Do I resubscribe?

TrainerRoad Software
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I’m not looking to make many modifications to a plan. My observation, and one shared others, is that TR SSB plans have too many “hard” days (I’ll refrain from using the word intensity). Here is a 3.5 year old TR blog post on BASE and aging athletes:

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Last I looked only the low-volume SSB plans have 3 intensity sessions/week, MV has 4/week, and HV has 5/week. I realize the plans have changed, guessing that blog post was written prior to the current SSB plans. And still no masters plans, believe Nate may have commented you guys are working on a different approach (I got impatient and bought a masters appropriate & outside friendly base plan on TP).

Anyways, back to the aging athlete article… Re-reading the start of the article:

Sweet Spot Base is more intense than a Traditional Base training approach. Everything from neuromuscular bursts to VO2 max intervals and Sweet Spot work is included to get you generally fit in a hurry.

“generally fit in a hurry” being the operative phrase. Comparing my results doing TR SSB in prior years to doing a more pyramidal approach this year (with a lot more zone 2 work, and less sweet spot), the more pyramidal approach has has given me a much more robust level of fitness in roughly the same number of weeks as the threshold heavy TR SSB plans. Ok so for a TR high-volume time commit, I’ve used a different plan and developed more robust fitness and more top-end power. And all I can think is “why isn’t something like this available from TR?”

Maybe its a case of my bad, I haven’t take TR’s traditional base all the way to the end (only did TB1-MV and TB2-MV) but I was discouraged by the “SSB is for 99% cyclists” comment and frankly the length of mid-week workouts in the TR TB MV base plan. Let me be clear - just typing this out I can see the dilemma for TrainerRoad.

Reinforcing “generally fit” is this comment from Coach Chad in an old blog post:

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I’d really like to use a TR base plan with pre-built progressions targeting 7-12 hours/week that combines 2 (or 3) days of sweet spot work with more “base mileage” to cultivate a deeper aerobic base. I keep looking at the full and half distance triathlon plans, but those are built around two other sports. Without giving it a lot of thought, it seems such a pyramidal base plan would help masters athletes and those that need more recovery (based on my own experience this year). And be more suitable for riders able to do more outside work on the weekends.

I’m a big fan of TrainerRoad. Just having a hard time with “all in on threshold” approach of TR’s SSB High Volume plans. Hope that helps.

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You should try cross fit :slight_smile:

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Top post, and I agree with everything you say. I’m ok on the bike (20+mph for 50 miles solo) but always feel burnt out at the end of TR plans, so shorten them to 4 weeks, and can’t hold the intensity for a week, so only do 3 of the intense workouts and do more Zone 2, and because I am doing 4 weeks, the first two weeks just to easy, I can handle the TSS just not the intensity, so my TR training plans are 50% the size they were :-/ And to be honest with you, a lot of the workouts are V02 < 2 mins, I find these don’t train my mental ability to suffer so change these out for longer periods > 3mins, so my training plans have 33% of the original TR workouts that were originally in the plan

Like I’ve said above I’ve had great success since dropping chasing the TR training plans and going to a more polarised (SF) model, growing a FTP that was stagnent for 5 odd years, by 10%, so I read your post and think yes, thats what I’ve found, to nearly every point

I am a 50 year old, type 1 diabetic with asthma with a couple of other health issues, so it could be that I am the 1% of athletes that TR isn’t for, but reading this thread, I’m not so sure

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Hey WH,

thanks for the interesting post. I am a Type1 too and just curious: what do you mean by “more polarized SF model”?
thx

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He Rosebiker !!!

Some great people in this club :slight_smile: I was being a little cryptic as didn’t want to promote another product but the Sufferfest Training Peaks training plans, are a lot more SUFFER and then do load of zone 2 (see the polarised thread) , after years of a FTP stuck at a level, there was an instant improvement, I think I suffer from bad recovery , so really sufferening (not 120% for 1 min, 140% sort of thing) seems , for me, to have made a big difference (I think I posted more details further up this thread)

Hope thats clearer

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Could also be that your Fractional Utilization was high for the last few years (i.e., FTP close to VO2 Max and therefore plateaued). By pushing your VO2 Max up through a polarized programme, this has allowed your FTP to grow.

