I need your much appreciated help.
Probably I am too stupid, too lazy, blind or all together …
After about 6 months of question marks and busy trials, I thought some experts might help.
I am following TR Olympic Distance plans.
Approx. one third of my chosen bike sessions materialise outdoors (using RPE recommendations as I haven’t an outside power meter yet).
These sessions consist of
a. proposed TR sessions
and
b. self constructed sessions.
How
(where is the “button” for a.
and the “field” to complete for b.)
do I inform the TR platform about these outdoor sessions?
Objective: In order to have a green tick in my calender for a.
and to teach the AI/Adaptive Training modul about my session for a. and b.?
I guess and hope that at least a. should be a TR functionality. Where is it hidden?
May be even b. is possible.
You may need to explain more about your “self constructed sessions”. Are you just making these up on the fly outside, following a workout file on a head unit or something like that?
So if I’ve understood your question correctly, you are currently having your outdoor rides show up in TR as expected but you would like to match those outdoor workouts to either your plan’s workout (option a) or to your custom workout (option b).
If that is the case then you should go to your calendar and click on your outdoor ride and you will get a window like this:
On the left side you should see your completed outdoor workout and then the scheduled workout below that. For mine I didn’t end up doing this workout so it isn’t associated. But you will then click on the “Match” button and see a drop down like this:
where you will see your scheduled workout name. You the click it and it will pair your outdoor ride to the correct TR ride. That should then let the TR system know that you have completed the workout and thus adjust your AT levels to match.
I don’t know how well the system is at the moment at recognizing outdoor workouts that differ than the ideal indoor one though. So if you did extra Endurance or skipped an interval or failed or whatever then this method might not be smart enough to take that into account.
Is it possible for me (now or in the future) to confirm
somewhere, i.e. comfortably ticking a box -
that I have done the session outdoor WITHOUT uploading any files?
That would really be a big advantage as I am riding a lot outdoors without Strava, Garmin, etc. and want to let my TR software know in order to take those sessions into account for my TR Adaptive Training.
Thx a lot!
You can also manually upload rides from the Past Rides section on your Career page, but you’d still have to record it on something. However, no outdoor rides except Outdoor Workouts synced from TR will be of use to Adaptive Training at the moment (sadly…).
“However, no outdoor rides except Outdoor Workouts synced from TR will be of use to Adaptive Training at the moment (sadly…).”
Conclusion:
2 out of 3 weekly rides in my TR plan,
both outside and not computer documented and therefore not uploaded and synced with TR Adaptive training, don’t count for the algorithm.
On the contrary, these sessions (66 %) are - kind of - registered as failures . As a consequence adaptive training will change future recommendations in the wrong direction. The software will assume that i.e. I am ill, the sessions are too hard, I am lazy. Resumee: Adaptive Training is not really beneficial for such rider types and could even be “harmful”.
In an ideal solution, the software engineers add just one more box which I can tick after an outside session (without any computer and upload and sync with TR) according to the proposed protocol.
With this tick I could easily confirm that I have followed the protocol and know that the variables (IF, TSS, etc.) are more or less fulfilled.
Although not perfect and 100 % “clean”,
the algorithm can still learn, propose clever future sessions and helps the customer to reach his targets.
Yes, the lack of accounting for outdoor/unstructured rides is a major issue with Adaptive training at the moment. Is there a reason why you aren’t recording so many of your rides? The data geek in me cringes at the thought.
“the lack of accounting for outdoor/unstructured rides is a major issue with Adaptive training at the moment.”
Hopefully the great TR crew reads, understands and solve this topic.
Can I post this desire somewhere more prominently?
As 66 % of my rides (let alone my swims, runs) don’t account yet, I wonder if Adaptive training recommendations do more harm than good.
Hence, I am seriously considering to reverse my agreement to take part.
I briefly tried and failed to upload outdoor workouts. I like the calendar and wanted to fill in all the boxes. No joy and I am not going to use additional web services from other companies just to “sync” to TR. Using third parties to pass through data is not a proper solution.
At a minima, perhaps add a radio button to TR Workouts giving riders the options to mark the ride completed as planned and then request a difficulty level survey?
Users can already mark “Other Activities” completed via radio button, so add that function to the scheduled TR workouts.
For AT purposes, the algorithm would have to assume the workout was done perfectly as prescribed. But seems better than nothing while the larger outdoor problem is worked on.
Seems like you’re over thinking trying not to over think things IMO, but to each their own. Having the ability to check a box and fill in the details like the swim/run/other workouts seems like a good idea though. I think you could email TR directly (support@trainerroad.com) to get more eye balls on it. Just don’t expect it to happen very quickly, if at all…
“Guidance” might be the better title.
Additional question: Any improvements reg. that issue in the R&D pipeline for Adaptive Training 1.1?
Thx.
You all are great and I love TR.
