Today I had Eclipse -1 on the calendar but for some reason wasn’t feeling that long recovery during the middle of the intervals so swapped it out for Tallac +1. The workout felt 
, I was even beginning to like all the different steps that this one has during the interval.
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Just finishing week 10 of a 12 week FTP builder block. I completed Spruce-1 while I watched Omloop het Nieuwsblad. What a great way to spend the mornging! So far TRs AI FTP detection and workout planner has been amazing! Love it!
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Technically yesterday but had my first good feeling threshold workout in a while. Was back to back to back VO2, SS into Threshold for the 3 days. Had a work trip and then got a little sick that had impacted week prior and first half of this week.
Also really enjoy seeing other TR kits in Zwift, gives me an extra boost seeing them out there and know we are all working on similar workouts. Working on the tron bike upgrade so was towing some other TR users around on my Zwift TT bike.
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First failed planned workout this year. I’d already put it back a day, but I still wasn’t feeling 100% and should probably have not started it today either. Got through two and a bit of four intervals but today was a day when telling my legs to shut up just wasn’t working.
Ah, well. Recover and regroup. 
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Garraun VO2 Max 5.7. The first tough session after a recovery week is always the worst 
Rated this hard; very challenging, but manageable. TR AI did well with this selection. It was a push without risking failure. That said, I’m glad there wasn’t a fourth set of intervals 
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Today I did my first ever outside workout, on a significant local hill. This also happened to be my first VO2 workout in a decent while. Garraun, rated a 5.6 (I note @stevo_bot’s post immediately above this one said 5.7 - I assume that’s an outside vs inside thing.)
I’ve seen people debating before whether to use ERG mode or not for VO2, with those against it suggesting you shouldn’t aim for TR’s prescribed intervals, you should aim for an RPE of 8-9. I read a bit on the subject before I went out, but not as much as I’d have liked to due to time constraints.
Obviously being outside, there was no ERG mode option. But I still had the debate in my head of do I do the ~340ish watts TR was asking for, or bury myself a bit more. I quite like my hard days to be hard, so I opted for the latter. 9 intervals of 2-2.5 minutes, where I averaged between 377 & 410W (depending on whether we’re talking avg or NP), without a drop-off across the set.
I wasn’t sure how to rate this. During each interval certainly “Very Hard”, almost “Max Effort”. But with the 5 minute cool downs? Just “Hard”, I think. I could have done 3 more intervals, for sure. They might have started to suffer, but even if they had I’d still have been above the watts prescribed. It’d have been a Moderate if I had done what TR asked for, for sure.
Garmin gave me a 52% rating on my workout, which I think I understand is low because I intentionally went over the power targets. Also my warm-up and cool-down were through some traffic etc.
The first interval was a bit confusing to me, I was ready to go, but it didn’t start counting the time down, said I had to press my lap button first. By the time I worked this out I’d already been balls to the wall for 30s 
I assume that’s a safety thing, so no-one suddenly tries to bury themselves when their recovery interval happens to end an a sub-optimal moment.
All in all I enjoyed that, I can see me doing more workouts outside, now that the sun is starting to shine here again.
I still don’t really know what’s better though for VO2, the watts they ask for, or the watts I can do. 
FWIW my predicted FTP 15 days from now went from 315 (+13) to 317 (+15), apparently regardless of whether I mark it as Hard or Very Hard… …so I’m inclined to keep punishing myself more than TR wants me to in the VO2s
Two other unknowns for me:
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tacx neo 2 inside, favero assiomas outside. Never compared the two. I guess I should…
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how different I perform inside vs outside. Pretty much a given that I’ll perform better outside, which is part of why I elected to go harder, but at the moment I have no handle on how big that difference might be. Turbo is in a single-skin wooden garage (so not hot at this time of year), and I have a powerful fan, but still.
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@downhiller Well done on the outside workout. I always enjoy structured workouts outside whenever possible.
