threshold PL is 1.0. I’m pretty sure I could eat a 2.5 threshold workout as a tasty snack. Somewhere around 3.5 to 4.0 is probably what I could do - about what I would get after a couple of Stretch workouts.
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Accepting that FTPs can be wrong through all protocols (presumably incl’ AI FTP if there’s a lack of good data), it sounds like quite a lot of folks are gaming the PLs.
My recent experience is of a 5 watt increase through AI FTP and progression levels being nerfed (thanks @asteryx). Seemed a bit drastic for a 5 watt increase so I chose a harder workout alternative for my next workout which was still not especially hard. One factor here is that it was a VO2 workout, which I rarely do, so I guess this particular nerfing could be caused by a lack of good VO2 specific data.
OKAY got together with the team to take a look at the full scope of your career page, progressions, and FTP outcomes.
Looking at what AI FTP Detection suggests for you, your current FTP is low. AI FTP Detection suggests ~6% bump for you, which should change the difficulty perception of your workouts for you.
As others have noted, a key thing to remember is, particularly in the Base Phase, not all of your workouts should feel hard. Right now you are accomplishing the goal of building a foundation of aerobic fitness that will support further gains down the road when workouts get tougher and more discipline specific.
Go ahead try the new FTP that AI FTP Detection is suggesting, and go through a few weeks of training. I’m confident that, along with Adaptive Training will have your training well-calibrated. 
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So far my AI FTP has been low. I am new to TR and have been looking at AI FTP and then doing the Ramp Test and found that I tend to be about 5-7% higher than the AI FTP. Have a test later today and looking forward to seeing if this holds true again. I do find my workouts are a bit easy after increasing my FTP. Well that is is after about the second week. I have been bumping the workouts by 3-10% depending on the type. I think for me I just am not willing to dig that little bit more during the Ramp Test and therefore my FTP is a bit lower than what I can truly do when push comes to shove.
Good luck with your future training.
You’re not alone in this, and its a shortcoming of isolated FTP testing as a whole for cyclists.
Thats why AI FTP Detection is so great! 
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Or, my ego gets in the way and I up the watts the last 90 seconds of a 20 minute protocol, hoping for a vanity number. The ramp does solve that, but if I’ve got the time, I’m going old-school.
I’d love to “log” the AI FTP number for myself, but keep myself blind to it until after I complete a 20 minute, or ramp test. Otherwise its a little hard to trust that estimate, given that I had a similar adjustment period with AT, to the OP after getting some watts back on my FTP setting.
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Totally, gauging effort for where you think you could potentially perform for 20 minutes is so damn tough. Sucks to get near the end of that effort and realize you have more in the tank.
Still, I think you should give AI FTP Detection a try.
gimme that blind option, I’ll definitely try it out. OR, open the curtain and let us have a look-back for what the system “would have estimated” for the last 10 assessments or something. 
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A possible hack that you can do right now, enlist a friend to look at & record the AIFTPD for you. Would just take a few steps to show them how to add the Ramp Test, review the offering and then delete the Ramp Test. Some steps of course, but there’s a way to leverage it if you take a few more steps vs waiting for a feature that may never happen.
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I have more patience for assessments than my friends (children/spouse) have for TR and “bike talk.” If those features never happen and I keep assessing, particularly with the 20 minute test, I’m sure not worried about it.
We also have an internal tool to enter TR athlete info and produce a rough estimate for what AI FTP Detection would produce. (how we got the predicted OP’s 6% increase!).
So… I may regret this but folks can always DM me if they’re curious and I’ll report back with the estimate. 
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Well Ramp Test complete. I am so much stronger in my mind. AI FTP was 263 up from 257. After test I pulled an amazing 3 extra watts. 266 @ 3.63 w/kg. Lesson learned today. I think I am getting closer to my max without the willingness to hurt a lot more.
Only real problem I have with AI FTP is I keep wanting to check it vs waiting till the end of the current training block.
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