Totally. Paces are grade-adjusted, so they are afflicted by bad GPS signal, giving wrong elevation data. We are well aware of this problem and working on it. Thanks for the feedback!
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Thank you everyone for the feedback.
If, as it seems, your HR and power/pace zones are NOT aligned, please proceed with manual zone set-up to make sure they are aligned. Notice the coach will focus on power or pace data over HR, whenever possible, as external metrics are more robust. We may change this adding an option, in case you prefer sticking to HR for example.
Once you align your power and HR zone for biking, you should get consistent results. The same will work after aligning pace and HR zone, and if you carry out all your running sessions with a good GP signal (this is hard to tell).
But please notice that, for example, if you had to do a Z2 ride at constant Z2 power, this is what you should do. If you do not follow prescriptions, and do not meet the intended target, the coach is going to tell you. Yes, we understand it is harder to hit these prescriptions perfectly outdoor rather than indoor, and the AI coach can be less strict when that it the case - we will take this into consideration for the next release. Thanks for the feedback on this!
Regarding the plan adjustments, please do not worry: the AI will adjust your plan based on your feedback and the targets. At the moment, the AI Coach post-session feedback serves you to understand how much you are sticking to the plan and how well you are executing the prescribed workouts. At the moment, it does not influence the algorithm, and we are debating whether it should. I fact, we understand that the plan may be hard, time may be needed to adjust, and that it is OK to miss some sessions or do not hit all prescriptions once in a while. On the contrary, notice that you can have all green session cards because you have hit all load prescriptions, but durations and intensities might be off, and this may result in over-training or even injuries when repeated. We want you to be aware about the importance of hitting the plan prescriptions (not just the load) to prevent those setbacks.
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Thanks for the feedback. We actually improved the feedback as before it was too focused on raw numbers (which you can read from the result table) and we received a lot of feedback about it not being like a ārealistic coach feedbackā as it lacked actionable insights. Now it provides actionable insights, it is a bit strict tho, and it will work perfectly if you really hit all sessions and (pace/power) zones as prescribed, assuming they are correctly set up. We are working on revamping the session result page, so that the data you are asking about will be more intuitively accessible at the graphical level.
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I too did a strength endurance run yesterday and today, while keeping HR nicely in Z2. Pace was however lower which led the AI coach to comment that I spent too much time in Z1 (pace). What is leading for this exercise (pace or HR) and how can I tell, also for other exercises?
Should I stick with pace , while risking a higher HR zone than prescribed?
Athletica sent it to my Garmin with HR range as target.
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This is what I am trying to figure out as well. If I run my zone 2 runs by pace, even the upper range of pace, I tend to drift above zone 2 HR at the halfway point, even though I still feel like I am at comfortable RPE. I tend to just try to push the pace a little based on how I feel and ignore my Garmin constantly telling me I am going above HR. Of course, getting the same feedback as everyone else has from the AI coach has me wondering if I am taking the correct approach.
For now, I am going to just have the Garmin connection push all my workouts based on pace and if I need to back off based on how I feel, or if my HR really spikes, I will adjust accordingly.
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Thanks for your response. Seems to mostly make sense except it seems like in some cases the AI appears to not interpret results correctly.
The original issue I saw was the AI simply did not understand the results of a session. The AI had claimed I spent too much time in Zone 1 instead of Zone 2. I was pretty much in the prescribed bounds for Zone 2 and in fact had spent not too much time in Zone 1 heart rate at all.
My run was on 3/14/25. In that case the initial feedback from the AI Coach (which has been overwritten several times as I responded back to the feedback) just didnāt make sense: it was complaining I had too much time in Zone 1. This feedback didnāt align with the results of the session. Looking at that session, the heart rate in Zone 1 was well below the planned amount. The pace in Zone 1 was about 30 seconds longer (9:52 v 9:22) than prescribed. But the majority of the 35 minute run was in Zone 2 by heart rate; and Zone 2 and Zone 3a/3b via pace. That particular run my heart rate was a little lower than usual by a few beats per minute, so I ran at the top end of the prescribed heart rate which did result in some pace at Zone 3a/3b.
My initial frustration was the AI coach feedback didnāt align with these results. Do you think a misalignment in heart rate / pace zones could explain that? Mine could be misaligned for sure.
Stick to Hr when doing aerobic endurance runs, and ignore AI coach comments for now. We are updating the system and it will get better. 
Thanks for your patience
MJ
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Go by HR when doing aerobic zone 2 runs granted that your zones are correctly set.
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If you didnāt do the test week when you started your zones may need to be updated but also note that we are fine tuning the AI coach feedback. First step, make sure you do test week, second step fine tune the zones if needed. Third step please be patient as we fine tune and update.
Thanks, Mj
Now it provides actionable insights, it is a bit strict tho, and it will work perfectly if you really hit all sessions and (pace/power) zones as prescribed, assuming they are correctly set up.
Unfortunately not. I did a bike session today on an indoor trainer. Because of being indoors and also being a strength endurance session it was possible to reliably stay close to the midpoint of the target power ranges throughout. But despite completing the session almost exactly as prescribed, the feeback said that I spent too much time in zone2 and not enough in zone1.
