Progression levels too aggressive?

Training
1

Last week was a taper week. I felt well rested when I did Pierce -3 yesterday, but it was still very challenging. I was quite happy to have completed it successfully. That resulted in my VO2 Max progression level going from 3.0 to 4.6. Tomorrow I’m scheduled to do Gendarme +2 (a VO2 Max 4.6 workout). I have serious concerns about being able to handle a 4.6 two days after a very difficult workout, when I had difficulty with 3.0 when well rested.

How is the progress level calculated? I rated the workout yesterday as very hard (or very difficult, I don’t quite remember the language on the survey). If the ride was very easy, I could see knocking the progress level by that much, but it’s doesn’t seem to add up when the workout was that difficult.

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This level of question is best directed to support@trainerroad.com. There are more factors at play here and we don’t have enough info on the outside to offer much help or more specific info.

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3

If I understand correctly, it’s giving you a workout of the same* type at the same difficulty level with 48hrs rest.

Sounds roughly OK to me.

*not quite, though. They’re different forms of VO2 max work, and so might well be progressed separately.

If you still don’t fancy it, maybe push it back a day or choose a slightly easier workout of the same type.

4

If you rate a 3.0 workout as very hard, most likely your FTP is set too high. Especially coming from a taper week.
Pierce -3 really shouldn’t be that hard. Did you recover during the short under intervals?

5

I think they’ve misunderstood the way PLs work.

Both workouts mentioned are 4.6. That’s why their PL went up to 4.6 after doing Pierce -3.

3.0 is where their VO2 PL was before doing Pierce -3.

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6

Thank you. And I see Gendarme +2 is for 60 minutes, and Pierce -3 is for 75 minutes. So Gendarme +2 should be bit easier, not harder.

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7

fwiw I’ve also been a bit freaked by the jump in progression and workout level/ proposed adaptations after marking workouts “Very Hard”. However, in my experience I have managed to complete the next workout, albeit with another “Very Hard” score. I’m running with trusting the process, and being honest if it really was “all out” or I get the fail survey.

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I was able to complete Gendarme +2 without too much trouble. I still graded to “Very Hard”, but I found less hard than Pierce -3 on Tuesday.

Sadly about an hour after the workout a got a charlie horse in my left calf, but that’s another issue altogether.

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9

What’s a charlie horse? is it an injury you get from spending too much time in a chaingang?

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A charlie horse is a muscle spasm. Often happens after vigorous exercise when the muscle is slack. It’s quite painful. I get them in left calf from time to time, the trick is put weight on it and stretch out the muscle.

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11

Thankyou John