Yesterday adaptive training had a 1.5 hour endurance ride planned. I wanted to do a longer ride so I picked a 3 hour endurance ride - Maclure. I didn’t execute it as planned. Normally I try to stick to the plan but this is an exception. I rode 18% at endurance. The rest was at tempo, sweet spot, or threshold. I was pretty consistent with cadence and kept the coasting and stopping to a minimum (mostly on gravel roads). Since I am at the beginning of a plan and the progression level of this ride is significantly higher than the planned ride my endurance level really jumped up. Adaptive training didn’t give me points for sweet spot or tempo even though that is where I rode the bulk of the ride. So I am wondering if there is value to nailing these endurance rides and if I would be better served to delete this ride and let endurance level drop back down? That seems like it would more accurately reflection of the training done at the endurance level. Or… Is it safe to assume I am well trained at the endurance level if I can ride above endurance for the equivalent amount of time?
Welcome!
AT currently doesn’t give you credit for surpassing the power targets. It was stated in the introductory podcast that “superpass” was a option for the analysis side of things but as far as I know that hasn’t been implemented/rolled out yet.
Leave the ride/workout - it’s part of your training. Riding outdoors is pretty hard to stick to prescribed power targets. Note that freeform outdoor rides also aren’t currently assessed by AT, there’s a lot of threads about that, so you’ve a double whammy! Your Endurance PL will match that of the workout but not all future endurance workouts will necessarily be at that level. AT will have simply looked at your power and seen that you met the target power, it won’t take into account how far above that target power you were.
You actually need to be quite strict with yourself when adding volume or straying from the target power. Z2 rides feel as if you aren’t doing anything so there’s the temptation to push things - chase down other riders, go for a Strava PB on a segment, etc.
Thanks that mostly cleared my confusion. Almost. My endurance level now says 5.5. This is my first ride since starting this plan so it was 1 something before this. Is that a legit reflection of my fitness at the endurance level? Or because I overshot the mark would I be better off getting rid of that ride? Do I need to train that zone appropriately and not have adaptive training base adaptation on a ride where I overshot the zone?
Just leave your ride in your calendar. It’s quite likely that removing it won’t affect AT anyway - it’s analysed the ride and updated your personal profile so removing it won’t do anything.
Even if it isn’t truly reflective of your endurance PL, your next endurance workout will cause readjustments (assuming you actually follow the target power!), you might struggle a bit but if you answer the post workout survey accordingly then AT will adjust things.
I’m sort of at the opposite end of things: there’s no TR endurance workout that comes close to my capabilities, here’s my current PLs (I’ve just come to the end of SSBLV1)
My last endurance ride was 24hrs. 5.2, oh yeah!
Just to pipe in quickly here—AT does recognize if you go well above your target on a workout, and that does influence how it adjusts your progression in future workouts. It won’t currently recognize when you increase the intensity into another power zone, however. For instance, if you increase the intensity in an Endurance workout so high as to actually be riding in your Threshold zone, Adaptive Training will still currently consider that an Endurance workout (albeit one you very easily and successfully completed) and it will only impact how AT adjusts your upcoming endurance workouts. We’re currently working on equipping Adaptive Training to fully credit you for the exact work you do when you increase or adjust intensity.
These are new article that at least touch on the subject of AT and workout alterations.
Ah. I sit corrected. Not really done it myself so not seen it.