Is Adaptive Training Gaslighting Me?

Training
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Hi TR community!

First time, long time 49 y/o here looking that would be super appreciative of any feedback!

This is my 2nd season with TR. Learned a lot my first time through. Put my own plan together which ended up being pretty mediocre because I suck at self coaching (one of the reasons I joined TR). This year I did plan builder (Masters Base & Build → 40k TT Specialty - all LV) and it’s been a nice steady progression of fitness. More and more I’m trusting AT and AIFTP as they are bearing out/confirming as I go, recovery weeks come at just the right time…. Just been really happy with things. Picked 40k TT because I’m a naturally punchy rider and TTE at Threshold has always been a weakness of mine.

Lately I’m wondering if AT has been, as the kids say, gaslighting me. Keeps recommending harder Threshold workouts culminating with Unicorn (70 min at near Threshold! lololol Are you kidding me AT?!!) I’m technically doing ok on workouts with shorter intervals, but only because I can hang at the lower end of the outdoor target watt range. Last few Threshold workouts w/ longer intervals have mostly been upper SS.

I have 3 weeks left on the 40kk TT phase. I’m also a teacher and school has just ended so I am looking to work in more volume. No I haven’t joined the Zone 2 cult, but do believe that lack of volume for me is a limiter. But above everything, I just like riding my bike, especially outside (nothing personal TR! - still love ya!). Feel like by most standards LV is 6-8 hrs/week anyway and I’ve only been doing 3.5/wk since December. Recovery is probably also a limiter, but things might be slowly improving with that but I’ll avoid that rabbit hole for the moment. With all that said, what would you do given these options (feel free to suggest a different direction as well):

Cut bait and switch to a Polarized plan?
(+) Can better meet my summer goal of riding more and still retain structured training?
(-) But I hate quitting things (escalation of commitment/stubborn)

Or

Stick it out for the remaining 3 weeks?
(+) Increase TTE so I’m a more well rounded rider and if (when!) I crack AT will adjust anyway?
(-) More likely to get burned out?

Thanks!

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A TT is all about holding as much power as possible for around an hour.

I would stick with it as long as you feel you won’t break.
Then next time pick a mid volume plan that has more zone 2 on the weekends.
Or
Go low volume and sub long Z2 rides on the weekends.

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I would stick with it. You can always use workout alternates to make each workout longer. It also sounds like you have more time. What I do is follow the LV plan and add a 4th day that is a “fun ride”. I ride my bike because it is fun so I don’t want to forget that. I am free to ride however I want on those “fun ride” days. Sometimes I add in a 2-3 hr Sweet Spot workout, or just jump on some random mtb trails.

If it were me, I’d stick to LV and just add a 4th long fun day.

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Are you training for something specific or just trying to build fitness?

If the latter, and you want to ride outside, I’d say ride outside. It’s not like unstructured outdoor rides are detrimental to fitness, though they probably won’t build it as efficiently as structured TR rides.

My experience is that skipping structured workouts in favor of nice outdoor rides is bad for peak fitness but good for my sanity. I typically do a mid-volume plan hitting all key workouts in winter and early spring, but transition to low-volume and add some outdoor fun riding (often fast group rides) when the weather improves. I could probably be a few % stronger sticking to structured only, but I ain’t getting paid to ride my bike so I’d rather enjoy it.

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Not going to address the “3 weeks left” question, rather I’ll agree and say that my own training is much better when I do more conditioning work than what was prescribed under the pre-AT TR LV (and MV) plans.

One basic concept from “Zone 2” (I hate that term) is that endurance riding builds conditioning. This is an old concept, so let’s dispense with z2 blah blah blah.

Listened to part of this podcast yesterday:

The beginning of this podcast lays out what I believe, based on experience. Summarizing:

  1. Consistently ride 5-6 days a week to establish conditioning
  2. Establish a rhythm of hard/moderate/easy days to build performance on top of conditioning
  3. Then focus on progression & periodization to optimize performance gains

My issue with riding 3 days a week - by skipping the first step (riding 5 days a week), I don’t have the conditioning needed to do the hard work and increase chances of optimizing performance. No, I don’t ride 15-30 hours/week like pros. But getting to 6-10 hours/week makes a huge difference in my training.

Jumping straight to progression might work for some on 3 days/week, but it clearly doesn’t work for me.

You can apply those fundamentals to TR.

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Hey there!

