Avoid long-term fatigue and optimize your training stress with Red Light Green Light.
What is Red Light Green Light?
Red Light Green Light is a TrainerRoad feature that monitors your training to help prevent long-term fatigue and unproductive workouts. Red Light Green Light tells you when you might be overdoing it with Red and Yellow days on your TrainerRoad Calendar. Yellow and Red days are analogous to traffic signals - they signal when to slow down and when to stop.
What are Yellow Days?
Days on your TrainerRoad Calendar will change color in response to accumulated training stress. If you are in a potentially “unproductive” range it will display a Yellow day on your Calendar. If you see a Yellow day on your Calendar it means you need to slow down and get ready to stop if needed.
If you have a workout scheduled on a Yellow day Adaptive Training will suggest you adapt your scheduled workout to an Endurance workout.
Yellow days aren’t necessarily a bad thing, though! If you’re nearing the end of a challenging training block, or pushing your boundaries multiple days in a row (like at a training camp), you might see a few Yellow days pop up on your calendar.
What are Red Days?
If you’re pushing it into long-term fatigue territory, you’ll see a red day on your Calendar. If you have a red day on your Calendar you will be prompted to adapt any workouts scheduled on that day to a Rest Day.
If you try to schedule a workout on a Red Day you will be advised to keep your day open and focus on rest instead. You might see red days after big training rides, a hard race, or multiple days of challenging riding.
A red day is a Warning sign. Red days indicate that you’ve likely overdone it and adding additional stress onto this day won’t be benefitting you. When a red day pops up on your Calendar we recommend taking the day off from all forms of training stress and focusing on recovery.
How Does Red Light Green Light Work?
Red Light Green Light uses your data from indoor and outdoor training sessions, including rides and runs, as well as other metrics specific to you, to monitor your training. As you train, recover, and get more fit, the amount of stress you can productively manage changes.
You don’t need to do anything to enable Red Light Green Light. Train as you normally would, following a TrainerRoad plan, TrainNow workouts, and training outside. If a workout pushes you over the boundary of productive stress, you may see a Yellow or red highlight show on your TrainerRoad Calendar for the following day. If those days have workouts scheduled, you’ll be offered an adaptation to an easier ride or a full Rest Day to prevent long-term fatigue.
What Should I Do on Rest Days?
Whenever possible, we recommend refraining from any type of physical exercise on rest days. We don’t recommend using these days to incorporate additional training activities like recovery cycling activities, strength training, or other forms of cross-training.
For further reading on rest and how to maximize recovery we recommend checking out these Blog Posts on recovery from the TrainerRoad Blog:
- Rest Week Nutrition: What to Eat to Recover
- Why Rest, Recovery, and Tapering are Necessary to Get Faster
- The Complete Recovery Week Guide for Cyclists
- Recovery: The Elements of Getting Faster
Frequently Asked Questions:
Why are there no Green Days on my Calendar?
If you aren’t seeing any green days on your Calendar - don’t worry, this is by design! Red Light Green Light will only display Yellow and red days on your Calendar. “Green” days on the other hand, will appear as they normally would. No color = green day!
Does Red Light Green Light include outside activities?
Yes! Red Light Green Light considers all outside workout files imported into TrainerRoad.
What kind of activities does Red Light Green Light take into account?
Currently, Red Light Green Light considers all cycling and running activities. In the future, more activity types will count towards Red Light Green Light
Can I decline adaptations prompted by Red Light Green Light?
Just like any other adaptation that appears on your Calendar, you can decline any Red Light Green Light related adaptations. In most cases, we strongly recommend accepting RLGL’s suggested adaptations though. RLGL makes adaptations today to prevent long term fatigue and make you faster in the future
Are Red and Yellow Days Bad?
Yellow and Red days aren't necessarily a bad thing! In fact, it's normal to see Yellow and Red days pop up on your Calendar after pushing your limits with a hard race, a tough workout, or several big training days.
Your Red and Yellow Days can become troublesome or "bad" if you are consistently training through them and ignoring Red Light Green Light's suggested adaptations. To help prevent long-term fatigue and keep your training on track we recommend accepting Red Light Green Lights suggestions whenever possible.
What happens if a Red or Yellow Day falls on a day with a Ramp Test?
If a red day falls on the day of a Ramp Test, you will be prompted to adapt your Ramp Test to a rest day and complete the Ramp Test on another day. Similarly, if a yellow day coincides with a Ramp Test, Adaptive Training will suggest modifying it to an easier workout, and you will need to complete the Ramp Test on a different day.
Do I need to be following a training plan to use Red Light Green Light?
No! Red Light Green Light will notify you when you have Yellow and Red days even if you are not following a TrainerRoad training plan.
Am I not training hard enough if I never get Yellow days?
