Time limit options in Plan Builder [Feature Request]

For life reasons (work + studying take a good bunch of time) I’m time-limited each day to ~60 minutes max but have this time free most days, with the added plan builder tool it would be nice to say limit all workouts to X minutes for Y days a week.

I’d like my plan to have 4 or 5 days a week but them all be a bit shorter/have a set time limit. I just feel it would allow flexibility to build plans around not only my goals but also the limitations of life, clearly this wouldn’t give the improvements that doing lots of 90 or 120-minute workouts but would give users better flexibility to fit into circumstances.

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+1 to this.

I can do 5 days a week for mid volume but when it comes to those days I may not be able to find/make the time to do a 90 minute on Tuesday/Thursday. It was somewhat of a shock going from SSB2 to the build plans and suddenly seeing 90 minutes for the first and third workouts of the week and having the go through and find suitable replacements, some of which don’t have a direct -1ish equivalent (Ansel adams +4 and kaiser +4 I’m looking at you). This also goes for the 2 hour Sunday ride which I am unable and unwilling to do thanks to family obligations. It would be a great feature to have the shorter workouts picked with coach chad’s blessing, considering he may pick something different or structure the workout differently if he knows there’s only 60-75 minutes to work with on a given day. Easier said than done but I would super appreciate a feature like this.

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Thanks for the suggestion @firemunki! It seems like we share a similar vision :grinning: .

This type of customization represents a huge development challenge though, and is not something that will be possible overnight. We plan to continually improve and enhance the Plan Builder over the next few years until it becomes the optimal tool we know it can be :+1:.

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I’m glad I searched before posting a very similar request! For life reasons I’m moving to a schedule similar to what @Jonathan noted he follows (5 days straight during weekdays - the only variant is I’m moving the 2hr Sun workout to Sat and putting a filler easy 60min in on Fri - so Hard/Hard/Easy/Hard/Easy/Long/Rest). The issue is that on the MV plan implemented by Plan Builder, two of the weekday workouts default to 90min, while my pre-work routine allows for 75min tops. Luckily there are 75min versions of most (maybe all) of the workouts I need - but that means right now I’m manually going through my schedule and changing them. I can imagine the code infrastructure makes this difficult to implement - but hope to see it in place one day! Thanks for all the work guys!

Perhaps an option that would take less development would be while in the plan creation phase. Once plan builder recommends my plan, give me the option to let me select a “minus version” of my plan. Essentially a single checkbox on the screen that then tells plan builder to substitute all recommended workouts with their -2 variant (or something to that effect.)

This will give me the ability to take the plan and scale it back across the board when I am time crunched, sleep deprived, or just want to maintain fitness rather than grow it aggressively.

I know this would not always shorten the workouts in the same way as not all minus 1 or minus 2 workouts are the same length, but it is a good alternative

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@Bryce
Just a bump for update/news/likelihood sorta thing since I’ve just used plan builder (thread about alerts prompted me to try it again) to get me booked up until Xmas and now have to go through ~4 months worth of 90 and 120 minute sessions and edit them to fit into life.

Hey! I’m the ‘new Bryce’ :rofl:

We are working on a handful of Plan Builder updates that will roll out as soon as we can iron out all the wrinkles! I’m not sure if this precise request will be a part of the next immediate update, but I will bump to our team that selecting a time limit for rides is being requested. Thanks!

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Hi ‘New Bryce’!

Awsome stuff, one of those little tweeks which I can see making it much more accessible, and customisable yet still structured since I know when I don’t know enough to build a good plan!

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I am not sure if this has been requested…when creating a plan, I would like to keep all my sessions at the 60min mark. Instead of having a 90min one thrown in there, now I know this may not be the best option when it comes to using a plan.

However due to time constraints, outside rides, and gym. I would only like to do 60min workouts during my week. I currently set up my plan (low volume) and swap out the 90min workout with the 60min workout (if there is one)

Just a thought

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Building on this - what if you could set the number of hours you have each day to commit to riding? I tend to keep it around an hour Mon-Thur, but Fri-Sun I can go 2-4. Really wish there was a way for Plan Builder to maximize my time automatically instead of me just tacking Z2 rides onto the end of a low volume plan.

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@mrpbennett, I moved your request under an existing one with the same objective.

Lovely thanks…couldnt find the post :slight_smile:

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While we wait patiently for this feature to get developed, how do people go about picking shorter workouts that will hopefully target similar results? Is it good enough to just match the zone, like find a 60 minute sweet spot workout to sub in for a 2 hr. workout? Or do people put more thought into it than this?

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I just find the same workout but for 60mins. If there isnt one, i pick something similar. Not too worried with the drop in TSS if i am doing out door rides too.

at end of the day it’s consistency you’re after i believe.

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+1
I would like to be able to limit all plan builder workouts to a specific length (1hr). It is a bit of a pain to go through and modify a plan changing the workout lengths.
Hopefully this feature will be included in the adaptive training module.
Sorry TR, I don’t have the mental strength/desire for more than 1 hr at a time turboing indoors :joy:

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Feature suggestion:

Allocated times for different days.

Say you know every Tuesday you only have 45 minutes to ride.

Rather than changing every Tuesday workout individually can you say when building a training plan that you have 45 minutes every Tuesday and it adjusts each Tuesday’s workout to 45 minutes.

This would be very helpful for planning TSS and training around kids and other commitments when 1hr (which is normally default) isn’t possible on all days.

Thanks team! Keep up the great work.

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This has brought up quite a bit, but doesn’t hurt to raise it again. :grinning: I think this one addition to Plan Builder would raise the bar by leaps and bounds.

Yeah, there is an existing feature request for this. I will merge it when I get more time tomorrow.

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Definitely agree with this. Ideally you would tell Plan Builder which days per week and length for each day and you would have a totally custom plan. I am usually between low and mid volume and use Train Now to fill in the gaps but this is not ideal.

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Thanks legend!