Training Stress High w/ Strength Training

Training
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I’m new to structured training and TrainerRoad. Up to now, I’ve been consistently strength training 3x / week for the last 4+ years. I also regularly go for a 90+ minute mountain bike ride once a week during the summer months.

I set up a 3 day / week program to prepare for a series of XC MTB races this spring. I wanted to continue to strength train since I enjoy it so I added 2 days to my schedule. Right now, it looks like:

  • Mon - 45 min strength
  • Wed - TR suggested ride
  • Fri - 45 min strength
  • Sat - TR suggested ride
  • Sun - TR suggested ride

After the first week, TrainerRoad said my training stress was too high, and swapped my Weds intervals for a recovery ride, suggested I use Sat for a recovery day, and is now suggesting I swap Sun from intervals to endurance.

My top priority right now is prepping for the races. I feel like cancelling ride days or reducing threshold work is moving me back to what I did before starting the TR program. Should I accept the substitutions? Are these suggestions because I’m in the base phase? Should I back off strength training further or is there a way that I can restructure things? Unfortunately, due to my schedule, I’m stuck with the 4 straight days.

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While I think recovery is often the most overlooked facet, I don’t think they’ve quite nailed RL/GL/YL just yet. Sometimes it’s right on, but others it’s not even close in suggesting endurance days. I go by how I feel, typically. I do multisport and do wish I could accept one of the suggestions (accept the recovery run but not the recovery swim), but that’s not available yet.

2 Likes
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Welcome to the TR community!

I think part of the issue is that since you’re new to TR, the system sees you as a “brand new” athlete (even if you’ve already been riding and lifting). As such, it sees that you “haven’t” done much in the way of training lately, which is triggering Red Light/Green Light to give you warnings not to do too much too soon.

As you continue to train with TR and provide Adaptive Training with more data to analyze, it should start to recognize what you’re capable of.

I think @Kevinsmithwfu’s point of training by feel as you get started in these first couple of weeks is a good suggestion. Then, over time, I think you’ll start to notice that the RLGL suggestions start to line up more with how you’re feeling and training.

The way your plan is set up at the moment looks pretty good. I do think it might be a good idea to move the Saturday strength day around if that’s possible – doing a strength workout the day before a Threshold workout on Sunday might be a little tough on the legs. If you could pair it up with Friday’s Sweet Spot workout, that might work a bit better – something like cycling in the morning and strength in the evening is a common way to pair up 2 types of workouts into one day. That way, you have Saturday off to recover, leaving you with fresher legs for Sunday. It sounds like you may be stuck with the 4 straight days as you mentioned above, though, so I understand if it’s not possible to do so.

Another alternative might be to do as you did last week – strength on Friday, an easy spin on Saturday, and a Threshold workout on Sunday. That way, your high-intensity days aren’t stacked back to back. It could be worth switching your plan to a Masters Plan, which would make one of your 3 cycling days easier/less intense by default.

Finally, if you wind up training for a while and still find that RLGL isn’t reflecting how you’re feeling, you could try adjusting your Training Approach slider, which will adjust the threshold for when red/yellow days appear on your TR Calendar.

Hope that helps as you’re getting into things here. Feel free to let me know if you have any additional questions!

1 Like
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Thanks for the responses.

It’s helpful to know that the Adaptive Training just hadn’t quite adapted yet. I felt like I could handle the load, but I wasn’t sure whether the app knew something I didn’t, and that the extra intervals would be counterproductive in this phase.