Why don't I get the full list of workout alternates? (VO2 Max, short efforts only?)

So I have Bird +1 scheduled for tomorrow (7x1 minute @ 130% ftp). But short VO2 max efforts don’t work for me, I don’t get my heartrate and breathing where it needs to be. I need at least 3 minute efforts. But when trying to pick an alternate it only gives me such with short bursts and no sustained efforts, altough there are more than enough with the same or similar progression level.
Why can’t I choose freely of all the VO2 max workout? If I delete the workout altogether wouldn’t that screw up AT and also FTP detection?

From the related support article:

How do Workout Alternates know what workouts to recommend?
Workout Alternates suggests workouts from the same training zone and workout profile as your original workout. It also only recommends workouts similar in difficulty to your original workout, as measured by Workout Levels. Alternate workouts may have different TSS and IF than the original workout.

In this case, since you were originally assigned a basic short/short workout, the Alternates are likely to follow that idea.

If you aim to alter something like interval duration and/or count to a larger degree like mentioned, you may have to step outside of the Alternates and just do a different workout using the other search filters.

Additionally, with your direction in mind, it may well be that there is a limit of workouts like you describe, that also fall within the relative Progression Level range for the Difficulty Level you have on the schedule.

I actually just asked support about this, i thought it was a bug. It turns out that you only get alternates that match the filtered type for the workout. So for instance, over-unders in threshold will only show up if you have o/u scheduled. Or a workout with bursts (chicoma for example) will show in alternates if the workout youre supposed to do is defined as “with bursts”. Other types wont show in alternates. It doesnt mean you cant replace one type for another manually that meets the workout level for that week. In other words, works as intended

There are sub-categories within most of the workout zone categories. The Alternates menu gives you other options in the same sub-category.

I still don’t know the right answer here. When I want to do an alternative in a different sub-category, I’ve been deleting the original workout and adding the one I want to do, but @IvyAudrain has said a few times that deleting the AT workout is the wrong approach. We could

  • leave the AT workout alone and do the one we want, but I don’t know if that would count the original as a skip
  • associate the workout we do with the original AT workout, but that might mess up levels/cumulative TSS/etc.

Guidance from TR would be appreciated here :sweat_smile:

It would. Ultimately, Alternates are the best option here, but if you don’t want to do a shorter-effort VO2Max workout for example, ever, you can delete it and just understand that AT wont try do make an adaptation to account for that work later (which… sound like that’s okay for this athlete haha).

Great news is: Levels V2 (that accounts for all workouts and all unstructured rides both within and outside of your plan) will address this problem so nicely. It’s on the way! :slight_smile:

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