title says it all. thoughts appreciated. i dont at all follow the tr progress bars… but i was curious anyway. sessions were completed cleanly and without major struggle (ranked “hard”).
What were the workouts? Specifically, you need to see the Workout Level for each. If the 2nd one you did was equal or lower Workout Level to the first, your Progression level would not increase. They are separate and not additive.
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grassy ridge and katahdin -3. the latter was done first. both 62 tss… latter v02max 3.4 (whatever that means… added 1.2 to my v02max bar), and grassy was 3.1 vo2 max and added nothing to my bar.
i figure it must be a hole in the tr system as i presume a longer workout would have given more of a v02 bonus. i just did one after the other as i felt good.
i figure grassy should have given me +1.0 or something.
just to follow up, why would progression not go up if the second were the same or lower?
Your first workout was 3.4. Your second was 3.1. It takes the highest “PL” rating of the two workouts.
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As I understand it, the PL system does not know or care that the two workouts were completed in the same session. PLs are set for each workout. It hasn’t been designed to consider the effects of fatigue from one workout on another.
Are you on a training plan? If not, you could give Grassy Ridge +6 a crack next week because it has about the same amount of time in zone, similar format. If you’re on a plan, just rank the two workouts’ difficulty as they were & let AT give you something harder next week.
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i am finding tr very rigid. it wants me to do very low volume and one ride a day, which is mot how i operate as i use long commutes as part of my training.
It looks like we’ve got the right idea here. 
Your Progression Levels are only increased when you pass a workout with a higher Workout Level than your current Progression Level. That second, lower-level workout won’t add to your overall PL. Instead, we’re going to continue to assume that the first workout was a better judge of your capabilities in that zone since you passed that workout and it was a higher-rated workout than the second one.
Does this make sense?
It doesn’t look like you’ve had and red days in a few weeks, so I’d say that it looks like your plan is going well and Red Light Green Light is adapting to your typical workload.
Let me know if you have other questions about this or if you feel like you’re being limited in some other way…
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The progression levels only show the highest level of workout you finished successfully. E.g. if you do the same vo2max workout multiple times over several weeks your actual vo2max will (probably) increase continuously, but the vo2max progression level in TrainerRoad will only increase once after you finished the vo2max workout for the first time (given it has a higher difficulty level than your progression level before you do it the first time).
i get it now. the scores/bars show my best performance, and the score is not additive. it is not an indication of work done, just represents the hardest set of intervals i have completed. thus if i want to ramp it up, i choose one scored harder. makes sense.
to date i have ignored most adaptations suggested. they try to make my plan easier, i think because it takes my trainer a few seconds to ramp up in short intervals, so tr gives me a lower than target average interval power… thus thinking i am not completing them… when in fact i am overpowering going into a rest period as the power also takes a few seconds to bleed off. it probably all evens out. i am not suffering typical overtraining fatigue (ok a bit this week but i was building into my rest week so there was intention).
next time i might increase difficulty mid intervals and i will watch those scores now for the intervals to ensure i am slowly ramping up what ones i chose.
It sounds like there might be some signal interference issues that are causing the lag between your trainer and the TR software. I’ve seen this before numerous times. What does your training setup look like? What device are you running TR on, and how many different sensors are you using (trainer, HR monitor, power meter, smart watch, GPS head unit, Bluetooth speakers/headphones, etc.)?
Ultimately that’s not going to cause us to think you’re struggling with the workout though, so I wouldn’t worry about that. If we’re suggesting that you adapt some of your upcoming workouts to “easier” ones, there is another reason for that.
With an event on the horizon this weekend, I’d highly recommend following the plan this week and accepting any adaptations that pop up. You don’t want to build a ton of fatigue the week before a race, and it looks like you did more work than I’d recommend yesterday…
Some of those adaptations we recommend around events are with the intention of building out the proper taper in preparation for the upcoming race. It’s not that you’re necessarily doing anything wrong, but sometimes the plan isn’t 100% decided until you’re close to the target event.
