Don’t get me wrong, the TR plans are great, and i’ve made good results on them.
However, wondering at what point its better to move away from these and do more specific individualized training? Personally, I’ve got a decent fitness level (~68kg, 360 FTP), and pretty good idea of what i’m good at, and what i’m not. I’m also training a lot more than the TR plans allow for (16-20hrs/week).
So far, my approach has been to load up a plan, and then add/delete things which i don’t think i need to work on, and adding things I do (and time of season etc). What are other people doing both to structure a week with more volume than typical HV, and also to factor in their personal strengths/weaknesses?
Recently i’ve started to plateau a bit, so looking for advice. Am I better to just move away from TR plans and be more individualized ? or overall just stick with them as all you really need is progressive overload which TR factors in nicely.
I should note that i use the outdoor ride feature most of the time.
I have been thinking for a couple of months about approaching a coach for a consult to get feedback on my plans. Basically a ‘self-coaching’ consult.
A lot of what you describe is similar to my situation (volume, extensive plan customization, etc. except for that FTP lol.). I am interested in high-level feedback on my progression and maybe a little direction as to how to proceed, but don’t think I want a full blown coach and all that I think that would entail. For example, I’m fine adjusting my own plan if I’m going to be out of town for the weekend, do I need to tell someone that I’ll be away and have them adjust the plan for me?
There were a couple of things I thought about when deciding what approach I wanted to take:
Did I feel like I was getting value for my monthly / yearly fee with use of the workout library, calendar for planning and analytics features?
Can I find workouts for the interval progressions I was looking for? If / when would I resort to building my own workouts? Do I default to repeating a smallsih number of the same workouts as I map out my progressions?
A lot of people say spending money on a coach helps keep them accountable for executing the ‘plan’. Do I need that?
Kind of my thoughts. I know a lot of people get a coach for accountability etc, which isn’t something i struggle with. Maybe i’m better off designing my own plan, using the TR library.
Do not forget about custom workouts and workout creator. With your w/kg I would definitely go for a really good coach (but the money) or listen and read a lot and experiment a little (because at your level who cares, you will be fast no matter what).
These days there are group coaching options as well, which is what I’ve started to do. I agree that one-on-one coaching can be prohibitively expensive. Not that I think good coaches aren’t worth it. Far from it.
I think coaches are catching on. Think about it. Half the questions we all ask on this forum are some form of crowdsourcing coaching. I look back on all the questions I’ve had here over the last two years and they were mostly “please give me some coaching advice” if I’m being honest.
You are no longer in a “canned training plan versus all in coaching” world. Or worse, trying to string together hour long consults every few months (which is what I did all of 2018 and 2019).
Look into some of the more popular coaches offering group coaching options. It’s been the perfect balance for me.
I can’t say i’ve heard of these group coaching options, got a link of someone which does offer it?
Never going to happen, but it would be a nice TR add on if you pay a bit extra and have a coach give you high level feedback and workout suggestions from the TR catalogue.
JMO, you’re overdue for a coach. Where TR lacks is above threshold, and that’s probably where your biggest gains can be made considering you’re mid-5s FTP already. This assumes you have goal events and take the competition seriously, which I’d bet you do!
Lol. I get wanting to do it yourself, but there is experience and a separation a coach has to really view things from a different angle. Aren’t you looking for a different angle? This isn’t an insult - but you yourself just admitted that your management of your own training plan hasn’t gotten you past your plateau.