I’m not a pro athlete, I don’t earn a living from cyclcng , I just do this 8-10hrs a week for fun and the odd race when it’s on.
TR has been good to me for the last 4 yrs, rasied my FTP, made me stronger and has built an ecosystem that just works and therefore enabled me to stick to a plan, or modify it without hassle.
Maybe I could get 1% faster somewhere else with a coach (not for the same price), however I will stick with them for the reasons above and the fact they all seem good people in whatever they do. This is important to me.
Whilst TR’s training plans in general are sweetspot focused, it is pretty easy to make the polarised - in fact that is kind of what I do - by following low volume and often replacing the weekend workout with outdoor endurance ride - and often adding a Zwift ride or two into the mix as well.
I always thought it was better to use low volume and supplement.
Of course plan builder allows anyone to structure the plan as you want.
To be honest the training plans are in a relative sense the smaller part of membership. If that was all you wanted, it would be easy (but illegal) to sign up for a month and copy them.
That said, I do think TR needs to progress the training side of things - as I said before, adding dedicated polarised plans, adding strength and flexibility etc. They have not really moved on with the plans for a long time - only real change is the introduction of ramp test.
There focus has clearly been more on tech, like group work outs, outdoor rides etc as well as the calendar - none of which I really use much.
They have until July. Then I will decide what I do - despite having a grandfather price.
The video and this discussion has popped up on another forum I frequent. I’ve probably said this already, but it’s long buried…
My own personal experience is when I’ve genuinely stuck to the (mid-volume) plan, it’s been hard but I’ve been able to handle it. When I haven’t, it’s always something external to TrainerRoad - my own sleep/ recovery; nutrition, work/ life stress; doing extra’s outside of TR (commuting rather than the recovery workout, running), doing hard club spins without swapping out a workout. And also ignoring the instructions that most workouts have to reduce intensity if I’m struggling.
I’d add in more recently, zwift rather than outdoor riding, and not swapping workouts has then made subsequent workouts harder. I’m in a recovery week this week before build - I’ll probably do at least one zwift race either on Friday or Saturday, or both. I’ve taken to swapping the race for a threshold/ over-under workout. If I do both races in a given week so 4 days intensity - which I have a few times, plus Tour de Zwift type events - is it really that TrainerRoad is too intense if I subsequently struggle?
It’s a shame that you discount peoples opinions in that manner. There were a lot of personal experiences shared in this thread which makes it valuable. I find it super interesting to read how people use the product but also why they don’t use it anymore.
I would say this is quite impressive given that the starter of this discussion was a YouTube shitshow of a nobody produced to promote their business.
I can’t believe that people are shocked that a standard plan isn’t perfect fit for their personal circumstances! Even on 6 hr a week, how people can train are quite different. Personally I can train nearly every day BUT for a max of 60-90 mins. Therefore a 2-3hr z2 ride is a non starter for me. That doesn’t mean that multi hour z2 rides are great for fitness, but when only have 60-90 mins at a time, for me sweetspot/threshold work is much better.
As many have mentioned TR works best for first year or two of structured training…after that most people will see better results by flexing/altering plans a bit…but so many TR resources/info to help you do that and after 1-2 years of training you should have a decent idea on what works or not for you.
For those who want polarised/More z2…do more z2. From podcast etc they do recommend LV with extra endurance/z2 as time allows for most people.
For those who want polarised/More z2…do more z2. From podcast etc they do recommend LV with extra endurance/z2 as time allows for most people @RobertSims
Totally the same - a business trying to discredit another business for their own personal gains and a discussion within a community among peers.
As several others have already stated. A coach who has to discredit the work of other coaches might not be the best choice. After all you want to pick a coach by his successes and not by his bad mouth.
Chad has been posting a whole lot of Z2 interval rides on his Strava lately. It may be that those new workouts will be a part of an effort to make z2 rides more interesting than the steady, boring z2 options we currently have. Just the presence of intervals alone will likely increase compliance with what we know about what types of rides people get bored with.
Have you outgrown the plan in some way? If not, this seems a bizarre stance to take. You’re still seeing significant gains, you’re not burning out, but you’re going to do something completely different anyway?
To be transparent on my position, I think the TR plans could do with some diversification.
Edit: to be transparent again, I’ve not really got any skin in this game - I utilised a POL block earlier this year to accommodate some concentrated VO2 max work. I just question your motive for changing something that’s still working, even if it’s no longer in vogue.
That’s cool, whatever works I guess. As long as there’s very explicit instructions to adjust based on feeling - LT1 is well correlated with FTP but not perfectly so, same as VO2max.
But also like, do people just not enjoy riding their bikes or something? Heck, I’ve got ADHD so bad I’m on dexies AND ritalin, and I still manage to get in 3h endurance rides on the trainer if I can’t get outside . Just load up some TV and spin away! No workout required, honestly, but if it helps pass the time I’ll often whack it in ERG mode in Zwift and just adjust up/down based on feel, that way I don’t even have to concentrate on my power.
This is a simultaneously interesting and depressing thread.
I’m just back from the LBS following problems with my new build (probably a thread incoming) but I had quite an interesting chat about this debate with one of the guys.
He summed it up pretty well IMO: ‘If you haven’t got at least 15 hours a week, what you’re doing isn’t ideal by definition. Yeah, you can get fitter on much less, but it’ll only take you so far. Personally, if I could only do 6 hours a week, I’d just focus on enjoying riding my bike.’
As someone with zero coaching background (me), on what basis are you recommending that I have the expertise to devise my own training plan with a higher degree of effectiveness than trainerroad has ALREADY, using collectively decades of coaching experience?
Note this is an entirely different question than whether trainerroads plan is ‘optimal.’
. Just load up some TV and spin away! No workout required, honestly, but if it helps pass the time I’ll often whack it in ERG mode in Zwift and just adjust up/down based on feel, that way I don’t even have to concentrate on my power.