So does anyone know if this is a normal situation
Depending on your prior Progression Levels, some drops are expected. āResetā can mean many things, so being more specific is useful (all to 1.0 for instance from much higher?).
For this and anything else you question, it is often best to email support@trainerroad.com for full review.
Yup everything is back to 1. Sent a support ticket in as well.
This also just happened to me after a ramp test. I figured it was because I earned a 5% bump up compared to the small handful of watts Iāve gained in my last few tests. As in, a bump of this size is what reset the levels, not simply the ramp test.
Iām not too worried about it at the moment. Iāve scored both my workouts since the test as easy and I plan to just see where it goes.
Yes, things seem easy but Iāve pretty consistently felt worked by the time I get into specialty blocks so Iām hoping less intensity earlier keeps me in check and able to get the most out of each block. If I feel like it, I can always mix in harder workouts.
This happened to me this week too. I did a ramp test, my FTP increased by 3%, and then all the Progression Levels dropped ā some significantly. It then updated a good number of my workouts. I wasnāt sure if I was misunderstanding Progression Levels but it seemed odd. I submitted a ticket for help as well.
As it happens I managed a chat with Nate on social media the past couple of days. I made a similar comment about the drops to zero and suggested that the drops should be proportional to FTP increase. He assured me this is in the works. Read between the lines, itās not doing that yet, but will in the future.
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Yep, mine just did the same thing. Did a FTP test and my watts jumped 8%. All the progressions reset to 1.0 except the vo2 which went to 1.2 I think.
Also had them mostly go back to 1 after a 5% FTP increase after a ramp test. This definitely needs some work, as this change was far too severe relative to the FTP change. I will be manually adjusting the next few workouts to be harder to get my progressions to a more reasonable place.
For the FTP and under categories, it seems to me that these should be shifted down by some amount. If I just did 180 watts for 2 hours last week and that was a 4.9 tempo, and then my FTP goes up by X%, it is very reasonable to assume I can still do 180 watts for 2 hours. This may now be a 4.1 tempo, or maybe a 4.5 endurance with the new FTP, but just bumping all levels down a bunch is clearly a quick and dirty shortcut.
Something along the lines of re-evaluating the levels past month of so of rides based on the new (higher) FTP and generating the new progression levels based on that would likely be better than making seemingly arbitrary decreases. (Note that FTP decreases would likely need different handling)
I received a response from TR customer support and the following is what they told me. It makes sense and Iāll be interested in seeing how this plays out over the next month.
"Progression Levels automatically adjust after an FTP increase. I canāt explain the exact workings here, but the Levels preserve their relative relationship with each other and are adjusted to account for a rise in your capabilities. In your case, it was a large FTP increase of 3% (nice one!), so itās normal to see the Levels adjust quite a bit.
We do this because the bump in your FTP can make any upcoming workouts feel harder than before if we kept them at the same Workout Level. That could lead to a situation where the first-week training at the new FTP was unproductive because the workouts were too difficult to complete successfully. This would then have negative consequences for the following weeks in that training phase.
By reducing the Progression Level, and in turn, upcoming Workout Levels, we can offset the FTP increase and serve you the right workouts for your current capabilities. This keeps the training on track and allows us to ramp the difficulty of workouts at a sustainable rate at your new FTP.
In any case, Progression Levels are dynamic, changing, real-time markers of progress, and as you continue to complete more workouts, youāll begin to see them change fairly regularly. A higher progression level isnāt necessarily ābetterā or is even a sign of a stronger athlete; they simply reflect current capabilities at your current FTP. Your FTP is still the best indicator of fitness!"
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Thats an exception explanation from TR support and makes complete sense. After a few weeks at the new FTP Iām glad the progression levels reset as everything became harder. Resetting the levels has given me body time to adjust without overtraining and making the new workouts too hard.
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A great explanation above. The level of āresetā is already variable, based on my experience in the last 4-5 weeks. Approx 5 weeks ago I had a good improvement in FTP (+4%) and that reset all my levels to 1. However my improvement this week (only a few watts) didnāt fully reset everything - there was a level of retention in the levels.
I think Nate did mention the logic of this on one of the earlier podcasts about AT, how the levels are always relevant to your current FTP.
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My levels dropped significantly after a 1 watt bump(259 to 260) from a ramp test a couple weeks agoā¦
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For reference: my PLās were essentially unchanged from a Ramp Test where I matched my current FTP on Monday evening of this week.
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Before AT and Progression Levels, I often found I started failing or burning out at the end of a block after a higher FTP result. So, if this helps sustainability over the long term and allows for consistent building, Iām all for it.
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I had same yesterday. 1W gain only, 225 > 226 Ramp and levels reset down significantly. Surely thatās not proportional, nor progressive. Emailed support.
Same thing for me, I went from 195w to 216w. I thought it was a bug but it seems that is normal. Also I have many adaptantions pendig in the following training block dropping the TSS.
195 > 216, nice job @mbaldini 
As I understand it thatās the kind of FTP increase that should result in a marked progression levels drop - to smooth out the transition to workouts at your new, higher FTP.
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Thanks, I didnāt knew that! I never know what to expect when doing a ramp test after a training block.
Just for the record, Iāve already completed a few workouts with the new FTP and all progressiĆ³n levels dropped to 1. The first workouts didnāt felt easy, moreover I have rated most of them as moderate or hard. So looking back, accepting the adaptations with lower TSS was really wise.
Cheers
Mauro
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