FWIW, if the workout is simple enough that you can memorize it, I don’t bother faffing with the Lap button. I just use the timer and keep track of interval and rest durations in my head. Hot take / unpopular opinion: ALL outside workouts should be simple enough to memorize.
Some bike computers can cycle through intervals automatically, too.
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Thanks, having never done a workout on a Garmin before, I didn’t know that was an option. Kinda assumed I had to do it a certain way for it to “log* the intervals.
Though I’ve read since that TR basically ignores efforts in outdoor workouts - the workout is simply a pass or a fail (and even that is self-declared), no weight or meaning is given to anything you do IN the workout?
Well done on the outside effort! Picked a good hill too by the look of it.
It looks like you’ve memorised the workout or done it off a cue sheet, rather than sent it to your bike computer. In this instance, upon association you’ll just score the levels allocated to the workout. TR isn’t currently set up to give a PL score to workouts done this way. But that doesn’t really matter anyway, you’ve sent your muscles & the ML a message.
Also with VO2max, it’s a unique zone with two possible outcomes… not necessarily at odds with one another. There’s the mildly suprathreshold but not full-anaerobic region of power output (muscular), & there’s the training of peak aerobic uptake (circulatory). I’ve seen coaches on here prescribe upwards of 120rpm in Z5 to train the latter.
Nice work on Eichorn +2. I usually find that one manageable if the FTP is set right, but the Bluetooth dropouts on Zwift can definitely kill the momentum during those sweet spot intervals. Glad to see the AI detection was actually accurate for you.
No, I did send it to my Garmin, I just wasn’t very good at meeting the targets it wanted, or at keeping power consistent
@downhiller you can assign / tag intervals after the fact in the TR app and website, as well as in just about every other sports tracking service (eg Training Peaks, Intervals.icu, Garmin Connect, etc).
Holding power zones outside is definitely a learned skill, but is also what makes outside workouts so enjoyable (at least from my perspective).
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Had Ericsson +2 today. For some reason, this workout and I never get along, but today it was especially harsh to me!
I’m coming off of the endurance week and increased FTP, and I’ve been surprised by how high my heart rate has been for this week’s workouts. I reached 180bpm today, a value typically observed for vo2 max work!
Despite the elevated heart rate, I was feeling fatigued but ok by the end of the second to last interval. The last one was quite hard, so I rated very hard.
Didn’t get the best sleep last night, but I don’t think that would contribute so much to this result.
In any case, looking forward to Saturday’s threshold session.
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I tried to do Muir today on my commute home from work…but I ran into an astronomical amount of unplanned ice on a trail I haven’t been in since last October and had to cut the workout 20 minutes short so I could walk a mile up the hill….still hit the TSS target and got full credit on the workout score, though, after finishing my ride home within the power target zone once I got past the ice! 
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This week Threshold workout was The Priest +5 and the AI lost money again.
These hard start workouts get so close to cracking me, I can’t believe that I finish the workout.
Gave it a Very Hard rating.
Next one is The Chimneys +5 if nothing changes.
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Bounty today. Not feeling 100%, and rated this session very hard. I could not have completed another block of intervals. Improved power and cadence at approximately the same HR compared to the last session (AI FTP 299 vs “old” FTP 293) . I suffered though this one, but I’m pleased overall 
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Nice job on Bounty 
Those workouts where you’re not at 100% gets me because you know that if all was normal it would have been just a Hard workout RPE wise.
The other screenshots is the from Interval ICU?
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Thx @Kendogz161 
I use the “can I complete another block/set of intervals without failing” scale to decide between hard and very-hard. Today I just wasn’t felling like it was possible I rated the prior Bounty sessions hard.
Yes, those screenshots are from interval.ICU’s compare activities tool. Very helpful for tracking progress
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Today I had Antelope +1, this was my last workout before a day off and my legs were feeling it after Friday’s Priest +5 workout.
After completing this one I see that I’m still getting trolled by the AI and out went The Chimneys +5 and back in come Lion Rock -4.
This is the one that I got rid of with the Very Hard rating after The Priest +5.
Guess this thing is in my future 
.
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