What workout did you do today? (2024)

[roleypup]

Yesterday was all endurance, & I decided it was about time I stressed the anaerobic fibres, but in a way that didn’t load up the lungs as much as in a typical suprathreshold workout. So today it was Knoutberry on the local climb, with the cadence at about stairclimber pace. Decided I didn’t need such a long cooldown, or warmup, or recovery after the warmup, so I skipped through them.

Marked as hard, because It genuinely was hard to do the workout this way, & today is yellow, & it’s made tomorrow yellow too.

[kjdhawkhill]

@roleypup

I want to say, enjoy that ha-ha-I-beat-you-AI feeling while it lasts,

I beat it. Solidly. Without a doubt. Its the opaqueness of AI that I don’t trust. If someone said "We weigh all TR-available rides at 5%, all structured rides at 10%, your individual rides at 20% and your individual structured workouts at 65% at least I’d know the scoreboard.

The whole “big data is smarter than [customer]” take is not invalid, but the way I read the results, as they apply to my training plan, the emphasis is not on big data analysis of all of my rides, but big data analysis of structured rides of the whole subscriber group and minimal to no individual analysis of my rides, particularly including unstructured outdoor rides.

At least with my credit report I can play with simulators and get relatively predictable results based on “What if I pay off one of my bigger debts?” The equivalent is “What if I complete 4 productive workouts in a row while still riding an additional 55 minutes of commuting per day?” but its like the plans don’t adjust downward until I’ve failed multiple workouts and at the same time, PLs don’t take the extra off-plan volume into account, ever.

@roleypup

Also note that the power target during the test interval is only set at 102%, not the 105.3% that would be required in order to maintain FTP. If you want a target that corresponds to maintaining-or-slightly-bettering your current FTP, you need to run the workout at 104%.

I get the reason they set it this way, particularly for the 20minute protocol, ( you don’t want someone blowing out their legs in 8 minutes of a 20 minute test only to have an invalid assessment) but it always leaves me calculating my own target on the way in, based on my feelings and my own perspectives, and then adjusting after the 5 minute burner rather than anything to do with what TR’s estimates are.

@roleypup

(Set in the rest after the clearing effort, of course )

Absolutely not. That’s why I overshoot the protocol, particularly the 5 minute burn-off. I’m a conservative person by nature, I’d rather work harder early and fall slightly short than cheat the protocol and over perform…

[roleypup]

@kjdhawkhill

Its the opaqueness of AI that I don’t trust. If someone said "We weigh all TR-available rides at 5%, all structured rides at 10%, your individual rides at 20% and your individual structured workouts at 65% at least I’d know the scoreboard.

I hear you on that one. Likely done to prevent reverse engineering by users gaming the system & by competing platforms stealing IP.

@kjdhawkhill

PLs don’t take the extra off-plan volume into account, ever.

Where there’s a reasonable correlation between an outdoor ride & a TR workout’s power profile I match it. A more elegant solution like the much-promised WLv2 would be nice, but manually matching will have to do the job for now.

@kjdhawkhill

@roleypup

(Set in the rest after the clearing effort, of course )

Absolutely not. That’s why I overshoot the protocol, particularly the 5 minute burn-off. I’m a conservative person by nature, I’d rather work harder early and fall slightly short than cheat the protocol and over perform…

That’s fair. I’ve bitten off more than I can chew a couple of times. In my experience, the more an FTP rises in one test, the more the PLs drop, so I don’t think we lose out. Though it is pretty cruel straight after an FTP increase to be dished up 105% intervals that are longer than the VO2 max intervals I’d been doing the previous block. On both occasions that happened I wished later I’d traded the workout for a long subthreshold.

[kjdhawkhill]

@roleypup

Where there’s a reasonable correlation between an outdoor ride & a TR workout’s power profile I match it. A more elegant solution like the much-promised WLv2 would be nice, but manually matching will have to do the job for now.

