They, just like you, can choose to ignore any feature requests. The rest of us are quite happy to chat about how we would like to see TR develop.
Mike
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Assuming you start with the Low-Volume plan as a base, what would people expect to be added for the 4th workout?
Looking up to the Mid-Volume for guidance, it seems you have 2 basic choices:
- Add a Wednesday, Endurance ride.
- Add a Sunday, Sweet Spot/Endurance ride.
I know what I would do and what would be best for me. But, I expect we would already have people wanting one option or the other. Take this across the full Base, Build and Specialty range and you end up needing to make 18 total plans (regardless of the option selected from above).
Unless you offer both options above, I predict that people would be asking for the opposite option. It just seems like a lot of work to me, when there is so much potential for variation even with this filler option added.
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Why would I want to ignore them? I’m offering my opinion which, hopefully, you would consider as much a part of the chat as anyone elses.
Agreed. There is no desire to censor or limit discussion about this or any other feature request.
The discussion is welcomed by TR reps, TR users, forum members, and is very beneficial to the overall direction of the product/service.
- Offering a related opinion on the topic at hand is a welcomed addition.
- Offering an opinion or statement asking for fewer requests (as you did above) is counter to the whole point of the feature request process, and implies that people should not post their request.
We can use one to the benefit of the discussion (#1) and the other (#2) is unnecessary and partly confrontational.
Thanks for your kind review of my reply Chad but my response was fairly clear.
My “fewer feature requests” statement didn’t imply (or need to imply) anything, I explained the reason for suggesting it. A lot of requests I’ve seen stem from people wanting to automate quite individual preferences, which are already catered for with the level of customisation that TR offers.
I don’t find this to be confrontational at all, I’m sorry that you do.
That’s a fair point you make but it is a criticism you could level at any of the plans - should low volume have 2 sweet spot workouts and then an endurance workout at the weekend?
That’s only one starting point, but I’m not sure it would have to sit as a half-way house between the low and mid-volume plans: The mid-volume plans aren’t a half way house between low and high-volume plans.
Personally, in a 4 workout plan I’d advocate making the weekend ride a long endurance ride that could easily be swapped for something done outdoors.
I guess the trouble here is that there are plenty of more experienced riders (and TR users) who would think nothing of adjusting a plan to suite their own needs, and there are folk who just want to select a plan that has workouts on x number of days per week and follow it without having to think too about which workout to add or subtract.
Mike
Right, any plan is a starting point. The difference here is the current existence of the Low, Mid and High Volume plans, vs the request to create one (or two?) intermediate plans between the existing ones.
I like the idea of having more options. But the issue is that even with those additions, they won’t satisfy everyone that isn’t happy with the current 3 volume levels. The intermediate plans may reduce the need for some to change at all, or others may have less to do manually. However, I still think mods will need to be done in many cases.
As such, I just question the payback on the TR time required to create 1 or 2 new plans (in all three phases and plan options) and how much time and/or effort that saves in the grand scheme. It’s hard to know the math here and know what is “justified”.
Perspectives vary and I don’t think there is a clear answer without more info that TR has. I think it is worth asking for from TR, but also recognizing the hurdles related to the request is worthwhile.
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That’s exactly what I do manually without any issues and I’m a total beginner 
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I found a solution to my “inbetweener” problem - I applied BOTH the mid volume and high volume plans to the same date ranges, and then deleted the workouts that did’t fit my available time (or were duplicates). Now I have a mid-high training plan.
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I seem to struggle to find the right balance of TSS given the 3 different volume plans: MV tends to be a little low, HV is too high. I know that all the plans are customizable and perhaps the folks at TR are already ahead of me on this, but I’d love to see them be a bit more “granular” with their plans. What about 5 levels of plans with a narrower gap between them? Frankly, all the new bells and whistles (calendar, TSS chart, outdoor workouts, etc) are nice, but at the end of the day it’s really all about the training plans and the step from MV to HV seems to be quite a leap…
I’d be interested in having an idea of how much there is to be gained by going up from one plan to the next.
I’m on low volume right now. How much faster might I be if I tackled mid volume successfully?
I know this topic has been brought up several times before. Really, if the current three tier system doesn’t totally work, just modify one to fit your needs. A) it’ll be impossible for TR to create iterations to fit everyone’s needs and B) working on plan modification, I think, gives the user more power and knowledge as to how training is designed.
I did high volume stuff through base and build earlier in the year and I’ve since cut back to low volume recently to fill in other days as I see fit.
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More is not always better. Look into the following phenomenon: paradox of choice and analysis-paralysis. My guess is that with 5 choices, you’d just spend even more time comparing the various plans and still not find one quite to your liking.
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I couldn’t disagree more. Obviously there’s a practical limit to how many plans TR can offer, but adding a few new levels of plans hardly creates confusion. I hear a TON of people say the same thing I’m saying: The MV plan is a bit too low, but they can’t swing the HV plan.
I agree that riders should understand HOW to design their own plans, but I don’t think we should have to. Isn’t that really why we have a TR subscription in the first place? To provide the expertise and convenience of designing the plans for me?
You’re thinking of a coach. They cost a lot more, I’m afraid.
I do think the challenge is when you are relatively new it is a challenge to really know what you should be adding. What is the impact on adding a ride to low volume plan? What type of ride should it be?
I don’t think you need lots of plans but some options to guide you on how to tweak them. A basic premise of what you could do to the plans to go low-mid or mid-high would be helpful.
Has this been discussed previously? Is there some guidance in the forum on how we should tweak the plans?
Hey @brenth!
Generally, this is how we recommend you make volume adjustments to your plan:
+ Volume
If you want to increase the volume of your selected plan, you can
- Complete TSS filler. This is basically low-intensity endurance riding that increases your TSS without drastically effecting your fatigue for the week. This can be a separate endurance ride, or extra endurance riding tacked onto the end of your planned workouts
- Select the +1, +2 version when you have extra time and want to do the harder version of a workout. Read the workout closely to make sure that you aren’t biting off more than you can chew. Some “+” versions just have an extra set of intervals, while other “+” versions reduce recovery time and/or increase the interval intensity.
- Volume
If you want to reduce the volume of a selected plan, you can:
- Eliminate the recovery workouts and replace them with complete rest
- Choose the “-” versions of workouts.
In general, we recommend adding volume to a plan rather than subtracting, so if you are in between Low and Mid Volume, we recommend starting with the Low Volume plan and adding endurance workouts to increase your volume. This also gives you the flexibility to work on skills building, group riding, etc.
I hope this helps!
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Ahh, so you’re paying for a TR subscription purely for their repository of interval workouts… Got it… 