Progression level for Boarstone +1 too high?

IMHO, tempo workout Boarstone +1 has suspiciously high progression level (PL 11.1, IF 0.76). Especially when compared to Polar Bear (PL 10.0, IF 0.81) or even Boarstone +3 (PL 9.5, IF 0.79).

True, it has 4x 20s late sprints but do those really warrant such jump for Tempo PL?

Nevertheless, did it but my PL increased to 10. Do I get it right, on career page all progression levels are capped to 10?

Agree.

  • Yes, that’s true AFAIK.

  • Far from concrete, but baring oddities (like overblown PL’s from custom workouts), a PL of 10 is an indicator that a new FTP is likely. Testing or manual adjustment may be appropriate depending on recent training history.

I suggest emailing this to support@trainerroad.com so they can review the workout levels.

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Right, it’s time for test indeed. Looking at Polar Bear, i still feel awe, with Boarstone +1, not so much :slight_smile:

Anyway, thank you, will contact support with this.

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I can do the equivalent of Boarstone +1 week after week, outside, and not see an FTP increase. :man_shrugging:

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Yep, me neither: over 2021 did too much Z2 and Z3 but did not see much FTP increase. Same time can ride forever at IF 0.7 with no aerobic decoupling. So, I’ll try now 3 first weeks of Rolling Road Race specialty as refresher, retest and then get to AT guided yearly plan :stuck_out_tongue:

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Ya, I don’t agree with the 11.1 PL.

I’ve emailed support a while ago about similar issues with progression levels being inconsistent between Z2 workouts and this was their response:

Thanks so much for bringing these to our attention. From what I can tell, you’re right, and there are some anomalies with the Workout Levels in here where, in comparison, some workouts are not ranked appropriately when compared to one another.

I’m bringing these workouts to the attention of our team to take a look at!

We are working hard on a new rating method that we believe will resolve all of these anomalies, as well as solve the issue of credit for unstructured outside rides, so that may be the ultimate “solution” to this problem, just a little way down the line.

Thanks again for pointing this out to us! I’ll update you on what we find out.

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FYI, response from support:

Workouts with late ride sprints generate loads more Progression Levels. This is something that we are working to address with a new version of the Workout Classifier :shushing_face: and it’s going through internal testing at the moment.

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Agreed. I haven’t done it, but it doesn’t look that hard. Even Polar Bear for that matter. It’d be tough, but I’m 100% certain I could do it. At the same time I don’t think I’d be eligible for an FTP bump after.

Simply different energy systems.

Same with Bandeira. Could do that all the time, but FTP stays the same. If I increased my FTP to make Bandeira a stretch or total battle to complete, I don’t think I’d be able to complete a 1.0 threshold level workout at that FTP.

But that’s what’s cool about the PLs, I don’t think it’s necessarily a fault in the system. I’m just good at tempo/endurance compared to FTP, whereas I’m sure others are great at threshold work compared to endurance.

100% it’s the sprints at the end… And i have the receipts to prove it.

Just create a custom Wo and add a few Sprint that are over 120%. That will cause havoc on the calculations and will create something that looks scary when it shouldn’t be. I have created a few Wo with similar problems. Remove the Sprint and suddenly they are not as big…

download.jpeg-1

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Higher leveled Endurance ride at best, not a hard tempo ride