I have to say that the last three weeks somehow challenged my trust in any kind of “AI” in Trainerroad.
After having scheduled a two weeks sickness (terrible cold) I saw no adaptation what so ever (besides the cancelation of trainings while sick)
Yesterday I tried to complete the first workout again (which was not adapted to ease myself back in) Obviously I had to cancel it midway as I lost some abilities during two weeks of sickness. I chose “sick” in the survey for the reason… Still: Trainerroad doesn’t see any need to reschedule anything to help me start again.
Is this normal? What are your experiences with sickness and adaptation or non-adaptation of the trainingsplan ?
Hey, yes, I experienced similar a few weeks back. Came down with a nasty bout of stomach flu that knocked me for 6 and I couldn’t eat properly for several days after.
I’d just like to pre-fix the below by saying that I appreciate it would be really difficult for TR to be able to adapt safely around sickness. I imagine they are somewhat ‘hands off’ with it for good reason - if they claim to be able to bring you back into training, then they are playing with fire - what if you aren’t ready, what if your sickness actually needs a doctor etc etc.
I also think that the support team would probably do a good job of advising the best way to come back from illness if you contacted them.
However, yes I agree - I think the marketing of AI adaptive training preventing burnout is a bit of a misnomer with sickness. To me it seems that the only way it will adapt is by letting you come back to training flat out and seeing if you can cope. If you fail workouts then it will drop you down - but if you are recovering from illness it’s too late at that point.
The plan removed workouts when I put in sickness, but didn’t adapt to accommodate the time off, or, more importantly, allow a gentle introduction back to training. I had to manually delete a threshold workout myself as I came back into training as there was no way I was ready for that.
In addition, because the sickness destroyed my last week of a block, once I was feeling ok to train, I was coming in to recovery week. I wrote a bit about it on this thread. In the end I lost the recovery week to building back up with some unstructured endurance riding and getting out on the MTB. How to move a rest week? - #4 by JoPage
Personally, I would like to see an option where you could click a button to say ‘I am ready to train’ and the plan will gradually ramp you back up.
I’d also like to move recovery weeks/bump them forward or back
I’d like to think the “I’m ready to train” button is basically you picking up the app again. If you are not feeling ready, you should not start it. Once ready, mark the past weeks with a sick note and carry on.
But I fully agree that it would be great if Adaptive Training would pick up on those “Sick” notes and change the next few workouts to a progressive recovery and continue those indefinitely based on training data and user input (post workout survey).
Maybe I have never been sick long enough to trigger such behavior before, but if memory serves me right, TR sent me back into higher intensity workouts at least once after returning to training.
The problem with this is, you are thrown back in at the same FTP setting, even if you have had three weeks off completely, and it won’t have been ‘training recovery’ as you would have been using resources to fight the illness. So the training zones and PLs may well be too high for the return to training.
If you are off for more than 2 weeks, the PLs should drop. And I would not expect too much of an FTP drop from just 2 weeks unless it was something very severe. In this case you should probably start with low intensity, unstructured rides anyway, to get a feel for your fitness again.
And if you were off for more than 4 weeks, there’s a FTP adaptation happening after your first workout anyway.
Assuming the adaptations of PLs and FTP can account for a sickness somewhat correctly there’s only the gray zone between two and four weeks of sickness.
If TR would automatically recommend you to start with a week of recovery after a sickness, you’d get right up to the next FTP adaptation and have some somewhat usable workout data to feed it with.
Had two bouts of illness recently, firstly covid and then a couple of weeks later a really bad virus (benefits of having a wife who works in a hospital) neither TR or Xert (got a year’s subscription cheap, won’t be renewing) really adapted in any meaningful way. The workouts that TR offered once I came back to training were obviously too hard after illness, so I ended up picking my own alternatives to get me back up to speed.
This got me thinking and coupled with a doubt over the lack of volume in the TR plan I had a look at a few cookie cutter plans I’ve used in the past, I’ve since decided to use one of these plans as ‘guidance’ and along with using intervals.icu for things like ramp rate I’m now adapting this plan to good effect. I’ve come to the conclusion that although the ‘AI’ that features in several apps has improved, it’s still way off from being better than a human at looking at someone’s situation and making a decision on what’s best for an individual, my wife has a coach and the approach he took with getting my wife back into training after our illnesses was much better than what either of the AI apps offered. It’s one of the reasons I recently cancelled my subscription and decided to use my own judgement.
After being away for a few years using other apps I came back to TR last Nov to try the new adaptive and AI stuff. IMO, it’s a work-in-progress and needs significant improvement. For now, I’m going to stick with TR, but doing my own adaptations.
Hey everyone! Thanks so much for the feedback—I’ll be sure to pass it along to the team.
We recommend fully recovering before jumping back into structured training. Training while you’re still unwell can lead to a deep, unproductive hole, so TrainerRoad assumes you’re back to full health when you resume your plan.
If you’re unsure whether you’re ready to return to structured workouts, here are a few options:
Manually schedule an easier workout to test the waters and see how you feel.
Use Workout Alternates to swap your scheduled workout for a lower-intensity or shorter-duration version that still targets the same training goal.
If things still feel too intense, consider adding another Time Off annotation to your Calendar. When you’re ready, you can ease back in with recovery-style workouts from the Workouts tab for a more gradual return.
Once you’re feeling healthy enough to train again, TrainerRoad will factor in expected fitness loss (while assuming you’re fully recovered) and adjust your plan accordingly. If your workouts feel especially tough at first, it’s likely due to lingering effects from the illness rather than true fitness loss. In which case, you may need more time before getting back into your training plan.
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out .
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