Amateur middle-aged rider. A bit overweight. FTP of around 220.
Last year I used join.cc and managed to get my FTP to around 255. I prepared my first TR plan today with an XC marathon race in early March as the main goal. The plan I got has 4 workouts per week, with three of them being some sort of intensity. That’s manageable.
The thing that has me scratching my head a bit is the TSS estimate. This year’s plan estimates a lower TSS than last year.
The join.cc plan had me riding 4-5 times per week and it was a bit more polarized I think. My weekly hours were around 6 on average, with my peak week being 8 hours.
Why did the TR algorithm cap my plan at 3 hours 45 minutes per week? Is it because of the increase in intensity? But shouldn’t TSS at least match last year’s numbers?
Granted, I did ride less during the summer. Could this be why TR is suggesting lower TSS?
Just trying to understand the underlying principles.
Yes mine is much lower as well. Some of the workouts are half as long, but the only thing that seems to have changed is the recovery time between the bursts.
As you are new and maybe chose the MV plan? The Adaptive training model likely doesn’t have enough data yet? Have you uploaded your previous training history so the ML can do its thing?
If not there are some things you can do to get you closer to what Join had you doing and then test and adjust from there
I ride half the volume during Winter (from 10h to 5h) and also less TSS but my FTP still improves. I would not hang myself up to much on TSS. From my experience it is a huge difference if i get TSS from structured hard intervals or from longish endurance rides. So for me currently i do half the volume and 60% of the TSS but get stronger. As soon as weather improves my mandatory weekend “long ride” will get long again.
Yep, uploaded everything. I was running higher TSS numbers this past weeks, which is kinda a weird to me. But I usually capped my intensity to 2 days per week. Maybe the algorithm really needs more time to get to know me
When generating plan, on “Training Schedule” tab, you can choose your own workout durations in 15min increments: for “Hard Intervals” it is up to 2h, “Easy Ride” or “Endurance” up to 5h. So, for your 3 hard days + 1 endurance day schedule, you can build plan with weekly volume 11h.
It’s likely that your current TSS/volume is lower right now because, as you mentioned above, you’ve been riding less than you were at your peak last year.
Your TSS in particular is lower because, as you start out with a plan, your Progression Levels will usually be on the lower end of the scale. As a result, you’ll be served relatively “easier” workouts (which will have correspondingly lower Workout Levels), which generally have less TSS per session.
As you work through your plan and increase your Progression Levels, your plan will adapt to that newly gained fitness and give you more challenging workouts. As the workouts become more difficult, you will likely see your TSS increase as well.
The volume determined by your plan is similarly based on what you’ve been doing in your training recently so as to give you a sustainable plan to follow to make you faster.
If some of your sessions look too long/short or hard/easy on a given day, you can use Workout Alternates to swap out that session for one that’s more to your liking.
Given that you’re getting back into some more structured training again, I wouldn’t worry too much about the TSS/volume at this point – just try to get back into the consistent swing of training with a plan again and know that your plan will adapt as you progress through it.
Hope that helps clear things up – feel free to let me know if you have any additional questions!
