What happens when you swap out workouts to something completely different in AT?

I’m following a mid volume training plan in sweet spot base. Instead of the Sweet spot workout at the end of the week i want to do a 3-4 zone 2 outdoor ride each week.
Is it best to simply delete the sweet spot workout and stick a zone2 with similar TSS into the plan? what does AT do when you do that kind of swap and how does it adapt for future workouts?

Best protocol to ensure that change is accounted for within AT is to use Alternates to find a suitable substitution:

You can manually add a workout that you like instead, and it will impact your Progression Levels, but wont be considered for Adaptations.
Dragging workouts keeps workouts associated/considered for Adaptations, so if dragging and restructuring that way makes sense, it could be a good option as well.

Finally, you could go down to Low Volume so that you arent missing any key workouts, and just manually add a 2 hour endurance as an additional workout that will still raise your Progression Levels.

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So AT won’t take into account and adjust accordingly if you decide it’s a good day out and your go on a long outdoor ride?

  1. If you assign and perform an actual TrainerRoad workout outside, and provide the survey response… it will “count” for AT and potentially lead to updates of your plan.

  2. If you perform any other ride or workout outside that is NOT an actual TR outside workout… it will NOT “count” for AT or lead to updates to your plan. This falls into the “unstructured” umbrella that is not currently covered, but TR is actively working on their solution for this need.

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Hi. How do you select an Alternate to substitute on the Web? I can see the Alternates, but the web window seems to schedule this as an additional workout rather than does a swap.

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This is the biggest flaw that the world is waiting to be fixed. Until then AT is pointless if you incorporate unstructured outdoor rides into your training.

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  • It’s not currently possible to make the swap on the web. It must be done in the actual TR app.
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Great, thanks. That should be fine; I can do it on my phone from my desk and it will be ready for me when I go to the Cave…

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I’ll hold off until it can take all training into account, cheers

AT still has benefits even though it doesn’t adjust levels based on unstructured outdoor rides.

I was added into the Beta in late April and was doing structured rides during the week and unstructured outdoor rides on the weekends until early June when I did mostly unstructured rides until late August. I then started back up with TR doing only structured rides during the week and unstructured on the weekend.

AT still adjusted my weekday rides based on my feedback on the surveys for structured and unstructured rides. At no point did I feel like I was getting a bad recommendation. The only times I changed a ride was because of time constraints.

This was also the first time going back to indoor training since I started with TR that I did not do a FTP test. I kept the same FTP I had at the beginning of June and just jumped back into training. I have not failed one workout and felt challenged on almost every one that I have done.

It still works even though it doesn’t take into account unstructured outdoor rides.

I’m not so sure it is the flaw we think it is. It does take into account how a ride feels based on the survey and should adjust your structured workouts based on that feedback. I have seen my indoor workouts adapted based on the feedback I gave to the system after races.

I also have three different sources of power numbers, a kickr, a Cinch, and a 4iiii. They’re all fairly close but I do all my training on an old CX bike that lives on my kickr. I’m not so sure I want to have my PL adjusted based on powermeters that I don’t train on.

The only problem I see with unstructured outdoor rides not being accounted for is with the decay in PL. I only did a couple of indoor rides this summer and my performance levels dropped considerably. I chose to not adjust my FTP and went with the recommended adaptations and they quickly bounced up after I completed a few workouts and filled out the surveys.

I also don’t want my race efforts to influence my PLs. There’s a lot going on with a race and it’s not something I can replicate in training. I have never been able to put out the same effort in a race during any unstructured ride or workout.

I see your points and on reflection I agree about your thoughts on the PL decay. For that reason I’m going to disable AT as I can’t be bothered always clicking on “Don’t Adapt”

Any update on outside rides “counting” for AT? I usually study the type of workout that is recommended on a Saturday or Sunday and then try and hit those zones on an outside ride.

Thanks! Keep up the great works!

–Fred

#1 still works.

#2 is still not possible.

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Hi! I’ve been wondering how this can be. Don’t progression levels impact adaptations? So by the transitive property… but maybe (probably) I’m misunderstanding!