Search Results for 'How does Adaptive Training recognize if I go harder easier than what my workout prescribes'

FTP Testing - The Cornerstone of Training

Few components of power-based training are as important as measuring and tracking FTP. In fact, it could be argued that nothing short of actual performance ranks as highly in terms of overall importance. With this in mind, we offer the following primer on what your FTP represents, what an FTP test is, how and why we assess FTP, and when we assess it. What is FTP? Functional Threshold Power (FTP) is — quite simply — a measure of fitness. FTP represents the power (measured in watts) that you could theoretically maintain for about an hour, and it's the single metric we use to scale each of your workouts in our shared quest to keep your fitness growing. With regards to what's taking place within your body and the muscles themselves, riding at your FTP pushes you right up to that limit where pushing any harder will drastically limit the duration of your ride. But as long as you stay just below that acidic tipping point where your muscles light up and uncomfortably tolerable minutes become barely tolerable seconds, your muscles are in balance with the workload - for about an hour, anyway. What is the FTP Assessment? An FTP assessment is a snapshot of your fitness at any point in time. By measuring your fitness and assigning it a number, we can track changes in your fitness over weeks, months, and years. The assessment we use to measure this level of fitness is our Ramp Test. How is FTP Calculated from the Ramp Test? TrainerRoad will automatically calculate your FTP upon completion of your Ramp Test workout. If ridden correctly, you can expect your FTP to be about 75% of your highest 1-minute power sustained during the test. Note: More complicated calculations may be applied when determining FTP from a Ramp Test depending on how accurately a rider followed the format of the test. This means, 75% of a rider's 1-minute power may not translate to their actual FTP calculation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWHgMzpvH7c How is Functional Threshold Power Assessed? During a Ramp Test assessment, riders first follow a sufficient, stepwise warming period before progressing to their higher-intensity steps. The power that you average over the last, highest minute of your test allows us to mathematically estimate your current FTP. The goal here is to obtain a reasonably close estimate of one's sustainable power, or in power-based training nomenclature, your Functional Threshold Power/FTP. Why Do We Assess FTP? By assessing FTP, not only can we track changes in fitness, but we can also establish training zones, i.e. power levels. And as your fitness changes, we can update these power levels accordingly. Each type of interval, e.g. Tempo, Sweet Spot, VO2max, etc. represents a percentage of your FTP. For example, Tempo intervals fall in the 76-90% FTP range while VO2max intervals fall in the 106-120% FTP range. Different types of intervals target different energy systems and consequently different training adaptations, so it's important to have a personal measure of your fitness that will allow us to tailor your workouts to your specific needs and capabilities. When Should I Assess My FTP? It's a good idea to assess your FTP prior to beginning each training season unless you already have a good sense of your current fitness and your sustainable power. But even if you think you have a good grasp on your current fitness, it's still a good idea to back up your perception with actual performance. It's also recommended that you assess or reassess FTP before embarking on a new training plan. Finally, you should reassess your FTP about every 4-6 weeks in order to account for changes in your fitness and to keep your power levels in line with your performance potential. What if I'm Feeling Stronger Before My Scheduled FTP Test? Of course, testing roughly every 4-6 weeks is just a general guideline. Your FTP very well may have increased prior to 4-6 weeks after your last test. If you find yourself breathing easily through workouts with high-Intensity Factors (IFs)® or that you're often manually increasing the workout intensity before it's time for your next test, don't hesitate to manually edit your FTP. No need to wait for an FTP test if you know you're stronger. :)

