hi,
I have been using adaptive training for about two weeks, and I’ve noticed that all the workouts that it proposes me have intervals that are at most 115% FTP for 1 or 2 minutes. Yet when I ride outdoors I frequently encounter 3-5 minute climbs where I average 130% FTP. Is there a reason why trainerroad is not proposing me to train for such higher power efforts?
Because it’s not that smart
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Another way of say that is - because some respond better to higher power than more repeats.
I just don’t see the connection between what you do outside and what TR gives you in a certain plan/progression.
The intensity and duration of the intervals depends on the adaptation goal.
I am wondering if intervals at 115% FTP are what I need or if I should work on intervals at higher power. My PL looks like this.
sure, The thing is that I asked adaptive training to make me a plan, and it seems it defaulted to a sweet stop base, and while there are some workouts like Temple, which I did yesterday, that feel hard enough; the majority that stay below FTP like Truchas feel way to easy.
Only you and your coach will know what you need. Oh, wait, you are the coach!
That’s the way it’s supposed to feel. 90-95% of training should be sub threshold. I’m getting the sense that you are the more is better, harder is better type of rider. Are you expecting TR to thrash you a few times per week?
How solid is the FTP number that you put in the TR system? If it were low, the workouts could be too easy until the system adjusts.
It sounds like whatever you communicated to TR, that it threw you in a base plan. Do you have events and did you put them on the calendar? Or do you just want a couple of workouts per week for general fitness?
The forum doesn’t have enough info to design you a training plan. That is what TR or a coach is for. We don’t know where you are at or what you are trying to achieve. If you live in the northern hemisphere, it’s kind of late to implement an 8 or 12 week plan because summer will be over by then.
A few questions - outside how many repeats and with what interval are you encountering those long climbs? Because if there’s only a few, or they’re 20 minutes apart, or whatever, that says nothing about what you could do as a work out, and it may (from what little I understand) not be enough to push adaptations.
It seems like you’ve been with TR for a while based on your progression levels. Have you done the VO2 workout you’ve described yet, or anything like it? Did you find it easy? If so, then AT should boost you up quickly to a level of workout that will challenge you and push adaptations (if it isn’t doing that, there may be a tech issue and you’d need to contact support). If it’s hard on the other hand, then you should be getting good adaptations already because there’s something there, whether it’s repeatability or total time or whatever that can help you.
The idea is to build your fitness progressively, consistently over time. The progressive overload is anchored around a few factors, most importantly is the feedback you give on workouts and how well you perform those workouts.
The plans have a general trajectory emphasising certain systems/physiology depending on your goal. The specific workouts flex up and down as you progress or struggle.
130% FTP is usually, as you are finding, easier to hold outdoors if the TR system trained you for such higher power efforts you’d likely find it too hard, at best, and at worst it’d break you.
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Hi all,
thanks for your replies.
I did a few more SS workouts this week, and they have felt harder. What changed compared to the one that felt easier was that these new workouts had 1min and 45s of recovery between intervals whereas te one that felt easy had 3min recovery between two intervals. Moreover, I have ridden more outdoors this week so my form is possibly lower.
So in the end it looks like the program is starting to get interesting.
To answer buirechain,
My outdoor rides are like this: Cesson-Sévigné - sample ride | OpenRunner.
So they’re short climbs (3 min max) and they are sometimes 5 minutes, sometimes 20 minutes apart.
Well, I have only been on TR for 2 weeks, but I resumed cycling two months and a half ago after many years of only occasionally commuting by ebike. When I first enrolled however, my plan appeared way too easy. So I asked support and they recommended I match my previous outdoor rides with outdoor or indoor TR workouts, by finding workouts that have similar power profiles, but most importantly similar IF and TSS. I have generally chosen workouts that are somewhat lower than my ride in terms of IF and TSS.
Now, as I said the plan is starting to feel as if it requires some effort.
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