how do i check the time i spend on HR zone? It only show the time i spend on PW zone.
also, higher cadence will lead to high HR. I will mix it up. 80rpm, 70,rpm,90rpm…etc…
Do you have a Garmin, Garmin Connect shows it. Even if you don’t I think Strava (Edit: Training Peaks and RWGPS) does too .
Higher cadence I was told by a coach will lead to a higher HR initially but in longer term your HR shouldn’t be much different once you are used to it.
I agree with what @IvyAudrain said above, fueling and adequate recovery are absolute requirements, but I think there’s a tendency for people to want to “screw” with things for lack of a better term. Check FTP, but not use it. Adjust an FTP down or up. Change workouts. Add unstructured rides that are too hard. I’ve found everything to be extremely accurate and dead on if I just trust the process, and make sure I’m fueling correctly.
I don’t check my FTP or adjust my FTP unless Adaptive training puts a “Ramp Test” on my schedule. I purposefully put it out of sight out of mind and don’t think about it. When I get to that workout, I use AI FTP to set my FTP, and then keep doing recommended workouts. I always answer Survey questions correctly to the best of my ability, I always accept suggested adaptations, I don’t do alternates up or down, I don’t worry about progression levels, just load the recommended workout and ride.
Granted I was off the couch earlier this year, but So far for me, I’ve seen steady repeatable gains on a LV plan and I almost NEVER have a workout that is Very Hard or All Out. I think grand total I’ve failed one workout early on when I didn’t sleep well and should have just pushed the workout to another day. I had to drop intensity 10% that day.
Really, I think most people would benefit to just trust the process and not mess with anything, and the system should adjust.
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I’m not just off the couch but would share the experience and the steady gains with AT and AI FTP. I have “failed”/ got a struggle survey, and have answered “too intense” if it was. And the adjustment downs have seen me complete the workout. If I don’t follow the plan, that’s on me rather than my FTP too high, or the plan doesn’t “work”.
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I think the only threshold workouts I’ve been assigned are over-unders. Those are pretty tough to me. If that’s the type OP is referring to then I don’t know if I’d expect much less
I wanted to just trust the aiFTP and AT. My n=1 this season is mixed results. I think TR made me faster but TR undershoot and overshoot wo intensity by a lot. I’m not sure what to do next.
At start of this season, it was too easy. Ramp test underestimated what i could do and aiFTP & AT were slow at increasing FTP and PL. Workouts in Feb and March were too easy. I had to use stretch workouts for a month during Base LV LD Tri and retest and retest to bump it up towards challenging but doable workouts.
Once i hit the Build period and the Threshold wo, i hit a wall: I failed some and those i overcame were killing me. Having HIM and mtb races and business trips didn’t help.
Over time i managed to go through those thresholds wo. Specialty had lots of threshold too. A few weeks off my A race IMCA : aiFTP had me at 265W ftp and proposed a bump to 269 even tough I had just failed a threshold wo. I did a ramp test that resulted in 235W !!! That’s a big error bar.
At IM Canada, i did the 180km at 154W Np in 6h54m which is 66% IF if i base it on a 235W ftp. That’s reasonable.
Lesson learned: unless my threshold PL are > 4 don’t change FTP. Maybe that should be > PL 6.
Keep working my PL up before even touching ftp.
10 days after IMCA, I used aiFTP. It said bump from 235W to 245W. I tried a threshold workout Marion PL 4.2. TR support had suggested Marion is a good way to gauge if FTP is set correctly. It’s 3x12min at 98%.
DUring warm up, it was clear i couldn’t do it. I reduced it by 10W just like if i had kept ftp at 235W. I backpedaled 30s after 6min and stopped after the first interval of 12min at 230W. Intensity was too high.
THe day after, i destroyed my PR on a MTB climb (14min nonstop at threshold). Prior PR was 17minutes!
While i don’t have a pm on mtb, that ride had me 14min at 151bpm. while Marion had me at 12min at 143bpm. It’s not the same bike and it’s outside but what a difference!!
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