Your First Ride • Last updated on Aug 13, 2026

How to Analyze Ride Data

Dig into the details of your indoor ride, including power, heart rate, cadence, TSS, Intensity Factor, and more in the workouts ride analysis page. You will see a ride analysis page for both indoor and outdoor cycling workouts with full breakdown of the workout and the data from that workout. How to Find a Workouts Ride Analysis Page Step One: Log in to your account on the TrainerRoad website. Step Two: In the left sidebar, select Career and click Activity List. You can filter by activity type, filter by zone, or search for a ride by name. ride-analysis-01-activity-list.png Step Three: Click any ride from this list to open its Ride Analysis page. You can also open a completed ride directly from your Calendar by selecting the ride on the Calendar and then selecting View Details: ride-analysis-14-calendar-drawer.png Everything Included in the Workout Analysis Page The workout analysis page includes a few different sections. Here's what each section includes and how to drill into them: The Workout Graph The graph at the top of the page shows your ride from start to finish. Move your cursor along the graph to see target power, heart rate, and power for any moment in the ride. ride-analysis-03-graph-tooltip.png Within the workout graph you can click and drag across the graph to select a section of your ride. The metrics panel updates to show stats for just that selection, so you can check the numbers on a single climb, interval, or surge. ride-analysis-04-drag-selection.png With a section selected, you can also use the buttons above the graph to, zoom In to magnify the selected section, add Interval to save the selection as a custom interval and reset to clear the selection and return to the full ride view. From the workout graph at the top of the ride analysis page you can also find: 1. Legend toggles: Click the items in the legend above the graph to show or hide each data series, like heart rate or Normalized Power. 2. Key Metric Panel: The panel to the right of the graph summarizes the ride, including duration, average and max power, heart rate, TSS, Intensity Factor, and kJ. For TrainerRoad workouts, your numbers appear next to the workout's target numbers. 3. Workout FTP: The horizontal line labeled with your FTP shows how the ride's efforts compare to your threshold at the time of this workout. Intervals The Intervals tab below the graph lists every interval in the ride with its duration, Normalized Power, average power, heart rate, and cadence. TrainerRoad workouts list each interval by name. Outdoor rides list the laps recorded by your bike computer, plus any custom intervals you create. ride-analysis-06-intervals-tab.png Click any interval in the table to highlight that section of the ride on the graph. The metrics panel updates to show the stats for that interval. ride-analysis-07-interval-highlight.png How to Create Custom Intervals You can also create custom intervals for a workout using the workout graph at the top of the ride analysis page. Here is how you can create a custom interval: Step One: Click and drag across the graph to select the section you want to save. Step Two: Click Add Interval above the graph. Step Three: Give the interval a name, fine-tune the start and end times if needed, and click Save. Your custom interval now appears in the Intervals table alongside the rest of the ride's intervals. ride-analysis-05-add-interval.png Power Zones The Power Zones tab shows how much time you spent in each power zone during the ride. Click a zone in the table to highlight that power range on the graph. You can also click Add Zone to create a custom zone with your own power range, and the bottom of the table shows which power source recorded the ride. ride-analysis-08-power-zones.png Power Records The Power Records tab shows your best power for every duration within this ride, from short sprints to the full ride. For TrainerRoad workouts, the Prescribed line shows what the workout asked for, so you can see how your effort compared. Use the date range selectors to compare this ride against other time periods, and use the toggles above the chart to switch between Normalized Power, average power, and heart rate. To explore your all-time power records across every ride, see How to Analyze Power Records. Analyzing Your Outdoor Ride Data Outdoor rides have everything that indoor rides with a few additional metrics like: 1. Elevation profile: A gray elevation profile appears behind the graph. 2. Outdoor metrics: The metrics panel adds distance, elevation gain, speed, and average gradient. The tooltip also shows elevation and grade as you move along the graph. 3. Time or Distance: Use the toggle above the graph to switch the graph between time and distance. ride-analysis-11-outdoor-graph.png Rides with GPS data also include a map of your route with start and finish markers. As you move your cursor along the graph, a position marker moves along the route, so you can see exactly where on the road each effort happened. ride-analysis-12-outdoor-map.png What About Rides Without Power Data? If a ride has no power data, the power-based tabs are hidden and you'll see the Intervals tab only. You can still estimate the ride's training stress so it counts toward your training. Click Estimate TSS in the banner at the top of the page and rate the ride's intensity. For more detail, see How to Estimate Training Stress with Heart Rate Data. ride-analysis-13-estimate-tss.png More on the Ride Analysis Page - Post Workout Survey: The banner above the ride details shows your survey response, and lets you add or change one. Your responses help TrainerRoad AI adjust your training. Learn more in What are Post Workout Surveys? - AI Predicted Difficulty: For TrainerRoad workouts, this chart shows how difficult TrainerRoad AI predicted the workout would be for you. Learn more in AI Predicted Difficulty. - Workout Levels: For TrainerRoad workouts, you'll see the workout's levels and any Progression Level changes you earned. Learn more in Workout Levels. - Edit, Delete, and Download: Use the panel on the right to edit the activity's details, delete the activity, or download the ride as a .fit file. Analyzing a run instead? See How to Sync and Analyze Runs in TrainerRoad.

