Yeah, it will adjust. Early plans keep long rides shorter to build consistency and fitness first, then they extend as the event gets closer. You won’t jump straight into all-day rides, but the volume and duration will ramp when it actually matters.
If I want the length of the ride to adapt does it matter what option I pick?
When picking the time should I set it at 4 hours as that is how long I have time to ride on Sunday or what I think my current endurance is?
Same with weekdays, should I set it based on the current volume I can handle or what time I have available?
If I want the length of the ride to adapt does it matter what option I pick?
The ride duration you choose is basically a time cap you’re giving the system that tells it to not go over. Whether you have a 4 hour or 2 hour workout, they will adapt in difficulty but will cap out at the duration you set them to.
When picking the time should I set it at 4 hours as that is how long I have time to ride on Sunday or what I think my current endurance is? Same with weekdays, should I set it based on the current volume I can handle or what time I have available?
I would set it to the available time you have to train, as long as the system is not giving you a warning. If you choose to do more days/hours of training you may receive a warning that your plan has too much training load. You can restore the plan to the original settings to get you back on track by selecting Restore Schedule.
If you’d like to tinker you can also reduce the duration of workouts, or change how many intense days you have per week to get your desired training schedule.
Note: When in doubt you could just apply what the recommended schedule is giving you.
More info here: Plan Builder Overview
In my opinion, increasing volume to higher weekly times is something TR has always struggled with, and still does. I personally peak between 15-20 hours a week as I near my target event, and there’s no way to do that with TR without supplementing with outside solo / group rides, adding Z2 to the end of others, and somewhat just knowing when to ignore it when it starts throwing warnings and yellow / red days. But, you do have to be mindful of training fatigue and have to watch that yourself if you take this approach.
My strategy is somewhat like this: Hard Interval Days Wednesday / Saturday. With the Saturday ride supplementing intervals with Z2 out to 2-3 hours as you have time. Sunday - long easy endurance solo ride. As long as you can without impacting your next Wednesday interval day, keep it easy, 60-65%. I’ll go out to 6+ hours here even having done 2-3 Saturday and this is almost always a yellow day, frequently red. Monday - another yellow or red day, this gets 90 min endurance or 60 min recovery. Thursday / Friday are shorter Z2, usually 90 minutes, recovery if you’re smoked. Tuesday is my rest day.
I’m hopeful the new TrainerRoad AI will give some additional tools to manage this, but right now I think these long events, multi day events, and the resulting higher volume are something that TR doesn’t handle as well as it could right now.
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