Feature request: "Weekend Warrior" volume training plans

One of the most common questions you see here and on the podcasts is variations of “how do I do workouts early morning before work?”. And another common question is “can I substitute a long outdoor ride for my weekend workout”.

And it got me thinking that the training plan volumes assume that you either have lots of time in the week and lots of time at the weekend (high volume), or only a little time in the week and a little time at the weekend (low volume).

But surely there must be riders like me who have only a little time at the week, but plenty of time at the weekend. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if that goes for a lot of TR members with full-time jobs but not too many weekend commitments.

This week for example, I’ve been working further from home and I’ve only had time and energy for a couple of 60min workouts in the evenings. But today (Saturday) I’m doing a 90min session, and tomorrow I’m planning to join my club’s 100km Sunday ride.

I could possibly try to mix low volume weekday workouts with high volume weekend ones, but it’d be great to see tailor-made versions of the Training Plan that cater for this - maybe with 2-3 45-60min workouts in the week and 2 90-120min workouts at the weekend.

Or instead of just creating more fixed plans, go all in with AI and have plans adjust to what your routine is. You can input your preferred training hours and times and it’ll auto adjust to that. If you skip a workout, it’ll add extra intervals onto other workouts. Have a whole week that’s a bit easier than it should have been? It’ll add more load to the following week.

If it detects you’re struggling or your HR and HRV values aren’t on point, it’ll reduce intensity to reduce risk of over-training and demotivation.

Loads of clever stuff can be put in which can mean that a basic plan can end up suiting a whole variety of lifestyles. I actually think that’s where TrainerRoad will end up going to survive in the age of interactive training. Plattforms like Zwift will eventually meet TrainerRoad head-on with the workouts and training plan options but include the option to form groups to complete your plans together (how cool would TR be if we could be doing our 2 hour sweet spot workouts together in a pack, motivating each other on that last 30min block! with some awesome visuals going on - well that’s where Zwift is headed).

TrainerRoad can go the AI route and just be the smartest package out there, which is what we all really need. A cheap and accessible AI coach that measures every metric and aspect of our health and plans ahead for us. Auto-adjusting FTP, VO2 etc intervals per our daily fitness. That would be amazing.

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My suggestion would be to use SSB MV, skip the easy Wednesday workout and adjust Tuesday and Thursday workouts to the lightest versions.

Sounds like the Xert approach (which has its own pitfalls) and would be nice as additional option besides the traditional plans.

@Rizzi Xert is in its infancy unfortunately, but it is on the right track. I hope it survives and gets a cash injection to make it deeper and more engaging. Most consistent complaint I see with Xert are the workouts. People just don’t like them.

My current plan is SSB MV, and I’m generally doing the 2 harder weekday workouts but dropping the easier Wednesday session like you say. However at the weekend, I feel like I’ve got time and energy for more like 250+ TSS.

I suppose if I was to summarise in TSS, I’d be looking for a total of 375-400 per week, but with 250-275 at the weekend and 125-150 in the week.

Until/unless TR adds this feature, you can use same wotkouts prescribed in mid volume except skip Wed, do the minus 1 or 2 versions on weekdays and the plus 1 or 2 versions on weekends.

The suggestion of AI training plans sounds good, but in reality I think it would not be good. The main advantage of TR is that you are getting professionally designed training plans that are developed with specific goals and considering all the complex and competing biological processes in our bodies. Layer on the mental aspect and real life constraints on top.

I think any AI generated plan would not be nearly as beneficial as what coach Chad puts together (current TR), plus some guidance about how to customize (podcast). So there is little benefit to doing this sort of thing because developing good AI would be a big undertaking. And if it generates sub-par plans, then it would hurt TR reputation for actually working.

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This should be called the “Mullet”.

Short and all business in the front of the week, long and ready to party at the end of the week. :stuck_out_tongue:

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