Something cool I like doing is looking back at previous weeks where I wasn’t following the TR plan (ie riding outside or on a camp) and seeing just how closely the yellow and red lights actually line up with my choices on when to take a rest day. Hats off on this technology it works quite well I have to say.
Here in the first week with intensity after getting back from christmas break the yellow days line up perfectly with my rest days 3/3 and also highlighted a day where I tried to do an anaerobic opener and ended up blowing up my lung (which I had to rehab for a good month)
Fast forward to a camp in tucson, the red day lines up perfectly with a day that I really suffered, it was one of those days where you know you are on a long week but you have to show up to know if you are going to get smoked or not, got a flat right at the start of shootout and ended up riding up lemmon with another junior who flatted. Bonked like a total animal on the way back and spent a good 45 minutes sitting in the sun outside of a depanneur, 2 muffins, 1 monster energy, 1 can fanta, 1 hot dog, 1 hamburger, and shivering in the 24c tucson sun. TR knew this was in the cards.
Then you look at the next week, all endurance rides in the yellow probably pushing the absolute limit of how much I could ride without overtraining, followed by the slight taper into the saturday for the shootout which went great, the first day out of the yellow that week.
Last one the red day lines up perfectly with my chosen rest day, it’s one of those weeks where the mentality is okay we are here to ride let’s get our money’s worth, but I just knew that if I push it all the way to the last day then I risk getting sick on the flight back home and that can cost weeks of adaptation in the long run (mistake I’ve made before)
I didn’t open TR app one time during this trip but looking back I found it uncanny just how close to real life the detection has been. Unfortunately right now it is trying to get me to reduce my training live when I am planning an overload week in lieu of their rest week during build. It would be amazing if there was a way to add a “resurrection day” feature where I can indicate that a resy day that I took last week (for example) was a total winner and I ate a whole large pizza and everything so I’m good to go, trust me.
Thank you for sharing! It really is a game-changer . If other people want to share similar examples, we’d love to see them .
While we do avdise you to stick to the scheduled rest weeks/days, for the sake of consisticeny and progress over the long term, you can decline adaptations. I assume you have been doing that this week?
If you are doing rest days right, this is what they should be . So we assume this to be the case. If you’re not taking rest days seriously, your data tells us, and adaptations are made.
I got my first yellow light email last night. It was a shock… I’m trying to build my resilience and will push harder than I historically have, but the reminder of a need for ‘rest’ is also needed I guess. Ride on!
Nice. When did that start? It definitely wasn’t doing it a few months ago. According to current TR support:
"Unstructured Outside Rides don’t currently affect your Progression Levels and won’t be considered by Adaptive Training when it adjusts your scheduled workouts, "
Maybe its not a direct connection but it happens thru RL/GL to manage training load. Ive had a few ski days result in a yellow or red day the following day and the system suggesting an easier workout.
I believe outside rides not associated with a workout, and non cycling workouts will only cause adaptations to the following day in terms of RL/GL. You won’t see it change a week out sweet spot from a 5.9 to a 5.1 or something like that. But you might get suggested to turn a sweet spot to a recovery/endurance type ride on a yellow day or have it suggest removing the planned workout on a red day.
Currently, unstructured outside rides—those not associated with a planned TrainerRoad workout—do not influence your Progression Levels or trigger adaptations in your training plan. However, they are considered in AI FTP Detection, TrainNow’s daily “Recommended” workout, and Fatigue Detection.
If you schedule a TrainerRoad workout as an outside workout and complete it using your cycling computer, the ride will automatically sync with your TrainerRoad calendar. TrainerRoad will then adjust your Progression Levels accordingly, and make necessary adaptations to your future workouts.
You say it analyzes the outside ride if it was a TrainerRoad workout and then adjusts PL’s. My understanding is that it only looks at whether the ride was done or not and then gives credit or not. Are you saying it actually looks at what was done on the ride and if you didn’t match the work that was supposed to be done you won’t get credit?
. If other people want to share similar examples, we’d love to see them 
.
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