@Nate_Pearson, I have the same question. I’m not able to really gage my running intensity. Overall, it’s not a lot of time working out, but the impact on joints and muscles is outsized for the time compared to cycling. I’m also an older athlete (53). I’m hoping that the software will have some way of using history and heart rate to rate a run and not have to ask us for subjective input.
Plan Builder fully supports it, you can use Masters plans and configure each day time allotment.
It is currently configurable up to 24h/week:
- 2x 2h hard days
- 4x 5h easy days
oh, i no longer sub so I haven’t experienced these changes firsthand, but that’s somewhat encouraging as a step in the right direction
Really really cool. I appreciate you taking time out of your day to record this and upload it.
B/c i know TR gets a lot of flack for prescribing “too much intensity” it’s important context that, I AND I ALONE BUILT THESE BLOCKS. None of these workouts were part of a TR plan. I build on my calendar based upon my goals (sub 3:45 up Haleakala), my work/home schedule and work stress.
Here’s some of my initial reactions/feedback which I hope is helpful for you and the team.
- This is really cool, great job all!
- How do i interpret a “yellow day”? My first thought, “oh this is bad and i should take the day completely off”, yet, when i didn’t and the day was still yellow, i was able to complete workouts. How do i read into that?
- Are yellow and red days for that day only?
- How do i read into multiple yellow days in a row? should i be doing endurance rides only on yellow days, take the day off, maybe hit some low tempo?
- looking over this, it appears that the days in which I can workout (fri, sat, sun) are yellow, so how do i balance the yellow days with progressively overloading the body
from the user perspective, i’d categorize all of these questions as a “teach me how to use the thing”
Thanks!
Great to hear that runs are considered. I presume that’s HR based - is that looking at different HR zones compared to cycling? Accounting for the fact HR is usually a bit higher running. Or does the AI handle all that stuff…
so in the example provided above, the user had quite a few red days but still had two ftp increases in the period posted. perhaps preventing ftp increases for individuals getting lots of red might be one step to preventing burnout
FTP increases are just that. I don’t want the platform to lie to me or withhold information.
I don’t think the idea is that red days are inherently bad, it’s what you do in response to the red day. Do you do a recovery ride or take the day off, or do you just keep pushing? I hope when I see my history it contains plenty of yellow and red days, and that I adjusted accordingly. Or more likely in my case, I planned to push into the red, knowing I had a rest day or recovery week right after.
well I think it comes back, as it always does, to interpreting the concept of FTP. I personally see nothing in those lower level sweet spot and threshold workouts which would really warrant an increase in ftp vs allowing the user to keep building tiz in those areas. but that’s my perspective from my own experience
Have you thought about having folks share non cycling activities to take the extra fatigue from that into account? Because I’m lifting heavy in the gym 3x/ week currently, and of course that also contributes to fatigue.
Call it “Stop-Go”. Short and sweet. Not sure if anyone came up with that before
Exciting stuff!
2 questions:
- Is HR data incorporated into RL/GL? I ask because the days in which I fail a workout that I should be able to do, my HR is higher than what I would expect based on a recent workout in that training zone.
- Will there be a way for RL/GL to incorporate weight training?
Thanks!
After reading all this now I’m super interested to see if it would spot anything. None of the platforms I have predict that the wheels would come off.
Moriah (too intense), Sterling, Karakoram +2 were the 3 sessions in one week that killed my desire to train. the week before I had Anthony, Acrodectes -1 and Pavillon (which I bailed and marked too intense) I also dropped the glassy -2 the day after Pavillon.
I still can’t look at Karakoram +2 without wanting to retch. Even though honestly I’d probably be fine now. I have blue bar graph ptsd.
I still maintain that the “ftp” was simply a gross generalization that didn’t apply properly to my vo2/threshold efforts. Of course I have no scientific proof of that.
