This survey won’t impact the workout you are about to do, and won’t cause any future adaptations while we gather data.
You are not required to fill out the survey. It will go away shortly after you start your workout if you don’t respond.
There is a setting if you would like to turn it off in your ride settings.
Why only half of athletes?
We are keeping a close tab on the data to make sure we aren’t priming athletes by showing them the survey. We don’t think this is the case, but we have our data team keeping an eye on the survey responses coming in in addition to things like failure rate to make sure we aren’t causing an undue increase in workout difficulty. If we find that is the case we’ll turn the survey off for everyone.
I’ve been getting the survey. Its been interesting. One thing I genuinely believe from my little field of N+1 is that, clicking the big smiley face kickstarts a positive feedback loop. I am happy, I click a smiley face, it confirms I’m happy, I feel even more happy…
I wasnt sure until the other day when I sat there on the bike trying to decide if I felt very happy or not. As soon as I looked at the big smiley emoji I just felt happier and grateful to a) not be injured b) not be overtrained so i clicked the big happy face and then felt happy for the entire workout.
This was then backed up by listening to an audiobook about an endurance study that shows people have more when shown happy faces. I’m not sure an emoji falls under a happy face, but who knows
I’m suspecting my head has twisted the survey beyond it’s design, but it is something to note. Maybe what we actually need is a prompt to ask people what they are grateful for today
You’ve written the majority of a Saturday Night Live “don’t worry, be happy (button)” skit here. I can envision Kate McKinnon and Kenan Thompson pushing the button
BTW, I didn’t really feel like training yesterday until I thought about the smiley face then I was like, smiley again and in the end AIFTP stuck my FTP up after the workout. Then I was proper happy.
I would really like some way to tell AT that for Sweet Spot / Tempo workouts that it should extend / progress the interval length, not the interval intensity, to increase PLs for subsequent workouts.
I second that sentiment, but I think it likely applies to other zones. I know I prefer pushing interval duration as well for stuff like VO2 vs hitting more short repeats, shorter recoveries, higher intensity or other variations.
I don’t disagree that this suggestion probably applies to other zones, but it feels most acute for Endurance, Tempo and Sweet Spot - probably FTP intervals as well. Especially during base phase, or if you are targeting a Gran Fondo / century / gravel race / climbing event / triathlon / etc.
I also think this option could help with “burn-out”, especially in combination with Masters plans.
I think this must be plan-specific; I’m on a gran fondo plan in build phase and VO2 is all about longer duration, building up to Denali (4x6min @110%, should be fun!) That will progress my PLs, but so would shorter/harder VO2 work (e.g. Ansel Adams). If you feel like you want longer duration rather than more intensity maybe try a different type of plan?
Indeed, I agree it is conditional on the plan trajectory too. Eventual Crit focus vs Gravel will tend to point to a progression for each of the 3 levers = Intensity, Duration (work/recovery), Frequency of intervals. I think TR has at least some of that coded into the plans, but some potential influence by the rider outside of that could be useful at times.
