To take a piss I mean - wondering if my old mad bladder impacts my FTP computation or does TR AI account for that?
I get up like 5 times in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. Yet, I can’t recall the last time I had to get off the bike for that issue during a trainer ride. Am I just not riding long enough? 4 hour rides outside is one thing, 90 minutes to 2 hours inside never an issue.
It’s like 5 times a week that people post that their scores are lowered because they stopped in the middle of an interval session to pee.
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What I have seen when I have to keep the dog from chasing deer across my yard and the neighbors next door is: if I hit pause I get dinged. If I just hop off and back on in less than a minute then no worries. I try to make it to the next recovery section before hopping off.
But really how much is a 2 minute pause in context of hours of work per month?
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In the warm up for tonight’s ride I realised I’d forgotten my head band. The last time that happened I got a note about being downgraded, so this time I just restarted the workout.
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Nate said on one of the initial post AI TR podcasts that it just recalculates your whole workout w/ the pause in it.
So depending on where you take the break and for how long, it could be a big impact or very little. If you want to minimize, I’d assume the best course of action is to not take it mid-threshold interval, rather during one of your recovery intervals. Maybe TR staff could provide more specifics though.
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Any pause reduces the effectiveness of a workout. It increases recovery time before the rest of the workout making it easier than it would be otherwise. It’s not a matter of how it’s viewed, just the reality of training
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Nuance is ALWAYS necessary.
- 10 seconds to hop off an grab a dropped bottle in the middle of a 5 min recovery is NOT going to hurt the effectiveness of the workout.
- 2 minutes for a potty break in the middle of a 20 min Threshold that is the meat of the workout is something more deserving of a rating adjustment.
Details… they matter.
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If I take a leak, it’s during a rest period yet I’m surprised the AI hasn’t determined my age, the timing etc and accounts for that. It sounds like the AI treats everyone equally and there’s no customization to the individual.
Maybe we need a “give me workouts with a 3 minute pause in the middle to pee” toggle.
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Not really, it all depends.
Training adaptations are a lot more fuzzy than this.
An extra minute of recovery between most intervals won’t materially change the adaptations you are going to get.
Our bodies are far from as precise as most people seem to think.
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Need it to generate workout text on the fly based on the users past experience. “I’ve noticed you have a small bladder, now would be a good time for a sprint in cleats to empty it. Hurry you have 60 seconds before it impacts your score”
Or they could just update the message at the end to say MAY impact your score.
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Along those thoughts: perhaps I need a jug to practice my off bike pissing skills. Unfortunately no down hill to roll down but….
As a result of my coffee consumption before a workout, I often have to take a pee break. I usually do it in the rest period between the warm-up intervals and the first work interval, which doesn’t seem to have any noticeable effect on the resulting workout levels.
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After I shared how hard the session was today, TR said the break affected my ride score. It just confirms for me that the AI is not individualized but more aligning “the average” to all. If AI or machine learning was happening, it would know I always take a piss after 30 mins or so.
Obsessing about how a workout is scored or how a pause is treated is a big misguided IMO. And I’m not saying I’m not guilty at times, but it’s all a bit silly. Forest for the trees.
Sure, pauses or extended rest can technically matter on certain types of intervals if you are splitting hairs. But stopping to pee or grabbing a drink for a couple minutes isn’t going to make or break the quality of adaptations from a workout. If it becomes part of a regular routine, the cumulative effect can become meaningful, but one less spoon full of dirt is not going to make or break the mountain we are building. And in many cases, if an extra minute of rest is required to make or break one last quality interval, that should be seen as smart training rather than as a failure. Don’t just be the dog wanting a reward/confirmation on your “perfect” workout.
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Actually, I was thinking the same thing. TR has gamified this tool so that we are becoming Pavlov’s dog.
My other point is that TR AI doesn’t appear to adapt to everyone individually and that the FTP we see going up or down is just the bell ringing making us beg for more.
Agreed, use it as the tool it is and don’t get hung up on all the game aspects that TR has become.
Might not be drinking enough - as you get dehydrated your body won’t want to be peeing.
I recall some old Ironman pro saying that if you didn’t need to pee in the first three hours you aren’t drinking enough - or something like that.
I’ll drink a lot but still barely feel the urge.
Ah, essential kit when training for Ironman!
You don’t hear many people arguing about the marginal gains of this, these days.
I have no idea if that was their main intention or not.
The AI FTP prediction I thought was there to give you an indication of the effects of moving or changing workouts or different rides could have on your ftp.
Many people gamified workout levels as well.
I think people who want to gamify things will find a way to.
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