I’m new to Trainer road and in all honesty kind of new to cycling as well. Been riding outdoors for about 10-11 months. I’m a female 46yrs old, 190lbs, was pretty active before cycling, but got into it because my husband’s been riding for years now and wanted to be more like him and to lose some weight. My concern is that I just got this program last week and did the Ramp test (FTP 131 ) and a few other ones in my Wahoo smart indoor trainer, but wondering, I know for a fact that I love riding outdoors. When I do want to ride outdoors, should I take the TR scheduled program out with me, or just do my own thing that day? I do not have a power meter on my bike, just cadence & heart rate monitors. Not sure I can take them outdoors with me in this case? I started on a Base plan for now since I don’t have much experience with interval training. Any suggestions would be appreciated?
For any given workout in your calendar, you can click “outside”, the “rpe based” and it’ll give you a workout to do outside where the instructions are based on RPE. This should help take some structure outside.
So when I click on TR for that ride to go outside, because I have seen this option, it will upload my session to Garmin HU?
I’ve just started too, and all outside. Yes, that’s how it works, but it’s via Garmin connect, so it’s down at the moment. It only syncs a few days worth in advance due to some sort of Garmin limitations apparently. It’s not always immediate either as far as I can tell from my limited experience
Yes Garmin Connect is down for a few days now. So you mostly do your training TR rides outdoors? But you must have a Power Meter right? I do not, just a speed, cadence and heart rate. So when you do choose outside, do you do this a day in advance? Because it takes a little to send it?
I don’t have a trainer but I just bought a 4iiii single sided power meter which in the UK was a couple hundred pounds in a sale and works perfectly for my needs. I don’t know what I’m doing with it yet really.
You just make a calendar and trainer road syncs it behind the scenes at the right time. As long as they’re set to outside, you’ll get them. In theory, only because I’ve literally just joined and I did a test plan which synced ok. I then deleted it and did a real plan but on my first ride garmin was down. In that case it appears there’s no way to manually download the workout and I created it by hand on the unit (doable but a bit tedious). But I’m a newbie, I’ll leave other more experienced users to advise!
got it, thanks. I did create a calendar within Trainer Road and started on a base plan, which I plan on following. But I’m such an outdoor gal that I would miss riding outdoors if I only stick to indoor training. I mean I plan on doing Monday through Friday trainings mostly indoors and the weekends for outdoor fun. Thank you for your help and good luck with that 4iii Power meter you got, good luck on your journey
lol I’m a newbie too, so that’s why I appreciate all the feedback I can get 
@Silvia_C Welcome to the forum! I do all of my training outdoors weather permitting. I have the luxury of a power meter so that makes it really easy, but you can still get great benefits just following a plan using rate of perceived exertion/HR. Consistency is arguably the most important thing in terms of gaining fitness. You will likely see very substantial gains initially that will taper off after the first 6-12 months of training. Make sure you are still enjoying riding your bike as well 
Thank you. I do love riding especially outdoors, weather permitting like you say, at the moment it is very hot here, like 105 degree hot so this is why I ride indoors too. Consistency is what I am definitely sticking to, I usually ride 3-5 times a week, about 420-460 miles a month is what I’ve been averaging for the last 6 months. With TR I hope it helps me get faster and helps me with climbs as well. I definitely enjoy riding my bike always 
400 miles a month is great! That will give you a really solid base to work from
TrainerRoad limitations I believe? My TrainingPeaks calendar synced a full 24 week base plan to Garmin Connect’s calendar (September thru February).
The base plans often have a suggestion in the weekly notes to swap the Sunday ride for a longer outdoor ride. Another suggestion would be to pick a lower-volume plan and supplement with some additional endurance riding outside- I usually do HV plans over the winter but drop down to MV when the weather gets nice out 
Regarding outdoor workouts, I think HR is a pretty acceptable metric if you’re doing base work with longer intervals- just be aware that it can vary a bit day to day, and it’s best used in tandem with RPE.
Thank you for your tips, I appreciate them!
yes I think so to