I’m currently on the Balanced Masters plan with two prescribed TrainerRoad sessions per week. I’ve also added my regular rides to the calendar so the AI understands my typical weekly volume. For example, I usually do a couple of 90-minute Z2 rides during the week and a ~4-hour easy group ride on Saturdays.
After each workout I rate the effort honestly. Every session so far, except one, has been marked moderate or hard (the one “very hard” was due to lack of sleep).
The issue I’m running into is that Adaptive Training keeps lowering the intensity of my upcoming workouts. When that happens, I manually adjust them back up to what feels like a normal progression from the previous week.
For example:
Last week’s VO2 workout I bumped up to 4.2 and marked it moderate.
The following week, TR suggested a lower-intensity VO2 workout.
I ended up doing two VO2 sessions the same day (5.3 and 6.4) and marked both moderate again.
I’m seeing the same thing with threshold workouts. No matter how I rate the effort, Adaptive Training keeps suggesting easier future sessions.
For context:
I haven’t come close to failing a workout.
I often ride above the suggested power.
I often shorten the recovery intervals.
Yet the system still keeps dialing back future workouts.
Has anyone else experienced this? Am I misunderstanding how Adaptive Training interprets workout ratings or progression?
Ironically, despite my manual increases, FTP prediction has me on track to gain 2w this month.
You aren’t missing anything - there are nuances but you would expect the workouts to generally progress to harder (higher level) ones over time if your FTP is the same.
The number one reason for the AI not prescribing harder workouts is if the system thinks you are over-doing it - not saying that is what is happening for you - but there are signs.
There’s also a chance you have run into an edge case with how you routinely add significant endurance onto your hard workouts - the system should be able to cope with that - but like I say - it’s a possible edge case scenario.
My main takeaway from that calendar though is that’s a lot of volume for someone who has asked TR for a “balanced” plan - my gut instinct is that the system is trying to taper you back to “balanced” but you are doing (and are capable of) a more aggressive plan.
I’d be interested in seeing what changing the plan to “demanding” does.
Just had a closer look at the screenshots and noticed how many of the workouts are not actually part of the plan (workouts part of the plan have the little calendar icon top right).
One adjustment that I have made going to the new system from the old one is to stick closer to plan.
I used to just have TR schedule 2 or 3 interval days and then just ride as much as I wanted around those. The new system works best if you do what it expects you to do.
The reason for this is because its not only adjusting to give you the correct workouts - its also adjusting to keep you to the plan.
This doesn’t have to mean not doing what you want to do - I have found that this just means being more honest up front with what I’m actually going to do.
So when generating my plan i’m sure to add in the extra endurance i’m going to do - so “sticking to the plan” for me doesn’t mean changing what i’m going to do - I change the plan to closer align with what I’m going to do.
The extra z2 rides ive added as recurring rides. So TR Ai Knows I’m doing those rides weekly. I could go to their suggested “six rides a week” and just do my own thing but that seems counterintuitive.
I thought about going from balanced to aggressive but I believe that adds another intensity session per week and I think two is sufficient.
FTP detection has me now losing 1w after a heavy block.
my last threshold workout was 5.0. I rated it as hard. My next scheduled threshold is 2.9. AI predicts it will be “very hard”.
Its the “masters” switch that sets the two days - you can stay on masters but up the plan to demanding and you will still only have two days of intensity.
I’m not sure that the AI will regard these as the same as if you had them baked into your plan from the start - I think the AI may still regard these as “things that are getting in the way”.
Out of interest - what are your similar alternatives for “cowpen” - those particular intervals are underscored wrt the new RPE system. My hunch is if you change the workout type form “mixed intervals” to “intervals” you would get a higher WL workout - but probably not a 5+
What was the base workout for that? Could it be that the score for that workout has been inflated by the extra endurance work?
I’m not 100% sure it’ll work seamlessly that way. I don’t know that it won’t, but I suspect it’ll work better if all your rides are “in-plan”.
When setting up my plan it wanted to give me fewer hours than I wanted to do, but with riding an extra day. I managed to get it to give me 5 days rather than 6, and then increased the duration on a couple of days incrementally until it told me I was now doing more than recommended. Taking back the final increase then gave me the “this is the most we think you can do” final version, 8 hours of riding - which is perfect for me and my scheduling constraints.
