Not understanding why, in my 3 week progression between recovery weeks, the AI has my hard Threshold Saturday ride decreasing in difficulty rather than increasing. This Saturday it has me doing a level 2.4 ride that predicts will be very hard (TSS 103), while next Saturday it’s a 2.1 rated as hard (TSS 94), and the third Saturday is a 1.3 ride rated as hard (TSS 85). The other sessions schedule for those weeks (Anerobic on Tuesday and Endurance on Wednesday/Thursday) increase slightly each week, as expected, but not so dramatically I feel that it should reverse the Threshold progression.
If I manually move the workouts to a progressive sequence by swapping the lower TSS ride at the end of the three weeks and the harder one this week, AI just readjusts them to remain as they are now. I plan to do them in the progressive increasing sequence anyway.
No thanks. I can tell it will be very hard, which is exactly what AI predicts, so why would that change the future workouts? I would rather work up in level rather than down.
So use workout alternates and choose an easier ride, then the ai will adapt the next couple weeks based on how you actually perform the workout, how you rate it, and then what it thinks you are capable of. And if you don’t like that, just use alternates again when you get to those days.
Or just choose individual workouts and drop them on your calendar without a plan.
edit just looked, a 2.4 level threshold is something like 4x8 or 9 at 95%, if that’s something that’s ‘very hard’ maybe your ftp is too high
The week before this was when the new AI FTP detection was initiated, and it dropped my FTP from 218 to 203. It then gave me some hardly worth doing endurance rides at the 1.x level. I did the first couple just to give the new AI system a chance, but they were the epitome of worthless junk miles. All I got from them was a saddle sore and intense boredom. After upping the power level on one by 10% and rating it as easy, I finally “graduated” to endurance 2.0 when my current level is 4.7.
I ride these on Zwift and use the Zwift rating system, which has more gradations than the TrainerRoad ratings. I rated today’s ride as “comfortable” in Zwift, which TrainerRoad translated as moderate. To me, an “easy” rating equates to a recovery-type ride.
Can you list the workouts and their description? How do the over-all watts compare?
Another thing to consider… you don’t always want to have a (subjectively) more challenging workouts as you fatigue through a training block. As you fatigue the easier workouts very would could feel more challenging than the “harder” workouts earlier in the block.
No, it’s over-unders. 4 sets of 4 minutes at 93%, 1 minute at 115%, 2 minutes at 110%,a nd 3 minutes at 95% with brief 30 second recoveries between intervals. It is TrainerRoad AI that says there is a 53%/ chance of it being rated hard.
I guess I’ll go ahead and do it, but I still don’t understand why it has me do the predicted very hard one in the first week and then get steadily less difficult the next 2 weeks.
Edit: Since my current threshold level is 3.3, I should be able to do this without too much difficulty. I just hate over-unders!
To @Jolyzara if these “easier” workouts later in the block could feel more challenging than the “harder” workouts earlier in the block, shouldn’t the AI predicted difficulty level show that? It doesn’t.
Don’t know how AI works, I was just commenting based on personal experience. I believe Nate mentioned in one of the release podcasts that the AI will predict fatigue and give you an easier workout. Hopefully that easier workout would feel appropriate and not dig you into a hole.
Try moving the workouts a day further apart and see what happens. Sometimes it will adjust the workout to a higher difficulty with a bit more rest.
Just chiming in to say that looking at the assigned workout 2-3 weeks from now is pretty much useless in the new model other than to review the plan structure. As others have said, once you do this Saturday’s workout (the assigned one or an alternate that you choose yourself), the AI will review and possibly modify the entire plan going forward. Also, don’t get too stuck on the level numbers. Look at the watts and structure. They’ve mentioned that sometimes the number will be lower but the work is actually harder.
Looks like you just manually applied an ah hoc plan to your Calendar on the 29th, so as soon as you complete your first Threshold workout things should start adjusting!
Question, is there a reason you’re manually applying phases instead of letting TR create a custom plan for you?
I don’t know what you mean by “you just manually applied an ad hoc plan to your Calendar on the 29th.” I was in a Masters Build Phase, then (perhaps mistakenly) accepted the use of the new AI stuff. The only things I’ve done outside of that were to increase the level of the ride on the 28th by 10% (to avoid another junk miles ride) and attempt to swap the ride scheduled for the 2/14 with the one scheduled for 1/31 so it would be a progressive plan rather than regressive. AI just switched it back, though.
So that’s “ad hoc?” It’s under “more plans” in the website and is described as a pre-built adaptive training phase. I had been continuously riding and training before that and had no need to start over with a base phase again. Such plans also have targets and there are a number to pick from. I didn’t realize that would result in AI suggesting a regressive threshold plan until the first threshold session is completed.
Then why even put it there? If I do the rides it calls for each day, and I rate them as expected, the future rides will change? Why? Why not put the ones in the plan that will be there if I do the plan and rate them as predicted?
Thanks for the condescending answer. I’ve been with TrainerRoad since 2018. I’ve never seen it plan out a regression until AI took over. Again, if I ride per the plan, and the AI is correctly assessing how I will rate the planned training sessions, why would it change the future sessions? Because that’s life is not an answer.
It would make sense if I rate the session differently than predicted, or if I increase or decrease the level, or not finish a ride, that the following sessions would be adjusted, but not if I ride and rate per the plan. And why would it give me a ride that is likely to be rated very hard first, then follow those with easier sessions that would only be rated hard? Give me the easier one first, see how I rate it, then go up or down from there accordingly.
