Hi all - I often find it hard to decide between “Moderate” and “Hard” on my post workout surveys. It seems to make a difference too - answer Hard and adaptations are suggested to reduce the PL of future sessions, answer Moderate and the opposite happens. (This alarms me a bit as I hoped AT would rely more on my workout data than my survey response, but that’s another topic…)
From the definitions:
Moderate
This ride was somewhat comfortable but required some focus to complete. You felt a little challenged but had confidence that you could finish. If the ride had an additional set of intervals, you could complete it.
Hard
This ride required effort and focus and was challenging to complete. This will feel tough and you’ll look forward to this ride ending. If there was an additional interval, you could have done it with some focus.
So I ask myself - could I do one more interval or could I manage a whole set of intervals?
The problem is when it’s not clear what a set of intervals is!
Take my two workouts so far this week as an example:
I did Wolf on Monday. This is clearly 6 sets of intervals where each interval is a 30s burst and each set is 5x30s with 15 rest in between. So I see what the difference between Hard (could only do one 30s interval more) and Moderate (could do a set of 5x30s) is.
But this morning I did Sugarloaf +2. This is 5 intervals, each 6 mins long. And that’s it. So in this case what is a set of intervals?
And the “could have done it” is also interesting, because it depends how far you want to push yourself. I might not be able to do it easily, but dig in and I could just about manage it.
I know TR says to not overthink this, but I tend to agonise over it because it seems to have a direct effect on AT and the suggested adaptations.
AT indeed relies on your workout data, and it considers your Post-Workout Surveys to be qualitative data related to your completed workouts (and their corresponding quantitative data).
The feedback you give AT is important because how you feel when completing workouts is arguably as important as whether or not you are able to complete a given session.
As for the effect that has on suggested adaptations, don’t worry about it too much. Over the course of weeks/months/years, it all evens out over the long run. These adaptations help get you dialed in for the short-term to help you stay on track on the way to longer-term goals.
So if a workout feels “Hard” on a given day, go ahead and mark it as “Hard” without giving it a second thought.
Sounds all too familiar. I’ve been reading these definitions and trying to figure out what’s the right answer. Overthinking. But…
I’m quite sure this is not how it works. If I remember correctly, I just finished a stretched workout last week, called it a Hard one and no changes to my plan. I assume there are planned workouts that should feel hard.
Nowadays I focus more on this:
This will feel tough and you’ll look forward to this ride ending
So, on the last intervals, if I’m looking more on the timer than on all the other metrics, it’s quite clear it was a hard one
I think there are far more factors involved, including workout type, workout level and recent training history. I often rate VO2 workouts as hard (because they are) and get no changes to PL or future workouts that are out of the ordinary (ie not downwards).
Additionally, if I’m unsure / between 2 (ie hard/very hard or moderate/hard) it always serves me well to pick the higher of the two.
I guess the criterion is whether it’s physically hard or challenging. For me, sometimes a workout or ride is hard because it’s physically challenging. Other times a ride can be hard due to lack of motivation, which will makes it feel harder and I’ll look forward to it ending, if I manage to make it to the end.
@moonman, here is my advice…well, first, I agree with TR: don’t overthink it.
But you’re already overthinking it so as long as we’re here let’s make it fun. For the next three weeks I want you to use this rule:
if you can’t decide whether it was ‘moderate’ or ‘hard’ always respond with ‘moderate’.
Give that a try. See how you like the adaptations your getting. If everything seems good, bob’s your uncle. Carry on.
But if not…new rule:
If you can’t decide whether it was ‘moderate’ or ‘hard’ always respond with ‘hard’.
Give that a go for a few weeks & see if you like it better. If you make it to the end of both those you’re going to have a much better understanding of how to answer that survey and what the implications of each kind of answer is.
Before reading your post, I’d read TR’s guidance as determining how easy an interval set would be, ‘moderate’ if one more wasn’t bad, ‘hard’ if it would be a struggle.
Ironically, now that I realise they say moderate is one more set, and hard is just one more interval, for me it’s actually even easier to make that call between the two.
I’m with the OP here, it always screws my brain on how to respond. “Don’t overthink it” is a great guidance, and I do try to follow it, but I believe that TR somewhat pushes us in the opposite direction. How?
Well, in my experience, the adaptations that TR makes based on the feedback are too aggressive. You mark one hard day ride as too hard (or an endurance day as hard) and TR dials it down immediately. I’m sure TR team knows better, and I’m not arguing with their approach, it just does not work for me personally. One ride can feel more challenging than it was supposed to be, and it shouldn’t be an immediate red alert. Shit happens. When there’s a tendency - that’s another story.
