I just came off a winter training cycle on Sufferfest and decided to give Trainer Road a try - mostly because of the option of having outdoor training sessions.
With their 4DP power profiling, Sufferfest/SYSTM characterised me as either an Attacker or a Pursuiter, which makes sense because I’ve been training my VO2 this winter. My FTP is relatively low, compared to my VO2Max power.
My problem now is that Trainer Road bases the power zones of VO2Max workouts on FTP, which results in VO2Max targets that are way too low for me.
This + adaptive training will bump up the vo2max sessions to a harder workout. To speed up the process you could use the alternatives function and look for vo2 workout around level 5.5 to 6 if your confident your vo2max is good.
Thanks, I will definitely try that. But how would choosing a harder workout change the power targets? I don’t fully understand how adaptive training works, but from the looks of it, power targets are based on FTP (e.g. 110% of FTP for “Sunny Hay” which I happen to look at in the app right now), and the difficulty of the workout is based on duration in the power zone and how much difference from FTP there is (106% - 121%). So, even choosing more difficult VO2Max workouts would result in basically the same target powers unless FTP is changed?
(The 110% target of Sunny Hay is way below my maximum 5 minute power)
What am I missing here?
Edit (I am a slow thinker, hence the nickname): I think I got it now: By choosing and completing a higher difficulty workout, I bump my VO2Max progression value, which it turn will make the app choose more advanced VO2Max workouts for me in the future. So, what SUF does with their 4DP profile and different target power ranges, TR does with different progression levels. Right?
I think some of the higher PL vo2max workouts go up to 130% ftp. You can search all vo2max for 8 and 9 workout level to see if the power targets are appropriate.