But I also know that week by week I felt weaker, and my ftp was also flat to down. Which now that I’m reading that, basically that might be the issue, the hard rides start to suppress my ability to operate at threshold, and now my ftp (which started off by a couple %) is going down making the rides even harder.
I don’t think any model is going to catch that.
Their lack of red days is very interesting!
And in stark contrast to me, I imagine 
, when riding Ventoux/Alps for 2 weeks (late last summer), doing ~25 hrs/week vs. my regular volume of ~10 hrs. Being on a preset itinerary I realised the lack of recovery would be a big problem, and tried to schedule some days as “easier” ones, which helped a bit I’m sure, but it’s tricky when your so-called easy day involves 2000m ascent up the Glandon / Croix de Fer 
for example. I reckon I must have had a whole bunch of back-to-back red days on my trip - legs certainly felt like it, although didn’t get sick - so it’ll be interesting to review intense trips (or eg. training camps) through RLGL eyes to see how big a hole was being dug!
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I assume it’s by trying to carefully calibrate increases in volume & intensity to our body’s ability to absorb the incremental work, so we make measured steps forward with fewer steps back. Good plans clearly aid with this, and TR’s own plans (+AT) have become much improved in this regard I think. Plus, we can help manage this calibration off feel, by listening to our bodies, although that’s not always so easy: we may not be so experienced, or even if we are experienced we may be distracted from what’s sensible by what looks exciting or fun (the end goal of all this stuff is “fun” after all, so I’ve heard!
).
Any tool providing insight, in advance, that we may be trying to bite off too much too soon, or offering a heads-up that there’s a “cost” to doing that extra fun ride, has the potential to be a really useful addition. Looking forward to the release of this to see if/how I can make use of it.
You said the same thing I said
The teeter meter, TTR meter, identifies when you are teetering on the edge
OK, but that is how you go about it. It remains to be seen how useful RLGS proves in helping us walk that line between stagnation (being too conservative) and overreaching (biting off too much). As with other aspects of TR, I’d expect to take TR’s RLGL suggestions under advisement, not necessarily just follow them; but in general I’m a big fan of tools that provide guardrails to help make better informed decisions.
I think RLGL would help you realize that you need more recovery before you jump back into the harder intervals. It might switch an intense day to an aerobic or rest day.
I’ve only been back on TR for a couple of months this winter on Low Volume plus outdoor rides and intend to carry on this summer. Historically I’ve ridden outdoor unstructured rides trying to surf the edge of fatigue all summer. Sometimes I’ve got it wrong but more often the weather is just too good to miss out on a decent outdoors ride or event even though I know it’ll mean some time off the bike after.
I’m interested to see if I’ve consistently got it wrong and am in the Red too often for too long or if I’ve the red/yellow days line up with what I think they will be.
'22 was a higher intensity peak for a shorter period (8-900 TSS 6 week average for 4 months) whilst in '23 I managed to keep a lid on the more intense weeks managed to stay motivated and fit over a much longer season. (650-700 6 week average for 8 months and a shorter recovery before winter training)
I can’t wait to see how this lines up with my journal for fatigue periods over the last few years. I’m also interested to see if, now I’ve added indoor structure, it can now help me find a balance between the two a little better and also help manage the return from a recovery week so I don’t immediately go back into deficit.
I’m of the same mind. Periodic flirtation with going into the red is likely a good thing when the following days are managed correctly. The intentional super-overload (think 3-5 day training camp) can be a very good thing, when done correctly.
Now, persistent and repeated operation in that “red” environment is the issue. This is the training plan vs history mismatch. I’d love to see some example of this. The I’m new to training and though SSB HV would be a great place to start.
It’ll be nice to see this fully integrated into AT where it’ll change a ride from a VO2/Threshold/SS workout down to a Lazy Mountain coffee ride. Also built into Plan Builder where it can be forward looking and it takes the place of the survey questions on volume and experience.
This is exactly what I’ve been wanting!