Sessions feeling harder than they should

I hope someone out there can help. I’ve been a TR user for several years and know how sessions should feel. However recently my moderate endurance sessions like Black have been feeling more like threshold sessions. I’ve calibrated my turbo. I don’t use a power meter so can’t use that to check the power. I can still do VO2 max and other hard sessions which feel like they should My thought are the either the moderate sessions are coinciding with me having rubbish legs or there is something up with my turbo…any thoughts?

Not sure where you are located. When I experience this I will sub outside rides for endurance. I don’t notice sore legs as much outside.

Maybe you’re just less motivated for those sessions or they always fall after something else which affects you. I don’t think its a thing that we can truly answer though.

Scotland - too cold and wet most of the time in January to be outdoors much

I don’t think it is a motivation thing. I will try a different bike and see if that makes a difference

Maybe it’s because you’re doing more of a light tempo session than an endurance ride.

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My guess is accumulated fatigue or maybe a cold/virus brewing.

I’m inclined to think these incidents coincide with days when you have bad legs rather than some kind of trainer issue if your VO2 and other harder sessions still feel like they should…

Generally speaking, we want your Z2/Endurance rides to be on the easier side of things. If you’re feeling a bit tired going into a Z2 session, feel free to use Workout Alternates to find a workout that’s easier. You could also decrease the intensity of the workout during the session itself if you don’t want to back out and find a new workout to do.

Keep monitoring how you’re feeling moving forward with your plan. Make sure to stay on top of your nutrition and sleep so you recover fully between workouts. If the sensation of fatigue continues to stick with you, don’t be afraid to back off for a bit or even to take a short break from training to shed it off and refresh.

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My thoughts exactly. Black has approaching half of the workout between 70-80% of ftp. If the OP has the extra time available, they could get a similar TSS in 75 mins with something like Collins -1 and find things more comfortable.

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Ideally one should just do their endurance rides to RPE, this way you can easily adjust to fatigue and still get the desired benefits. Depending on my day to day they will range from about 45-70% of ftp but this is definitely not something I determine before doing the workout.

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