This is a really good question, and part of a more general question that I have been asking myself - What is the intended goal of Adaptive Training progressions? If I had to define it, I would say, āProvide incremental progress as fast as possible, constrained by signs of overtraining/overreaching, and based on the goals of a given training plan.ā
Knowing the intent of what problem AT is trying to solve, makes it easier for me to know how to assess effectiveness, even in beta. As @russell.r.sage states in his post above, I have had plenty of adaptations over the past 2+ months that donāt really make sense on face value. Most of my progress has been from me selecting harder workouts or not accepting adaptations.
Since I am in the beta and I believe in the promise, I am OK with this. I just donāt know how to even give feedback on if the adaptations/progressions are working as intended.
@IvyAudrain use fo the TrainerRoad Approved graphic is helpful in knowing that something a forum user posted about AT is accurate. Hope you can continue the practice.
And as the poster who was approved, I feel really special
A bit hit and miss IME. (Iāve a support ticket open about it)
For me any workout with distinct intervals such as VO2max or threshold workouts do get changes to the relevant progression levels applied. Iām just finishing the Polarised Plans so thereās no adaptations being done but thatās not a problem for me at the moment. For those workouts that are basically one long interval when done outdoors itās very hit and miss, mostly miss TBH. I get the āSuccessā response survey but invariably Iāll see something like āStretch/Breakthrough +/-0ā as annotation. Surely if a workout is Breakthrough then thereāll be changes to PLs. Iāve had one (from memory) failed workout survey - I selected āI didnāt struggleā then filled out the success one.
Hereās my calendar - https://www.trainerroad.com/app/career/bobw/calendar, also all the workouts are public so should be possible to check. As you can see, todayās workout (Beehive) showed no PL changes but last Sundayās workout (Vogelsang) did.
As you can also see, most of the Endurance workouts get the āX +/-0ā attribution which is why Vogelsang gets āNot Recommended +4.7ā
Hereās my career: https://www.trainerroad.com/app/career/bobw. Until Vogelsang my Endurance PL was at 3.0 which is frankly crazy as I can do multiple 10-12hr days back to back - go back to the end of May and youāll see four rides entitled āKing Alfredās Wayā (the last two are on the same day for some reason), that was an afternoon, two full days and a final morning all laden with bikepacking kit. Endurance at 3.0? I think not.
So my view is that suggested adaptations from outdoor workouts are intermittent rather than working or not working.
I have turned AT off. I will give it another go maybe in the winter after a break.
Have been training consistently 13-15hrs per week all year with races now starting in Canada July to Oct. I feel that AT is way too buggy to be messing around with unfairly low progression levels at this point in the season.
I wish I was able to manually alter PLs to take into account my base endurance etc and previous progression levels when FTP moves just slightly upwards (it reset completely after a 5w increase).
Having to figure out ways to give myself harder workouts so that AT can catch-up with my actual ability defeats the point, lol. Iāll try it again when the work arounds are no longer needed
Hi, been a TR user since as early as 2008 yet Iām still on the waiting list for Adaptive Training. It was exciting back in February when it was announced. Now its just frustrating waiting for it. Any update on general release please? Thanks
Happy to speak to timelines. In an effort to expedite the development process of AT, we have added athletes in larger groups based on an evolving set of criteria that help us address specific aspects of the product that we are working on at that moment. That criteria evolves and changes as we continually make progress with Adaptive Training, and it has allowed us to actually accelerate the rate of newly added athletes to the closed beta!
That said, its hard to tell on an individual basis when athletes will be added, and we want to make sure its fairly dialed before releasing to all of our athletes. That timeline unfortunately isnāt clear yet while we continue to identify and isolate the bigger roadblock issues. If you need help updating or changing your current plan to meet your needs, let us know (either here or via PM or via support@trainerroad.com). Weāre happy to lend a hand.
I think this is an interesting mental separation we will have to get used to between what we are capable of and what weāve ādoneā during that training block. I donāt think our progression levels will ever be fully reflective of our capability in all systems at one time because realistically you donāt train them all in every block. My SS PL is a meager 3.1, but I completed Wright Peak SS 8.9 back in Feb at the same FTP and it was easy. However, my levels have degraded because I usually go outside since Spring and Summer rather than doing my SS workouts. Iāve wrestled with just doing one of each type so I can get the bling on my Progression chart, but I donāt think that is really a disciplined way of dealing with this.
Iāve been visiting in laws the past couple of weeks but finished the first half of short power build HV at the local gym on a stages spin bike like I usually do when I visit. This is my current PL status, I did a āstretchā endurance workout Sunday (I quote stretch because my endurance was probably high given the 5hr century I did 3 weeks ago not captured by progression levels). Anyhow, looking pretty balanced and not so endurance/sweet spot heavy
I know this has been asked and answered somewhere in here, did a ramp test, up 20w, progression levels basically reset to 1, tomorrowās workout is not being adapted but the others are, whatās everyone doing? Accepting the adaptation or doing the next workout with the hope that that sets the levels.
Not quite that. I was doing the Polarised Plans but the endurance workouts werenāt being accounted for. So Iād do something like Ptarmigan which was classified as a āBreakthroughā workout being given 5.9 vs my then PL of 3.0 but the PL would remain the same. I was giving them āModerateā in the response survey which might have kept things down but shouldnāt have kept them the same. At the same time Iād do threshold or VO2max workouts and rate them āHardā or āVery Hardā and get PL improvements so the system was working for some PLs but not others.
Also that block of long rides was during the same training block meaning I was doing the relevant training and using it but AT didnāt recognise either (I know itās not currently going to recognise unstructured outdoor rides) which is definitely a bug.
Why are levels dropping so quickly? I did a 6.2 endurance ride on 6/27 and today my endurance score is down to 4.2. I get the ādecayā thing but this seems quite excessive because now the endurance workouts i know I can do are in the Stretch/Breakthrough category which also ruins what TrainNow is going to recommend. Is the decay thing specific to certain zones? One would think that an aerobic base doesnāt go away so quickly
I am currently not in a plan but just doing random workouts to supplement outdoor riding.
Also the post-ride survey responses are not syncing over to the website from the MacOS app until I close out of the app and then re-launch it
Lastly it seems like when adding some workouts to my calendar the progression difficulty thing doesnāt appear. If I look up Nevado or Black Pine in the workout library they show their Vo2 score and level, but when I actually add them to my calendar the ratings seem to disappear
Separate question: in its final iteration how is AT going to work for me, someone who follows a plan (not through plan builder because I donāt race or do specialty) for a few months in winter and then supplements with random workouts during the summer? As it is now it seems all my progression levels will erroneously reset to 1.0 or so and then I wonāt be able to get proper workout recommendations, and AT seemingly doesnāt even work outside of plan builder for now.
Is AT going to work with regular plans down the road, and is it going to factor in unstructured outdoor rides too, at some point?
