Workout Levels V2 update? [Unstructured Rides]

Yes. Another useful benefit for me would be appropriate “scoring” of indoor workouts where I’ve gone off piste somewhat from the original workout structure, for example by significantly extending the duration of the final interval in a set, or increasing the intensity of the workout as a whole or of some intervals. Relatively minor stuff, but a better idea of the extra PL attained would be useful (for me) when it came to manually calibrating a progression onwards in subsequent workouts, if that was my goal.

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If i am doing MWF as my key session (LV RR).
I have increased my sessions by 15mins :joy:
and planning to add z2 outdoor rides, which will give me more benefits?

2x 90min Z2?
OR
1x 180m z2 rides?
will have same benefit?
I am prepping for a 190km road race.

Is there a time constraint? Why not both?

do both? Means 6 training days? Off only on Sunday?

If you have the time available to ride 6 days a week, you can build up progressively, adding time to your rides and eventually adding days to your training week. 6 days may be a good option to add endurance for your 190k event. :+1:t2:

It depends on your goal. There is a benefit to riding more frequently but there is also a benefit to doing longer rides.

Im preparing for a 190km race. Which route should i take?

Clearly, the route set out by the race organizer. WhatamImissing?

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I think he’s asking about a ‘route to fitness’ via a training plan, not the ridden course for the event.

Essentially, the ubiquitous “What plan should I do?” question of the season.

If that’s the angle, I’ll offer the blanket TR response to use Plan Builder with your event as the A-event and type of interest. Likely a Gran Fondo based on distance but there may be reasons to choose otherwise.

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I think he was saying “if I plan to ride this far, should I do 2 shorter workouts or 1 long one?”

I want to say the longer one, but I’m reluctant because I know someone will reply “you can do long rides without long training” and I don’t want to go down that old rabbit hole.

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That makes more sense than my take once I see the earlier comment.

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That’s why I said “do both”! :grin:

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I didn’t say that I cannot do them indoors. Over the winter I will often do them indoors. But one can only do 2-3 intense sessions a week (continuously) and if I choose to do those outdoors then my PLs will be inaccurate. The higher intensity PLs will be dropping while my actual abilities will be increasing.

If one doesn’t ride outside much all year, then their PLs will be accurate. For the majority of us during outdoor season they won’t.

IMO that is the bottom line of the issue. It isn’t funny to stay indoors forever following blue bars and the mantra “Stick with the plan and everything will be fine.”

We do intervals aiming to cope with the fast Wednesday rides, podium in local races, and achieve goals. We don’t do boring, painful intervals just because we love it. Doing workouts indoors might be time-efficient for some. There’s bad weather for others, family/work constraints and a long list. But still, I bet if we didn’t have any of those problems 95% or more of our time would be outside.

That said, PL might mean more for some and less for others. Don’t measure others’ desires with your rule.

The point is that a training plan CANNOT be so static/rigid. There must be room for play. Maybe today you have a 2x30 SST @ 90%, then your mates decide to do a zwift group ride for 90 min. There will be lots of attacks, fun, etc. and, at the end of the day, you did 1hr straight at 90% and didn’t realize. That wouldn’t be measured by TR, because the system doesn’t understand unestructured rides. So next week, the system will give you the same workout, without considering that you already did something similar, even harder. No PL adjustments!

You can play with this hypothetical situation a lot, summer group rides, mtb, and so on…

That is my main criticism of TR. It only works, and gives you “the right workout every time” if you’re a robot. Maybe that’s why people say “I burnet out following TR plans”. I bet it wasn’t because it was hard, but because it was extremely hard to follow that rigid schedule.

Well, just my 0.02.

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If your zwift ride really did look something like the scheduled 2 x 30 SST then you just associate it with the workout and you get the PL upgrade and get moved to a harder workout next week.

If it was what it sounds like with “lots of attacks, fun, etc” and was a hard unstructured ride with lots of time amassed in every zone then it almost certainly hasn’t moved the dial in terms of your ability to put out steady SS power for long durations, so it’s entirely correct that you would get served up that workout again next week.

