I love Nate and the whole TR crew, but Nate is a fit club rider and DJ is probably one of the top 50 ultra-endurance mountain bikers in the world. People have weird ideas about who is and isn’t fast.
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Yea, I’m just ribbing Nate there…but really it’s not even a discussion and not worth bringing up the disparity is so great.
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I think this is the ideal scenario. They taught you how to train and not just follow the plans blindly.
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No problem, but still no need to disagree because I didn’t say TR were intentionally inflating FTPs.
It’s a fascinating thing to try to deconstruct though. One of the things I love about cycling in general is that (with a handful of exceptions at any given moment) no one is fast. You’re either getting your ass kicked or you’re sandbagging. Doesn’t matter who you are.
(Non USAC/UCI races used to make this explicit where the “money” races were labeled “Expert/Open”)
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Hey all. Long time trainerroad user and supergeek here. Regardless of what you think, or what the science says about polarized training, sweet spot training, etc - there are so many flaws with Dylan’s Video. Here’s my take:
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Well said. A good and balanced post.
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I am not sure how you familiar with TR. Do you think the works out (denoted by red arrows) is HARD session?
Proposal that is literally (and I mean literally) none of my business.
TR should set up an A-B study of sorts on this. Create a polarized plan with LV, MV, and HV variants. Recruit ~100 people to do each volume level of both Sweet Spot Base, and a Polarized Base phase (600 total), and then track them throughout the year and compare results, both short term (IE on average SSBLV crew gained 5.6 W during Base phase 1, but POLLV crew gained 3.4 W), and long term (where each cohort peaks in the year on their best test, and look at signs of burnout), then use that data to build out plans in the future.
If adherence is a concern, give people something for starting/doing 80% of their scheduled workouts maybe? Like a 20% discount for their next renewal, a water bottle, or a TR t-shirt (woo, advertising + making customers happy!).
Coming from a selfish place, I would just love to see TR leverage their user bases own desires to have a huge, comprehensive study on what actually works in training.
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Everyone should make a YouTube video giving their opinion about the DJ video, because nothing says “I don’t like this guys opinions and his attempt to boost views for his channel” like posting a video of your opinions to increase views on your channel
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Really appreciate your effort to this discussion. I will listen carefully to your arguments.
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Yeah, DJ didn’t post his video on this forum. He posted it on his channel.
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plan builder gives me workouts based on a training phase, targeted to a specific event, building in intensity through the season.
repeating the same 3 interval sessions and just increasing power does not do that.
Effective for a training block? Yes. Effective for an entire season? Unlikely for most.
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Cult Alert 
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I’m extremely familiar with it. I’ve been using the platform for years. No, I don’t consider those hard. Sweet Spot work can be a mental grind to get through, but I don’t consider them that challenging physically. Hence the ability to repeatedly recover from them. If you aren’t recovering from them, that doesn’t mean you’re a bad athlete or that the plan is wrong. It means that there is something causing incompatibility between you and that particular plan.
This guy hits it right on the head. Examining Dylan Johnson's TrainerRoad Plan Video: Polarized vs Threshold Training for Cyclists - YouTube
Though I do not agree with his take on calories being the determiner for weight loss. It is an awesome video.
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Is that what Meghan Trainor was singing about? Dang, I’ve had the lyrics wrong the whole time - no wonder chicks look at me funny.
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Here is an older & civic discussion on polarization vs. Sweetspot. There is definitely overlap.
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Not true. I characterized antagonistic, disrespectful posters - given that this is the “TrainerRoad Forum” - as taking a shit on their house.
True. But this isn’t the “DJ” forum … it’s the “TR” forum.
I had to look up ad hominem. I found this …
adverb: ad hominem
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in a way that is directed against a person rather than the position they are maintaining.
I didn’t mention iron anyone in particular. Did I? Except Nate and Chad… and that was to commend them.
Thanks for increasing my vocabulary🤘
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- Without racing in 2020 and the foreseeable future, it felt like I was just paying a lot of money for something very similar to TR or other platforms out there (with a little more granularity, of course). I decided since there’s room for error, why not switch up and see if I could be just as strong using the TR platform.
- Yeah, still hovering around the 95-100kg mark at the moment. Last year’s peak was 410 ftp @ 93kg.
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