I understand that progress levels wither and die over time. Not sure what the correct term for them going down, as opposed to up is (deteriorate? Degrade?) but I think it is happening more rapidly than I would expect and am just curious. For example, several weeks since enabling AT, and now three weeks into half distance LV, I saw an endurance progress from 4.1 → 4.5 on Wed 3rd (West Vidette +1), yet today (Thu 18th) I see an endurance progress from 3.6 → 4.2 (Echo -5). So between Thu 4th and Wed 17th Nov I have lost 0.9 progress for endurance rides. Which is going to mean in a few weeks that’s back to 1.0 as there’s only endurance stuff every four weeks on LV plan.
So I guess my curiosity question is when does the progress level start to age such that it goes down, and how linear is that deterioration? It’s not a problem, I just want to know, as I am basically doing LV + TrainNow as time permits (but trying to get to the gym as it’s “off season” - it’s been off season for 18 months with all this covid-induced eating and drinking - so I’m only really doing 3-4 hours per week until the new year.)
There’s a blog post on detraining here. It should be noted though that the chart referenced there is a general guideline of how long significant declines (ie, detraining ) can take after stopping training completely. That doesn’t mean you wouldn’t lose the equivalent of a few progression level points in the interim.
We encourage athletes who think their levels are changing in unexpected ways to reach out to support@trainerroad.com. Level decay should generally match the principles outlined in that blog post and we definitely want to look closely at any instance where things seem amiss!
Thanks @IvyAudrain. That’s a good article. Not wholly relevant here, as I’ve still been increasing training stress, but a great read (don’t do videos so didn’t watch the tube). I’ll try and keep and eye on things over the next couple of weeks and see what happens. If in doubt I’ll raise a ticket. Thanks.
Short version: nothing happens for 14 days, then something happens. Which means if you do, say, a threshold workout at the end of a week, do recovery/easy the following week, and then start the next phase of your training and again have a threshold workout 14 days after the last one, you’ll see a level drop just as you go and do that last workout. Won’t see it the day before.
- so I’m only really doing 3-4 hours per week until the new year.)