Yesterday I completed a rowing session of 8 x 2min intervals with 3min rest. I recorded the activity using ErgZone, and it didn’t seem to record anything for the rest portion of each interval. I don’t think it should matter much, as the load would be minimal. The AI didn’t like it though, as it said I was below compliance due to the reduced moving time. In future, I will use ErgData as I believe it sends over some data from the rest, but not all.
The point of my post is that I’m confused about the Workout Reserve. It dips to its lowest value after the first interval. I can’t believe that that represents my greatest effort of the workout, as the last interval felt much harder and was, in fact, a higher pace. I’m assuming it was because the first interval did not follow a 3 minute rest, rather it just started after a 10 minute steady row. The workout reserve appears to drop quite significantly during the first easy/steady part of the workout, which seems strange to me, as it was a pace I could hold for as long as my hands and butt held out, rather than fitness limitations. So it seems odd to me that it was as low as it was after the first easy section and as high as it was after the intervals.
I have used Xert in the past, and am familiar with their Maximum Power Available metric, but it wouldn’t decrease at power below threshold, and it certainly would have decreased over a series of 2 minute maximum effort intervals. Perhaps the Workout Reserve metric is not the same thing, though in reading the definition it seems very similar.
Thank you for your message, and well done on this session! It’s a great example of the Workout Reserve (WR) in action.
What the WR is indicating during the very first bout is that you reached 16%, meaning you were at 84% (i.e., 100% - 16%) of the maximum power you could sustain for that specific time interval—what we call the “limiting MMP.” You can find information about the time interval by hovering over the graph with your pointer (see the attached screenshot). In this case, the “limiting MMP” was 1 minute and 30 seconds.
This deepest point might not necessarily represent your greatest effort, but rather the point where you were closest to your historical maximum. Whether your limitations were due to fitness/central factors, or external factors like pain (e.g., “hands or butt”), the Workout Reserve does not differentiate.
P.S. The WR and Xert’s Maximum Power Available are structured quite differently. While we may use similar language to describe the results, they operate under entirely different principles. I would also add that, in line with our principles, the WR has an open algorithm, with several examples proving its accuracy.
Thanks for this. I’m still a bit confused. In this particular case, my best observed 1:30 power is 254W. I don’t believe I hit 213W (.84x254) at any point in this workout, let alone for that duration. The only way I can make 84% make sense is if I use the normalized power (from Training Peaks) for the first 27 minutes of this workout, which is 115W, and equals 84% of my best observed 27 minute power of 136W. Perhaps this is just coincidence. At the end of every interval, the limiting MMP is 1:30, but the last interval was much closer to my max observed power at 1:30, so I still don’t understand why the mWR is at the end of the first interval.
I’d be grateful for any further clarification. Thanks!
Dear @BevOutside, thanks so much for your insightful analysis.
As you correctly noticed, there is a small discrepancy between the limiting MMP shown by the Workout Reserve and the MMP shown on the rowing power profile graph. This is because rolling average of power are computed slightly differently.
However, my suggestion is not to focus too much on the precise MMP number but rather try to understand the ball park. I think that a good way to think at it is to see if the limiting MMP is lower than 12-20 seconds ish, between 20 seconds and 2-3 minutes ish, and above 3-5 minutes. We can speculate that if the limiting MMP is 90 seconds, the effort is evenly aerobic and anaerobic. Which means that you were likely rising your lactate values and pushing your limits for that characteristic. The training protocol you were executing was a 2’ on and 3’ off. To me, this protocol naturally brings in a significant anaerobic component, together with a VO2max work. I do not have data to prove this, but my gut tells me that you spent a good amount of time with lactate concentrations well above your resting values. Good for training your body to exercise at high lactate concentrations. Purely aerobic? No. Indeed, the goal of the session was to train both VO2max AND racing pace.
In comparison, the session you did on Nov 5th had to be purely aerobic, as 30" on 30" off should be mostly aerobic (indeed the goal of the session was only VO2max). Indeed, the Workout Reserve showed long MMP values (even 2 hours at some point) indicating that you were getting the best out of your 30" intervals, correctly raising the baseline O2. You will notice that the last 3 intervals you pushed a bit more (maybe you wanted to squeeze some energy out of you?) and the MMP shortened to 1’:30" again. Some might say that those last three intervals were done at too high intensity and you tried to squeeze the toothpaste from both the aerobic and anaerobic side.
This is my interpretation based on the WR, but I might be missing some important points. I hope it makes sense.
Thanks very much for this response as it gives me much to think about. I was under the impression that Workout Reserve was much more like Xert’s MPA, hence my confusion. I will take some time to try to understand this more as it seems there is much more going on than I thought.
