I used TrainNow (TN) to give me a workout yesterday. It gave me an easy threshold workout but I went too hard on it so the workout had an IF 0.94 yesterday
I’ve just gone to TN to get a workout for today and it’s saying AI recommended workout is an attacking VO2 workout. IF 0.85.
I’m guessing it doesn’t really pay any attention to what I did yesterday?
How does it work exactly?
For various reasons I am not following a plan, so I thought I’d go with TN and see where that takes me. At the moment it feels like it is taking me straight to being knackered, and I’m normally so good at doing thar myself I don’t need any help.
I dont understand why it wouldn’t recommend an endurance day of some sort today. Am I expecting too much? I’m guessing the TN recommended workout is to be ignored but in that case, I may as well just self select from the workout library, thus, what is the point in TN?
Yeah, but it is putting the attacking recommendation as the primary recommendation. Its only because I’ve been milling round here/listening to the podcast that I know that back to back intensity days aren’t a good idea, so why would it recommend any intensity at all?
Good point about the yellow day thing though, I guess I don’t have one of those today so maybe I do need to suck it up, buttercup and perhaps back to back intensity is indeed what I need then I guess I’ll get a yellow day for tomorrow and an endurance day. It’ll be interesting to see how hard it lets me push before deciding enough is enough.
Worth remembering that TrainNow is not a replacement for a plan.
It will do a great job at picking a workout that you can do - but it might not be the best workout for your goals - partly because it doesn’t know what your goals are.
I dont know what my goals are either hence using trainnow
I did try to stick a mtb plan in for a month but it just gives me a load of 3030s or other close packed intervals which are a PIA to do outside so I end up replacing all the workouts anyway. So I deleted it and just thought I’d use TN for a bit to manage the intensity and then add in a bit of social/z2 stuff if I feel like it.
I might be wrong, however I have never seen the list of recommended workouts come up in any other order. Endurance is always the last listed for me when I’ve looked.
For this reason I don’t think you can say the top workout is the “most” recommended, I dont think its that ‘intelligent’, and as @kevistraining says, it doesn’t know what your / anyones goals are if they are only using TN. I think it therefore follows that there is not really a preferred suggestion.
The exceptions are you’ve already trained today, it gives endurance only, being on a yellow day - endurance or no workout on a red day.
I’d suggest going what you feel makes most sense on the day.
Here’s the screenshot. Its now changed it to an anaerobic workout (from the VO2 max it recommended earlier) but it is still saying this is today’s workout (AI recommended). Yesterday it says today’s workout (AI recommended) was climbing and attacking was second if I scrolled down. They definitely change order. So why don’t they change order to put the endurance option at the top the day after doing an IF.94 ride?
Also, note the ones below also say “other AI Recommended workouts”. Bottom line is it’s not as smart as you’d like and it’s not meant to replace day to day planning structure.
(Note: I mean that in a positive way. Lots of us would like it to be smarter!)
I was in your shoes and really enjoyed Train Now but I find if only using it to replace a plan, you have go with the pattern of a plan.
I kept it three hard days a week with Saturday being my longest hard ride with whatever Train Now recommended. I also never went back to back hard days just because I wasn’t in the mood.
Then use the Endurance recommendation for the other days with two days off during the week.
The only thing that I didn’t at the time was that TN doesn’t give recovery weeks so you have to be on top of that. I found out the hard way after train for 5 weeks in a row.
I’d echo what others have said, you are probably expecting a bit much from Train Now. I’d expect it to respect overall training load, but it’s not optimizing workouts over time with the absence of a plan.
And for what it’s worth, doing a couple hard days in a row every once in a while isn’t typically a problem. I wouldn’t do it as a regular practice, but it’s not a hard and fast rule (in my opinion). Like most things in training, a single workout or week isn’t going to move the needle much (in either direction). Doing a workout with some fatigue in the legs can hurt the quality of the workout sometimes, but it’s also a good thing to experience to see how your body handles it. No different than lining up at a stage race with fatigue in your legs from prior days. The start usually feels heavy and you might think your legs will suck, but I’m often surprise how good my legs can be the day after a hard workout or race.
