So focus for now is volume and endurance/base. Kind of reverse periodisation. Since I can ride a lot in summer here in Sweden, I focus on volume, endurance and then top it of with some harder sessions.
When winter comes, Ill lower the volume since its all on the trainer then, but do more intensity, and also shift focus from LT1/endurance to LT2 and threshold.
The rest is z2, plus one mid intensity LT1 ride today, and then the group ride next weekend its up to me which group to pick, can me easier group ride, or a bit harder one
I said:
āI think that the type of training youāre mentioning with the analogy of a ālonger life barā akin video games is talked about way too little. Its all about quick gains that shows itself on a ramp test or the like.ā
Aka, TR talks way too little of the training youāre mentioning. Focus is more on what can raise the numbers on the ramp test - since this is what sells.
So my point is that I agree (with you) that its underrated to work on the ālonger life barā within cycling, instead of only focusing on FTP
I suspect you misunderstood his reply, which was meant to agree with you. Heās saying that out of the box TR plans put too much focus on raising FTP and not enough focus on practical gains for the average cyclist (like the longer life bar that you are achieving).
Agreed. Iām one of MANY people doing LV and adding in a whole bunch of Z2 work. In fact, roughly half of my weekly TSS is the additional Z2 work, so my total volume has been btwn 425 and 525 (excl recovery weeks).
Iām lucky in that I work shifts, and get days off midweek, so I can do a 3 hrs plus Z2 ride without compromising family life. 2 workouts a week at or above threshold seems like plenty to me (as a 53yo!)
I understand your point, but I would think the vast majority of people donāt have such a lot of time to trawl through the podcasts and forum and the rest of the internet to figure out the stuff that isnāt directly part of the trainer road plan.
Would it cost trainer road a lot to at least raise the concern that certain nutrition is expected or needed, or to directly link in the plan their guidelines for strength training, etc? The information is all there in the trainerroad ecosystem , it would be more convenient for beginners if this information was more structured and more integrated into the plans. Ultimately ignoring the advice and the information is the userās fault , not trainerroadās, but I canāt blame someone missing a blog post or a podcast
To those talking about these other gains @WindWarrior , @Dubadai , this is great, but not really what sells, right? I have no doubt that you are more robust, stronger cyclists, but are you faster where it counts? And by where it counts, I mean in the specific area YOU want to get faster in?
Because if you are, then I would say the training plan is working perfectly for you.
That said, it isnāt what really sells for the majority of people. They want increases in FTP. Even in podcasts a common theme is raising your FTP. Numerous times I have heard Chad say that simply raising FTP will solve a lot of the issues people ask about.
I am not familiar with the differences between all of the plans. Are you planbuilder and AT? If so, which āeventā are you selecting for training?
Agreed 100% hereā¦.Iāve been at this a long time (30+ years). My FTP is not gonna see massive gains at this point.
But (and Iāve noted this in the past), where I am seeing improvement is in being able to hold intensities longer and progress from being one of the guys just holding on to being one of the guys inflicting the pain.
But my FTP has not really gone upā¦in 2014, I rode 269w at USAT Nationals for the bike leg (1 hour) and AI FTP Detection currently has my FTP at 270, but I am a much stronger cyclist overall today than I was in 2014.
In fact, that information is even in the instructions of the workouts, with phrases like āgood job, now you need to start thinking about your recovery and nutritionā.
Those people who donāt even have time to read those instructions or to go deeper into those topics, maybe they shouldnāt have time for a mid or high volume plan.
Itās about your health, you should take the time to read, if you donāt then you should take easy on the training.
Yup, looks like you were right on the money.
Seems like I should work a little more on my reading comprehension skills.
Personally, I suspect TR internally is much less focussed on FTP than we are.
But the issue is that TR does not expose any other performance metrics to its athletes (yes, I know about the power PR graph). Internally, Nate told us that they have other metrics, but I think they should either by virtue of the plan you choose or simply give users control over displaying some metrics in the Career screen (I have sent a feature request many moons ago).
I hope that TR will eventually have a Pro mode in Plan Builder ā or simply offer the following options when you indicate you have quite a bit or a lot of experience with structured training: you could tell TR what you want to focus on. Moreover, TR could give more experienced athletes more Z2 work. TR said repeatedly that completion rates for endurance workouts ā especially long endurance workouts ā were low, so they e. g. switched out the Sunday endurance workout with an easy sweet spot workout. In my observation, the more experienced you are, the more likely you are to do Z2 work. I personally donāt mind it, as long as I understand the purpose, it is fine.
Age should also play a role, and older athletes, i. e. 42 and older to be very precise should get more endurance work and less intensity. Ditto for beginners.
We desperately need a plan with 1-2 difficult workouts during the week and long rides on the weekend. Iām not sure if something has changed or if I just understand more now, but the current LV plan is 3 days hard which makes no sense to me. I guess I could pick that and delete one or two of them and then add a bunch of other rides, but at that point, I feel like Iām better off just using TrainNow once or twice a week. I canāt wait for the customizable plans Nate mentioned way back.
Do the polarized plans not fit this description? Just schedule the two hard days during the week. I havenāt done a polarized plan but looking at them, seems like that is what you are asking for.
You know what, youāre 90% right. I always forget about them because they donāt show up in plan builder.
It never fails that I get to the end of a cycle and start planning my next one, and I start tinkering with Plan Builder trying to figure out what will make my vision of a masters plan pop up, and never finding the solution, only to be reminded to look at Polarized.
Agreedā¦my comment was really towards the athlete community (and not just TR athletes). There is a hyper-focus on FTP as the metric.
I think you just outlined that planā¦select whatever volume plan works for your preferred mid-week workout and then just jettison the rides on the weekend and do your thing.
Honestly, this time of year I am barely using TRā¦but I āfollowā my plan in terms of TSS direction, but I am mostly doing group rides or recovery rides outside now. My Saturday ride is usually a big group ride that is ~80 miles and pretty damn fast (225-250 TSS) and then my Sunday ride is usually a long-ish trail ride (150-200 TSS, but more endurance pace).
I am technically in the āSpecialtyā phase of my plan for SBT GRVL and last week decided I am skipping my Tuesday AM group ride and doing the scheduled Tuesday TR workout (Anaerobic stuff) to help fine tune thingsā¦so this will be a new experience. Weāll see how it works.
Modest gains primarily because threshold hasnāt been a focus recently, but till be this off season.
Issue is also that, for me, I cannot replace endurance rides with intensity. I just start digging my grave slowly with that mindset.
Hence why I can do consistent training now with 13-15 hours a week, week in and week out (donāt to rest weeks). But I can barely hold on doing TRs Mid Volume with all that intensity.
I donāt necessarily agree with that. If you are masters rider (and above) with some history of training inensity can be very benefical. Of course is has to be combined with adequate rest, etc.
The key difference in a plan is likely āprogressionā in the sense of a plan having a target date and discipline along with the designate ramp rate and such. It will direct the rider more specifically than the general randomness that will be seen via TrainNow.
(or meant, at least)
