Feature Request: Weekend Free Training Plan Option for Plan Builder

With AT hopefully coming out of Beta soon (hope, not prediction :grinning:), it would be great if Plan Builder would have the option for a weekend free plan. The idea being that the structured workouts would only be on specific days during the week (e.g., T, W, Thu), leaving the weekends free to do group rides.

Yes, I know that you can do this now with the LV Plans, but doing three straight days of intensity is too much. This would probably be a variant of the Polarized plans with 2 intensity days separated by an endurance day. Yes, I can create this for myself, but would be a great addition to have this type of plan that would work with AT.

Or if there is a way to do this already (select LV, and manually switch out the Wednesday ride for an endurance ride) that works with AT, let me know.

5 Likes

That just seems like the polarized plans. Just make the weekend rides outside or delete them.

2 Likes

If I’m understanding your scenario, you want to keep Saturdays and Sundays free for group rides, and Mondays and Fridays free for recovery? A bunch of the low-volume Tri plans only have two bike sessions per week, so you could use those and discard the run/swim sessions. TrainNow could also be a good fit.

The TR folks have talked about a future end state with Plan Builder/AT that lets you select which days to work out and for how long, without a prescribed number or duration. I’d imagine that will happen before a dedicated Tuesday-Thursday plan.

I don’t speak for TR but I could see their hesitancy in creating such a plan at this time.

Since they have no idea what you’d be doing on the weekends, it would be very difficult for them to blindly create a Tue/Wed/Thu plan. Even with AT, it would still be more or less a one-size-fits-all plan in these early stages, and they’d inevitably catch a bunch of flak for the plan being too easy for some and too hard for others (what’s new, right?).

I think in a few years when AT matures a bit and is able to fully dissect and score unstructured, outdoor rides, we might see what you’re looking for, since a lot of people are probably wishing for the same thing.

I’ve thought of the polarized plans, but the honest truth is I don’t do well on the trainer with long above threshold efforts. Try as I might, it just bothers my knees to the point I have to cut back on training.

Yes, I could do just train now sessions, but that loses the concept of progression.

Here’s holding out for when AT fully handles outdoor rides.

What would happen if you…

  • Use Plan Builder
  • Schedule all of your weekend rides as B (or C?) events
  • Opt for a MV plan,
  • and schedule all your workouts for T, W, Th, Sa, & Su?

PB would replace the Sa and Su workouts with your outside rides. And if you accurately estimated your TSS for your weekend rides and matched those to intensity level of the workouts they would be replacing, you might find that your T, W, & Th workouts are not 3-days of intensity, but rather play reasonably well with the outside free rides you have on the weekends.

I’m not sure this is sure fire solution, but it might be worth a shot to see what PB gives you.

1 Like

Last year I was away for work Tues-Fri. Tried to get all my workouts done over the weekend Sat thru Mon.

I had some success by taking the Tues-Wed-Thurs workouts out of the mid volume plans. The detraining over the week didn’t do me many favours but it could work well for your scenario.

This is a HIGH priority for the development team, for what its worth. :sunglasses:

7 Likes

Interesting idea - I never thought of that.

Thanks for the suggestion

I would guess there are way more people with a priority of doing weekend group rides and as a lower priority want to get faster than the number of people who want to get faster as their priority and for their other noon major rides to fit around the training

2 Likes

I do LV and switch the workout days to MWF so I’ve always got an ez day in between the interval days.

Really like having the weekends free of structure so I can do whatever kind of ride I want.

Lately it’s a longish MTB or a gravel ride on Sat and something easier on Sunday. I mix it up a lot though. Group rides, Zwift rides, local small MTB races, just depends on what’s going on each weekend.

1 Like

Totally agree. I fall into this category: I do structured training so I get stronger / faster to be able to do group rides with friends, and the occasional Gran Fondo / Gravel ride (race?).

