I’m new to TR but curious about how it develops individual plans. I have a 200 Mile event next June. TR doesn’t have me do a training session longer than 2 hours? I did the same event last year and they provide a plan through training peaks with lots of 100+ miles training ride. I’m confident that 2 hour training rides are not going to be enough.
You can do a search on the forum for similar questions re: Leadville, Unbound, etc.
The best option is to sub out one of the scheduled weekend 2 hour rides for longer Z2 rides that are of the duration you need. TR tends to default to shorter rides since it is indoor-focused and compliance over 2 hours drops significantly.
Start working your way up to rides of 5+ hours and use them to test your pacing and nutrition plans (in addition to building fitness).
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How did you make your plan? Did you set low weekly or single day times?
You need to do some longer rides if you’ve done few or none before to sort out nutrition and comfort. But otherwise just keeping a high weekly volume is what you need. Also depends if you’re looking to just finish vs be competitive.
You may find this article helpful as well:
The most efficient and effective way to train for a long event is to complete high-quality structured workouts strengthening the energy systems needed for such a long ride.
Many cyclists assume that the best way to train is to complete long endurance rides. While this approach can work, it requires a lot of time—12-20 hours per week. You don’t have to do extremely long training rides to prepare for your 200 mile event. That said, as @Power13 mentioned, it’s a good idea to throw in a long ride before your event to check your bike fit and nutrition strategy.
Maybe these types of questions arise because people don’t intuitively find a way to change the duration of their daily workouts. Maybe Plain Builder UI should point it out more clearly (a la radio buttons instead of dropdown)?
For OP:
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I simply went through the custom plan and put in my events. it’s set to an aggressive, Masters, 5 days/week
Last year, my TP plan started 5 months out. It had me doing 6 days a weeks, 1 threshold workout then weekends would be 2 long rides increasing in length as it got closer to the event.
That plan got me through the event but my FTP barely increased over that time frame.
I’d personally go back in, and when you hit the “personalized schedule recommendation” part, make at least one endurance ride per week 4+ hours.
It may be acting this way if your recent training volume was lower, and on that custom schedule page, you didn’t set any weekly rides to be longer?
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I would think the duration of your long Z2 will increase as you complete them and progressive overload is applied.
You can definitely achieve a 200 mile ride using TR plans.
I’m a rider that has won hundred mile races, >200 mile races, >400 mile races…IMO if you have never done the 200 mile distance you will gain important insight from longer than 2hr rides. Exactly as has been mentioned in this thread. You’ll find out if your super comfy shoes turn into torture boxes after many hours on the bike. You’ll find out if your tasty nutrition makes you want to gag. You’ll find out if you can’t handle solid food after ‘x’ hours. You’ll find out if your pacing is too aggressive. It’s better to make those mistakes on a practice ride.
But for sure you can get enough fitness to complete a 200mi ride from TR plans. But if you want to maximize success, plan some longer rides to build your confidence.
Before my first >200mi race I did a ~75 mile race, then a ~100 mile race, then a ~145 mil race. I learned a lot each time and had a ton of fun.
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I did this ^ (5 days/2 intense) and as soon as I start increasing the weekend group ride duration, I get big warning signs that the plan is too much “Not recommended” it said., which I scoffed at. I had an injury earlier in the year, and so maybe that figured in to the calculations?
So, I said finally, ok Trainerroad, you win. I’ll experiment with your lower volume approach. Maybe this is what I need. Almost 6 weeks in and my TrainingPeaks PMC has me totally fresh, with a positive TSB for weeks. Intervals.icu’s chart shows me in fresh to transition zone. I am feeling good on the bike, but getting red days after a stupid 3 hour ride makes me mentally feel like I’m getting worse, not better for any type of long-distance fitness. Or maybe the training plan is just not working for me because most TR users (the dataset upon which everything is built) aren’t training for ultras and I should just pay for a real coach.
On the bright side, the weather has been cold and wet, it’s the offseason, and I needed some extra time on the weekends to handle other things in life besides long rides. Perhaps this low volume approach is what is needed for me right now, with big events far in the future, late next summer.
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If your reply was indeed intended for me, then this screenshot was generated from random input for Plan Builder, only wanted to show duration dropdown for OP. Anything else is coincidental 
Anyway, you are right, TR generated indoor plans are at low volume side for me as well. I “abuse” Plan Builder to get reverse periodization out of it:
- during winter using 3 hard (2h) / 3 easy days (2-3h), which is about 60-70% of my typical outdoor TSS load
- when spring arrives, I’ll update PB plan, switching to master’s variant with 2 hard (2h) / 4 easy (3-5h) days
- and during summer/autumn, I’ll go completely on my own with 1-2x hard days and rest filled with long distance stuff as much as I can afford.
This way during winter I’ll get somewhat fragile FTP increase, anchor gains during spring and extend TTE over summer/autumn. Although, I typically loose little over autumn when days are getting shorter again and not switched to more hard days yet. But still, I’ll go with higher “floor” into next indoor season than year before.
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I totally agree with this.
Preparing for a really long event can easily be broken into two categories.
- Building the aerobic/muscular fitness to perform well at your event
- Gaining experience while riding out in the real world for long periods of time
#1 takes consistent training over time, while #2 is something that can be tuned up a few weeks before the event. I usually recommend athletes get at least two longer rides in before their taper starts, so somewhere around 2-4 weeks out. The fitness is there, and then it’s more a matter of getting comfortable in the saddle, working on nutrition, and ensuring you don’t have any muscular weaknesses that are going to come out of the shadows a few hours into your ride. 
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@dirt_cruzer it sounds like you’re on the right path to me. 
Getting a red day isn’t necessarily a sign of you doing anything wrong, it’s just a suggestion to take the next day off. We all take rest days, and if a 3-hour group ride is enough to justify a rest day afterward, I’d take it…
What we don’t advise is training through those red days, or taking on intensity on a yellow day. Those are the mistakes that you’ll almost certainly pay for down the road. 
If you were injured at one point and your recent training history shows a drop in training stimulus, that’s probably why we’re starting you out a bit slow. As you continue to ride and train consistently, your training prescription will change over time. The fact that you’re still getting red days tells me that you’re probably finding a good balance of work for the time being. As long as you aren’t getting multiple red days in a row, don’t view those as something negative. Instead, let that be a sign that you’re regularly challenging yourself, pushing your limits, learning, and recovering from those efforts. 
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