Hi,
I’m now in my 3rd week of using Athletica. I am adhering with the duration of the L2 runs but my average HR is a few bpm lower than predicted. This is because I am ignoring the upper range of zone 2 that it has for me. I know it has my zone 2 range too high, up to 142 bpm. I know from both a metabolic test and by feel that this is too high (can’t nasal breathe, and I can feel the breathing ramp up significantly). I would rather increase my time in zone 2 than take my HR over around 132 (I am 48, and the metabolic test actually had my zone 2 up to only 128 bpm). Ok, that’s the background! Now getting to my question.
As the AI can tell my work output is lower (including completing shorter distance than predicted), it is accordingly changing my workouts to ensure progressive overload. All good - except it’s changing largely the bike sessions rather than the run - and this is despite my program being for running, not triathalon. I don’t mind doing 30" on the bike as cross-training zone 2/recovery day if it helps, but tomorrow it wants me to do an hour! A bit much for someone with no interest in the bike 
Why does it not just extend the time of my zone 2 runs? Can I just ignore the long bike directive, keep it short and just add time/km to my easy run days instead?
Hi Alyssa,
What plan are you on? Sounds like maybe the duathlon?
Maybe you’ll learn to love the bike! Seriously, though, the bike helps you add more volume to your training plan without the stress - and potential injury - caused by running more.
You’re always welcome to change up the program and add more time to the run and less to the bike. Build up your running time slowly to avoid injuries and potential overuse.
Good work sticking to the lower HR zone as well. You’re using your breathing to guide your zone 2, a good practice!
Hi and thank you. I am on Running, not Duathlon, which is why I was confused that it was prioritising addng time on bike. I get the injury risk angle, but would have thought that would be fairly low just adding ten minutes in running at zone 2. Maybe it would have needed to add too much time to Z2 running to meet the same load goals for the week (though there were 2 runs left it could have added to). In any case, I’ll add time to the easy run and see what happens.
Hey Alyssa,
I can take a look at your plan. Please send me a PM here with your email address associated with Athletica plan 
MJ
Many thanks, Marjaana! It is telling me my fitness is too high for the low volume plan but I did not want to move to mid volume as I was only doing 5.5hr/week of running in my peak week last season.
Here’s my outlook for the next few months:
Run - 4 days/week
Dance - 2 days/week
Strength Training - 2 days/week (this is a set program - I don’t need Athletica’s input)
I am happy for 2 recovery days on the stationary bike to be prescribed (this feels nice on the body) but am not looking to specifically improve bike fitness (its role in my program is aerobic cross-training benefits only).
When you look at my program it will tell you I have done less than the prescribed time for the stationary cycle days, but as I mentioned in another thread, this is not the case. For some reason, what is being uploaded is only part of the workout (it seems to think I have stopped pedalling).
My email is alyssatait13@gmail.com
Thank you so much for your input!
Hey Alyssa, I had a look at your plan.
First, bike sessions: These a little bit longer in base season mainly to help you build aerobic base because it is a low impact way to increase your overall volume, and your fitness, instead of adding more volume in running which has much higher neuromuscular load. You will notice those bike sessions shorten in build phase. More specific work in build phase, so more running, shorter bikes.
There are two things you can do :
In your training settings, you can manipulate the proportion of bike and run… for example
Here, you could try 90-10% run/bike proportion and see if that helps you change how much biking you are doing. (I highly recommend doing those bike sessions though as crosstraining if time permits :D)
Another is to turn your watch on for both strength sessions and dance session (dance is an awesome way to work on your base fitness and have fun!)
All those sessions do add up so please take advantage of those and get them recorded in Athletica.
I believe you mentioned your watch in another thread. I can’t quite remember what watch it was but I found a few instances where your HR drops off, indicating a connection issue. This can affect those bike sessions because Athletica can only calculate your load by you HR when you don’t have power data coming in. So when it can only find part of the workout HR, it can only calculate those. This has also happened in running. You may want to 1. get a chest strap 2. new watch (happy birthday to you?!). Garbage in, garbage out…
I also noticed you have been inserting your comments in the workout details. Athletica only reads your comments from the “Tell us a bit more about how you feel / how the session went (it will help us build your schedule)” section.
I hope this helps you Alyssa. It was a mystery to me at first, but my initial gut feeling turned out to be correct. It’s usually the data that is coming in. AI is smart, but it can only read what is given to it.
You are doing great! You’re well on your way towards your 10K and half-marathon! Excited to follow along your progress, so keep in touch!
Best, MJ
Hi Marjaana,
Thanks so much, this helps a lot! It’s good to know about the Advanced Settings for training. But for now I’ll leave it and have a go of doing the stationary cycling as planned because I can feel it’s less taxing on the body due to low impact. I’m happy to know that later in the program, the cycle workouts will drop down.
I am experimenting with the Polar Verity arm band, which I think is quite reliable for HR. But while I’ve been able to record the session on the Polar app, I can’t work out how to get it to override the HR in the Garmin app (and btw I am using the Garmin Forerunner 235 Music). I don’t think it’s the Garmin that’s the issue, because the Thurs 9 January run looks normal for HR fluctuations, whereas in the above diagram from Athletica it is showing my HR go down to zero! See screenshot below:
Also, I was having a lot of trouble entering subjective data. I think this was because I was trying to enter it by clicking either Add New Detail or Edit Session. The first does not allow you to type in, and the second only allows you to enter it in the workout details. I finally figured out that rather than clicking on the 3 dots, you actually just need to click on the heading (e.g. “Brisbane Running”). But it only allows you to do this once the session has been uploaded from your Garmin - so if I tried to enter it before it had synced, I did it in the way you mentioned. Anyway hopefully I am doing it right now (but FYI, the A.I. coach was still quoting back to me things I had written in it - so it seems that it does somehow pick it up from there too?!
Sorry I have had so many questions. The technology is often what upends me with these kinds of programs, and I really want to make this work!
Thanks again,
Alyssa
Sounds good!
I understand the tech learning curve can be a turn-off. Please, don’t hesitate to reach out if getting frustrated. we are here to help!
Reg. discrepancy btw Garmin and Athletica. My hunch is that Garmin is visually showing extrapolated data when signal dropping, or processing the signal somehow, but I could be totally wrong.
Best, MJ