1 Like

This is probably the way to go. Unfortunately, you can’t make recurring events in plan builder so it would be a pain in the ass to go through and create 2 event for every weekend.

@IvyAudrain Maybe this warrants a separate thread for a new feature request. But I think adding the ability to make recurring events in plan builder would be relatively straight forward (since you can already do it in the calendar) and would help for situations like this with weekly group rides or with weekly crit or cross races.

1 Like

Definitely on the team’s radar! Cheers.

3 Likes

Hi - hopefully I haven’t missed a more recent relevant thread, but this was the closest I could find to my query.

Is this still the best guess at how to generate a plan like this?

I want to end up with my two ‘key’ workouts on Tu/Th, 60-75 mins long, and then an option for a third one at 90-120 mins on Saturday (which would often be replaced with a drop ride or other event-specific intensity day). Then I’ll ideally add z2 indoors on Weds and outdoors on Sun as often as life/recovery allows.

So far my best idea has been to choose LV in plan builder and then swap the days around so the key workouts are Tu/Th and the other one is Saturday. Trouble is it’s usually going to require me to use ‘Alternates’ to shorten one of those weekday workouts, and then by the time I get into Base II it’s not even always clear which two are the key workouts. The MV with ‘C’ events method described in this thread seems more complete though I think?

Hi, @alexfthenakis !

I’d recommend Low Volume, with your Plan Builder workouts being on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. When choosing Low Volume, all three of those workouts will be ‘key’ to your progression as you move through the plan towards your goals.
In addition to that, including TrainNow endurance workouts for your Wed + Sunday when you’re available is a great strategy!

You’ll be sure which workouts are your ‘key’ workouts because as they are changed via Alternates, they’ll still have similar structure and meet the same system requirements and goals as the original workout; a stark contrast to your added endurance TrainNow workouts.
On the days you decide to go unstructured-outside instead of completing the Saturday workout, we’ll automatically import the ride (as long as you have Ride Sync enabled) and Adaptive Training will adjust your future rides to keep you locked as a result of that structured workout that was missed. In the future, Workout Levels V2 will give you credit for those unstructured outside rides the way it does for TR workouts. That feature is on the way!

The level of specificity you’re looking for in the customization of individual days through the Plan Builder process (not retroactively, after your plan is built) is on the roadmap, but with no ETA while the team focuses on higher priority releases.

In the meantime, Adaptive Training is going to account for those added TrainNow workouts outside of Low Volume super effectively, and make adjustments as those are added and completed when merited. :+1:

1 Like

@alexfthenakis My post above was pre-Adaptive Training and Train Now (I think).

It’s a whole new TR these days and Ivy’s got you covered!

1 Like

What about the 30 of 45 min 5 day a week plan Monday through Friday?

Thanks @IvyAudrain (and Jim)

This is kind of what I did last season (though it was MV- rather than LV+, & now I know the latter is preferable), but then in the build phase (and/or maybe specialty) it meant I was doing VO2/Anaerobic during the week and skipping my threshold workout on the weekend. Of course AT did a great job of adjusting the levels of my subsequent threshold workouts, but it never went as far as to de-prioritise one of the other energy systems and give me extra threshold workouts instead to get me back on track or re-balance my development. I’m pretty sure that’s not within the scope of what AT does.

This is why I was asking about that method of adding ‘C’ events on Saturdays. Is Plan Builder smart enough to see that, due to scheduled events, an athlete is going to miss their ‘normal’ threshold day for an entire training block and then make sure it works that energy system in elsewhere? Or is this just one of those things where I’m going to have to self-adjust based on individual circumstances and balance the prioritisation of the various energy systems according to what I think my event requirements will be?

1 Like

Yes, as you decide you want to add race rides on Saturdays to supplement your training, you’ll receive adaptations for that missed workout.
You would get an adaptation response to make up for that missed workout for a C event in the same way you would if you just skipped/deleted it. :+1:

2 Likes