That only works (becomes reasonable) when I’m on vacation or away from home. I’m in a very, very dense urban area and usually can’t ride more than 1-3 without hitting the brakes or at least soft-pedaling and coasting, but averaging 200-230 watts for 3 hours is not a “nothing” ride as it appears to be sometimes…

[roleypup]

Custom workout on the switchbacks, 6× 13’ 80%, increasing intensity on last week’s low-tempo. HR stayed low, possibly because of a lower cadence today. Overshot power on all intervals. I got a bit bored towards the end. Marked moderate. It’s 0.4 PL lower than my current tempo level.

[roleypup]

Another custom workout: 55% baseline with 10’ @ 72% every hour.

I’ve been amazed by those of you who can do 70-ish % for 8h, seems like the gold standard, & I estimate that it corresponds to a hilly 200k gran fondo. So I figured I’d start with 10’ of it every hour & gradually increase the duty cycle. Currently the power level for which 8h is TTE is a paltry 60%.

Second “rest” interval was paused to massage a sharp pain that appeared in my left big toe, third had a loo stop, fourth I had to fix a puncture. Some neglectful or nefarious individual had left some 20mm aggregate on the track, & of course I didn’t think to remove it. Fifth rest interval I was wondering what would stop me this time but was okay thereafter.

[kjdhawkhill]

@kjdhawkhill

Sweet Spot Base 2 coming up. Starts with a SS 3.6m productive and then a 3.5… I’ll probably turn one of them into a stretch and see where my legs are at.

Sunday was beautiful. Rode outside with a friend. I don’t regret it. 45 miles, generally flat. Generally zone 2. 110 TSS 2H46 minutes. Garmin was wonky so both should be a little higher, but whatever’s…

Monday commuted to and from. 38TSS, 56 minutes. Get home and jump on the trainer right away for Seneca Rocks a 75 minute ss (3x15 @85%) rated 3.6. I’d just posted in another thread about Mount Field (3x12) being a breeze, and this being just an extension of the same, I had a little anxiety about maybe eating my words…

I got intellectually bored and so played around a bit with single minute intervals within the last 15. My legs weren’t necessarily fresh and happy to do those extra bits, but my HR was pretty well in check until the very last one when I sent it. 1 extra minute of cooldown. 85TSS/76 minutes. I marked it hard, but it was a long way from very hard.

Tuesday: Commute cancelled due to severe thunderstorm warnings and my better half not wanting me to ride face first into them.

Wednesday: Spruce -1, SS 4.3 (2x25 @ 85%),

Marked moderate, almost marked it hard. Added two minutes of cooldown. 87TSS; 77 minutes.

Thursday is was a split double shift at work, so 3 total commutes. 58 minutes for the day shift, rides 28 TSS.

And after the afternoon trip home I jumped into Carter, and endurance 3.3. 45 minutes, 38TSS. Not much to say about it.

Start overnight shift commute: 24 minutes, 15 TSS.

Friday: Commute home on 0 sleep in 24+ hours. These split double-shifts are fortunately very, very rare, but the legs and HR felt fine. 27 minutes, 12 TSS.

Saturday : Plan randomly calls for a ramp test, I’m pretty sure that’s not my edit, but its notification from TR that a new AI FTP estimate becomes available. I’m coming off a decent nights sleep, but the previous night was absolutely no sleep… I had added Muir a 60 minute endurance 3.3, but didn’t feel like 85 minutes training was needed for the day, so I subbed “down” to West Vidette, a 45 minute 3.4… Ramp test was a “fail” as in an estimated 9 watts lost off my FTP… I got to 18:51 and bailed… (with 19:30 being the baseline). I’ll keep training at the vanity level for now, especially since its a SS base phase, and not a VO2 phase.

Who knew that skipping a night’s sleep would negatively impact an assessment? I did and I’m actually surprised it was “only” 9watts, particularly because when I woke up Saturday, I felt like I had a hangover, without having had enough wine to cause such a thing.

Knocked out West Vidette without an issue.

Also did some errand riding with my 10yo. 52 minutes of moving time, estimated TSS of 5.

7H53min, 365TSS, 6355kJ. 6wk TSS average up to 323.