I regulatory cycle between Sweetspot (i.e., TR) and Polarized programmes on an annual basis to hit multiple metabolic systems.

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Ah interesting, that would concur with what I’ve found, by ability @ V02 seemed to decrease, and it seems to be getting better at the moment, as my FTP improves, I think like I said earlier in this thread, you have be will to experimate and find what works for you (I found it, you understood it), and one point is, what works for you now, might be different in 6 months, I’ll keep in mind what you said about cycling between SS and Polarized

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Would be interested to see how it works out. Using WKO5 is pretty easy to see the relationship between FTP and VO2 Max (acknowledging model assumptions and accuracy- but it’s good enough!).

Once my fractional utilization gets to around 86%, I know there’s no point in focusing anymore on sweetspot (it would take a lot of work to squeeze out another % or so) and switch to VO2/Easy stuff for 4-6 weeks. Once this improves (again, according to the probably imperfect VO2 modelling in WKO5), I’ll go back to Sweetspot to push the FTP up.

Currently in at the end of a 4 week VO2 block and the numbers are slowly shifting up. Given there are no races on the horizon, it’s a good time to work on fundamentals.

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Can you access these workouts without a subscription at all? If so, that seems to a loophole that needs to be closed?

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It sounds like you think, #1 not value for money#2 you are a bit tired/bored with the workouts.

If you are not going to use TR you wont get value for money.
Maybe it`s time to have a change.
Ride outdoors, ride with friends, go bikepacking.
But if you get withdrawal symptoms, you can always re-subscribe.
No ones on here to encourage you to stay. I guess its like anything. for everyone that leaves, someone else comes in,

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you aren’t alone, for example: My Adaptive Masters Training Plan

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Curious what TP peak plan you bought? I am a bit overwhelmed by all of the plans there and I have no idea which coaches are decent versus quacks. I wish the plans had reviews, but alas…

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Couple of thoughts on the topic - all intended to be constructive feedback on the TR Platform.

I have also been thinking that the only reason II’ll re-up is to avoid the price increase for not re-upping. In the past I have received value, but with the race season being turned upside down, the pain/benefit analysis of TR is less attractive. A couple of things that would, for me, add value to the program:

  1. Ability to pull in a TrainingPeaks workout. That way, I can work with a coach that specializes in my situation (e.g. Linda Wallenfels on Endurance Mountain Biking for Masters Racers) and use the TR platform to perform my workouts.
  2. Customize my weekly schedule: Maybe an enhancement to Plan Builder where one could build in schedule limitations (e.g. 45 min on Wednesdays, 90 min on Thursdays, 3 hours on Saturdays, 2 hours on Sunday)…and then build the schedule,
  3. More useful data-based insights on my progression. I see that a number of posters use Xert, which excels in this area (while being relatively complex conceptually). This could be used to select workouts to target weaknesses (e.g. VO2 max work / Intervals > 10 min).
  4. Open an API to ZWIFT…the two platforms are complementary, not competitive. Zwift is compelling, or at least entertaining (especially when the racing calendar has been upended) and for me beats tracking across the blue bar.
  5. More masters plans, please.

My .02 in the spirit of being constructive.

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I’m sorry, I’m not through this entire thread yet, but I have to ask: are your posts on this thread part of a performance art experiment?

Maybe this question will be answered as I continue to read. I’m currently enthralled.

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Question answered… this is definitely performance art. I’ve never been so enthralled by a thread before :rofl:

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Good times!

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double post

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@batwood14
I dont get your post, please show some respect for other peoples questions.

@All
Just to give feedback. I am going to resubscribe. I received very valuable support and suggestions by many of you and also TR reached out remarkably, offering lots of support.

thank you for that.

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This totally.

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If this is accurate and this works, this would make things really simple.

I’ve never dished out the money for WKo5 - from anecdotal feedback it sounds pretty difficult to use. Am I mistaken?