It’s been a while since the TR AACC crew focused on consistency, but I was thinking about it the other day and wanted to look at it via one method. The Training Stress chart in the TR Career page on the web is able to show up to 4 years of training TSS, along with FTP changes. I have no idea if this follows the TR guideline generally speaking, but the ebbs and flows here are interesting at the very least.
The dark green “TR inside rides” in comparison to the light green “Other” is interesting to see too. I get heavy inside work well into the season with addition of outside stuff around May or June. My tapers for A-events as well as some personal “resets” are visible just past mid summer too. And in the last few years, I have taken some very loose weeks around late Sep / early Oct to just play or not even touch the bike.
Also interesting is the relative lack of FTP changes (gray diamonds) I had in the last year with AIFTP mostly in control. As mentioned some of this is due to using AIFTPD and trying to trust it.
Most of those were testing (likely Ramp in this history) along with what I remember were repeated adjustments trying to fine tune my FTP through the season. Additionally, since changing FTP thru any method also resets AT PL’s, I was typically leaving FTP alone and letting AT drive the bus with my survey responses.
Compare that to prior years with the greater density of FTP changes. Most of that timeframe was FTP changes via Ramp Test. But more often than I wanted or should have done, I was tweaking my FTP to what I thought it was after the test or feeling in certain workouts.
FTP seems to progress in each year / method, but I know I was less stressed and over-thought the FTP less in the last year. I was getting workouts that generally felt “about right” with just enough Hard, Very Hard and even the odd All Out ratings to feel like I was being pushed.
But that was in stark contrast to prior years with the default TR plans and my tendency to blow up in some phases. Those issues led me to my older Alternate Layout method with shorter Work to Recovery week layouts than the TR defaults. Those mods largely keep me more ontrack, but I sure hit some of those old plan workouts that still crushed me (looking at you… Leconte & Mary Austin 
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Not sure where I was really headed with this. Bit of a wandering stream of consciousness review that may not have any real conclusions. I have also considered this in very broad review of my personal gains and results in events over these times.
This year looks to have been a lower overall “density” in a way, but I hit most of my events within the power and result ranges I had in mind. So maybe I can say that the AT + AIFTPD setup allowed me to maintain or improve as I have in prior years, but without the extra handling and more common explosions of the prior years?
Has anyone else done a similar review?
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