Not necessarily! If you are never seeing Yellow days on your Calendar, this could be an indication that you are managing your fatigue well and recovering from your training quickly. If you are never seeing a Yellow day on your Calendar and you feel you have more time and energy to dedicate to your training you might be in a good position to increase your training volume, though.
How long do I need to rest after a Red day?
A day fully off the bike should be enough to ease back into your training. After really large efforts, you may see multiple red days on your Calendar followed by a Yellow day. In these cases, you want to take extra recovery and ease back into your training.
What if I have a race on a Yellow or red day? Should I skip it?
Yellow and Red days aren’t necessarily a bad thing. Rather RLGL is meant to remind you when you are reaching or going down a path that could lead to long-term fatigue. You can still feel good and have a great race or a solid training day on a red day - just make sure you get the necessary recovery time after!
If you find that you’re getting into the Yellow or Red before an A events though, you should prioritize the extra rest Red Light Green Light recommends to ensure you are getting enough prior to your event.
What if I get a Yellow or Red day during a stage race?
Keep going! Stage races and training camps are situations where you’re likely going to accrue a lot of training stress which will yield yellow and maybe even red days on your Calendar. Just make sure you take the time to recover properly once it’s wrapped up.
Will RLGL be available in the desktop and mobile apps?
Yes! You’ll see red and yellow days in the mobile and desktop apps.
Do I have to use TrainerRoad inside for Red Light Green Light to work?
Nope! Red Light Green Light works even if you only ride outside.
Do my post-workout survey responses influence Yellow and Red days?
Yes, Red Light Green Light considers your post-workout surveys. Make sure to answer your post-workout RPE survey.
Do my outside activities need power data to be considered by RLGL?
Nope! Activities that only have Heart Rate data will count if you use TrainerRoad’s Heart Rate TSS Estimation.
Following my plan made my current training day Red. Is Red Light Green Light not working?
If you’re following a TrainerRoad plan exactly as prescribed and getting into the red, that may indicate that you’ve selected too high of a plan volume. If you find yourself in a situation like this we recommend lowering your plan volume to prevent long-term fatigue.
Red Light Green Light wants to remove a key workout. Should I move the workout to another day?
If a red day pops up on the same day as a workout we recommend accepting the Rest Day and focusing on your recovery. Rest days are key workouts in their own regard! Furthermore, Adaptive Training will make any necessary adjustments to your upcoming weeks of training to make sure you get the key training sessions that you need.
Is RLGL a readiness score?
Red Light Green light is not a readiness score! Red Light Green Light measures how much fatigue you’ve accrued from your training to help you gauge your training and prevent long-term fatigue.
I trained through a Yellow or Red day. Shouldn’t this make tomorrow a Yellow or Red day too?
Not necessarily! Training on a yellow or red day doesn’t automatically yield another red or yellow day in your Calendar.
I feel like I need rest but RLGL isn’t showing a yellow or red day today. What should I do?
Just because Red Light Green isn’t displaying a yellow or red day doesn’t mean you don’t need rest! Fluctuating changes in personal stress, illness, or a bad night's rest might require you take an easy day outside of Red Light Green Lights recommendations.
If you need to take a rest day on a non red or yellow day go ahead and skip your workout and Adaptive Training will make any necessary adjustments.
How can I decline Red and Yellow day adaptations without declining the rest of my workout adaptations?
You can’t selectively accept some adaptations while declining other adaptations. If you’d like to decline Red Light Green Lights adaptations you will need to decline all of Adaptive Training’s adaptations being suggested at that time.
I accepted a rest day adaptation and now I want that workout back. Can I undo it?
There is no way to reverse adaptations that you have already accepted. If you’d like to recover a workout that was replaced by a rest day or an endurance workout and you can’t remember what workout was on your Calendar reach out to support@trainerroad.com.
What should I do when a Yellow day appears on my Calendar?
When a yellow day appears on your Calendar, and you have nothing scheduled we recommend taking the day off. If a yellow day appears when you have a workout on your Calendar you will be prompted to adapt your scheduled workout to a workout that allows for a bit more rest than your scheduled workout.
What should I do when a Red day appears on my Calendar?
When a red day appears on your Calendar we recommend taking a rest day and refraining from as much physical activity as you can.
Can I turn off Red Light Green Light?
Yes! You can disable Red Light Green Light in your TrainerRoad account settings.
To disable this feature login to TrainerRoad. Select Account > Adaptive Training. Next to Red Light Green Light select Disable.
What happens to Runs and Swims on Yellow and Red Days?
Swims and runs will be adapted on yellow and red days too! If you have a run or a swim scheduled on a yellow day, Adaptive Training will suggest that you do an easier swim or run on that day. If you have swim or a run on a Red Day, Adaptive Training will suggest swapping any workouts scheduled on this day for a rest day.