The session prescribed that the warmup and cooldown sections be ridden at 98 - 189W, I rode them at approx 147W. And recovery sections were to be ridden at 98 - 140W, I rode them at approx 120W. So for all of these (and the other zone3b efforts in the session) I was almost exactly in the middle of the prescribed range. But the AI Coach was not happy, it seems to thinkg I should have spent my time much closer to the lower end of the prescribed ranges.
It seems like the AI Coach is completely unaware of the prescribed power ranges for this session. It certainly didnāt work perfectly even though I did hit all of the prescribed power zones for the entire session.
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For some further context, here is what I see for my session today:
Zone1 is 98-140W, planned time in that range was 27 minutes, I did 20 minutes.
Zone2 is 140-189W, planned time in that range was 8 minutes, I did 15 minutes.
So strictly speaking the AI Coach is correct, I spent more time in zone2 than planned. But the session description prescribed a total of 15 minutes (10min warmup and 5min cooldown) @ 98-189W, and a total of 20 minutes (4x 5min recovery) @ 98-140W. I adhered to the session description but the AI Coach seems to be measuring my performance without taking that description into account.
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Agree with others that the AI coach has gotten a pretty critical tone lately and focusing way too much on pace zones, lost all deep data interpretation, and giving preachy nutrition advice on hour easy runs!??!?!!?!
Will have patience, but if the advice is to stick to HR when doing aerobic runs, then isnāt the simple answer to have the AI coach ALSO stick to HR zones for aerobic runs and pace/speed/power data for non-aerobic runs?
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@pooka Interesting. The issue here is not with the Coach, as you also understood.
Before addressing this let me make it clear a crucial point: the coach only provides comments using results of what Athletica analyzes. We do not let the coach analyze data and interpret it itself, we are well aware of the LLMs limitations and hallucinations, so we use it to convey the information that we (backed by science) provide. Now you can say that we have been a bit too strict with some analytic parameters, and we agree - we are here to gather feedback and improve features, so thanks for your constructive feed. (A blog post will be soon out, so you can understand better the logic hopefully)
Back to your session: you see the coach is pointing out the issue in your zone charts (you spent twice the time you were supposed to in Z2, that time should have been done in Z1). Now, are you saying the issue is that this is unavoidable given the very loose warmup and cool down power interval prescriptions (which spans both Z1 and Z2 instead of focusing on Z1 for example)? I think that is indeed the issue, thanks for flagging this. Prescriptions may not perfectly align with the planned time in zones.
Another issue, which you also mentioned, is the indoor vs outdoor. HR indoor may be completely different from outdoor, as it depends on your cooling system, while power is a bit more in line with the outdoor one. This precisely the reason why we prefer focusing on power zones rather than HR zones.
@mgiven thanks for sticking with us, we are gathering as much feedback as possible. We will improve the feature with the feedback you all are providing
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@pooka Here is the catch for the Z1 - Z2 misalignment: the warm-ups and cool-downs are meant to be completed as RAMPS (the time planned in zone is computed assuming that):
- Warm-up: ramping up gradually from power_min ā power_max (bascially from Z2 to Z3b/Z4 most of the time)
- Cool-down: opposite ramping down
If you, instead, hit a costant power value āin the middleā of the min-max interval, then your end up doing all WU and all CD in one zone, instead of moving through zones. This is why your planned and completed time in zones are different!
Kudos to you for hitting every other prescribed zone tho!
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I always notice that too that sometimes the warm-up and cool-down segment plans will throw off the analysis of the workout should you choose not to do those and either jump into your main segment sooner or skip the cool-down. Maybe a potential idea would be the ability to choose to not have warmup and cooldown segments in our prescribed workouts?
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More motivating feedback from AI coach today
Over the past week, youāve done an excellent job providing feedback for nearly all of your sessionsāabout 100%! Hereās a brief summary of how youāre digesting your training:
- Last Friday, during your bike session, you noted that your legs felt a little tired and reported a moderate effort, feeling okay.
- On Saturday, during your easy walk session, you felt great and indicated an easy effort.
- By Sunday, your bike session had you feeling that your legs were heavy, but you still reported feeling great despite the somewhat hard effort.
- On Monday, you noted that you felt good during your bike session, again reporting a somewhat hard effort while feeling great.
- On Tuesday, you mentioned trying to do more Zone 2 training after feedback from me, and you felt great, reporting a somewhat hard effort.
- Last Thursday, you enjoyed your bike session outdoors and requested to ease up on compliance, reporting a hard effort while still feeling great.
ā¦
For now, thereās no need to worry; just proceed with your training as usual. Enjoy your rest day, and get ready for your bike session tomorrow!
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This is something we are considering in the Workout Wizard indeed!
Well I meant in overall plan setup if you donāt want them EVER on any activity. Would be nice to choose between having WU/CD or not .
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Where as I want longer warm up / cool-down option for certain sessions which are always done outside 
