Yesterday I had an aerobic swim session. Athletica has steadfastly refused to update my swim zones. I’m a former collegiate swimmer, and it underestimates my paces. So I generally end up completing my workouts and then being criticized for being in Z4 when it wanted Z2.
Problem is, when you look at my HR, I’m in the right zones - Athletica is apparently just blind to that data. So on yesterday’s swim I did the entire thing in HR Z1, but the coach went after me for going too hard.
This morning, to add to my confusion, it took the additional step of suggesting that I worsen my threshold swim pace even more. I’m baffled by this. If I’m doing “threshold pace” but at a recovery HR, shouldn’t that indicate that my threshold pace has improved dramatically? Instead, it actually thinks I got worse!
There’s no way that this is the correct behavior…is there?
1 Like
Hey @rctaylor157
Sorry about the poor experience. You’re right, your swim pace profile is NOT correct. I had a look at it and it has completely missed your FAST test you did end of July. Please go to your overview - athlete zones and manually change your CP threshold. Do you know the times you clocked for the test?
AI Coach is in the wrong yo scold you for executing a picture perfect aerobic session. In fact, anytime you can swim with lower heart rate but faster, it should give you a virtual high five!
So sorry for the bad experience. I have flagged this one with our dev team. In the meanwhile please manually change your threshold. Let me know your times and I can tell you what your threshold likely ends up in.
MJ
3 Likes
On July 28th I did a time trial. Here’s the results:
400m - 5:17.3 / avg pace - 1:19/100m
50m - 0:32.1 / avg pace - 1:04/100m
After I did this time trial it also scolded me. Here was the AI feedback from this session:
“First off, congrats on setting a new benchmark in your swim session! That notable improvement in your minimum workout reserve indicates your explosive efforts are really paying off. Your RPE of 9/10 and a feeling of 5/5 show that you’re pushing hard and feeling great about it—fantastic job! However, I noticed that your time spent in Zone 3 was significantly above what we prescribed. While it’s great to challenge yourself, keeping a close eye on your intensity zones is crucial for recovery and long-term progress, especially with the upcoming Half Ironman.”
1 Like
Thank you for this! Those are impressive times! 
I’ve flagged this with our backend team and we are working on a teaching the AI Coach to not scold the athletes when they are doing test sessions The point is to go as hard as you can, without any regard to pre-set “zones”!
I’ve also adjusted your swim zones. Let me know they feel more accurate for you now.
Looks like my swim workouts just got more interesting…thank you!
2 Likes
AI coach just hit me with this:
Any idea why the AI is convinced that I’m slow and getting slower? I didn’t even swim yesterday…
1 Like
Please hit dismiss. I’m not sure why it is not sticking with your CSS test. I’ll report. Sorry !
1 Like
please manually change your swim setting again. I think I set to 1:21?
More weirdness. I rode with the A group in a group ride last night and literally set my all-time best 1hr power output. Woke up this morning to this:
This has to be some sort of bug.
1 Like
I also keep getting that message, .. note at a much lower watts :), I just keep dismissing it… my watts during my long z2 rides continue to go up. but it keeps wanting to decrease? Is it using normalized or average power to make the suggestions? This can make a big difference on a hilly course. On my last ride the difference between my average vs normalized was 40 watts.
1 Like
happy training !
