Intervals.icu interval detection and training tool

[davidtinker]

Intervals.icu now supports resetting your estimated FTP value. Useful if you are coming off a long break and the normal decay isn't enough. "FTP up!" achievements for all! Add "Set eFTP" entry to your calendar.

 

[davidtinker]

You can now change the factors used to compute fatigue (ATL) and fitness (CTL). On the fitness page choose “Options” and then “Adjust Fitness Days”. Use the sliders to adjust and the chart will redraw.

 

 

You can choose to apply the new factors to all activities or only from the oldest date shown on the chart.

Edited January 25, 2020 by davidtinker

[JohanDiv]

Hi David, what changed in the last update? My fitness went from 81 to 101 overnight? Wish that was true haha!

[davidtinker]

Outliers are now removed from the models used to estimate training load for activities with only heart rate data. This makes the models a lot more accurate for most people. That said I wouldn't expect such a big change. Could you please msg me a link to one of your activities so I can find you in the db and have a look.

 

There is more info on the end of this thread: https://forum.intervals.icu/t/how-training-load-estimation-from-hr-works/280

[JohanDiv]

Outliers are now removed from the models used to estimate training load for activities with only heart rate data. This makes the models a lot more accurate for most people. That said I wouldn't expect such a big change. Could you please msg me a link to one of your activities so I can find you in the db and have a look.

 

There is more info on the end of this thread: https://forum.intervals.icu/t/how-training-load-estimation-from-hr-works/280

 

Thanks!

 

You mean a link to a Strava activity? Here is one from this morning..

 

https://www.strava.com/activities/3049692824

 

and the same one on intervals.icu..

 

https://intervals.icu/activities/3049692824

Edited January 28, 2020 by JohanDiv

[davidtinker]

and the same one on intervals.icu..

https://intervals.icu/activities/3049692824

 

The "time in zones" HR load estimation model isn't working for you. I think its way over estimating training load. Your ride on the 29th has 139 load for 46m of work. Thats too high since 1h at FTP is supposed to be 100. I suggest changing to the "Average HR" model in /settings. It will take a few minutes to recalculate all of your activities.

 

Let me know how that works out.

[davidtinker]

Also I think your FTP is set way too low. That ride on the 28th has you at 98% intensity for almost an hour but the HR trace doesn't look like you were doing a 1h full gas TT.

[davidtinker]

One more thing. The HR spike detector is kicking in and fixing spikes above your max HR on some of your rides. So either your max HR is higher than what you have configured or your HR strap is acting up? You can change your max HR in /settings.

[JohanDiv]

Thanks David!! That worked a charm! Max HR set to 196 now, but picked the average HR method. FTP jumped recently from 250 to 270 and then estimated again a week later at 284..will keep an eye on that and do a new FTP test sometime.

[Spurs]

Hi David.  This is perhaps not so much a question about the intervals.icu tool itself, but a more general question about FTP and travel (and maybe to spark some thoughts on possible solutions in the tool).

 

I reside in CT and travel to JHB quite often.  I've found that I need to adjust my FTP by 10% or so (lower for JHB), in order to find planned workouts manageable.  What I've been doing is updating my FTP on the wattbike hub app before each workout depending on where I am.

Likewise, in intervals.icu, I manually update the FTP after each workout to ensure the load is calculated correctly.

 

Any thoughts on this? Anyone else do anything similar?

[ruan.kotze]

Hi David.  This is perhaps not so much a question about the intervals.icu tool itself, but a more general question about FTP and travel (and maybe to spark some thoughts on possible solutions in the tool).

 

I reside in CT and travel to JHB quite often.  I've found that I need to adjust my FTP by 10% or so (lower for JHB), in order to find planned workouts manageable.  What I've been doing is updating my FTP on the wattbike hub app before each workout depending on where I am.

Likewise, in intervals.icu, I manually update the FTP after each workout to ensure the load is calculated correctly.

 

Any thoughts on this? Anyone else do anything similar?

I do - I have different FTP's on the trainer and on my MTB.  The ease of doing this with intervals.icu was one of the major reasons I moved away from the Elevate add-in for Chrome.

[davidtinker]

Interesting question! Never considered impact of altitude on FTP. 

 

If your JHB rides are all indoor and your CTN rides outdoor you could change the "Indoor FTP" setting in /settings to cater for JHB.

 

Otherwise is quite hard to handle this "automatically" in a tool. Presumably once you have been in JHB for a few days you will acclimatise and return to your sea-level FTP?

[Spurs]

I do - I have different FTP's on the trainer and on my MTB.  The ease of doing this with intervals.icu was one of the major reasons I moved away from the Elevate add-in for Chrome.

 

Okay cool.  Yeah I have found it fairly simple to update intervals.icu this way.

 

Interesting question! Never considered impact of altitude on FTP. 

 

If your JHB rides are all indoor and your CTN rides outdoor you could change the "Indoor FTP" setting in /settings to cater for JHB.

 

Otherwise is quite hard to handle this "automatically" in a tool. Presumably once you have been in JHB for a few days you will acclimatise and return to your sea-level FTP?

 

Yeah I guess that is the tricky party.  I'm only in Jhb for 2-3 days at a time.  I need to read up to see if regular short trips will contribute at all to acclimatization, or if you only acclimatize if you remain there for week or so or longer. 

 

For the moment I just keep the wattbike app as my "Jhb FTP", and manually change intervals.icu (though I will check out the indoor FTP option).  But when winter rolls in, I'll be doing some indoor stuff in CT as well, so will need to go back to manually changing this (I've forgotten to lower the FTP for a trip before and I was wrecked after 2/3rds of the workout).

[Jbr]

I subscribed yesterday and I have two (probably silly) questions :

 

- the site seems to believe my FTP was higher a few month ago (from what I remember it was maybe 286 a few months ago and the last one I did on the 31st of october was 283) yet the estimated is 272, that's quite a difference ? Is it only because since october I haven't had an intense ride to collect relevant data ?

 

- Is there any suggestions of training to do to improve that on the site or must I use Xert or Zwifts training plans ? My goal would be to go over 4w/kg asap

[Jehosefat]

Otherwise is quite hard to handle this "automatically" in a tool. Presumably once you have been in JHB for a few days you will acclimatise and return to your sea-level FTP?

 

Yeah, you can't really cater for it automatically because the exact FTP drop of moving from sea level to an altitude depends on not just the altitude change but also how long the person has spent at each altitude, the amount of training done and also the individual's physiology.

 

No, as much as you do acclimatise to a change in altitude, it takes quite a long time (based on the research I've read) but also just due to the fact that there is less oxygen available at higher altitudes your FTP will always be lower at higher altitude than at sea level (I've seen a quoted level of 3-7% lower after acclimation for a 1500m change in altitude and the impact will obviously be bigger until you have acclimatised).

[JohanDiv]

I subscribed yesterday and I have two (probably silly) questions :

 

- the site seems to believe my FTP was higher a few month ago (from what I remember it was maybe 286 a few months ago and the last one I did on the 31st of october was 283) yet the estimated is 272, that's quite a difference ? Is it only because since october I haven't had an intense ride to collect relevant data ?

 

- Is there any suggestions of training to do to improve that on the site or must I use Xert or Zwifts training plans ? My goal would be to go over 4w/kg asap

 

Yip, the estimated FTP will drop if you didn't put in a hard effort since then. A quick Zwift race going balls to the walls for 30mins will quickly sort that out haha! With this Tour de Zwift races going on now mine increased quite a bit..