Trigger maximal progression level or follow adaptive plan

Looking at the workout in the library, I realize I could change to harder workout to push my progression levels on several of the levels. But following the plan in adaptive training I see that I will not be doing workouts that challenge my progression for a very long time, if at all.

Replace workouts that maximize progression (to make AT understand your level) or follow AT and build slowly?

Did you do a ramp test? How do you know you wonā€™t be challenged by the initial workouts?

1 Like

Yes, I have done a ramp test. Will do another end of this week as well. But browsing in the workout library I see workouts with much higher progression level that I know (from previous training and experience) that I could pull of.

Currently some of the workouts will challenge me, while others not as much

I had that same problem on my most recent plan. My Vo2 abilities are a lot higher than the plan pinned me at. I personally chose to have a look through the Alternates and find something that I felt I could complete and replaced the workout on the plan. Following that I got a lot of adaptations on the plan and I felt like I was working in the right zone for me.

3 Likes

Iā€™d say you want to push your limits. I donā€™t think ā€œeasyā€ workouts necessarily benefit you if they arenā€™t intended to be easy. You can approach it conservatively and do the first workout. If itā€™s easy, then you should classify it as such in AT and see what it does. If you donā€™t think it progresses you enough, then dabbling in the alternates and picking one that you think would push you harder is fine. However, I think you need to be careful not to pick a workout that you would classify as ā€œvery hardā€ or ā€œall outā€ as your first workouts in the plan. A less conservative approach is to replace the first workout. Once you find that line between hard and very hard, AT should do it things to keep your progressions manageable. It also matters what phase you are in. If this is Base 1, I might try to keep things more manageable, but if itā€™s Build, thatā€™s a different story.

1 Like

I was a 1.0 on anaerobic going into CX specialty, and I wasnā€™t taking a ramp test or changing my FTP, so instead of the ramp test I did a 4.0 anaerobic workout to get the progression a bit higher and not as easy. This ended up working fine for me, at the end of CX specialty now and Iā€™m a 7.0 anaerobic, so I think sometimes itā€™s fair to try a workout to establish a different floor for your adaptive progression

If you know your actual level for a particular energy system is significantly different from what is on TR then Iā€™d swap out a workout for one with a higher level that would be ā€˜hard but not close to failureā€™ e.g. a 7 out of 10 to get the level right.

This is likely best done using ā€˜Alternativesā€™. I did this for the first week or so of my plan to get everything in the right ball park then have let AT go wild and been superb! I occasionally use alternatives to select a slightly harder (say within 0.5 level) or very very occasionally an easier ride but usually AT now feels pretty spot on

2 Likes