It may not work for you, but it might be worth taking a similar approach so that all of your rides are “in-plan”, just to see if that makes things run smoother. You may find that after all the adjustments you end up being “allowed” a 3 hour group ride, but get warned if you ask for longer. In that case, I guess you just overrule it at your own discretion.
you are doing too much (although you say you are finding the workouts too easy)
The system just “thinks” you are doing too much (i think this is the most likely and hopefully fixed by changing approach to demanding)
The system is getting confused by how you are performing workouts outside amongst a lot of extra endurance (it should be able to cope with this - you aren’t doing anything wrong)
Potentially time for an email to support if you have not done already?
The base score was 5.0. It was a 1 hr workout, z2 I added after. This week I did two vo2 sessions back to back (20 min recovery between) a 5.3 and a 6.4 both were not recommended. They were fine. And my predicted FTP is going down next month.
3 x 12:00 at threshold, but a duration of over 3 hours, marked as hard. I would assume the AI interprets this as “it’s all hard” and then may be trying to cap training volume elsewhere because it thinks you’re fatigued from monster rides.
If in reality this was 1 hour hard, then 2 hours zone 2 (or something similar) I’d be tempted to try to split the activities and have 1 hour threshold workout marked as hard, and then a 2 hour z2 activity rated appropriately for that portion
Totes. I’m not doing anything out of the ordinary. This has been roughly my routine for the last three years on TR. In the beginning, it would schedule workouts that were too intense so I dialled it back to the master’s plan. I find two intensity sessions plus my added volume to be the right balance. It’s a mix of hey, sometimes I just like riding my bike, and let’s do structured training.
I miss the chat function TR had. I found it much more accessible for support than the back and forth of email. But you’re right. I should reach out to them.
TR is very clear that it’s asking how you rate the structured portion of the ride. The rest was just Z2. I guess I’m a little surprised the AI struggles to interpret that, since the previous version of TR never seemed to have an issue with rides like this.
The amount of yellow days you are getting suggests that at some time in the not so distant past you have been doing less than this. According to Nate in the first launch podcast for the new Ai, by far the most common reason for the Ai to start dialing back workouts is if it thinks you are overdoing it.
I just experimented with the plan settings. I changed my plan from two to six structured rides per week and removed the unstructured rides I had on the calendar. My predicted FTP jumped from 279 to 284. Then I switched the plan from balanced to demanding and the predicted FTP dropped back to 279.
So, unless I’m misunderstanding something, it seems to think that doing harder workouts will make me slower.
I disagree here. I recently asked how to be rating rides and the consensus (including TR commenting) was to rate the overall feel of the ride. A 3 hour ride with a few hard intervals ends up being a moderate workout in most cases. An interval ride followed by a hammer groupride that leaves you cracked would be hard.
I suspect AI is trying to keep you at a TSS number per week that you’ve selected by going 2x days. Since you’re putting TSS in on your own time, its adjusting the planned workouts down to keep you within an overall range.
Also worth having a look at the longer term plan and if its attempting to ramp you up for 3 weeks, then pull back and ramp up again. You may be adding volume (unknowingly) at the ‘wrong’ time within the weekly progression TR has planned for you resulting in you feeling good and wanting hard workouts during what TR is deeming a recovery week.
I foresee this being an issue for myself when the weather gets nicer and I start to ride outdoors more and i lose all sense of structure…
'EDIT
The final thought is the system is doing a good job of detecting your fatigue management and suggesting you chill out a bit… How much training history do you have loaded into the platform? Perhaps its seen you ramp up for event and then taken more time off and its thinking you historically die after putting in this kind of volume.
Do you have an event that the plan is building towards?
The most common reason for this is that the plan thinks the more demanding workouts are too much for you and you won’t keep up with the ramp rate - which again tallies with what a few people have said that it seems the model thinks you’re overreaching.
If it’s wrong, you should see that prediction climb as you progress (in theory)
I’m also quite curious, what is your best 20 min and 60 min power this season? Do you feel those values line up with the TR FTP that your training is being built around? You might be a good case for a ramp test or proper 20 min test to help things recalibrate.
Final final point - I dont like the way TR handles strength work as it assumes you wrecked yourself every set. Keep yourself honest - did you really spend 1.5 hours in the gym doing heavy reps to failure? If not, the system is way over-stressing those sessions and pulling back on your cycling sessions to keep you from being over fatigued.
