I’ll look for it, I must’ve missed it
The minimally documented info from TR is within the PB, Experience page itself:
And there is a tiny hint in the official support doc.
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I had TR staff walk me through this process and this was never mentioned.
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It’s surely not super deeply explained, but the basic choice & related outcome is listed right in the process itself. Could be good if they offered a help tip or link to a deeper discussion though.
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Agreed. Honestly I didn’t understand the question to begin with. What’s your experience with intervals? I mean, slam it in erg mode and bloody pedal. How hard can it get? 
As per our discussion, I think this is just a case of your outside rides not being workouts so your PL has dropped. Hopefully once WLV2 arrives you’ll get the VO2 credit for those efforts on your outside rides and won’t have a PL drop.
That’s why your VO2 workouts are decreasing as far as I can tell.
Well, before AT it wasn’t perfectly obvious either, at least not at first glance.
However there was a helpful graphic for each phase, like this one for Sustained Power Build:
is that still in the desktop app? To my eyes it clearly shows that Sustained Build includes some vo2 work, but that is secondary to working on threshold and sustained power.
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This is super helpful. I confess I’ve not realized that was the case, and it explains a ton! I’ll absolutely take it into consideration next time.
As AussieRider said, I always find that question really confusing. “What is your experience with intervals?” I have no idea what “a lot” means and always just use the default TR recommends.
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That goes into the list of 5 min tips I should really start on YT 
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I know I’d subscribe!
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Update:
After working with Sarah from TR (She’s amazing) I now have a better understanding of the method to the madness.
I had a ramp test scheduled for last Monday but for various reasons had to delay it so I needed to replace it with a Vo2 workout. I went to the next Vo2 workout scheduled in my calendar and pulled it into the ramp day slot (My usual Vo2 day). However, it turns out that specific Vo2 workout was from the next block and hadn’t been “adapted” (to my current progression levels) yet and therefore was too easy (and it was).
AT then figured that “I hadn’t matched the intensity of my last Vo2 workout” and made the proceeding vo2 workouts easier.
My takeaway is to always pay attention to the difficulty scale (ie x.x number associated with a workout) and to make sure it falls in line with my progression.
FYI. I didn’t do the Ramp test because it was two days after a big race, and a day after a travel day and I was still cooked.
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Hmm, along with paying attention to workout levels, perhaps another lesson is use TrainNow instead of pulling from future workouts? I imagine TR could also build warnings into calendar changes, to ask if you really want to downgrade workout level ‘too far’ below current PL.
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Sarah rules, totally nailed it.
Love the updated thread title.
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Thanks for sharing both what you learned from TR and also about your own behaviors. I’d also ask myself if doing a VO2 workout on a day I considered myself to be “cooked” was the best choice.
This would have been my first instinct but (and I’m sure I’m wrong) when I first joined TR I asked if using TrainNow would factor in where I was in my plan and I was told no. Looking at it now it seems like the workout levels are in line where I would be. Which suggests I misinterpreted.
By “cooked” I meant I wasn’t in peak shape for a ramp test. The ramp test factored in that I had a rest week the week before but IMO did not factor in an all out 4 hour 70 mile road race 48 hours before. The reason I went through with the Vo2 workout was they had been historically easy up until that point, and that one was no different.
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- That is still essentially true. TN won’t be looking towards the future in a sense, and not aimed at “progression” in the same way as a trainer plan does.
BUT… as long as you select your desired difficulty for the day (ex: Achievable, Productive, Stretch, etc.) you will be getting good advice. That’s because those difficulties are based upon your actual Progression Levels at that very moment.
You got into trouble by pulling forward workout that was “out of phase” and had not been adapted. It’s possible that TR needs to leverage this use case and consider programming changes. TR only applies PL based changes via AT to plans for the active training phase, so this issue is predictable problem, even it it’s not really a proper use case.
All that said, if you are just modding a plan for a quick addition of a workout, TN is a solid choice, but some practical review is still worthwhile here like any other time.
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As you are learning more of the system you’ll pick up more of the do’s and don’ts.
If you had used AI-FTPD on that day, it would have swapped out the Ramp Test for a PL appropriate workout in line with the plan.
I’m hoping I can get my power meter issues sorted once and for all and then I can let everything run it’s course.
I’m glad I went into the weeds though. Now that I know TR a little better next time around I’ll do a bunch of things differently. For now I’m committed to the schedule till end of season.
I couldn’t. And that’s a whole other can of worms. But in short. My pedals and kickr are reading 12% different power. I wanted to do another ramp test using pedals so they are one and the same (but I was tired, hence the skip).
On a prior occasion, in order to factor in the 12% delta I posthumously adjusted my FTP on an outdoor ride (to reflect true intensity). This adjustment, to a specific ride, even though my TR FTP remained and remains the same voids FTPD for fourteen days. I don’t think it should work that way but it does, lesson learned. 