I have an interesting issue this week with regard to some training plan adaptions being suggested.
My initial plan for this week (a recovery week before starting the specialty phase):
Mon: Rest Day
Tue: James
Wed: Phoenix -3
Thu: Andrews
Fri: Rest Day
Sat: Square
Sun: Solo Ride
Revised plan, if adaptations are accepted:
Mon: Rest Day
Tue: James
Wed: James
Thu: McDonald
Fri: Rest Day
Sat: James
Sun: Solo Ride
Maybe it’s just me, but having the same workout 3 times in one week seems a bit odd. Has anyone else had a similar situation?
At this point, my plan is to do James today (before accepting the proposed adaptations), and then see if anything different is proposed. And if James is still suggested two additional times this week I’ll probably look for some alternates. I just find it strange to have more than half of the week’s workouts be the same.
Seen it before. I found alternate workouts with about the same TSS. Other option is to go tool around outside.
Hey there,
I’ve seen this issue in the past, specifically with the workout James, a few times.
The issue here is that because you’re talking about endurance workouts, once the power targets get to the top end of your zone 2, the only way to make the workout harder and still remain in the endurance training zone is to increase the duration.
Since we’re looking for endurance workouts that are specifically 90 minutes long, James is the best option in terms of your Progression Levels and abilities.
You could either use Workout Alternates to find a workout that’s longer than 90 minutes (Gibraltar -3 would be a good option), or pick a different workout that might have slightly less stimulus, but ultimately, James is actually the best option for you right now.
We’re looking to build out our workout library further to avoid redundancy in these types of scenarios, so hopefully this isn’t an issue for too long! 
2 Likes
Thanks for the response. I replaced tomorrow’s James workout with Gibraltar -3, and immediately received another ‘adaptation pending’ to replace that with ‘Low Saddle’, which is rated even more difficult (well, higher TSS, anyway). I declined that adaptation (but can always go back and change it, if you think that makes sense). My guess is that if my plan allowed for more than 1.5 hours on Wednesdays perhaps my adaptation might have been Low Saddle initially, instead of James, but not sure on that.
In general I’m ok with the increased load (I don’t have any real time constraints), but also want to be sure I get enough recovery this week, since my Specialty phase starts next week.
And, related to the ‘no time constraints’ comment, would it be reasonable to just edit my training program to say that I have, for example, 5 hours available every day of the week, and then trust the app to give me workouts of appropriate times, and progression levels, each day, knowing that it’s not going to actually give me 35 hours of training every week? I’m just wondering if that would allow the app to ‘mix up’ the weeks a bit more (i.e. Monday isn’t always a rest day, and Tuesday isn’t always a 2-hour ‘hard intervals’ workout, etc.)
Thoughts?
We’ve still got a few holes that can be annoying in edge-case scenarios. 
1 Like
Thanks for the extra feedback! 
Bumping your max duration caps up as high as they go isn’t the right move here. Adaptive Training will do what it can to respect those settings as long as your PLs allow it. This means that if you have your caps set to 5 hours, AT will work on getting your PLs up to a point where it can consistently prescribe 5-hour workouts since that’s what it assumes you want.
This issue you’re running into is most likely just an edge case for endurance workouts of your selected duration at your current Progression Level. The best way forward is to either complete the prescribed workout, or to use alternates to find something similar.
Additionally, you can sometimes find workouts with sprints, such as Andrews +1 or Bays +1, that have a slightly higher level if you’d like to use those from time to time.
1 Like
