Just signed up for TR.
My A event next year is a 100 mile closed road race (c5-5.5 hour ride), and typically my B events are 40-60 mile rolling road races.
During my high volume plan the longest ride it has me doing is 2 hours. This year I’ve been used to doing a long ride of 4-5 hours.
Would love to hear from anyone who’s used TR to prep for similar races? Should I just trust the process? Or tweak the plan?
Thanks in advance
If this is your first year with trainerroad I probably wouldn’t start with a high volume plan but low volume plan to which you can add longer z2 rides
Thats 2 hours indoors on the trainer. Swap it out with a long outside ride.
Have done 200km races training with TR so the time on bike isn’t really an issue. If you read the weekly notes it will prompt that you can substitute a “weekend” ride for a longer ride if time isn’t of concern. The big thing is that TR is based around the time crunched athlete hence the 2hr plan upper limit outside of the polarized plans
@MattDodgson I’ve always said the best way to prep for a long ride/race includes rides at that distance. Not always for the training effect, though. Going out and riding similar distance/elevation helps you iron out race-killing issues that you just won’t find out on the trainer.
Nail your nutrition. Nail your hydration. Make 100% sure there isn’t some annoying little setup issue with your bike. Make sure you don’t have some battery on your bike that will only last 80 miles. Make sure your bike pos’n isn’t just aggressive enough to torch your back or neck at that distance.
Those are all things best discovered on an actual ride simulation. Take all those issues…nutrition, hydration, pos’n, nav…take them off the table in training. That way on race day all you have to do is think about the racing.
Are you planning to do ALL of your training on the turbo/TR? If you’re planning to venture outside as well, for longer endurance rides, I think, training-wise, you’ll be grand.
Outdoors, you’ll be able to dial in other key elements such as nutrition, bike fit and kit.
Indoors, TR should help you to build confidence. In that two hour ride on the trainer, done correctly, you shouldn’t stop peddling for a second. That alone will build physical and mental resilience. No one is there to help you and you can’t draft. You’ll get far more chances to rest in your race than you will on the trainer.
For me, I’ve found that TR offers quality over quantity.
I think one of the ways to adjust is to replace the high I tensity weekend rides with long, lower intensity rides. The weekly comments/explanations on the calendar used to say this explicitly, and I think suggested workouts from the library. Not sure how that works in this brave new world of AT.