If I want to add a workout to a day off in my existing training plan, should I use a Train Now workout, and will they be included in progress and plan adaptations? From what I’ve read so far, the answers to those two questions is yes.
I’m on a low volume plan giving me 3 workouts/wk. Going to mid volume would be 5/wk adding two endurance workouts/wk. I could stick with 3/wk and randomly add TN workouts when I felt like it, or go to 5/wk and randomly skip endurance workouts when I felt like it. Would adaptive training work equally well either way?
Yes, you can use TN to add workouts, and yes it will be accounted for by AT.
Personally, I would stick with the LV plan and just add z2 workouts from the library to my calendar manually instead of going to MV and skipping a workout.
OK. That’s what I was leaning toward, adding occasional workouts to my LV plan using TN, though I guess I could add any workout rather using TN’s suggestions, right?
One thing I had hoped for when I started with TR this time around was that I could do a random outdoor ride and have it recognized by the plan wrt PLs and plan adaptations, but evidently that’s not working yet.
It will do that if you do a workout outside. Otherwise, unstructured rides(among other activities) are accounted for by red light green light which itself can trigger adaptations. I skied the other day and got an adaptation to an easier workout the next day.
What @gally24 said: LV +1×Z2 would be my suggestion too.
If the training plan uses the default days I’d do the Z2 on Sundays so that the fatigue it generates has the least chance of interfering with the next workout.
If you choose to go MV -1, the Wednesday workouts appear to be the most disposable on all plans that aren’t triathlon plans. But the plans are designed with those workouts intended to be completed, so perhaps add some Z2 time at the end of one or more of the other workouts if you have the time those days.
I felt, as a few others expressed on the new plan builder discussion, that TR needed & was missing a low-mid volume offering four days per week, & using the plan builder does now seem to be recommending that to some athletes.
Yes, a Low-mid plan would be good, and basically what I’m looking for, but I’d like to have the ability to specify any number of days/wk, and not have plans necessarily synchronized with 7 day weeks. For example, having a plan with workouts every other day (3.5 workouts/wk) would work for me even though the days alternate between alternate weeks. I know many have work/life schedules were the 7 day week rules, but especially nowadays, many have greater flexibility. I don’t think there’d be anything particularly difficult about enabling that.
TrainNow is a fine option, but it’s probably better to build out the plan you’re looking for with Plan Builder. You can choose 2-6 workouts a week, and 2-3 hard workouts within the week, so you can schedule pretty much any type of plan you’d like!
Whoa! I missed that somewhere/somehow when I set up my current Masters Low Volume plan. If I try to edit it, I only get options for Low (3/wk), Mid (5/wk) and High (6/wk). I’m starting week 5 of my current plan. Can I edit it for 4 workouts/wk? If not, should I stick with it and manually add in workouts, or should I start a new plan with 4/wk?
My plan has no workout for today and I plan to do one. TN is recommending a tough one, Cirque-3. My plan has a fairly hard workout schedule for tomorrow, so obviously I would not choose a tough one today. The other two TN workouts are an Endurance and a Sweet Spot. Of those, considering tomorrow’s scheduled workout, I’d select the endurance workout, or some other easy workout. TN is is not doing what I would want it do in this situation, which is suggest workouts that would fit within the existing plan.
EDIT: I bit the bullet and edited my plan’s intent and number of workouts/wk. Looks good! It kept me at week 11 in my plan and changed everything going forward.
It looks like you’ve applied a new plan with four workouts a week which is what I would have recommended.
TrainNow makes recommendations based on your fitness and fatigue and does not consider the goal or periodization of your training plan, so keep that in mind when you’re using that tool.
Let me know if you have any questions along the way!
I had previously tried editing my plan but the options were limited in the Window app and the phone app. It wasn’t until I saw your previous post showing more editing options were available on the web that I was able to chose 4 workouts/wk. IMO, these options should be available in the Windows and phone apps too.
Maybe it’s just semantics, but rather than applying a new plan, I look at is editing an existing plan, meaning that edited plan has the same previous start/end dates, includes the already completed workouts, and only make changes go forward.