Structured training is essential for getting faster on the bike, but incorporating unstructured rides, like group rides or outdoor adventures can keep training fresh and fun. Here’s how you can effectively blend both approaches using your TrainerRoad plan.

Understanding Key Workouts

TrainerRoad plans typically feature 2-3 key workouts each week, usually harder interval sessions designed specifically to boost fitness and performance. Regularly replacing these workouts with unstructured rides can slow progress. However, strategic substitution with the right intensity can help minimize these setbacks.

Matching Intensity Matters

When swapping a TrainerRoad workout for a group ride, TrainerRoad will suggest a recommended intensity level based on the original planned workout:

  • Easy Workouts: Aim for endurance pace, steady and sustainable.
  • Moderate Workouts: Maintain a tempo or sweet spot effort.
  • Hard Workouts: Perform at higher intensities with hard efforts repeated and/or sustained.

Maintaining the prescribed intensity during group rides helps preserve your progress. For instance, turning an easy planned day into a hard effort can negatively affect subsequent key workouts. When you do too much on an easy day you increase fatigue and compromise recovery, leading to slower progress overall.

Keep Easy Days Easy & Hard Days Hard

One foundational training principle is keeping easy days genuinely easy and making hard days sufficiently challenging. This balance allows your body to effectively recover and adapt, a process known as supercompensation. After intense training sessions, your fitness temporarily decreases during recovery. During this recovery, your body compensates by becoming stronger, faster, and more resilient. To get faster, you need to recover.

Preserving this cycle means you adhere to the intensity prescribed by your training plan:

  • On easy days, focus on endurance, avoiding hard efforts.
  • On hard days, note the Power Zone of the prescribed workout (Sweet spot, Threshold, VO2 Max, etc.) and commit to hitting that intensity.

Adaptive Training

Get the right workout, every time with training that adapts to you.

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Example: Incorporating a Group Ride

If you have a challenging group ride scheduled on a day your plan calls for an easy workout, consider two options:

  1. Ride at a genuinely easy, endurance-level pace during your group ride.
  2. Swap your easy day with a planned hard day, adjusting subsequent workouts in your calendar to ensure adequate recovery time between intense sessions.

Be cautious about placing hard sessions back-to-back, as this can lead to excessive fatigue, compromising recovery and progress.

Making Unstructured Rides Count

To get the most from your unstructured rides:

  • Keep your efforts steady within the recommended training zones.
  • Avoid coasting; maintain continuous pedaling whenever possible.
  • Complete the Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) survey afterward in TrainerRoad. Accurate feedback helps TrainerRoad provide better recommendations in future sessions.
  • Use a power meter when possible.
  • Adequately fuel and hydrate.

Additionally, you can take structured workouts outside, combining the precision of structured training with the freedom and enjoyment of riding outside.

Getting Back on Track When You Overdo It

It’s not always possible to stick perfectly to your structured plan. Enjoying great weather with a week full of rides, building technical skills on single-track, or simply having fun is kind of the point. A bit of lost fitness progress for many athletes is well worth it. The key is balancing today’s fun with your future goals.

If you overdo it, TrainerRoad’s fatigue management and dynamic workout recommendations quickly help you get back on track with training. The system identifies fatigue and adjusts upcoming workouts accordingly, helping you minimize fitness loss and get back to training.

Adaptive Training

Get the right workout, every time with training that adapts to you.

Check Out TrainerRoad

You can Keep Riding Fun and Training Effective

TrainerRoad’s structured plans are powerful, but flexibility is crucial. Thoughtfully incorporating unstructured rides keeps your training enjoyable and sustainable. Match these rides to the intended effort, maintain consistency, and honor recovery needs. This balanced approach, combined with TrainerRoad’s smart adjustments, is the secret to consistent improvement, lasting cycling success, and really enjoying your training.

New To TrainerRoad?

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