Edit to include Sunday:
Beautiful day, and had to get outside. Decided to play in the mud a little on the riverside path. Found a neighbor on the way out and rode with him/pulled him until he pulled off the path to his afternoon destination. Didn’t put a whole lot into the ride, but did two little sprints/efforts on some segments I haven’t taken a crack at in a while.

2H43, 108TSS, marked it moderate.
Updated totals: 10H36min, 473TSS, 6wk TSS Avg up to 341.

[WindWarrior]

[FrankTuna]

Does AI FTP take into account Zumba classes?

[kjdhawkhill]

One has to affiliate it with a TR ride to make that happen… Just like outdoor riding.

[WindWarrior]

^^^

Back in the fish bowl to get an easy spin in without the 104F heat.

So apparently they converted the ceiling lights to blacklghts. Hard to adjust bike.

Then some ripped dude comes in for selfies and turns on the new disco lights. They rotate the colors.

Out of respect I snapped a pic before the shirt came off

[roleypup]

Stepping it up to 83% after last time, & I worked it out that I could do 12-minute tempo intervals on my hill & 6-minute recoveries were long enough to get back to the start point. So I started the custom workout, warmed up, & on the way back down the hill I saw a friend I needed to give some bike parts to. So I ducked home, put them in a backpack, & headed out again to find him. Canned the workout because it was then going to be too late to do the whole thing, because I was expecting someone at my house about two hours later.

Realising that my lungs & legs had coped sufficiently with a 6-minute suprathreshold effort two days ago, I thought, threshold should be okay now, so I loaded up Warlow.

Got to the end of the third interval, realised that I only had one more productive interval in me, certainly wasn’t interested in suffering for a fifth, so I canned it after four. Deleted & associated the strava upload with Warlow -1 which is essentially what I did anyway.

Targets were 287 (under) & 332 (over).
Given that this was done on fresh legs & I can normally manage the 5th interval with a little bit of fatigue coming into the workout, I suspect my FTP has dropped by 10w since last estimated.

[kjdhawkhill]

@kjdhawkhill

2H43, 108TSS, marked it moderate.
Updated totals: 10H36min, 473TSS, 6wk TSS Avg up to 341.

Monday commuted to and from work. 53 minutes, 29TSS.
Got home from work and jumped right into TR. I had Antelope -4, SS 4.5 on the calendar, but wasn’t feeling 75 minutes, so looked for an alternative… Well, 60 minute Antelope -5 is a SS 4.8 with the same intervals and still within “productive.” Just shorter recovery periods… Shoot, money where my mouth is, PL is slow to adapt for me. Lets do this! My ego wrote a check that my legs and heart managed to cash. But not without some struggle. Hit absolutely 0 2024 PR power levels.

I waffled between marking it Hard and Very Hard… Especially after post workout prompt asked why I struggled… Ended up going with Very Hard and “training fatigue.” The last 2-3 minutes of the 3rd and 4th reps are the only ones I struggled with, mentally, physically, or emotionally…
Added 3 minutes for an even 5 minute cooldown. 63 minutes, 75 TSS.

So then “adaptations” kicks in and offers me this for my next structured workout.

That’s nonsense. I stacked three hard(ish) ride days in a row (ramp+ follow up endurance ride, almost 3 hour outdoors and then commute 2x + workout…) Just b/c one doesn’t have blue bars doesn’t mean I need a 3+ workout level drop for a ride two days later…

(If you haven’t seen my posts elsewhere, I turned RLGL off as “not applicable”).

Tuesday, no workout on the calendar, just my commute. Legs felt a little tight in the am. I did spend some time looking at Garmin training load and Intervals fatigue… I was just “above optimal” (Garmin) and really close to “high risk” but still in the clear (intervals). All this information just confirmed what my legs told me… Felt fine riding home but took it easy anyway. Discretion is the better part of valor.

53 minutes and 30 TSS. 7 day riding streak.

Wednesday, having left the Carson +1 on the calendar, 'twas a test of whether I know my body better than ML/AI. (Or whether my keyboard warrior mouth was writing checks my legs couldn’t cash?)

