A few people here have touched on this, but many more are completely missing the point.
If you are a newbie starting TR from scratch, there is nothing in the plan descriptions that push you towards the LV plans. Please put yourselves in the shoes of a new TR user:
- You haven’t read any blog posts
- You haven’t read any forum posts
- You haven’t listened to an podcasts
Even using plan builder can potentially push a newbie into a HV plan. If you’ve been putzing around in Z1/Z2 rides for 10+ hours a week, not an inconceivable task having done it myself, the plan builder might suggest a HV plan.
Yes, absolutely long time users know to stay away from HV plans unless they’re absolutely sure it’s appropriate, and many long time users are aware of the potential issue for MV plans to be too much, but the new user doesn’t know, not yet. To blindly suggest they should just intuit it or figure it out the hard way does a disservice to TR and it’s entire user base.
There is plenty the TR team can do to address this.
The easiest is to start with new descriptions for the plans. At the moment the only distinction here is time, and for a new user they may well assume more is better. TR can be much more explicit about this, pushing users to the LV plans until they are absolutely sure a higher volume plan is appropriate.
They can make new plans with distinctions in both volume an intensity. They can officially add a version of their LV plans with extra Z1/Z2 to match the volume in MV and HV. This could go a long way in providing good will to the user base, steering people away from the existing HV plans who have the time but not he physiological capacity to follow them.
They can add dynamic text to the workouts to check in with the user. Imagine instead of the same old 'instructions" each workout, the text is based on where you are in the plan. They can help the user guide themselves, check in on how they’re feeling, remind the user about ability to adjust the plan as a whole to better suit the individual.
I’m sure there’s a million other things they can do to address this, but that’s a start.
I say this all as someone who appreciates what I’ve accomplished following TR plans, and someone who has also felt burn out twice now following MV plans.