I have some long rides coming up that I’ll be doing indoors. If I stop for a few minutes during a 3hr ride for a bathroom break or to refill bottles, does TR interpret this as the workout being too hard?
Physiologically no, especially for short breaks but I would expect TR to ding you a bit on the workout if you stop, at least from what we have seen with other people on the forum.
It can ding you. But really how much is that ding? What I have found is if it’s a real short get off and back on while doing the workout in Zwift it did not ding me. How long a pause is prob something to test ?
Anyone?
I found if you push pause, it will ding you.
I wouldnt worry about it.
I also would not stop for the toilet, and would bring enough fuel and water to the bike at the beginning. Not stopping has a lot of benefits.
Stopping for a few minutes in a 3hr ride really makes zero difference.
If you’re doing the workout inside and you pause during it, you’ll get a slight “ding” 
on the level you get from passing the workout, but it really doesn’t matter too much, especially with these long steady workouts.
While you may only get, say, 5.2 out of 5.5 endurance levels for the workout, we don’t prescribe workouts based on levels anymore, so it’s really not a big deal.
Just rate the work based on how the effort felt, and carry on. 
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Thanks for the feedback and explanation.
I agree with you that stopping changes the workout, but sometimes you just gotta go! The difference is minimal, so I wouldn’t sweat it OP.
Ride outside then you don’t have to worry about it.
Has this been shown that a short stop on a 3+ hour ride impacts the performance benefit? Would love to see it if so.
From what I’ve been told (by a well respected coach), as long as the stops are less than 7 min they do not have much of an impact.
My experience is that short breaks affect the progression levels. However I find that my 4-5 hour endurance rides, even on the trainer with a trainerroad workout, in general do not impact my FTP as predicted by AIFTP. i.e. i can do a 2h one or a 4h one and sometimes even nothing it makes no difference.
What’s your scenario here - 1x 10s stop in 1 out of 238 consistent indoor workouts in a year? Or something else?
What’s the athlete training for, weekend group rides, 40TTs, crits or IMWC?
I’m sure there hasn’t been a peer reviewed randomized controlled trial that answered this. However I would say the default assumption would be that doing less work/taking more breaks would lead to a lower fitness outcome (as long as people aren’t overtraining).
I wonder if TR has enough data with people pausing long endurance rides vs no pausing to see if there’s any sort of actual difference. I just put in a podcast request to talk about some of these type of things they’ve learned from the model. I bet there’s tons of little nuances that are too small/not enough interest for a trial but are still interesting to consider.
Yes please!!
I think five stops is better than ten, and two is better than four, so zero is probably better than one.
How much better? Probably not a ton. Am I going to stop on three hour rides? Almost certainly.
I’ll find that marginal gain elsewhere!
So when a rider stops at a gas station to refuel on a 5 hour ride, you’re saying they should keep going bc they’re losing fitness. When pro’s stop to drop clothes with the car at a team camp they shouldn’t, just keep riding. I know TR treats a pee break in that regard, but only bc it doesn’t have the programming power or post ride question to determine between a piss and a break bc it’s too hard. Don’t worry about it. Just ride. Enjoy yourself. Get a roller dog.
Nope, I think you’re reading too far into my statement. I think they aren’t gaining as much fitness as if they didn’t stop. Whenever I’ve gone on 5 hr rides I’ve always stopped at least once, it’s a much better/more fun ride when I do, and I still gain a ton of fitness. Do I think I’d gain more fitness if I didn’t stop or had a much shorter stop? Yes.
There is no way. If you are doing a 3-5 hour ride, and you stop for 10 minutes for a bathroom break, fill your bottles, and a gas station snack, yet still complete your full programmed endurance time of 3-5 hours - I refuse to believe that there is any measurable difference in fitness. If anything, much like a rest period in an interval workout, your second half of the ride might be a few watts higher in Z2 providing a greater fitness benefit.