Its 42 total minutes of SS rather than 40 (antelope -5) , but with shorter and more frequent (6x2 minute recovery periods, rather than 4x3 minutes of) recovery. Still a 4.8, and a 75 minute rather than a 60 minute.

Check cashed, deposited, whatever… Every interval averaged slightly over the goal. Last interval I did about the last 85 seconds over threshold to see how the legs were reacting… They were fine.

75 minutes, 86TSS. Marked it “hard” but considered “moderate” for a few seconds. I definitely had another rep or two in my legs. 8 day ride streak.

Thursday (fireworks, baby!): 2H37minutes and 75TSS riding the riverside mixed surface path near me. Kept it pretty chill, normalized power was about 52%, avg was below 50%… played around on some bandit single track.
Marked it easy. 9 day ride streak.

Happy Independence Day, Americans.

Friday technically a vacation day: Why not double dip and ride on the same trail as yesterday?
3H08M, 113TSS, IF 0.58.

Saturday: Cloudripper -2 a threshold/o/u rated 3.5 came with the plan. I was at youth baseball all day, in the sun. I knew that I was planning to go big Sunday so I thought about just finding some sort of endurance/recovery place-holder/routine builder/streak keeper, but nah, pass. Streak ended at 10 consecutive days.

Sunday: Have a friend training for an ironman. Decided to ride out with him on his big-ride day. 27 miles outbound on a rail-trail, dropped him off at my turning point. Tried to sneak in 3x10 minutes of sweet spot, on my own, rather than totally giving up on intervals this weekend. The normalized and averages were all a little low, but that’s what happens when they put stop signs every half mile, or even more often.
3H02 min ; 132 TSS ; 0.64 IF

Week ends with 12H55min; 540TSS, 6wk TSS rises to 399.

[Tiiimmmaaayyyy]

Not done anything of note for a while on TR and plumped for a 2hr Tempo/SS workout. Was fine for the first 90 minutes but I must admit that the final 20 minutes or so required a bit of concentration.

[adski]

Yesterday’s 3x15m Tallac structured indoor session after 2mo of only outdoors is a SHOCK!

It’s nice to have a little bit of dark green (TR workouts) show up on my calendar

[robcow]

Not up to most of you I’m sure, but I did ‘Homer’s Nose’! My first post-op hour long ride, and I’m pretty proud of myself. I tried a Zwift bespoke HIIT ride yesterday, and, but think it might have primed the pump for today. Hoping to get back to where I was pre-op… Ride on!!

[kjdhawkhill]

(Note to self, if it feels like you’re riding SPDs in a flip flop, go ahead and check your MTB/commuter shoe for cracks in the outsole. Nothing wrong with checking and maybe save yourself some age-related doubt about that hotspot on your foot.)

I had moved Saturday’s (skipped) Cloudripper -2 an O/u Threshold 3.5 (90 minutes, 3x9 at 95%/105%) to Monday. But I commuted to and from. 55 minutes, 29 TSS (2024 power records from 16s-18 seconds) and didn’t have motivation for 90 minutes of YouTube time (especially with the TdF being a rest day, and realizing I needed new MTB shoes).

I scrolled through “alternatives” and filtered for 60 minutes. I settled on Reinstein -2, noting that that it was a 92%/102% and feeling that was better than the 105% highs… The raw watts on 105% looked intimidating after Sunday’s long day in the heat. I got into it shortly after arriving home at the end of my workday. I was riding for at least a few minutes when I realized - “Oh, jack@zz, its a 3.4, not way lower than the 3.5 because its 3x12, not 3x9…” Oh well, I was into the ride and committed to it. It wasn’t until the second or third “over” in the middle rep that I started becoming confident I’d finish it. Added 2 minutes of cooldown. Marked it hard, but it was a long way from “very hard.” 62 minutes, 78TSS.

Commuted in early and early home on Tuesday. On the way home I put in some anaerobic efforts. 51 minutes, 36 TSS. Checked in and realized I had a window for more riding, so jumped onto the trainer for Selside, 30 minutes of endurance (1.6) and 23TSS when completed. Marked it easy.