Fully agree there needs to be room to play. IMO this is where the LV plans and now the option to toggle Masters plans comes in. Let TR schedule 2 hard workouts a week (and you now have the option to choose the length of these), then that leaves you free to have a third hard day having fun doing whatever you want whether that’s a race, group ride, zwift, whatever. If you want more fun than that that’s also fine, just at some point there’s really not much point following a TR plan and you’re better off switching to using TrainNow for the times when you feel like doing some structure.

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Very well said. My subscription is cancelled for those reasons.

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The schedule isnt rigid unless you make it that way. You have the flexibility to decide what you are doing each day. No one forces you to do the ride. You feel off one day and your going to do a VO2 workout? or are you going to do something easier?

TR is a tool that gives you the suggested workout for the day. Everyone has the ability to assess how they feel and determine if they should do the suggested workout or do more or less. TR provides full flexibility in alternates on time etc. Failing that you just go pick a workout.

If anyone thinks there is any plan or program out there that will give you the magic plan to be the best out there…It doesnt exist. It really is up to you to do the work. It helps to think about what your doing but in the end cycling is an aerobic activity that improves by riding more. TR wouldnt have a business if we didnt think the magic plan is being given to us.

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“If I didn’t have a family, a job and other obligations, I’d do all rides outdoors.” But people do.

In addition, even if time was not a concern, I’d likely do lots of types of intervals indoors for safety reasons. I’d simply add outdoor endurance rides and rides to practice skills.

I also don’t think every athletes has as much a dislike of intervals as you do. Personally, I really like doing intervals.

I don’t see why athletes using TR would have more trouble integrating group rides and Zwift rides into their training than athletes using other platforms or have a coach.

PLs have nothing to do with that, all that matters is to manage your fatigue properly. So I’d just schedule the free rides (group rides, Zwift rides) during the week and then add intensity and volume as you see fit.

Unless your group or Zwift rides follow a specific structure (e. g. motor pacing), you likely won’t see any gain in PL as the efforts are more mixed. If those efforts make you stronger, you can maintain a faster ramp of your PLs.

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@brenth I don’t disagree with what you said, but the topic is "Workout Levels V2 update? [Unstructured Rides].

The lack of reading/understanding of these rides by TR is frustrating and, for me, crucial to cancelling the subscription. If you are ok as is, that sounds good.

Also, your constraint is safety, remove that variant and you’d go outside as well.

@OreoCookie I didn’t say I “dislike” intervals. I said that intervals are a means to achieve a goal. If your goal involves being faster, winning races, etc. intervals are necessary, and I’ll do them. I meant that I don’t think people without those goals will do intervals because they like it. My mistake was to use the pronoun “WE”. I haven’t done any research, or have the power to speak on behalf of someone, so I might be completely wrong. What I said was based on people I know personally only.

I know a guy, for instance, who puts 300/500km weekly. Bad weather, snow, ice. He’s outside doing 100k fat bike rides. He loves riding his bike for hours. Taking photos, knowing places, etc. He doesn’t do a single structure session, never.

You really think that this guy will wake up at 5 am to do a 5x5? No, he won’t.

As for PL, they have everything to do with that. Quoting TR:

You train, AI analyzes, PL will be adjusted, it’ll adapt to reflect what you did, train gain.

If AT doesn’t recognize/read/interpret/analyze/whatever your unstructured rides, it won’t adjust properly and you have a flawed training plan. That’s simple for me.

I’m pretty sure this guy who loves riding a lot and never does structure wouldn’t pay for a training app to begin with.

From my own experience, using another app that did take in account “ unstructured rides” it still wasn’t perfect. Doing a 75 mile gravel race and rating it “all out”, because I was smashed and didn’t want to look at my bike. They suggested a tempo ride the next day. Doesn’t sound like it was working that great to me.
End of the day these apps all have flaws and aren’t perfect. I have no skin in this game, I’ve found what works for me and hope you find what works for you.

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