Feedback on Plan Builder: Tapering, Recovery, and Event Specificity

TrainerRoad Software
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Hello everyone,

I have been using TrainerRoad for quite some time, and it has genuinely helped me get faster and better in every aspect of cycling so far.

However, I’ve recently found that Plan Builder is a bit of a letdown when it comes to handling Events—specifically regarding Training Camps, tapering, and planning for the specific demands of a race.

I recently planned my 2026 season with all my registered events. After the automatic setup, it took me another hour or two to manually fix several things that felt fundamentally wrong with the plan logic. Here are the main issues I encountered:

  • March (Training Camp): I registered a Multi-Stage B Event (Training Camp) which will be about 1000 TSS. TR doesn’t seem to account for the fatigue generated here, as it has me scheduled for VO2 Max and Threshold work the very next week.

  • April (B Race): I have a Sunday race scheduled (approx. 300 TSS). The plan follows this immediately with two VO2 Max sessions and Threshold work, with no recovery accounted for.

  • June (A Event - Hill Climb): This is a 2-hour hill climb. The plan schedules a lot of VO2 Max leading up to it. In my understanding, for a 2-hour steady effort, the focus should be on Tempo/Threshold. VO2 Max seems like the wrong energy system to prioritize this close to the event.

  • June (Gran Fondo): Two weeks after the hill climb, I have a 10-hour Gran Fondo. Again, the plan schedules heavy VO2 Max work with no real taper or rest period.

As much as I appreciate the new features and what TR has done for me, I’ve come to the realization that Plan Builder isn’t currently suited for a season full of events. It feels like it follows a cookie-cutter formula rather than taking into account the actual physiological toll of the events (TSS) or the specific demands of the race type.

I feel like I shouldn’t have to adjust the plan this drastically, but perhaps I am mistaken. Has anyone else experienced this?

Kind Regards, Ron

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100% agree that microcycle/mesocycle flexibility (i.e. moving weeks around to make training blocks that make sense with a complex schedule) is a huge and longstanding weakness of TR.

Plan Builder is great for creating a consistent, periodized series of 3-4 week training blocks leading up to a single event. But it isn’t good at modifying this strict regimen to accommodate things like travel, illness, B races, specific training blocks that fall outside its approach (e.g. training camps, VO2 blocks etc.) I often have a week of travel mid-block; it’d be great if I could add this as a “mandatory rest week” and TR would reconfigure adjoining weeks by extending/shortening blocks.

AFAIK it’s locked in to plan phases (base/build/speciality) and timing of recovery, and can’t change these in an intelligent way. This is the biggest weakness in the current TR software IMO.

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