Volunteer soccer board meeting commute: About 2.5 flat miles in the rain, some beers, discussions of youth sports (forgot to stop the watch), 2.5 miles home. Call it 20-25 minutes, 9 TSS.

Wednesday: First VO2 workout of this training plan, it had been scheduled for Monday, but after pushing Cloudripper -2 to Monday, I pushed it to Wednesday. Adaptions, after every single ride, kept trying to move me from Hackberry VO2 1.5 to some 1.3 version. GTFO. I probably didn’t need to adjust to a 3.0, but c’mon, man.

Keyboard warrior? Nope. Hit every interval, and started playing around at the end, seeing just how high over the target I could hold for the full 30 seconds. In all, 9 of the 18 VO2 max zone minutes were spent in anaerobic zone, and no, my FTP isn’t set that much too low… Is AT really trying to throttle me down 6 weeks into a training plan? 75 minutes, 82 TSS (planned was 67). Marked it hard, because its not like VO2 ever feels “moderate.” But it was a long way from “very hard.” Kind of wished I’d moved to at least a 2.0, but I’ll look for that next time a VO2 interval workout pops up.

Thursday: Woke up feeling fine, but not on a good night’s sleep. Monitor +2 (SS 5.1, 8x6 minutes) moved from Wednesday to Thursday. Back to back days.
Got home from coaching kids’ basketball and got my stuff together. Got a little worried during the first couple of intervals, but ended up feeling a lot better after #3 or #4. Knocked it out of the park, but didn’t feel like playing around and jumping up on the last couple. 77 minutes, 90TSS. Marked it hard. Glad I didn’t pull out a stretch, but also very glad I kept denying AT the chance to push me down.

Checked in on Intervals and Connect’s training statuses. Garmin had me at the bottom end of Optimal with a load ratio right at 1.0, Intervals had me bumping into “high risk” by Tuesday of this week, and just skimming along the border. Legs feel fine, but I should probably do some stretching to ward off any overuse tightness that might start popping up.

Friday: Commute to and from, including “long way” home. 84 minutes total, 40TSS. 6 day riding streak. After this ride I started getting AT suggestions that make sense for the upcoming VO2 workouts, but not the upcoming threshold workouts. Declined all, because I don’t like accepting 7 workout changes at once, when only 2-3 of them make real sense to me. Decided to keep these suggestions in mind, going forward, though.

Saturday: Starlight-2 a threshold 4.0 (productive) with 3x10 O/U and some endurance on either end… The core is actually easier than the 3x12 I completed on Monday… And AT kept trying to bump me down to a 3.1 or something… Anyway, pushed Starlight-2 aside and rode 3H5min with a friend outside. 115TSS, IF 0.6, NP 60% of FTP, Avg 55% of FTP. Marked moderate.

10H18min , 491TSS, 6wk avg 442TSS. 7 day ride streak.

Sweet Spot looks about right. Vo2 looks low (only 1 recent VO2 ride)Threshold is a little low. Endurance is quite low.

Sunday: Starlight -2? [Posting now and will update if baseball doesn’t interfere]

[rkoswald]

Multitasking, with some 5x 5 min strength

JOIN workout, running via TR player, pushing my avatar around Zwift, watching TdF, and listening to a podcast.

[roleypup]

@kjdhawkhill

Monitor +2 (SS 5.1, 8x6 minutes) moved from Wednesday to Thursday. Back to back days.

I like the pairing of VO2 max & sweetspot. When I was doing blocks with each week containing VO2 max, threshold, & sweetspot workouts, I found I could do a productive sweetspot the day after a productive VO2 max. But if I tried back-to-back days involving threshold I was in trouble.

[rkoswald]

More multitasking - 3x 10 min threshold

First proper threshold workout in more than three months. Progression Level right back to 4.1, which is what I expected. LSRF for the win!

And it was a slow morning on Zwift if I got the KOM. Truth in advertising: there was one person ahead of me but they must have left before I got to the top. Not often I get to wear any special jersey so I’ll take it.