Does anyone have criteria they use for accepting/rejecting adaptive training suggested changes to workouts? Is it just gut feel?
I’ve just started with AT, just did an FTP test and starting a build block (following SSBase2). First thing the AT did is suggest i take a ride with anaerobic 4.3 and replace with an anaerobic 1.0 ride. I have accepted the change, assuming it is telling me that i haven’t done much anaerobic workouts in the last block (though if thats true, what was the 4.3 doing at the start of the block?).
My plan is to accept all changes for the moment and see what happens, but i’m interested what experiences people have had with that approach?
The 4.3 workout probably comes from the stock plan before adaptations? For example, Gen Build has 5.3 anaerobic in the first week.
The problem I think coming out of SSB is that everyone’s progression level for anaerobic and sprint will probably be 1.0, so it will always adapt down out of the blocks. Once unstructured outside work is taken into account this may improve.
If you think the current 1.0 is underselling where you’re at, I’d feel free to use alternates, maybe meet things halfway, to get your PLs a bit of a bump up. You know more than AT (at this stage) what you’re capable of, I’d say. And based on your performance and survey response from that workout, things should then adapt again.
I’ve done 5 races (4 road races and a crit) in the last 2 months so i’ve done a reasonable amount of anaerobic work in those, but nothing in structured workouts. I’ll perhaps look for an alternative in the 3-4 range?
I just started a plan after doing my own thing for a while, and after the ramp test and increasing my FTP AT put most of my progression levels to near 1, which it then did a lot of adaptations down which I accepted. I then have been picking much harder alternates that I think I can do to get my progression levels back up.
I think if I had just not accepted the first adaptation it would have been better, and I would have had to make more minor adjustments to the workouts.
That’s what I’d probably do and see how things go from there Those races aren’t reflected in your PLs at all. I don’t see it as a huge deal - workout levels give us a lot of power to direct things ourselves, and automatic adaptations are just sugar on top. That part will get better over time once it has a more full view of your training, but for now I wouldn’t be at all afraid to override it.
I really think a bit of transparency about why the adaptions are occurring would enhance the usefulness of AT. Telling you why your workout was classified as a struggle, telling you why an adaption is suggested, because if it doesn’t you don’t really have much choice but to blindly trust the adaptations.
Having said that, now that I’ve been on AT and following a plan for a while, I’m getting fewer adaptions that I question. But I’m in-season (CX) where my FTP is unlikely to change, so I haven’t experienced the PL drop following an FTP bump…
I think there are a few dimensions here if you include things like adapting due to time off annotations, or adapting things down after an A/B event, etc, but leaving things like that aside, I think the primary reason for any adaptation is fairly simply:
Your plan prescribes a productive/stretch/watever workout of type X and subtype Y for this day. Based on your progression levels, the best matching workout is Z
What this relies on is your progression levels being accurate. The main reason this falls down currently is not accounting for outdoor unstructured our outdoor structured (Wahoo) workouts.
Thanks guys, the logic seems fairly understandable. I hadn’t done a single ‘anaerobic’ indoor workout in my last block, though the races had given me plenty of time in that zone.
I ended up choosing an alternative to the ‘alternative’ that i’d selected. Interestingly, when i went to do the 1.0, then pick an ‘alternate workout’ from the list, it didn’t offer me any in the mid two bands (something and ‘stretch’), only options in the ‘breakthrough’ band. I chose the easiest ‘breakthrough’ workout, an anaerobic 3.9. I completed it (it was a serious stretch, but i made it). Straight after it has adjusted my anaerobic straight to 3.9. That in itself worries me, 3.9 had me seriously hurting. My post ride review i set as a 4, should i have set it a 5 perhaps? As a result the next anaerobic workout its adapted for me is another 3.9 (the same workout) then 4.1.
I’m going to try to trust the process, i hope i haven’t given it incorrect inputs that lead to me over doing it. Any thoughts?
Just choose a slightly easier achievable workout next time if you are worried to build confidence. No harm will be done at all.
I’d much rather go easier than I thought on a regular basis than struggle every workout. I’ve done that and it just leads to burn out. None of these things are super precise.
I’m swapping things more and more and also hardly get any suggested adaptations lately. The last one kept trying to get me to drop an anaerobic workout for some reason, but I was confident the one scheduled was good - it was a slight bump up compared to a recommended bump down (I think for a taper plan builder had me going into). All was fine. The system is self correcting. Little risk with adjusting it yourself.
Those races aren’t reflected in your PLs at all. I don’t see it as a huge deal - workout levels give us a lot of power to direct things ourselves, and automatic adaptations are just sugar on top. That part will get better over time once it has a more full view of your training, but for now I wouldn’t be at all afraid to override it.