This morning I was feeling a little bored or whatever so I fired up a 9.9 level VO2 Max workout. I finished it and rated it Hard due to Intensity, and gained +4.2 Progression points. Now my Progression Level for VO2 Max is 9.9 and all future VO2 Max rides are scheduled for 9+ difficulty.
Is this really how it’s supposed to work? Just because I could complete a high level workout means I should keep working at that high level?
FWIW, I have felt for a few months that all the rides are Easy or occasionally Moderate. My FTP has improved from 208 to 240 in a few months. I’ve only done AI FTP detection, never a ramp.
Yes. When you complete a workout, you earn the Workout Level as your new Progression Level. It’s always been that way.
The system is built upon some assumptions that people are served or choose workouts that are within reach. Most seem to be around 1.0 PL increase between workouts.
Some larger gaps happen after things like FTP updates or steps between plan phases.
Picking a workout nearly double your current PL and bumping at the 10pt max seems like an odd choice to me.
At this point, you may be best to contact support to see what they say or can do.
FTP too low is probably right. Based on my RPE for previous workouts across all zones, I feel like I could do a 9+ of any workout and rate it Hard or Very Hard.
Since January. I manually set my FTP to 208 when I joined (based on a Peloton FTP test). TR bumped me to 230, then 238, then 240. A recent AI detection kept me at 240. But again I feel like every workout is easy or sometimes moderate. I’ve done over 100 TR workouts so far and never had a problem finishing any of them.
Alternately you can just keep doing the workouts — it’ll figure out how “true” that 9.9 number is and you’ll get some really nice VO2 work in the meantime
VO2max is somewhat elastic term in TR workouts library context, ranging from workouts focusing on repeatability/attacks (on/offs, floats) to workouts that target truly VO2max (traditional intervals, etc).
Workarounds for artificial AT ceiling (would not go above PL 10.x) depend on your goals and/or in which training phase you are currently in:
in any case, you don’t have to limit yourself to prescribed power target, just increase intensity + cadence. Remember, goal is not power per se but ability to maximally utilize oxygen consumption
shorten recovery periods
if you deal with attack kind of workouts, look into anaerobic alternatives
Basically, read prescribed workout goals and then exaggerate it slightly
EDIT: if you go with longer intervals, do not assume you can complete same PL workouts. With less anaerobic energy system help, it can become suddenly harder than expected.
Thanks for the suggestions to take a ramp test. I tested this morning and hit 275, up from the AI detected 240. Maybe the AI isn’t tuned for rapid gains commonly found early in a training plan.
The AI FTP is looking at work you’ve completed. With an FTP set too low, the workouts would be easy. If you weren’t manually bumping intensity (either in work-out going to >100% OR picking a workout with larger PL), AI FTP won’t see enough consistent power to go up enough.
Since you just did a ramp test, you should be all set for a while. The other option would have been picking large PL workouts and/or increasing difficulty in the workouts. But then you’d have to wait for AI FTP to be available again.
From 240 to 275 is a massive bump - be sure to come back and tell us how that goes.
Thanks for the intel on the AI workings. I get what you’re saying.
Three workouts into my new 275 FTP and things seem real now. Two VO2 Max workouts at 4.7 and 5.0 were borderline hard, one threshold workout at 1.6 was a good workout. Maintaining 275 watts for an hour seems very hard, so I think I’ve got a good FTP set now. I could probably have given a bit more on the ramp test but I look forward to testing again in a month.
Not really specific to your question…but for VO2 max workouts you should generally be going as hard as you can. If you ever finish a VO2 workout feeling like it was just “moderate” then you likely weren’t going hard enough.
