That’s not what I said. I didn’t have any red days when I massively increased my TSS. Apparently I did it the right way. There were red days before PLs and AIFTP. So kudos to TR for the revision of their training plans. It was a big improvement.
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Sorry, not trying to argue, but still trying to find clarity on how the traffic lights work. What you said was
So, I was asking if you did that with zero red days. If you went from 600 to 1000 in a few months without a single red day, then I don’t really understand how. Maybe it will be clearer when we get better guidance on how to use it or what makes things go red.
I ask because I’m confused by Nate’s earlier posts (which was the comment I made that you originally replied to) that show people pushing through the red. I was asking Nate how you push your tss up without ever pushing through a red day. I’m confused by the messaging that red means you should stop, for example
But then later showing people who did workouts on red days and then went to yellow the following day, which means it wasn’t really that serious.
Just seeking clarification on how to use the traffic lights. It’s a great idea, but I think it needs a lot of clarification.
Hypothetical example as obviously RLGL is a bit secret sauce. But we know it works off workout levels 2. Right now my Endurance PL is 5.0 (and that is somewhat artificially capped as I don’t do really long indoor rides and I don’t bother linking my long outdoor rides to TR workouts, so it would likely be higher as I regularly do 4-5 hour outdoor rides). That means Sutton (2.5 hours middle of Z2, 106 TSS) is an “Achievable” ride for me. Or Suizo which is more low end of Z2, 4 hours, 146 TSS. So I can see how it would be possible for me to add a bunch more TSS with Achievable rides, and my assumption is that if RLGL works on workout levels then Achievable rides aren’t going to lead to red days.
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You can have a “red” day and still ride (obviously), although TR is saying it’s not advisable. But let’s say you do a 350 TSS outdoor ride on Saturday. This pushes you into the red for a Sunday ride. However, you still ride on Sunday, but only do like 65 TSS. That low TSS Saturday ride still bled off enough fatigue to show yellow for Monday. So you rode on a red day, but took it easy. Are you flying closer to the sun than TR advises? Yes, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you are going to burn up as a result.
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This is a good point. I’ve done similar, pushing my TSS way up with lots of easy Z2.
Progressive overload.
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Right. Thats what I said that started all this.
My hunch is that it all comes down to:
- Ramp rate - how fast are you increasing your CTL week over week
- TSS / hr - a proxy for overall workout intensity mix across a week
- Training History - how long have you been training, consistency, hours / week
The first two are going to be rider dependent - you need to figure out what ramp rate of CTL week / week you can handle without going into the “red”. TSS / hr will tell you how many hours you need to be able to train to get to your “wanted” TSS / week. Then do you have that many hours to train?
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100%. I did my progressive overload using ATL/CTL/TSB and ramp rate. Monitor and understand all of this and it can be done as long as life doesn’t get in the way. I believe RLGL will just be the easy button regarding training. Really just keeping people from self sabotage.
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I wrote a bunch.
Then I just googled training stress balance. 
Deleted everything I wrote.
As for a marketing name:
In the Mandalorian, the foundling is called Grogu… but we all know his real name is Baby Yoda. So you can call it what you like, but in the end it will always be “Red light / Green light.” 
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I really can’t wait for this feature to come out, I just realized I’m in a fatigue hole yesterday after failing an easy sweet spot workout with my HR going way up into threshold. I didn’t see it coming though because I was feeling good up until after a VO2 workout on tuesday which went great. I’m really curious if RLGL would have seen this coming. I have a feeling it has to do with me botching my recovery week last week and doing way more hours than usual (classic mistake I know 
). Interestingly enough though my form is in the fresh zone on my PMC.
I’m curious if this can be predictive in addition to reactive. For example, if I could enter a a group ride I want to do on my calendar and estimate duration and IF if it would tell me that would be a no go based on my calendar or history.
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Regarding “failed workouts,” do you think it has to do with AI (or train now) continuously pushing PL’s up until failure? Fatigue? Is it as simple as feeling thrashed and not choosing an alternate that is more achievable for how your day is going? Something else?
For me historically, it was Every Single Workout was way too hard, without exception. It’s taken me a long time to realize this was an issue…but getting a heart rate monitor made a world of difference, and made me realize every workout aside from easy endurance, was essentially a race pace dig up the last match, try not to throw up type of effort.
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In my case it was definitely fatigue related. The last sweet spot workout I did was at the same power as this one, but my HR was through the roof this time. Usually adaptive training is really good at giving me the right workout but I definitely overdid the volume on my rest week.
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This has kind of been my assumption as well. I think it’s how much your fatigue has increased based on the ride you completed vs your X week average. It could be Week over week or year over year. Something along those lines.
@Nate_Pearson Although I can’t say I’ve ever felt burned out or overcooked, I’m often forced to rearrange my workouts due to work that ends up really pushing me to my limits and I’ll occasionally downgrade a workout or two to get through the week. This past week is a perfect example. Perhaps I’m missing signals and would be curious how many yellow/red days I’ve been seeing.
If my scenario isn’t what you’re looking for, just ignore my selfish request!
Thanks and PS, I think this will be very useful for a lot of people
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Always thought this. “Luckily” I rarely ride outside beyond commuting so Im quite easy to measure.
Don’t think I’ve genuinely been over trained more than twice since 2017, but it’s hard to assess oneself objectively. Especially with non-training factors, eg I skipped a ride today because I had two drinks last night. Or fail a threshold because I’m demoralised by work issues.
For a name, I’d suggest a non-ambiguous any-fool-can-understand term. “Red flag” works and is commonly used in training circles and everywhere.
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Oh, there have been times I’ve felt burned out but I can’t remember exactly when. Not as much last year though. And, some of the burnout is due to factors outside of training so it’ll be interesting to see how this picks up on that.
As for name, maybe something like “Freshness Index” – has a positive spin to it.