It doesn’t sound like AT is gaslighting you or trying to trick you in any way here. As @TrekCentury said, the 40k TT Plan is all about prepping you for a 40k TT. Those kinds of efforts involve holding as much power as you can for around an hour.

Unicorn is 70 minutes at 92-96% FTP, which should be a doable workout if your Progression Levels are higher in your Threshold Zone. We’d expect to see a workout like Unicorn slotted into your 40k TT Plan if you’re towards the end of it right now.

The goals of the workout even state:

Muscular endurance workouts like this one are about as close to a full-on 40km time trial as you’re likely to get without actually doing a 40km time trial.

That doesn’t mean it’s an “easy” workout, but it should be one that you’d be able to complete! If you go into it with a positive mindset, well-rested, and well-fueled, I think you could smash that one out. :muscle:

All that said, if you’re looking to start increasing your volume now that school’s out and you have more time, there’s no problem with that, either! It looks like you’ve been on your current plan for a while now considering you’re almost finished with the Specialty Phase. In that case, we’d recommend taking 1-2 weeks completely off to rest and recover before starting your next plan. That will help you “refresh” before jumping into a new training cycle.

If you’ve been doing about 3.5 hours/week since December, we’d also recommend that you start to bring your volume up gradually. Bumping right up to 6-8 hours/week would be double your current volume, which could be difficult to manage. Adding in an extra 1-hour ride per week to start would help get your volume up closer to 5 hours per week, and from there you can start to tack on 15-30 minutes of extra time to a couple of your sessions each week to continue to build.

The following article has some more tips on increasing your volume while avoiding the risk of burnout:

FInally, it does sound like either a Polarized Plan or Masters Plan would be a good fit for the kind of training you’re looking for. You’d be able to bring up your volume with more low-intensity riding, while still maintaining a couple of structured workouts each week. Sounds like the right approach for you!

Hope this helps – feel free to let us know if you have any additional questions!

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Thanks all - appreciate the feedback!

No race coming up for me, just trying to improve a historical weakness for me, TTE at Threshold,

WindWarrior - Listened to the pod and it made a lot of sense, while using a pretty simple framework which I always appreciate. Brought to mind Kollie M’s recent pod (Perspectives # 34) where he posits that there is a strong relationship between volume and fatigue resistance. These ideas make intuitive sense to me.

Zack - Def not implying that AT was/is trying to trick me, just cheekily making the point that it might have been getting a little optimistic regarding my current abilities. Went from the original 40k TT phase with it wrapping up w/ about 4 weeks of gradually reducing TSS week over week (taper?) to a round of suggestions that, as you note, were effectively 1 HR TT’s, some with portions over Threshold, while I was already on the limit at the low end of the range. In fact on Unicorn-1 this past Saturday (4x15min @ 95-100% ftp, 1 min recovery in between). First 2 intervals went ok then on the 3rd, like Ben O’Connor in the 1st two episodes of Tour De France: Unchained - Season 2, the bottom fell out :joy:

I don’t really know what my limiter is recently. I can make a strong case for suboptimal nutrition/hydration/sleep/recovery/etc. Or perhaps AT increased the length of the Threshold intervals, while decreasing recovery time in between, a bit too aggressively for me at this time. And maybe I should have selected max effort instead of Very Hard on some post workout surveys. Experience would lead me to guess in these kinds of things that it’s a bit of everything, but again I’m not sure and that’s ok. That’s half of the fun of all this for me - figuring these “puzzles” out!

Still not sure what to do the next couple of weeks but I couldn’t agree more with you on gradually ramping up the volume going forward. Learning towards continuing with the Threshold work (perhaps slightly modified) and moving on to Polarized for a block. But I also want to start looking at next season so that my specialized phase ends about when school gets out.

While thus far I’ve followed Plan Builder to a “T”, honestly it’s going to be a struggle discipline-wise to ramp up volume slowly. I’m just very excited for the extra time to ride as my normally packed work and family schedules open up a bit. Does it make any difference if I keep the additional volume in the high recovery/low endurance range?

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The intensity of the extra volume will definitely impact how you’re feeling. Generally, you can add on more volume (to an extent) if you keep it at an easier pace. That way, your recovery won’t be impacted as significantly.

That said, we’d still recommend building up over time rather than jumping straight into it. Tack on a bit of extra volume each week, and within a few weeks, you’ll be up closer to the volume you’d ultimately like to target. It can definitely be tough to avoid the urge to bring your volume up right away once you have the time to do so, but bringing it up gradually is worth it to avoid excess fatigue and possibly burnout.