Check volume, lack of endurance?

Training
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Just tried to check volume as I’ve been training 3 times per week recently and want to add a 4th day. 47yo so think Masters athlete is appropiate. Usually doing 2xHIIT session per week at 75min and 60min, rest is endurance. This is what I get recommended when I “check volume”. Damm that is a lot of HIIT and not much endurance? PS I need to cut the recovery day so its max 4 days. Shouldn’t I shorter HIITS and then prioritize 1 long ride per week? My priority is 3hour events

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Doing “endurance” plan and next phase is a 4 week build phase.

My best would be something like this. But thats much lower TSS. Strength training 2 times per week also is the goal.

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Thanks for your inputs

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I don’t know the answer to your question but have often wondered why TR often schedules the longer rides as intervals and the shorter rides as endurance. Seems a missed opportunity on face value (to me, enthusiast but definitely not an expert) to get better value from the endurance rides when most intensity can be achieved in a shorter session anyway.

I say this as someone who is not an amazing athlete and only has experience with the lower volume plans in TR, despite seeing similar trends in the higher volume plans. Maybe better athletes really need longer session to do all their intensity….?

I’d love to hear if anyone can explain why the plans are structured this way.

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lol, not sure to trust that plan builder. Changed my plan and then for fun tried today to check volume again. Now it suggests “only” 1h Hard intervals instead of 1h30min and 2h ones the other day… I wonder what TR AI looks at from day to day… :slight_smile:

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The hard intervals are not necessarily HIIT - they could be - and probably will be on an endurance based plan - sweet spot and threshold intervals.

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Hey @JanK :slight_smile:

5 days a week may be what the system is recommending, but if you only want to do 4 days a week you can manually adjust that.

How to Edit Your Training Plan Schedule

It sounds like you will be adding more strength training to your schedule, so maybe start with 2 interval days and 2 endurance days, and then if needed, change to 3 interval days and 1 endurance day.

I would also recommend pairing your strength training sessions with your interval days, so you get full rest days in between.

Integrating Strength Training

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Hi Caro,

4 days is absolutely maximum for me yes, and ofc I’ll change my plan to reflect this. As @kevistraining also mention I can see that not all days are HIIT eventhough TR says HIIT. So every week, there is a Sweet Spot training as a HIIT in my plan so I think I’ll try with 3 HIITS + 1 long endurance z2.

It was just funny to see the recommended volume of Endurance session AND the recommended volume of HIIT in my first screenshot. Today it is more reasonable suggestion 1h HIITs, however yesterday it was completely off on the volume, so I guess mr AI had a hard week and needed to start fresh? :stuck_out_tongue:

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Where are you seeing HIIT? It says Hard Intervals.

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Stop saying HIIT :joy:

Intensity isn’t the only way to make an interval hard :+1:

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Ahh true. Sorry about that

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I think this came up a few years ago. I vaguely recall it was related to very low athlete compliance for long indoor endurance rides compared to interval sessions.

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Hi @cnidos

so it was a bug? All seems “correct” now, becides the max 90min endurance ride recommendation

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Hey! Good :slight_smile:

Did you by chance have the Training Approach Set to more aggressive? Or did you manually change something along the way on both occasions that would have made them different? Like selecting the amount of days you would like to train, etc…

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Hi Caro,

No I have my approach set to balanced and haven’t changed that.

I have however removed a manually updated FTP at 245w, so it got back to 250w.

But it’s ok. Today it also shows correctly. It recommends me 5 days. I change it to 4 instead and the 3 hard intervals are recommended to be 2x1h and 1x90min, which I guess is correct. i’ve choosen 3x1h on Mon, Wed and Fri. And then an endurance ride on saturday. As I only have 1h30min available time on Fridays and if I take such a hard OU threshold workout that day I think I’ll be to smashed for my saturday 3h endurance ride. So for now I think the best is to stick with 1h hard intervals :-1:

Thanks

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@JanK Sounds like a plan! Let me know how it goes on Saturdays :slight_smile:

Keeping Intervals to under an hour is not a bad thing; you’ll still get a workout that trains the energy systems needed for that day in a shorter amount of time.

Also, let me know if you experience the same behavior with the Schedule in the future.

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What event type or goal do you have your plan set up for? I’m surprised the plan builder would give you 3 hard interval days if you have the “masters athlete” thing active.

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Hi @mattarms

I changed my mind so did not select masters athlete, After kevistraining’s comment that “hard intervals” are not neccesary hard and I noticed that all weeks in my endurance plan has atleast 1 sweet spot session, I’ll try to see if I can handle that load, to get a little extra squeezed in :slight_smile:

that 1 hour z2/endurance session I would have at masters plan, really feel unproductive although I’m sure there are still gains.