Finished "Grassy Ridge" with 148bpm HR avg, too easy?

Training
1

Getting off plan a bit with this one, today’s scheduled workout was supposed to be an endurance workout. But I did two endurance rides this week, one of which was on a rest day this week, after my first planned workout was really too easy. Today I wanted something different and so, using the “train now” feature, I found the attack workout Grassy Ridge. I modified the workout +25% intensity on my cycling computer (was an outside ride), and so my target power was 250-285. The real difficulty for me was staying in this range, and not pushing into the upper 300s to 400s watts.

Back when i started my plan, i took a ramp test and got much lower an FTP than i thought i was at. I got a 194 and last year at a much lower fitness level, i did a 20 minute test and averaged 220 watts for the test So i’ve been adding intensity to most of my workouts.

My heart rate zones at the end of the workout were:

Zone 1: 2.8%
Zone 2: 53.2%
Zone 3: 36.2%
Zone 4: 7.8%
Zone 5: 0%

According to my plan, this workout was productive, with a 0.6% increase in VO2 max (now 1.6). I gave this workout a “moderate” for the survey response.

This is maybe my 6th or 7th trainerroad workout total so far, and I’m wondering if I should have felt more tired after this one. In general, all of my workouts have felt easier than I would normally push if I were just going out for a ride. Am I doing this right?

2

You don’t have to feel wasted after every workout, in fact you shouldn’t.

Grassy Ridge is a pretty easy VO2max workout, it gets a PL of 3.1, plus short efforts like those don’t get your HR up very high and then you get a rest. As an example here’s my effort on Sleeping Beauty which is a similar style of workout - https://www.trainerroad.com/app/career/bobw/rides/128481475-sleeping-beauty look at my notes where I’ve noted the power and HR

HR: Z1 - 43m31s, Z2 - 16m27s, Z3 - 3s

Yep, just three seconds in Z3! This was done indoors.

3

thanks for the feedback bob. What is a PL of 3.1?

4

If you can add 25% intensity to a vo2 max workout and find it that easy then I’d be tempted to think that you have your FTP set far too low.

Was your ramp test done with the same power recording device?

Have you tried TRs new FTP detection yet? :slightly_smiling_face:

Essentially it’s a number “progression level” that describes how hard a workout is 1 to 10.

I think you must have done the -3 version of grassy ridge - that’s a level 1.6

5

This may be hard to get used to, but every workout is not designed to empty the tank, especially if you’re a new athlete in base phase.

There’s also a reason we dont recommend reading into HR alone as a metric of your effort. More info here!

6

PL = Progression Level. If you look at a workout in the workout library all workouts are assigned a PL which is in the range 1 to 10 (there’s a few outliers but ignore those for this discussion) Each energy system has its own PL range which aren’t comparable across systems so don’t assume a VO2max PL of 5.0 is equivalent to a Sweet Spot PL of 5.0. Allied to PLs are Difficulty Levels - these are the Achievable, Productive, Stretch, etc. labels and are different for everyone but are basically Workout PL - Your PL in that zone.

Train Now will usually offer you Achievable or Productive workouts so as not to overtax you.

Have a read through the articles here - https://support.trainerroad.com/hc/en-us/sections/360012393052-Adaptive-Training, there’s a lot of info in there to get you even more confused :rofl:

8

The workouts like Grassy Ridge are introductory workouts to VO2max work, there’d be a massive outcry if you started off on something like Rattlesnake.

11

I think we were writing the same response at the same time!

12

A PL 3.1 turned up 25%.

14

If you are turning up any workout by 25% then you need to do a ramp test and get a more accurate FTP against which to base your workouts.

15

No need to tell me. I was just pointing out something you seemed to have missed when telling OP that PL 3.1 workouts should feel easy.

16

Sorry, thought I was replying to the OP.

17

I would 99% agree with you but with the caveat that some folk have phenomenal short term power and find a power based VO2max work out easy but they would struggle or find their FTP just right on other longer term workouts in other zones.

18

:point_up: Nailed it!
Re-test, or enable AI FTP Detection!

21

Did a ramp test about 2 weeks ago, started at what I guess was default of 185, and made it through 16 steps, stopping at around 275. On that final step, my heart rate was 185.

Would love to do ai FTP detection, but everytime I try it says that I too recently did a ramp test.

22

I did! Happy to help. You asked me if ‘surely you should be at or very near [emptying the tank] for VO2max during a VO2max session?’

If you’re adding that much intensity to a VO2 Max workout, and its not difficult, the benchmark for your efforts per zone (FTP being that benchmark we use) is likey too low.

If you need further help making sure nothing is amiss with either your Ramp Test results or AI FTP Detection, please contact support@trainerroad.com. Other athletes here can help you specultate what may be going on, but ultimately, our support team has the best and most accurate visibility to the full scope of your FTP changes, internal ride logs, the changes within your workouts, etc. They’ll be happy to take a look and provide more insight!

23

Delete the most recent entry in your FTP history on the TR website then you can get past the 2 week rule. Dont tell anyone I told you.

24

There’s currently a 14 day enforced “gap” between AI FTP “tests”, if you want to run aiFTP then delete your most recent FTP test or tests that are within that 14 day period.

26

Okay, got FTP detection to work. New FTP is 203, which still seems really low. Most of my rides, usually an hour long, will average 230-240 watts.

27

Please check in with support@trainerroad.com, the team can make sure all of your rides/workouts are being accounted for and provide a fix if applicable! We for sure want to know when things arent right!