Out of interest what is your plan event type and what is your approach setting. There are a number of comments/concerns from users that they will never be presribed longer intervals/higher WL due to being dragged back to “level 3” but this seems to be an example that demonstrates that is not the case.
Good idea! I was also considering changing a workout on a given day to the AI recommended Endurance workout. I mean, the update launched yesterday, so I was excited to try the recommendation (my ego got me into it 
)
This was a good experience in gauging my response and learning more of my body’s signals…
Thanks for the suggestions!
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This is a climbing road race plan on the balanced approach. I made it a master’s plan to have 2 hard days and 1 endurance day per week due to my schedule and proclivity to burnout on more than that. It has worked well and I was progressing well, I just buit up a lot of fatigue (not burnout) which caught up with me.
I do agree - the AI reduced my interval length and kept the Watts essentially the same as what I had with the lower FTP which meant my progression level reduced, but my workouts did not get harder. As Nate mentioned in another thread: Look at the Watts to see if it makes sense 
I wont disagree with you that the whole purpose of and FTP is to determine training zones and prescribe effective workouts, and sure there are a few different ways people have proposed to determine that number (ramp, 20 minute, 8 minute, etc) and there are also other ways to determine training zones (lactate thresholds, critical power) but generally speaking those methods all produce relatively close results for where your training zones are set. Then from there you can build out your training plan, whether you do it yourself, have a coach use TrainerRoad, or any other means.
My bigger frustration is that the number TR is giving as “FTP” is not that. It is a training number produced by a black box that is only useful within the structure of workout levels and training plan algorithms they have produced and thereby requires you to use their platform and use it the way they want you to use it. I am personally frustrated by this because I prefer to make my own plans based on my past experience, with my body and my own training successes and failures. Frankly, I also just enjoy it and it makes training a little more interesting.
Training honestly isn’t that complex. If you are genarally in the ballpark of where your training zones should be, you are consistent, listen to your body and rest when you need to, you will make significant gains. TrainerRoad and honestly every subscription based platform seem to have this desire to make things more complicated then they need to be and that’s where I become cynical that this is all a ploy to keep you subscribed.
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TR is predicting a drop in my FTP based on a TR prescribed training plan. That is very sub-optimal from my perspective, considering I’m midway through a plan training for a big event …
And there does not appear to be a way to get any understanding into why.
I do think if companies want you to just “trust the AI” they need to provide some insight into why decisions are being made.
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Highly recommend listening to/watching the two podcasts dropped yesterday and reading the TR posts about the product. You simply can’t compare your “old” FTP to the new AIFTP. Your fitness didn’t change. The system isn’t telling you that your fitness decreases. It is giving you a new (and based on my experience better) training metric baseline to predict what the best workouts will be for you to get faster. Hope that helps and good luck. Final recommendation, accept the new FTP and answer your surveys honestly. The system will adapt as you progress.
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Well, I think we’ve stumbled upon the one of the biggest issues with AI in general. They cant tell you why it does what it does, its inherently a black box.
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Post your calendar. You can probably get some suggestions. Also what is your training load set to? Search for the forum. There are other posts like yours and most people have figured it out and in many cases tweaked it to show a gain.
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Thanks for the tip! Just to double check though, as I just completed a Sweet Spot workout at 275 FTP which felt in the right RPE range (hard). Maybe the new AI FTP just needs some time adjust as I haven’t logged that many workouts recently on Trainerroad?
Just curious as I do think the level of FTP matters when I start doing outside workouts again for instance (Watts just being watts after all and ideally this new FTP metric can still be easily compared with ‘traditional’ FTP metrics and also used outside of the Trainerroad ecosystem).
Sure, I could play with - I’ve spend more than my fair share of time tinkering with plan builder to get a more optimal outcome.
But my point is that having signed up to a TR plan with a specific goal I’d expect it to handle that for me OR at least tell me why.
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Except TR are really big on how they train and use their own ML models and not 3rd party LLMs. At minimum they should be able to explain why the output is plausible. If they’re using ML like linear or logistic regression, then they should know what “features” the model is working with and how it weights them to give more detailed insight.
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100 mile MTB race in July and I have Training Approach set to balanced except for endurance which is conservative. I follow Empirical Cycling’s philosophy of keeping endurance days super easy. I also ride a lot outside on the weekends (8-12 hours) which may or may not have had an influence on what TR thinks I can do. I am curious as to how the AI will react to these weekend rides but the forecast is calling for up to 18” of snow this weekend so it may take me a little while to find out.
It’s a ploy in that they are giving a better product for the majority of their user base. Giving customers what they want. That is the ploy that all companies follow. Give me the right training (not too hard, not too easy), Proactively monitor to see if it appears I’m over reaching prior to a running TSS score showing it, etc.
You are only training 2.5 times per week per your graphic, I wouldn’t expect FTP to rise based on that. You need to post your calendar if you want help. Otherwise people are just guessing.
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Are you on annual plan or monthly? I’m willing to give your money back or pay a month for Zwift. They have training plans.
I do not think TR will change everything because you said so or don’t like the system. Feedback heard!
I’m one of those who had a 13w FTP drop. But now I’m not sure how to execute workouts from TrainingPeaks.
My human coach has my training plan in TrainingPeaks with intervals as % of FTP.
But with the TrainerRoad FTP drop, something like yesterday’s threshold 40/20s comes into TrainerRoad as something closer to a sweetspot workout. I had to move the intensity dial up 115% to match my coach’s plan.
I marked it as “moderate,” and the AI predicted 76% easy scoring.
- Should I have done the workout with a lower FTP range?
- AI FTP Prediction shows another 16% drop in 26 days based on 3 planned workouts. I’m assuming this is because the TrainingPeaks integration only pulls in 2-3 days at a time?
I get that FTP is just a number but since TrainingPeaks is using it to define ranges, I’m not sure what to do anymore.
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Are there any plans to integrate wearable data into adjusting workouts and training plan updates? For example, integrating Garmin’s training readiness or things like sleep, hrv status, resting heart rate, stress, etc.
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You should ask your human coach. What do they want you to do? You are paying them for that service.
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Valid, but I meant more in terms of how TrainerRoad will interpret the results.
If you are paying for a human coach, I would follow their workouts and advice above all. In other words, pick a plan (human coach) and stick to it.
I think observing what TR does with your results and tells you will be interesting. There may be something to learn from it but wouldn’t react immediately to anything. May just give you some things to discuss with your coach.
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