Performance Analytics • Last updated on Jul 29, 2026

Power-Based Training Acronyms

There are far too many acronyms in the sport of cycling, so here is your cheat sheet for all the important ones FTP: Functional Threshold Power - This is theoretically the maximum steady-state power you could hold for about an hour - It is a way to quantify your current level of fitness- many of your other zones will scale fairly linearly relative to your FTP - All of your rides are based on a percentage of your FTP IF: Intensity Factor® - This is a way of quantifying how intense your ride was - The scale is based on this: An IF of 1.0 would be equivalent to performing at FTP for 1 hour. Aka, your body could not possibly work any harder. - A 0.8 IF would represent a ride that averaged 80% of your Functional Threshold Power TSS: Training Stress Score® - This is the amount of stress that a workout inflicts on your body - With a large TSS, there is a greater opportunity for growth but also a greater need for proper recovery - Calculated based on a combination of IF and duration NP: Normalized Power® - This metric is similar to average power, with one minor difference - This metric "weights" different power zones differently. It gives more weight to your harder intervals and more closely represents the physiological toll - The purpose of this is to attempt to estimate the power you could have produced had you been constant throughout the ride - This allows you to more honestly compare one ride to another since the rest intervals have less of an effect on the overall average

Power 101 • Last updated on Aug 13, 2026

Common Training Acronyms Defined

TSS, NP, IF, and FTP are terms created by Dr. Andy Coggan and are specific to cycling. Functional Threshold Power - FTP Functional Threshold Power, or FTP, is the maximum average power you can hold for one hour. So if you can hold 300 watts for one hour, that means your FTP is 300. FTP is the best single marker for fitness in cycling. The higher your FTP is, the stronger you are. In TrainerRoad, we use your FTP to scale workouts. Our workouts are structured as a percent of FTP. This means that when your FTP increases, the workouts get harder to maintain the same difficulty. Doing an all-out one-hour effort is really, really hard. It's hard to get an accurate test without it being in a race (much less indoors on a trainer). Because of this, we use the Ramp Test for FTP testing. The Ramp Test is both accurate and easy to complete for both new and experienced cyclists alike. If you would like to read up more on the Ramp Test and why we prefer it, click here. The other two most common tests to help estimate FTP are the 20 Minute Test and the 8 Minute Test. These are considered standard for FTP testing in the cycling world. We take averages of the all-out work intervals in each test and multiply them by a factor, usually .95 or .90. This gives us a good estimate of FTP. Normalized Power - NP® Normalized Power gives you an average power number if you would have ridden at a constant power output. For example, in a crit, you would have lots of power spikes and lots of coasting. This would result in a low average power. Normalized power was developed to try to figure out how much stress was actually put on your body. By using some math and weighting the really hard stuff more than the easy stuff we can figure out what your power output would have been if you would have ridden steadily the entire time. For TrainerRoad, this number is really helpful because most of our workouts have intervals with rest periods in between. Normalized Power gives you a way to compare efforts between workouts. For example, if one workout has a NP of 223 and another workout has an NP of 243 you put out more power for the second workout. Intensity Factor - IF® This is how intense a ride is. A ride with an Intensity Factor of 1.0 would equal an all-out effort for an hour. If you did an hour at .8 IF that means it was about an 80% effort. TrainerRoad has the Intensity Factor of each workout specified. This helps you gauge the difficulty of each workout. Training Stress Score - TSS® TSS is the amount of training stress generated from a workout. The higher this number, the more potential fitness you may have earned from a given ride. To gain the most fitness, you want to earn the most TSS possible. All of the workouts on TrainerRoad have a TSS score on them. This means that if you were to ride the workout exactly like it is prescribed you would earn that amount of TSS. How do TSS and IF relate to each other? Some rides can be intense, some can add a lot of fitness, some do both. A workout that is just 30 minutes long can be really intense and have an IF score of over 1.0, but that doesn't mean you'll earn a lot of TSS from it. By contrast, you can have a 2-hour ride that's not very intense, but will earn you a lot of TSS. Didn't find what you're looking for? You can find more acronyms for workout drills here.

