@NateP Yes, you can only run it every 28 days, but TR itself can trigger it whenever it likes apparently. A few days into my training program it suggested I adjust down from 295–>292 (I couldn’t tell you why). The 28 day recalculation was the one I did this AM and resulted in the 288. I had to ask TR several weeks ago what was up and why the system adjusted my FTP down immediately, the first person I talked to was confused by that too!
@Pbase I get that, and I suppose I’m OK with taking ownership except part of the reason I was starting TR was because while I felt I was getting stronger on my own, I was also prone to burnout. That suggests to me that I am overtraining in areas and perhaps accumulating needless TSS. TR really talks up the concept of “minimum required dose” and I suppose my hope was that it was going to help me find it. I certainly know how to do a “sub-effective dose”! I don’t need help with that part! So in that, I was hoping that AI and TR would help me find the most effective areas to focus on so that I am getting quality training and less TSS-inducing-less-beneficial fluff. So it has access to my whole history and my event goals, is that wholly incorrect of me to assume that it would therefore suggest how to…make me better? If it really thinks it can’t do so without giving me more volume or different workouts, boy I wish it would just tell me that up front instead of waiting for me to figure it out on my own.
@timon I understand that as well. I’m fine with overreaching. I guess, again, where I have some confusion is that surely TR knows my history since it has the data, it knows where I am now, and I would think it assumes my goal is to raise my fitness. So it seems like a platform problem if it is giving me a training plan that is literally incapable of raising my fitness because it isn’t sufficient volume and isn’t including enough overreaching.
@KWcycling I’m trying to stick with it and trust the process. But ya know, I also have people up above who are telling me various forms of “duh, you’re putting in less hours, you should have known you’d get weaker!” So that puts me in a weird spot…keep trusting the process and then a few months from now be even weaker and have folks tell me “You knew your FTP was going down in February and kept doing the same thing…seems like a dumb move to me”, or 2nd guess the program and add harder workouts similar to what I used to do and risk overtraining and burning out, just like I used to do. Tough spot to be in and I understand all folks are different and there’s only so much insight to be had.
@ZackeryWeimer Thanks for the insight. I had not really considered that the system starts PLs quite low and that this, itself, could result in a ramp up or onboarding period where the workouts aren’t hard enough, even with the system knowing my FTP and history. I’ll ponder the Workout Alternates…I had not done so, again, because I really have been trying to trust the system and assumed it knew what was “best” for me. I do complete the surveys, and think I’ve been pretty accurate in my assessments. I’m certainly not claiming that all the workouts have been easy and from what I’ve seen from TR is that it asks us to complete these without bias for the type of workout. So we aren’t supposed to say a Threshold workout is easy “for a threshold workout”, we say it’s easy only if it fits the description of “easy”. I would not say that my SS or Threshold workouts are all “easy” but they aren’t necessarily the level of exertion I used to put myself through (and with, of course, the acknowledgement that the level of exertion I used to put myself through was causing burn out at least 1-2 times per year with resulting big fall offs in performance). You bring up the “minimum effective dose” which is what I’m hoping to find…you know, train smarter, not harder, etc. Thanks for the feedback!