Ah ok, so TrainNow is essentially just a tool to get workout suggestions, but it doesn’t have any ability to really determine if those workouts are appropriate, even based on the training history of the day before. So the fact that it says “Get faster with a TrainerRoad AI Recommended structured workout. These selections are automatically chosen for you, based on your training history” is a bit of a fabrication, and, unless you know something about training (i.e. put in recovery weeks, pay attention to not doing too much intensity etc) you could end up doing hard workouts maybe more often that you should?
So I’m basically better returning to just self selecting workouts from the workout library anyway, or if I do use TN, to do so judiciously and not rely on it to give me sensible suggestions.
I’ve just had another look off the laptop and I am pondering if I will be home tonight to train. It’s now upped the ante a little bit more and have given me this lovely option for this evening - it does look kind of fun though, so I might do it anyway, even though I’m shattered, and think of it as training for a stage race I am never going to do
I’d say TN is better than randomly selecting workouts from the library but if you know your energy levels and time available and have a rough scheme you’d like to follow it could work well.
Using TN and the same general scheme might work better… just select from the time available drop down box the workout type for that day.
Maybe Wednesday always pick the endurance suggestion and the time available. Tuesday might always be the above Threshold workout.. you get the Idea.
On the general blocking on intensity, that can work well when you’ve go a big base and have plateaued. Back to back days at threshold have worked well for me when a bit stuck with high fitness for myself. I’d say use sparingly though when other ‘stuff’ stops working.
I did a hard ride yesterday, not yellow today, and just for fun checked TrainNow. It’s recommending an easy Sweet Spot ride. Not giving me back to back hard rides. Must not be as tough as you.
I’m not really sure what the issue is tbh. TN gives you workouts it thinks you can handle based on your training history and where you are at that given point in time. You can see it changing the workout types as the day progresses and you get more hours of rest from your last hard session.
Doing 2 hard days b2b is not optimal long term perhaps, but not an issue. Due to my schedule I have to do 2 hard days b2b and that’s on a plan.
TN gives you things it thinks you can handle, not what is optimal as it doesn’t know what you’re optimising for. The TN recommendations will certainly move you along in your fitness anyhow. But you’ve still got to own some of that cognitive effort as without a plan you need to figure what is best for you.
Example of TN giving hard things was this season training for my A event (crit) in specialty phase. Missed a workout. Used TN. Gave me anaerobic at PL 11 when I was a low 8 on PL(didn’t even know it went that high). I thought no way. But then if it says I can do it I’ll try. Sucessful but hard workout. Moved my along physically and psychologically as well, knowing I could do it.
So in my experience it gives you things it thinks you can handle right now. It’s not ramping you up over time like a training plan.
That doesn’t look too hard. It’s only a .82 There is nothing wrong with doing back to back medium to hard workouts. AI picks workouts it thinks you can complete based on your history.
Trust me, it was definitely too much, the day before was a 0.94. In the end I did a little 30 min z1 recovery ride and then had a really solid day the day after. I’ll keep mixing in the TR workouts in future as its definitely a useful tool, but am now a lot more aware of its limitations. I’m feeling pretty great at the moment self selecting workouts so I’ll stick with that for now.
Just wanted to come back to this thread. I’ve been using TrainNow for the last few weeks but it still throws out curve balls/doesn’t seem to tie in with RLGL. Maybe its an app glitch.
Sometimes it does only recommend endurance stuff to reduce intensity, which is good. I.e. it removes the option of doing climbing or attacking at all. I need this, I’m an idiot
It likes recommending climbing if I’ve had a few days off….also good because it gets the hard work out of the way.
However, honestly, some days I just have no idea what it recommends.
I’ve just done two back to back relatively intense days with:
Monday strength work including legs and plyometrics AM and then evening short 30min workout suggested by TN that was 0.9 IF before leading a steady, but hilly, hour’s social ride (IF 0.69)
Yesterday evening I did strenght work (upper body) then an anaerobic hour workout suggested by TN which was easy but still had an IF of 0.84.
I’ve just clicked on TN this morning and, despite the last two days it’s recommending another attacking workout as the top pick, which toggles between another anaerobic effort or a vo2 effort if I click refresh.
then I guess I’ll get a yellow day for tomorrow and an endurance day. It’ll be interesting to see how hard it lets me push before deciding enough is enough.