Take this as you will, but I recommend always accepting the adaptations. If at any point you feel like you’re ready for a slightly harder workout, you can use Workout Alternates the day of to find something more to your liking, but again, the adaptations we suggest aren’t always just due to your abilities. Sometimes they are more based on your calendar than anything. 
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if you can see my schedule, i do mostly 30-lmin to 1 hour commutes on my weekdays. i will build in intervals into those rides on my own for hard days, maybe i need to swap in the interval session to “outside” but i typically like to do my own intervals outside as traffic, stops, etc all play a part. so the tr intervals i am given i often dont do, i just use them as inspiration for my commute intervals.
i guess because i dont understand tr, and i want to do more volume then the plans allow me (without going full custom), i dont fit into the box. so i am unsure how/if i should be following the plan, because i am unsure if the plan is analyzing all that i do.
winter will make it easier to follow i guess.
my current plan was to schedule in all commutes ahead of time (cause tr wont count them otherwise if i understand), and do a low volume plan just to get the intervals on top. my other issue is life and weather so i am not a “1 hour on the trainer 5 days a week kind of guy.”
maybe i am overtraining. but i am feeling good, completing my intervals (the ones i do outside are harder than indoors) and… plateauing. lol.
i have done a loose self directed polarized plan for some time, got busy in the summer, and am back to structure. but i struggle staying in structure as i do so much riding outdoors. i literally only do indoors when i cant do outdoors.
i run a tacx neo 2 on bluetooth onto my phone. my son has a kicker beside me but it is plugged in, not running as i ride (recently).
Sounds like your life schedule makes following a plan difficult. I have been there as I think most professionals probably have. You may want to consider doing your own plan or using train now. This way you could do your commute and intervals during the week (i.e. intervals Tue/Thur & Endurance Mon/Wed/Fri. Then on the weekends maybe use train now or ride outside.
For what it is worth I am with you. Sometimes I have to fit in training when life allows. For some that’s early mornings before the kids wake up, for others its while commuting to work. In the end training is training.
Best of luck to you!
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@Jolyzara took the words right out of my mouth! 
TrainNow is a great option for athletes who aren’t able to consistently follow a plan, although I understand your desire to have a plan in place to reference which is actually a pretty good idea.
Don’t worry about not completing the scheduled workouts if you’re getting the work in via commutes and outside intervals.
I’ve advised athletes in the past in similar situations to put a TR plan in place that covers all of the riding they plan on doing in a week. Figure out how many days a week you’re planning on riding and then adjust the intensity as needed with masters plans, plan types, etc. Then simply use that schedule as a reference for the type of riding you’re doing throughout the week. If today was supposed to be an easy day and you felt good and went a bit harder, that’s not necessarily a problem – just flip-flop a hard workout and an easy workout in place for today’s ride. That way in a couple of days you’ll see that you have an easy day on tap in place of a harder workout.
It’s mostly a matter of balancing your efforts and not taking on more work than what’s sustainable for you. Having that plan to reference so that you’re only doing three hard days and two easy days a week (for example) and following a recovery week every fourth week is going to be much more beneficial than ditching the plan altogether.
I’d prioritize your training with sustainability first, then enjoyment, then consistency. Following a plan is a great way to build fitness and break through a plateau, but if you’re time-crunched and life isn’t allowing you to, just get in what you can and enjoy the process! 
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yeah this is 100% what i am doing. rain later this week… get my hours in now. wife gives me a honey do… squeeze in a ride when i can or make it a involuntary rest day. son wants to ride for his training (we race together)… that is a recovery ride for me. dark… ride with a light. plus with cross i need skills development also, probably more beneficial right now than a few more watts.
this would be far easier if i did 2 hours every am (i did on the winter).
I totally get it. Just make sure to keep tabs on what you’ve got going on each week to ensure that you’re not overdoing it. It’s okay to simply rest sometimes!
Don’t forget that all of your accumulated stress, physical and mental, compound and affect your fatigue levels, so some weeks you might not be able to get as much work in when you’ve got a lot going on and that’s totally okay! It’s better to accept that and prepare for the next week than stay true to the plan at all costs and come into the following week already really fatigued.
Also, make sure you’re getting enough calories in! 
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