I’ve got 20+ years of training in some form or another so have a good understanding of where I can push myself relative to other people. Also just come off a long period of injuries and illnesses and just got back into some regular training. Going from 8 months where only 2 weeks had more than 500TSS to 3 weeks out of the last 4 being 500+ I knew my body could cope but would be pretty much on my limit.
Sure enough I had 4 red days. 2 of these had workouts scheduled and I skipped because I knew my body wasn’t up for it, another was a planned rest day, and the last I did an unscheduled endurance ride.
i.e. everything my body was telling me is confirmed by RLGL.
Going back further I can see that I have failed some harder workouts I flagged as tired or too intense that were also on red days. Also exactly what you want to see in retrospect.
Nailing key workouts is absolutely important. Doing so consistently requires you to have enough recovery in your plan to be going into those workouts not too tired. RLGL helps you to do that by identifying when and where you’re going too hard and getting yourself in a situation where a key workout falls on a yellow or red day. The solution is not to blame RLGL/AT for trying to avoid having you do a key workout when you’re tired, but to take it easier on the days that aren’t key so that you are fresh enough to nail the key days.
I’ve been somewhat interested in Garmins recent approach after buying a Forerunners 955 a few years ago. Their take on “body-battery” using various contributing factors such as HRV, Stress, Acute Load, Sleep Duration and Quality make the data rather compelling (especially when the contribution factors are clearly listed) and generally match with how I’m feeling.
Does TrainerRoad/RLGL process data that is contextual to individuals outside of TSS?
I know Training Peaks will import and display these health metrics from Garmin, does TR go a step further and actually use them?
Ie. before children and with more sleep I could “absorb” a greater volume and intensity
Now, with 2 young children, much less sleep etc… I simply cannot
How can these external factors be calculated? Do they need to be?
You say it includes WLV2 - does this mean my outside rides are now better analysed? ( are in kinda getting a secondary preview here)
Also, let me clarify: I’m not mad or saying RLGL isn’t working. I’m just saying I’m not the best case for it since I’m returning from injury to what I was before. If I wanted to build back up slowly, and maybe if I were off the bike entirely for that period, it would be working as designed then.
Totally agree, it’s a good step forward and will help keep my over exuberance in check.
But if I have had a bit too much fun at the weekend and have a yellow day on Monday, I don’t want to lose the key workout from my week, I’d rather try to shuffle it first.
An easy day on Mon, or even a day off, would likely see me right to attempt a key workout on Tuesday.
As RLGL stands at the moment, if I just accepted the adaptation, I would lose a key workout and have it replaced with an endurance ride.
I can still drag and drop the workouts on the calendar, so there is a workaround, but as some feedback to TR, I wanted to highlight the scenario.
If this happened regularly, I think it could really affect progression.
RLGL is working as designed. Your training/programming is highly unusual and generally not recommended. It may work for you and you are your own coach, but that has nothing to do with RLGL.
You are correct, missing key workouts will limit your progression. I think what TR is trying show with RLGL is that you may need to choose either fun rides over the weekend and slower progression, or more structure and less “fun”. It’s a trade-off all of us have to choose. RLGL just puts the choice (and consequences of our choices) in our faces with a big yellow or red mark on our calendar.
Nate - on the check mark for successfully completed workouts: the Project Management standard is actually blue for completed items, so you could use that instead of green.
If this is a scenario that occurs frequently for you - weekend exuberance turning Mon into a yellow day, causing you to move the scheduled hard w/o to Tues - then the obvious solution would be for you to change your plan structure to reflect the reality that Mon should not normally be scheduled as a hard day…
=> Change your plan so that by default, Mon is scheduled as either an easy w/o or a rest day, and Tues becomes the first hard w/o day of the week.
That way, if you have an exuberant weekend, RLGL won’t be wanting to adapt a Mon (key) hard w/o easier, as there is no hard w/o on that day in your plan.
Conversely, if it turns out that your weekend was not so exuberant, you can always bring forward the Tues (key) hard workout to Mon.
This is exactly what I do. Schedule my 2 hard interval workouts Tuesday and Thursday, that gives me a fair bit of latitude around the weekends. And means that on the occasions when I am fresh on Monday I get to move a workout forward which seems like a positive thing, as opposed to the (more common) scenario of having to push a workout back from Monday to Tuesday which is mentally a bit of a negative way to start the week.
Understandable concern! Perhaps a compromise might be to restrict RLGL to forecasting a very short period ahead, perhaps as little as only one day ahead? For example, RLGL largely functions as at present, while also considering any activities scheduled but not yet completed today, and takes this planned work into account in determining tomorrow’s (and only tomorrow’s) RLGL state, thereby providing insight into the probable impact of today’s yet-to-be-completed work on tomorrow’s fatigue status.
That’d be useful to me: eg. “Yesterday I did a hard workout causing today to be yellow. Should I do a longer endurance ride today, and potentially turn tomorrow yellow also, or should I do a different, shorter endurance workout today instead, or even do nothing, so that tomorrow will be green?”
Probably still risk from your perspective, but maybe not so much, while providing some useful insight. A downside is that the “fussier” the RLGL functionality becomes (the more it departs from the simplest to understand scheme in place today, where only the work you’ve done is considered), the more scope for user confusion, a fussier UI due to the need to distinguish between actual & forecast RLGL states, more Support contacts, etc. etc.
I’m a “low volume athlete” with family and work obligations, so my ride time is usually in the 2.5-4 hour range. Looking back at 2023, where I hit some of my best power numbers in several years and generally think I felt pretty good, there are still many red days. Almost all of these are empty- meaning I didn’t ride. But most of them are followed with a “green” day containing a workout or ride. For instance, at the start of XCO LV build, I was served “Pierce -3” (VO2 PL 4.6), followed by a red rest day, followed by “Gendarme -1” (VO2 PL 4.1), followed by a yellow rest day. Is this okay/expected? I’ve read the FAQ, but I think what Nate is saying above, is the goal may be to minimize them appearing at all, except where expected, such as the day after a race.
I don’t really think you’re the target audience for RLGL. You obviously understand your training enough to make the necessary adjustments. I see RLGL more for the new gung ho TrainerRoad subscriber who’s doing Low Volume, or even worse Mid Volume, but then also goes out and hammers a group ride and then tries to just keep hammering away on what TrainerRoad had planned.
sarcastic Midwest humor yet! Yes it was VERY much meant as a joke and ribbing! 
