How could an athlete have increased their training load without having adding more hours?

This is a general question, not specifically asking about how to use Forecast AI (although understanding how it works can help you answer the question).

I can think of 3 ways. Maybe there are more?

is it the same thing to increase power (as per the title) and increase training load? or are these two separate questions? I would suspect that one way to increase power may be to increase intensity within the constraint of no change in hours performed per week.

Also just asking but is XSS a proxy for intensity so if the XXS is higher but the workout time is the same then is it true the intensity is higher?

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let’s stick with training load. title updated.

Variations of increasing intensity… increase average power for endurance rides / add harder but sub-threshold efforts… spend less time coasting… do more efforts under fatigue to increase XSSR… do more intervals to increase XSSR… but don’t do too much high intensity, so you have the energy to keep riding (within the ride and also between rides) etc…

Variations of increasing variability of daily XSS… alternating high XSS and low XSS days should give a higher TL than the same XSS each day… at the most extreme, get all your XSS on one day a week (not that I recommend, but it’s what following the maths implies)… at a minimum, add a long ride

Lower your fitness signature artificially (but guess that’s cheating!)

Temporarily shorten focus to raise HIE and lower TP, then go back to riding more endurance - you’ll get more XSS at the same power with a lower TP… am not sure if that’s material though

Of course if your starting TL is low, just riding the same hours will increase TL for a while till it plateaus anyway

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Here’s a forecast chart for a 10 week plan to improve 4-min power with max hours capped close to current TL. Weekly hours aren’t static on an XFAI plan (periodization) but I think this visual provides clues on how to squeeze more out of similar hours. :smiley:

XFAI_Goal4minPower9wks

Another factor –

g-chart_focus

I think you covered 2 out of 3 but then added one more.

  1. Increase XSSR during the time you have available to train. This means harder workouts / reducing MPA during the workout to increase XSSR whilst generating the required increase in XSS within the same amount of time.
  2. Increase frequency vs. doing longer rides. A single 5 hour weekend ride isn’t the same as 5 1-hour workouts throughout the week. The 5 1-hour workouts will yield more training load (as an average) than 1 big 5 hour ride every weekend.
  3. Ride indoors. Outdoors tends to have more coasting and stops which can make it less efficient. Indoor rides tend to be more efficient. You don’t get to coast, stop at stoplights or have a coffee stop.

and add one more …

  1. Started with a lower TL and just riding the same amount of hours would increase TL.

Good call @wescaine

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On this point I had in mind the opposite actually… do you mean that 5 shorter rides have higher TL because they can be higher intensity / will have less fatigue (which is maybe the intensity point stated differently)? Otherwise I thought 700 XSS once a week would yield a higher TL than 100XSS every day due to the exponential weighting? Similar to how doing one or heavy HIIT workouts a week improves high TL more than doing a little bit of intensity every single day. Am not sure it’s a big impact though :slight_smile:

If you did 100XSS each day, then your TL would be 100 after each activity. If you did one 700XSS ride on Sunday, your TL would be 100 after it but then decay for the remainder of the week. Your “average” would be lower.

By the same token if you had 3 hours to ride in a day then spliting it up into 2 x 1.5/s in the morning and afternoon should have a marginally better effect as well maybe?

Marginally yes.

Not to forget that there are numerous ways to increase training stimuli without affecting TL.

Yes. These are “secrets” :smile:

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