I’ve always ran the AI FTP Detection when it’s ready. But recently I’ve wanted to change my goal from chasing a higher FTP to increasing TTE instead.
Found most of my struggles in Zwift racing is the VO2 max effort after threshold or the reverse which kind of led me to want a better TTE. Any cons of letting PLs trigger the FTP change besides losing the fun/excitement of clicking the button every 28 days?
I’d usually accept FTP Detections/Adjustments when they’re available, but if you are looking to climb up to higher Workout Levels to train some sort of specificity, you could decline the PL-triggered FTP Adjustment.
Generally speaking, we leave this type of stuff for the Specialty phases which you’ll be entering in a few weeks. If you want to try and increase your levels now though, go for it!
Just be prudent and make sure you’re not hand-picking a bunch of really hard workouts as they’ll become your baseline of sorts when Adaptive Training adjusts your plan moving forward. It’s better to climb up slowly than to make big leaps.
Thanks Eddie. I guess I was planning to let Adaptive training keep going (I’m assuming it will keep giving higher PLs as time goes on) then from experience it will trigger an FTP adjustment.
I’m thinking on accepting the PL FTP adjustment instead of doing the 28 day AI FTP calculation. Any thoughts on that?
Yeah, like I said, I usually recommend accepting any sort of FTP update that we give you.
If you decline it, your PLs will just keep climbing up as you continue to pass workouts.
If you accept it, your PLs will decrease to adjust for the FTP increase.
The main benefit to declining the FTP adjustment (which is what we do in Specialty phases) is to encourage you to temporarily keep climbing up to higher-level workouts which can increase race “sharpness” although it’s not sustainable for extended periods of time.
During other phases, we recommend accepting the FTP adjustments to keep your training manageable, sustainable, and on track.
Since you’re in a Build phase currently, I’d say that accepting the FTP adjustment is the right move, but, again, it’s up to you and how you’re feeling with your workouts!
Another thing you could consider is to use workout alternatives to swap out some the suggested workouts for ones that are more in line with achieving your desired TTE extension.
And let AIFTP do whatever it wants in the background to deal with those changes.