Here’s hoping that trainerroad starts off with users across the spectrum of age, sex, fitness etc. I know many in my age group have struggled greatly with burnout on the previous programs.
My thinking is that if you took a course and a time/avg speed you could essentially covert the elevation changes into a series of intervals with power targets.
Really simplistically, my 3 hours Sunday bunch ride is a lot of sweetspot, with two long sustained threshold intervals, 2 VO2 max intervals (3-4 min), and ~6 short VO2 max intervals. There are recoveries between the climbs.
If you make the ride 3:30 it becomes a lot of endurance with a few tempo intervals.
I’mm sure this is more complex than it is to write about, but quite easy to imagine taking a FIT file and breaking the ride down to intervals with power targets. You could then compare your performance against prior rides… If your activity includes 4 x 4min at VO2Max then AT could give you credit for that progression level…
Obviously thinking on the fly 
apologies for the confusion- and yes being funny about three quarters of a percent difference between two power meters would be pretty anal 
@JesseFortson / @SeanHurley : Will the workout categories “Productive”, “Breakthrough” etc. lock and reflect you FTP and fitness at that specific time (when you look back in your plan), on will they always reflect your current fitness?
I’m kind of laughing at reading about FTP again, as personally I’m now so much more interested to see my fine-grained relative fitness, to see the small steps in each category. FTP just became a whole lot less interesting to me, and that feel like a very good thing.
I do understand FTP is still a global gauge, and therefore very very telling. And that a FTP increase/decrease immediately corresponds with a total rescaling of all little bars. But the fine-grained energy system progression will be so much fun/motivating that FTP as a single number becomes less relevant, and I think that will be very good. You could even stabilize your FTP (which tends to happen at some point) and keep playing with the energy systems. The new approach has so much potential for fun and inspiration.
The cynic in me thinks this was a bit of a stunt to hush the Dylan Thomas video
That would be amazing. A multi-year effort, including marketing campaign, getting the AT 1 min video with actors done, get the website set up, all timed precisely because one YT video comes out. Now that’s planning 
Actually, the scale of machine learning and adaptive training is so much beyond the small SS vs Pol discussion I am wiling to bet the opposite. Dylan’s video came out, and the TR team was just laughing. “You’re wondering about this kind of stuff? Wait till you see what we come out with!” The scale is supernova up close vs a sunny day.
Of course SS vs Pol is relevant, and with the excellent team, huge dataset and the machine learning I’m confident that TR will crush it on a level beyond the small population studies we have now. Good times, amazing times are coming 
I’m very curious about detecting / preventing too much fatigue, I suspect that a lot can be gained there. To recognize if someone should train hard 2 weeks, take 1 week break, or can even do 4 or 5 weeks before a break week. Recognizing that on individual level with machine learning would be great. Can’t wait to feed my HR and HRV data to the system.
It also raises an interesting question for me about how I might use that information to ‘maintain’ fitness when I have less time available, or how ML might learn what is required (for me) to maintain fitness in a particular energy system(s).
Or they collaborated… hey Dylan fancy putting a dumb video out about everything you think is wrong with TrainerRoad just ahead of us making a massive product launch?
Wonder if he’s on the closed beta
To say they did this whole thing in response to the video is crazy but still very possible they pushed their timeline to be able to respond. This is a major change and there are lots of nice to have features they may have wanted to be more ready before release. This is a problem lots of software has where a release is mostly ready but still want some improvements before release so delay the release
Buzzing for this, the more I read and learn about it, the more excited I get.
FTP is dead, long live the progress bars!
Bring back the FTP, it’s the only worthwhile measurement. 
This opinion isn’t influenced at all by the fact I just achieved a PB and now have to start again with progress bars. 
That’s if tr starts to use zones that aren’t based on percentage of ftp. They haven’t really clarified that yet (see my earlier comment on that) seems to me like they are just keeping track of how well you do in each zone and not redefining the zone for each person
Please do this
I’m starting Human Intelligence Adaptive Training while we wait - I just struggled with but finished Raymond 4x5 at 108%. I failed Redlake +4 last week, 5x6 at 108%. I have Elephants next week, 6x5 at 108%.
Should I go down in flames with Elephants see how far I get, repeat Raymond with the aim of finishing without struggling, or find a 5x5 at 108%?
Hans,
The workout categories reflect the workout’s relationship to your progression levels at the time you completed the workout. However, I’m not sure how reliable the backfill of old workouts/ levels is right now for so long ago. I wouldn’t put too much stock in the ratings for historical workouts yet while we’re still in the beta period, but going forward it always reflects your fitness at the time.
This is definitely relevant to me. I can literally point to sections on my training history full of fails / shortened intervals / reduced intensity and have a pretty good idea of what my diet was at the time… especially for high intensity stuff which seems to go out the window first.
Just noticed from the video that there’s a survey option for it. Though obviously there can be more than one reason you fail a workout (and they seem to be asking for the primary reason).
Finished MV Plan last week. - 3kg, +15 watt.
Last week 15 Minutes faster than my best time on my Favorite track.
TR works for me, really happy to see an improved Program/ Plan at the end of the summer season!
Greets from Austria!
Part 1: Progression levels and current week prior to Ramp Test (post way above).
Ramp Tests & More
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- I got a 255w FTP from this test, but after a challenging Carpathian Peak +2, I lowered it back to the 251w that I had self-selected after my blood donation a couple of weeks earlier.
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- I started with 251w FTP and got 257w FTP. That is a 2.4% increase from my adjusted one I used the prior 1.5 weeks.
- Notably, I ended the test a bit “early” last night vs the last couple of times where I somehow pushed further than I had mentally done in the past. I think those extra pushes were a “mistake” in the sense that they gave me an FTP that was a tad high for my current capabilities beyond the test itself.
- This latest test was more “normal” for me in terms of failure point, as well as fatigue after the test. My typical Carter follow-up was easier with a lower RPE & HR than the prior two tests and Carters. All that to say that this result feels more “right” to me than the prior test result.
Part 2: Progression levels and current week after Ramp Test.
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Here is the page I get this morning, showing potential adaptations to my plan.
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I chose to accept those recommendations and get the following Career page with Progression levels and my adapted week:
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So, with the FTP increase, the Progression levels were dropped compared to the one linked above. This is likely part of the “easing in” process to keep new workouts from a higher FTP more manageable.
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As far as the adjustments, those make sense to me and are far less scary than the default plan workouts. This is my final loading week in my SSB, so we will see how it goes as the 3rd loading week, before a recovery week after this one.
Let me know if you have any questions or issues I have not covered.