Can TR help a little more by addressing the needs of "older" althletes

We all know TR’s goal, make you a faster cyclist. In business there is a saying do one thing right and do it well. TR can’t cater to 900 different groups and price structures. I am not trying to be snarky. It is very difficult for a business to cater to everyone at some point the business loses focus and dies out. I will agree that TR could have a few more “plans”, ie masters.

There is a really good book called Faster After 50, by Joe Friel you should read. He goes into strength training, maintaining, etc.

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A Masters focused podcast is a great idea.

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I agree with the price structure, disagree with the groups.

You can have a plan builder that would address most of the groups.
People need different things, and i think TR have enough wo on its system to address the need of most people, including older people.

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Yeah pretty much. I certainly don´t have any problem doing the “hard” sessions (in fact I did a +1 Bluebell yesterday) and have just got home from a 110km flat-ish ride. So I don´t mind doing the work and in fact often enjoy the indoor sessions. But as I´ve gone on I´ve noticed a definite theme that there´s only so many of those top end sessions I can manage in a bloc. Contrary to what is sometimes said about the needs for interval sessions (which I agree are necessary) I´ve found this year having a little more time to string together some longer, less intense rides has, far from leaving me tired and worn out, given me a boost in fitness I think.

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Masters plans are long overdue.

I’m relative new to cycling, and agree with all the points. I feel best when training weeks are around 500-600 TSS (a little less during builds), however the TR Mid Volume plans don’t work because there are:

  • too many hard days
  • too many intervals

Because of that, I don’t get enough recovery. Switching to low volume means I have to come up with my own progressions - imagine paying a coach and they say “here are three hard days, go figure out the rest of the week yourself.” That might sound a little harsh, but its not far off the mark.

Honestly the plans look good if I was in my 20s or 30s, but I’m in my 50s and they are inappropriate. I’ve posted that on other threads, most recently in response to a questions from TR’s Bryce.

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Here is an existing thread, asking for more masters age info on the cast:

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Interesting. One tactic I do and have the chats helpful in the podcasts regarding the ramp test is to most definitely not be so obsessive in going all out to attain as high a number as possible… espresso, early night, absolutely burying myself etc. Yes, I know! …it´s ridiculous, but lets be honest we´ve all done it! :smile: So now, whilst I do work very hard, I´ve found a much more worthwhile tactic in the long run is to cut it just that tiny bit short, with the subsequent knowledge that the following workouts will be far more achievable and hopefully consistant, which is obviously a good thing both physically and mentally.

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True, except that Masters athletes are a significant portion of TR’s current subscriber base and a growing portion of the cycling training market. Every single current subscriber will end up being a Masters athlete at some point. We’re not talking 900 more groups, we’re talking about one giant hole in TR’s product line and one that is only growing with time.

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That is an alternate to the “I ramp test too high… so I adjust my final FTP down…” topics we see frequently here.

It’s all adjustments, that can and should be reviewed by each rider, each time they test (regardless of the test). It’s likely better to nail workouts with an FTP a touch low vs a touch high. But there are several threads on that topic as well.

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Chad, As you are gearing up for Cape Epic, I think you’ll find it impossible to complete the same amount of work in training you did in your 30’s now that you are approaching 50. The hard training you have coming up will probably provide you some good insight for the Masters athletes who use TrainerRoad. I’m speaking as a 52 year old with a wife, 3 kids, and a full time job.

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back in 2016 TR was working on a masters plan. Four years later and I don’t see this as a priority, and I’m not holding my breath for redemption via adaptive plans. Plans and trainer control are the core of TrainerRoad, this topic couldn’t be more on-topic for TR. So what to do? I gave up and bought a masters appropriate plan for 8-12 hours/week. Seeing fantastic results. Love the TR app, love TR traditional base, but the lack of masters plans is a real issue. And by masters plan I don’t mean offering easy way to adapt plans from 5:1 to 2:1, or 3:1 to 2:1.

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  • Time to roll out my non-patented phrase:

For clarity, I am NOT Chad Timmerman (TrainerRoad’s Head Coach).

  • I’m Chad McNeese (hence the forum name), an active forum member and big fan of TrainerRoad. #TheOtherChad
  • Coach Chad’s forum name is “@ Chad” (without the space, which I added to not tag him unnecessarily).
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:joy: … I bet you get that “just a bit”.

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At least once a month (3 times this month already :stuck_out_tongue: )

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Gotta get those numbers up, those are rookie numbers.

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here is one of several posts I’ve made on the topic (response to Bryce):

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In fairness, I´m not sure if it´s accurate to say that they´re “inappropriate”. Hard" and often require a little thoughtful adjustment that for some part I think my experience has enabled me to work out. I don’t know your background, and please, I´m not trying to push any buttons or anything, but do you have much experience? I´ve found it takes a long time and a fair bit of trial and error to listen to your body and try and get it right (and let´s face it, the best in the world often get it wrong!). I´m not suggesting a “magic bullet” (as I´m well aware no such thing exists) but it would be nice to see some more info out there. (Personally I find the Friel book a bit old hat to be honest.) I think my best tactic was to “turn down” the length of the harder sessions to maybe a “-” version and that way maybe aquire some of the adaptations without the all the duration and really address recovery and most definitely - gym work. I came from a place whereby I´d worked as a bricklayers labourer in my early 20´s to get my way through my masters degree (and boy was that hard work), and then I became somewhat addicted to the gym in my early 20´s and so came to cycling with quite a lot of strength focus (too much really and it´s taken me years to lose some of that weight (not helped by my Beglain beer addiction, but there you go…) Masters plans was something I hadn´t really considered when I wrote the original post to be honest.

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:popcorn:

Short and sweet, Brian has plenty of experience and a knowledge base about training that is at the top end among members this forum.

He is one of the more prolific posters in the group and knows of what he speaks. I’ve leave the rest to him, but know that his info is well researched, reasoned and can be trusted.

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I think it is agreed upon that, as ‘older’ athletes we need more rest (turning 55 in a couple of weeks). So, I would imagine any masters plan would involve mixing in more rest days and easier workouts along with the intensity. As with anyone, recovery rate seems more of an individual thing. What is right for myself may be too much or not enough for someone else. The question becomes how much ‘recovery’ do you add into the plan? If that recovery rate is not right for you and you end up just adjusting the plan anyway, aren’t we back to square one?

For the record, I have no problem getting through SSB as is but, do add extra recovery to Build and Specialty.

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Thanks… Just for the record I certainly wasn´t trying to imply otherwise, I´m just new on the forum so am not familiar with the names.

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