Is that really “official” advice? Not being as dick (for once) but I’d be interested in seeing that source material.
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Yes, that‘s the official advice. I have heard it multiple times on the podcast and it is also the recommendation that TR employee @Bryce gave in the MV+/HV- thread. The first recommendation is to add Z2 workouts (“TSS fillers” in the post) and then increase the difficulty of workouts. I have heard it so often that it stuck in my brain (which is what learning is!), and I am applying it now to myself.
TR has repeated that people should start with a lower-volume plan (LV or MV), be consistent like a mantra, too. They have discussed the benefits of Z2 workouts numerous times on their podcast, including episode 196.
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Thank you. Reading…
Ok, I get what they mean. Yeah, it’s a reasonable suggestion.
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Yeah, so I am adding 30- or 45-minute Z2 workouts on the weekend, depending on how long the “official” workout is. If the workout is very tough, I might add a Z1 recovery workout instead.
During the week, the +1 or +2 variants increase the workout duration to 1:30 hours, which is where I want to be. Sometimes a weekday workout doesn‘t have a longer variant, then I just add a lower volume workout.
To be honest, I might be overdoing it a little, but that‘s intentional. I want to see how far I can go. The plan is then just to forgo all extracurriculars and stick to the mandatory MV workouts. (I‘ve done MV training plans twice, so I know this is easily doable for me.)
That’s what I do as well. Many times Chad has recommended focusing on the core three workouts per week, and filling in endurance rides around them. I do that because I’m not smart enough to design the progressions in vo2max and over-unders.
You misunderstood. Chris Carmichael is the owner of CTS. DJ coached under the CTS banner. (He’s now gone independent I believe.)
Of course I discount everything he has said. His review is biased, disingenuous, and inherently flawed.
With one point you have right. I also do hope that TrainerRoad looks at the criticism raised by some of their users. Masters plans for instance sake are long overdue.
However, I do hope that they keep their identity and don’t jump on the polarized track for instance sake. After all not even Seiler is following his own program.
Q re: plan compliance…how much can a plan be altered before it does not compute with the TR algo? If I have a plan plugged into the calendar and I alter 100% of it, let’s say to 100% Dans, after I complete it, will TR still calculate it as a 100% compliant plan?
How many users are altering their plans?
How many users are actually following a plan vs JRA in the TR catalogue?
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Interesting to see the chaos the DJ vid caused on here. Speaks to the solidity of certain aspects of the TR suite.
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It’s not Seiler’s program.
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Not sure solidarity is the right word here, at least from my perspective. I think most just don’t know what to do (me included) when we are being bombarded from all directions with this and that. I mean come on, you made me eat a brick of sugar 6 months back (refers to carbs thread) 
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That’s news. He formulated it based on the observations he made with the Norwegian teams.
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It’s not the right word:
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Isn’t it a bit weird you need to continually tinker with plans to make them work (even LV)?
Maybe I’ve been reading this thread a bit too much, but I’m in the exact same situation many described. I’ve trained with structure and indoors for ~5 years to race things like Liege, Amstel Gold, La Mormontte and others while working 80-90 hr weeks and since switching to TR August last year I’ve been in the same patter of completing 3-4 weeks, burning out, taking some easy time and then trying to restart with some type of tinkering.
I absolutely love the app and interface, the forum and the podcast but I’m starting to doubt if the approach approach is for me and thinking if I should switch back to some of the other platforms I’ve used (eg Sufferfest which got me super fit).
Cheers
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There is no plan out there that fits everybody. You either need to make those micro adjustments yourself or hire a coach to do that for you.
Seems like a lot of life stress to me. The plans could simply be too much for you. Would not be surprising.
What did you perceive as the major difference between TR and SF. As far as I remember SF has equally much intensity. Did you work on a different FTP there?
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Ummm…not quite sure I’d pin this particular burn out on TR. 
But I hear ya on the tinkering. It’s probably a combo of plans being not quite “right”, the inability of people to keep ‘hands-off’, and the ease of the platform to switch things up.
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I’m not referring to micro tinkering, that is more than normal. I’ve always worked a lot but prioritised rest and nutrition (probably at the expense of a full on social life) to be able to train and even with a lot of intensity in other platforms, I never had this burnout / restart pattern.
I found Sufferfest very intense but more balanced as a whole. You have a very intense sessions but usually mixed with recovery and endurance rides session.
Again, I love the platform and everything that comes with it.
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Just out of curiosity, how did you set your FTP? And did you adjust the intensity of VO2max work up or down?
Edit: oh and which plans, you mentioned LV, is that what you were doing? SSB?
Hey. I’ve tested multiple times with TR (actually every time I burnout and restart to see if that was an issue) and I did both low and mid volume (now on the latter).
The thing with LV is that if you like to ride, 3 times a week is not plenty and complementing with Pettits or others is a bit boring (outside riding would be better 
).
By tested with TR I assume you mean the ramp test.
It’s interesting, whilst I think there’s plenty of problems with the TR plans, I don’t think people should be burning out on them in a matter of weeks - you’re not the first one to mention it either.
The ramp test sucks. It is known. Not interested in debating that again so if anyone wants to join my ignore list, now is your chance lol.
How much of the problems people have with TR plans is due to too much intensity and how much is due to having an FTP set too high? It’s difficult to untwine I think, especially with how short the intervals are, which from personal experience can allow you to get through 90% of the workouts even if your FTP is 5-10% overestimated, but you dig yourself a hole by doing so…
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