Interesting. The Workout reserve is specific for the time frame of the effort
Interesting. The workout reserve is specific for the time frame of the effort. The intuition is correct, if you did 30-sec bouts at higher power outputs, it is likely that those are the time ranges where you got closer to your max. Doing more sets and reps overall increase the slow rolling averages (overall workout reserve trending down), but apparently this was not high enough to get close to your previous max in those time ranges.
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@andreazignoli It may be psychological. Because of my recent events in close proximity; I’ve been alternating between taper or recovery weeks for a few weeks. That means VO2 max have either been 2 x 7 x 30 / 30 or 3 x 7 x 30 / 30. Thus when I saw 6
@phil I think your mindset is best practice… the most important session is the next session and such a mindset expressed allows you to realize that…
Today I did a scheduled VO2Max session of 6 x 9 x 30 / 30 with 3 min recoveries between sets. This is the most number of sets and intervals I’ve done for this workout. I completed it, but my workout reserve said I had more in the tank. Is this because I’ve done the 30s on intervals at higher power (previously), albeit with fewer sets and intervals or is it comparing my average power over the entire session duration against my six week rolling average power for that duration?
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thoughts @andreazignoli ?
@Phil if the 30s have been done previously (<6 weeks) and in this session, albeit longer, WR did not reach the minimum, there is a simple explanation: during the intervals at higher power, your rolling averages reached a level that you did not reach with this longer session.
Beyond this “mathematical” explanation, there might be a more “physiological” explanation. To me, this suggests that these intervals, at this power, are becoming sustainable for you and are prompting a good steady and progressive increase in baseline aerobic platform.
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It’s hard to tell what’s an old post moved across and what’s a new reply. But indeed I think I had got comfortable with 30 / 30s at the power ranges proscribed. Last few weeks I’ve been doing the long HIIT workout as an alternate. It’s giving me a new challenge and as I do them on the same hill outside I’m getting a different stimulus. I’m not watching a timer wondering when it’s going to end, I can use my position on the hill to know how far into an interval I am, and what’s left.
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@Prof When performing different sessions (AE, HIIT, VT2, VO2) is there an optimal mWR range? E.g. Do we want to try and hit 25% or less.
blog on this coming soon
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Just wanted to post Andrea Zignoli’s blog about Athletica’s genius Workout Reserve : A model that can evaluate the maximal mean power during exercise? - Personal website
@Prof @Andrea @Phil : On behalf of all of us everyday athletes: Thank you for sharing your genius with us mortals working on becoming the best we can be and making sports innovations like WR happen and be accessible for us without deep pockets 
THANK YOU 
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@Andrea sums it up nicely, that we are still experimenting with it. We are discussing some further ideas at the moment regards real time WR. There’s almost certainly more to come, hopefully in the not too distant future.
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@Andrea 's latest blog on the Athletica Workout Reserve. Amazing.
Enrico Zanoncello (left) winning by inches on Matteo Malucelli. Source: @Bardiani_CSF official X account of VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè.
Enrico’s race data: the Athletica Workout Reserve. mWR=-16%
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Pretty cool to see WR going deeply down on downhill at the end 
would love to see the power profile
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Hey @Marjaana ! Yes, pretty cool right?
You can have a look at the shape of the power profile in the blogpost, but we did not include the power values to preserve the athlete’s privacy 
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Something that hasn’t been touched on is Workout Reserve during recovery rides or aerobic endurance. I did a 223km ride on Saturday. I like to take a day off the bike for every 100km of my long rides. A rule of thumb I’ve worked out for recovery over the years. On these days I go for walks of no more than an hour but not much less. Today was first day back on the bike and a recovery spin. I like to keep recovery as intended and tend to go mostly by RPE and HR, average 95 BPM and max 117 BPM. But the Workout Reserve trace also shows I’m keeping it easy, with a min of 64% which was up one of the longer hills.
As always I do my rides outside unless there are no ice free roads. But today it has warmed up and back in shorts and short sleeved top.
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A little story about the evolution of Workout Reserve.
Some of you will know that @Andrea and I are currently working on the next evolutions of real time Workout Reserve.
When I first got approached about developing a real time version of Workout Reserve; I didn’t really understand it. I saw Workout Reserve in post session analysis but not what it was telling me.
When @Prof put me in touch with Andrea, there was a lot of information to absorb, how the Athletica servers calculated it post session, the equations involved, working out how to implement those in real time, what would be needed in the user profile for the calculations.
I got so busy implementing real time workout reserve, I didn’t query too much of what I was told about it. I was new to it and still learning. The first priority was to develop all the real time pieces and get all them all working in concert with the Athletica servers.
Now on the second evolution.
I understand workout reserve, I know what’s it’s doing, and how under the covers. I’ve used it for more than 6 months and know how it relates to how I feel, and what to expect during different workout types.
Andrea gave me an equation that will be necessary for the second evolution. But this time I questioned if the equation was right. Andrea insisted it was. But I had a feeling / hunch something was missing from it. We disagreed and on Wed agreed I’d spend Thu exploring my hunch. I could be wrong and if I hadn’t turned my hunch into a promising lead by the end of Thu, we’d proceed with his equation.
I spent yesterday with pen and paper scribbling away, and testing my occasional conclusions and theories in a spreadsheet. I looked at radioactive decay and half life, the limits of infinite series, geometric ratios, and applied differential equations and logarithms. I had my Eureka moment late yesterday and shared my output with Andrea this morning.
In response he said “ you know us engineers… I just care about it works somehow 
” and “ but this is a poetic touch 
.
You see my background is mathematics, it’s what my degree is. I care about maths and see patterns others maybe can’t. The maths we will be using borrows from stuff I learnt 40 years ago, and somehow dredged out of the archives.
These quotes some up maths well
“ Mathematics is not about numbers, equations, computations, or algorithms: it is about understanding.”
“ Mathematics is the study of patterns and relationships, which exist everywhere in the natural and human-made world
Finally
“Mathematics is not a careful march down a well-cleared highway, but a journey into a strange wilderness, where the explorers often get lost”
Andrea could have shut down my hunch, and I might have been wrong or not found the breakthrough. As it is we have some poetry to implement into WR.
It’s how collaboration should work, you should be allowed to disagree. Then set a timeframe to explore the source of the disagreement, a hunch, and see if it has merit.
Workout Reserve is exploratory and sometimes it requires an approach where you’re not sure if you’re going to end up in the wilderness with no answer or leap out the bath and run naked down the road shouting Eureka!
I hope you’ve enjoyed this story of how some of us are working behind the scenes to make Athletica better.
The results will be coming to real time some point later this year.
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It’s a BEAUTY!!! Thank you for sharing your collab. I absolutely LOvE this story 
can’t wait to learn more.
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Love this. Intuition can prove a powerful force for confirmation and correction.
Thanks very much for relating the behind-the-scenes work.
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I’m old enough that log tables and slide rules were still in use when I was at school. We were taught how to use them as calculators from Casio and Sharp began to enter schools in the late 70/ early 80s.
When they came in, our teachers always used to say, work it out long hand and understand what kind of answer you are expecting. Then if you subsequently used a calculator and pressed the wrong button you’d know if the answer didn’t look right.
For my ordinary and advanced maths exams pre University I used log tables and a friend used a slide rule. It didn’t hold us back.
Of course everyone has a personal computer and internet access in their pocket now. I first started using computers and met the Internet in 1979. Things have changed a little since then, but much of the fundamentals under the hood haven’t.
Maths is both art and science.
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