TrainerRoad new plans & adaptive training: giving TR it's due

[Brennus]

Even at my advanced age I’ve been able to achieve all-time best w/kg…using TR updated plans & adaptive training. So if I’m going to be fair I feel like TR should get a good mention! Some time ago I employed a workout progression using Gollnick workouts to great success and kind of went on a bit about it. But when TR updated their training plans I adopted those plans just to give them a try…they really meshed well with what I wanted to do.

Maybe some on this forum will recall I let myself get a little porky after collecting a North American Championship Jersey. Eventually it got so out of hand something had to be done! My approach is detailed in this post:

Changing my current plan to lose weight

Hi @amygates! I’m going to give you a framework to achieve your weightloss goals that is tried and true. I was a competitive strength athlete for ~a decade and a half & at one point later in my career I showed up at an event thinking I was competing in the 120kg+ category but they gentlemen I wanted to beat were actually in the <120kg. It was a tough weight cut…which is just to say I weighed well over 265lbs. While I was doing triathlon & running after my weightlifting career my bodyweight w…

Starting ~last week of May I started dropping weight in earnest during Rolling Road Race mid-vol leading into a gravel race first week of July (which I won). Then I took a recovery week & started another hybrid build plan that was a combo of three different TR plans…the 2nd week of which I nabbed 2nd at another gravel race. So far so good!

After that I let planbuilder take over & taper me into an October race.

Today I weighed in at a slightly-dehydrated 175lbs…so that marked a >30lb weight loss since the weight loss effort began. Plan builder had me on a recovery week & for some time I had targeted a workout test at the end of the recovery week. TR would normally suggest a ramp test but I prefer just to gut out an extended interval at constant power.

I was able to achieve ALL TIME power records at 13 minutes, 14 minutes, 15 minutes…39 minutes, 40 minutes, 41 minutes. Pretty good! But even better when considering w/kg.

So TrainerRoad plans worked really well for me! Even though I spent the whole time in calorie deficit. As much as I went on about Gollnick workouts etc…I have to give TR plans their due.

[Brennus]

Just to give a feel for relative progress…absolute power improvement was not that much! Less than 5%, for sure. But time to exhaustion at that power is much, much better. I guess Seiler would probably nod quietly to himself.

but I will say that I did a workout during which I achieved 13 min to 40 min power numbers I’ve never achieved, ever, and AT concluded no adaptations needed. AT for the win!

[toribath]

Congratulations dude! That’s like, all the wins. What’s up next?

[Pbase]

To maintain power while losing that much weight is truly impressive! Congratulations. You put in incredible work.