I wonder whether trainnow could be also adapted specifically for Masters as training plans
Adapted in what way?
I mean that the workout recommended takes into account that you are a Masters athlete giving you less frequent high intensity workouts.
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Confused. It already does? In that you set the parameters yourself. Length of session, Z2, Threshold or VO2max / Anaerobic
You choose, either endurance, climbing or Attacking.
The frequency of high intensity sessions is entirely up to you.
What am I missing… I mean that sincerely?
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Consider a Low Vol Masters plan rider (3 workouts per week) that knocked out their “hard” workouts on Tue & Thu, then uses TrainNow on Sat to fill a hole in the schedule before their Sun Endurance ride.
TN will give the usual 3 options and highlight one as the “Recommended”. Considering that TN just looks at the recent past and makes it’s recommendation upon purely that and most likely the rider will be recommended one of the Climb or Attack versions instead of Endurance.
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That’s because TN will mainly try to limit too many hard workouts and nearly always give End if you did a hard effort the day before, sometimes 2x before.
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TN ignores what happens tomorrow, ignores which plan you are following and doesn’t see that you are using Masters options.
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Because of the above, it’s possible (likely?) that TN might “Recommend” a hard workout despite someone essentially wanting to limit themselves to those 2 hard workouts in the plan.
That is my guess anyway. All that said, I understand the request but don’t see it as entirely necessary. Nice, sure. But if someone has chosen the Masters route and aims to supplement that 2Hx1E plan themselves, I think it should be an easy choice to limit the “extra” stuff (TN or otherwise) to Endurance level on their own. This suggestion seems intended to protect a rider from a poor individual choice (via TN specifically) which has some merit, but I think it’s potentially unnecessary for people if they keep the big picture in mind.
It might be an easy add by TR (which I hate saying since I know nearly nothing in this area is ever EASY) so I think it could be added. But it sort of goes into the broader picture where TN needs overall beefing up.
TR seemingly made TN as the choice for those that don’t want to follow a plan specifically. They do end up suggesting it as a way to fill holes in a riders life even if they are on a plan, but we have seen places where it leads to issues since TN is largely only looking at the recent past. Ignoring the presence or absence of a plan is potentially problematic since it could be recommending stuff that will mess up the following day or two.
In that sense (and along with the Masters idea here) improving the intelligence within TN is likely a good idea for TR and I think they have mentioned thoughts along these lines in some podcasts.
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I’m doing a Masters Plan and like to add extra volume, and I went through this same process. Opened TrainNow. It recommended Climbing. I tried cycling through the suggestions, but the endurance workout alternated between two things.
I found the best option for me is to instead filter and browse workouts to find an endurance-zone workout that made sense and looked “fun.”
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Ah that makes sense, I never really noticed the “recommended” I though it was just pick from the three different types. Never used it, but briefly looked at it.
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Wouldn’t be a simple solution to adapt the frequency of recommended high intensity workouts to the athlete’s age and riding experience?. As it is now TN recommendations leads the Master athlete to overtraining unless the athlete chooses not to follow TN recommendation, which questions the usefulness of TN.
Might I ask HOW you’ve come to this conclusion?
While I don’t use TN often and haven’t used it for some time, if I’ve done any level of intensity within the last few days, the TN recommendation for me has always been an endurance ride. That seems like it would be working EXACTLY like it should be.
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