I created a custom workout for two hour power attempts. TR (correctly) judges that workout to be ‘tempo’. I attempted this yesterday and now my Tempo Progression Level needs a Spinal Tap adjustment…it needs to go up to 11.
I guess it will be like that until the next FTP assessment.
Dont trust progression levels for custom workouts, they are not accurate.
In this case, feels like that’s accurate!
A few weeks ago I set an all time 1.5hr power record but I did it using a 2hr recovery workout (~50% ftp) & adjusted the power up & down for a warmup & then a 90min interval. For that workout, TR screwed up the progression levels. TR software can’t interpret a free ride & extract a progression level…seems like the progression level analysis is 100% based on the structure of the workout without regard to how the actual ride went.
In this case, a progression level of 10 is justified IMO. (similar to Polar Bear, for instance, also Tempo PL 10)
I am just going off of what tr has said regarding progression levels for custom workouts. I don’t know what they do behind the scenes to adjust the PLs for their workouts though.
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Yes, absolutely! I am greatful for the information. Thanks. 
Let’s be honest, if I could pick one progression level to ahve screwed up, it would be tempo. 
What @Twowkg mentioned 
And we also recommend excluding custom workouts from your Progression Levels so they don’t get inflated and thus make future workouts super hard.
When you go to the activity page of the workout, you can click the pencil and exclude it from PLs:
Note: I’ve excluded it from your PLs.
Realised it didnt work to well so applied additional ai, which by the way is terrible with numbers.
I think accuracy of automatic PL assignments does not matter here. Sure, in this case it might have been wrong. But core issue is that TR’s workout suggestions cap at PL 10.9. While TR prompts AI FTP redetection when completing PL 10 workout, it offers little relief: a slight FTP bump drops PL to ~9, only for it to climb above 10 in 2–3 sessions again.
In short, TTE gains =/= FTP gains, leading to inevitable progression stalls.
I’m not a fan of the automatic FTP updates due to level 10 PLs - might make sense for suprathreshold efforts - but not sweetpot and below in my opinion.
I guess it depends on training history – when starting, first 2-3 years Sweetspot certainly does boost FTP considerably. For me, it was 3-5% per 5:1 on:off block. Probably could be even later but it was my own personal shift to high volume low intensity instead.
Anyway, whenever I pick up SS block again, it is exactly like I described and I have to choose my own workouts to progress further considering TR limit for hard days (2h and PL <= 10)
Please don’t make bold statements without supporting reasons. Can you provide some now?
Huh? I literally linked a post from someone on the tr team saying that progression levels for custom workouts are inaccurate. What other supporting reasons do you want?
Please provide an explanation or examples that justifiy or demonstrate the veracity of your assertion. I want to understand why you consider that to be the case.
He doesn’t consider it to be the case, TR says it is the case. He posted a link to a thread where TR said this is the case, Ivy is former staff. Caro posted in this thread stating it is the case and someone on staff flagged the post you are questioning as approved.
Cheers. To be clear, are saying that TR agree with him or disagree? I started reading your comment thinking the latter, but then it seemed to flip and say the former. Please accept my apologies if my sawdust brain is wet today.
The post I linked originally should explain everything quite clearly.
Well I tried to get this all-time 2 hour power record three times over the past little while. Interesting that it only blows up progression levels if I really pick a workout that is tempo. I started using a workout that was just 2 hours of recovery & then bumping up the power to record level & power levels was none the wiser. 
But! Yellow/Red light still tagged me for the next training session (appropriately). And garmin always sent me a notification at about the 90 minute mark that my increased level of activity had delayed my recovery. Also true, in my judgement.
The thing about 2 hour power record attempts…when you fail it is the most miserable workout ever. When you succeed it’s not that hard at all. I’m not sure how much of that is psychological and how much is physiologic.
Yeah, I was thinking, how often does a tempo PL come into play on a pure cycling plan? If you’re doing a triathlon plan I guess it’s a different story, but the only time I’ve had tempo work prescribed to me was Traditional Base 2. Otherwise it’s been excluded from all the plans I’ve done.
If you really want to break your training plan via PLs you could do it as sweetspot intervals. A custom 4×25’ with short recoveries gets you close. But then, there are higher-PL SS workouts in the catalog.
My general rule of thumb is, if I couldn’t do the workout once a week as part of my regular training for that zone, & without impacting other training, I classify it as an unsustainable hero effort & exclude it from my PLs. Looking at you, Disaster. 
