Hi,
I have used plan builder up to my event in March. It is a 235km, 4000m climbing road race. The event is made up by 3 substantial climbs 1-1.5hrs in duration.
I have done a few years of the mid and high volume TR base, build plans. Plan builder has me doing climbing road race HV for this final specialty phase.
The volume and intensity looks low relative to the build phase and the demands of the long sustained climbs.
Has anyone experience with the century and climbing road race speciality phases?
My plan/pacing strategy is to want to be able to hold as high a percentage of FTP(60-90min climbs) as possible and avoid to many surges given the duration(approx 9hrs).
Has anyone experience with the century and climbing road race speciality phases?
For that duration and with those lengthy climbs I think century plan might be better. Climbing road race I think is more targeted at races where there’s plenty of climbing but there’s still also bunch racing and tactics to deal with so you need some above threshold capabilities. For your event I’d think you’d want to stay below threshold all day and the century plan is more targeted at that. Maybe also worth looking at Cross country marathon plan?
Well first of all there isn’t enough difference between those two programs that it’s really going to make a material difference in your ultimate adaptation (if you follow the plans). But it probably won’t surpise you to know that I still have an opinion!
If I had to pick one or the other I’d pick climbing because I like the Monday VO2 workouts in the climbing plan a lot more. The Climbing plan Saturday workouts are better, too. Not from an adaptation/training perspective but…just…because I like them better.
If I was going to follow a specialty plan for the race you describe I would start with the Climbing plan and substituted the Wednesday workouts with those from the Century plan.
Thanks for the input. I think this may be where plan builder falls short for me. Inputing the race duration as 9hrs+ into plan builder and then only scheduling ~8hrs weekly volume in a HV speciality plan.
I think I will pick a few of the rides from each plan to increase the weekly TSS and volume for me. Hopefully doing this doesn’t create issues for adaptive training as it thinks I’m missing scheduled workouts🤯
Sounds like your event could be Peaks Challenge to me. If so, also look at Dr Stephen Lanes plans provided with registration. Although a TR user, I used them when doing Peaks, as I had more confidence in their specific design for the event.
I did peaks a few years ago when it was freezing cold and raining. Using 80% TR plans, supplementing in 150km weekend rides. I did ok given the conditions.
The TR plans seem easier this time around.
I have looked over the S Lane programs and also would trust them more, but they are a bit more focused on outdoor rides(with several ergo options. His plans don’t fit too well with my life restrictions.
The big miles days combo with TR is a good idea and obviously worked well for you. In which case, I would probably use Climbing Road Race as I expect the workouts would be at a higher % of FTP and i certainly needed to do that to hold the group I chose to try and hold for the race (Group 9) .
Not having the climbs where I live of that duration, I extracted the segments from Strava and rode them on the Tacx app, which worked well. No Ven-Top on Zwift then either!
I travelled from NZ to do it in 2019, and would love to have another crack at it, but due to Covid it hasn’t been an option to consider yet.
