How do you react to a yellow light day?

Training
1

Maybe 80% of my yellow light days are right before or right on my day off. When I see yellow on the calendar it makes me think training is going exactly the way I want it to.

I don’t try to avoid yellow days and I almost never change my training when I see them. On the other hand, if I get to the end of a training week and DO NOT see a yellow day…it makes me contemplate increasing training load a bit.

Just out of curiousity, what is the variety of opinion regarding yellow light days? Are we mostly training through them? Do we shut it down a little after a yellow day? What’s your approach?

2

It depends. I normally weigh it against how I’m feeling, where I am in a training block, what workout it’s adapting, etc. If it’s downgrading one of my hard workouts down to a recovery ride and I feel like I can handle the harder ride, I might ignore the yellow light, but if I’m near the beginning of a training block, I’m more likely to accept the yellow light so as not to dig myself into a hole in the later weeks. If I’m near the end of the block, I’m more likely to try to push through knowing I have a recovery week coming up. If it’s downgrading an endurance ride to an easier endurance ride, I might be inclined to just do the easier ride; I figure there’s marginal gains in doing the harder endurance ride in that case vs. getting the additional recovery.

I always accept red lights, but yellow lights I take as informational, just one more signal to consider among many others.

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3

My observation is not directly related to the Question - but I’ve noticed that much of my time is spent in “Fresh” or the Grey Zone since I’ve started using TrainerRoad even though my Plan is set to Demanding.

Previously I spent much more time in “Optimal” or even High Risk.

Is this normal with TR?

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4

I get a fair amount of yellow days. I have 3 yellow days this week (which is not common for me). My yellow days have nearly always coincided with an off day, easier Z2 day, or maybe an upper body lifting day.

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5

Where do those categories appear please? (“Fresh” … “Grey Zone” … “Optimal” … “High Risk”). Thanks.

6

These are specifically from intervals.icu but many apps have a similar banding.

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7

I tend to ignore yellow days…. doesn’t always end well for me though :joy:

I’ve never had a red day that I didn’t totally agree with however - I’ve never wanted to ride on a red day.

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8

I’ve not used intervals for a long time but recently I’m been “productive, maintaining and peeking” on Garmin connect at the expected times.

Is your FTP consistent in intervals and TR?

9

That is an interesting question.

I have set my FTP in line with TrainerRoad BUT my eFTP is about 30W higher in intervals as it takes it from my much higher power peaks outside.

I think intervals uses my FTP not my eFTP to calculate training load.

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10

Being on a LV Masters plan most of my Yellow days fall when I have an endurance day or rest day in the plan anyway. The odd exception to that is when I’ve had a particularly hard Saturday group ride. I don’t really change though as I have an easier group ride on the Sunday anyway. The other rarer event is when I’ve had a bank holiday group ride on the Monday (usually a rest day) which will trigger a yellow day for Tuesday (a training day). The odd time that has happened I’ve accepted AT’s recommendation of an Endurance ride.

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11

It’s a pattern for me to have a yellow day on Monday (my weekly rest day), after the usual Sunday long ride. Having the same thoughts of “yeah, maxed it out”.
intervals.icu also shows me grey/blue form and around 80 fitness since indoor season began. From spring on with much more long outdoor rides it’s rather green/red form.

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