Your First Ride • Last updated on Aug 20, 2026

How to Change Workout Intensity

This article will teach you about the intensity of workouts and how to manipulate this variable. Intensity Factor (IF)® Defined The Intensity Factor of a ride is defined as how intense/difficult the ride is. An IF of 1.0 is equal to an all out, one hour effort. An IF of .7 means the rider will be working at 70% of their all out pace for the hour. This is a quick way to gauge how hard your workout will be. How does IF display on screen? Screen_Shot_2017-04-11_at_12.38.27_PM.png Notice the green line labeled as "Actual" in the key. This green line also indicates the IF of your ride in comparison to the IF of the prescribed workout. If the green line lays directly atop the course profile (as it does in the screenshot below), that indicates the workout will be completed at the prescribed IF. How to change the Intensity of a Workout First, open the workout. Then, find the box in the lower left-hand corner of the screen that allows you to adjust the workout's intensity (screenshot below). This tool allows you change the IF of the workout while keeping the workout's intervals the same. Note that the course profile of the ride below has the same intervals, but a higher IF and higher power. Desktop intensity_electron.png iOS/Android intensityRN1.PNG intensityRN2.PNG How will the course profile and green IF line display during the ride and on my Career page? If you change the IF of a workout, the course profile will adjust accordingly and an inflated or deflated course will display for the duration of your ride. After you complete your ride, the workout will display on your Career page in its original form. However, the green "Actual" or IF line will display the intensity of the workout that you did. The screenshot below is an example of what a ride with a manipulated IF looks like on your Career page (without the power data). Screen_Shot_2017-04-11_at_6.00.05_PM.png What do I do as I become stronger? Changing the IF can be an interesting change of pace to a favorite ride, but this feature should not be used as a substitute for changing your FTP as you get stronger. Update your FTP rather than increasing the IF of rides. This way, your TSS numbers will be more accurate.

General Usage FAQs • Last updated on Aug 13, 2026

Workout Levels

Workout Levels are a metric within TrainerRoad that provide a way to easily compare the difficulty of workouts. Workout levels compare the relative difficulty of workouts within each energy system and training zone. They range from 1 to 10, with 1 representing an easy workout and 10 being a very difficult one. How are Workout Levels calculated? Workout Levels go beyond traditional metrics, like Training Stress Score (TSS) and Intensity Factor (IF). They utilize TrainerRoad AI's data-driven insights and incorporate nuanced factors such as repetition, interval length, and recovery time to quantify the relative difficulty of each TrainerRoad workout. The result is workout difficulty rankings that are based on real-world experience and easy to understand. Workout Levels are unique to TrainerRoad, using a formula derived from machine learning and based on our extensive data set. Where are Workout Levels displayed? The primary Workout Level for a workout is displayed on the workout profile alongside other workout information such as duration, TSS, and IF. You will see the workout level on all TrainerRoad workouts: Screenshot 2026-07-16 at 3.09.40 PM.png Workout Levels on the Calendar You will also see a workouts primary Workout Level in the upper left hand corner below the title of the workout when viewing an individual workout: Screenshot 2026-07-16 at 3.11.31 PM.png Primary Workout Level for an Individual Workout Note: The only structured workouts without Workout Levels are FTP assessments and custom workouts. When viewing a TrainerRoad workout you will also see the other Workout Levels targeted in any given workout in the Workout Levels chart below AI Predicted Difficulty. These levels show the performance targets for that particular workout relative to your current FTP: Screenshot 2026-07-16 at 3.18.07 PM.png FAQ How are these different from my individual Athlete Levels? Your individual Athlete Levels are a representation of your capabilities within the context of Workout Levels. Workout Levels are ML-driven quantifications of the relative difficulty workouts. Athlete Levels show your relative current abilities across Training Zones. You can check your Athlete Levels in your Career in the relative zone to check what difficulty of workouts are right for you based on your current abilities. Are Workout Levels always comparable? While Workout Levels do give you a good sense of how a workout might compare relative to another workout in TrainerRoad, Workout Levels are not strictly comparable even within one zone. How a workout feels to you can vary from one workout to the next based on the overall structure and duration of the workout. For this reason we recommend using AI Predicted Difficulty alongside Workout Levels for more insight into how your planned training might feel. Are Workout Levels personalized to each athlete? No. Workout Levels are assigned to a specific workout based on its difficulty and are calculated regardless of an athlete's abilities. Individual Athlete Levels are unique to each athlete. Your Progression Levels give you an indication of what workout difficulty you will be capable of completing. Will my custom workouts have Workout Levels? No, custom workouts do not currently have Workout Levels. Will Outside Workouts have Workout Levels? Yes. Every Outside Workout in the TrainerRoad workout library will have Workout Levels assigned to them. If you find an Outside Workout that doesn't have Workout Levels, please contact [email protected]

TrainerRoad AI • Last updated on Jul 16, 2026