I’ve been plateu(ing) at about 285 w like clockwork the past few seasons with TR. I get that I’m old (56), but I’d like to see my z2 hours increase and hopefully add aerobic fitness to support increasing my FTP power or % utilization of that FTP.
I understand that maximal power declines and it’s hard to stop it, but I also wonder how it won’t decline when my historical average weekly volume is about 6 hours, with a couple of training camp weeks in the year of 15 or so hours mostly aerobic camps in NC mountains. TR has me at 4-5.5 hours per week now for most of my annual plan. How can this lead to improvements? My primary races are 3+ hour mtb races and a 6 ish hour gravel race or two.
I’m semi retired and have ample recovery time now as well as ability to do longer z2 rides outdoors when this Michigan winter breaks.
Thanks inadvance for any advice besides your old and you can’t train as much so do the 4.5 hour weeks.
Have you turned on the new dynamic endurance feature which will increase Z2 rides and also the feature that allows you to increase time in zone if you are maxing out hte levels?
Switch on new “dynamic endurance” feature. Put long ride “dynamic, up to 5 hours” on saturday or sunday and up to 3 hours somewhere in the middle of the week.
Put 2 more hard days 1:00-1:30 in your calendar and give AI model to adjust your long rides once your fitness progresses.
I personally think that there are no significant gains for long rides 3+ hours compared to 2:30-3:00 in terms of how much extra you get for how much fatigue you get. Better complete those 2 hard workouts 1:00-1:30 each, than not complete because you are fatigued after 4 hour indoor ride.
Do NOT do that. Most younger riders can only handle 3 hard days a week, some can handle 4. TR added the Masters option to their plans that drops the normal 3 hard workouts to 2.
As a masters age athlete, they should not be doing 4 or 5 hard workouts per week, which is what works happen if they added another 2 on top of the 2-3 already there.
i typically have been doing 12-17 hours per week at 55 years with 1-2 intensity days per week on a 3:1 work/recovery weeks. i’ve returned to TR this week and my volume is 50% now. with 2x30mins endurance rides per week, i am highly bemused, especially now its predicting a 11% ftp increase in 28 days. i would like the extra ftp, but feel i’m being set up for disappointment.
Ok, to make things clear: I meant to use plan builder and set 2 hard + endurance workouts there. And let AI decide for longivity of endurance rides since my advice was to make them dynamic.
OK. Don’t look more than 4 weeks ahead and think that what it’s showing is what it’ll be when you get there. There’s no way Dynamic Endurance knows today how much volume you’ll have worked up to in June, right?
If you want a sense check, post two screenshots from your calendar, one of the last 4 weeks, one of the next 4 weeks.
TR plans seem to be tilted towards the “time crunched athlete.” It did this to me as well but once I put my desired training time in it adjusted the plan accordingly.
Most of us with jobs and families probably have between 1-2 hours a day for training (if we are lucky). The reality is, it’s not enough to be truly elite (without amazing genetics) but it is enough to be fit enough to enjoy a good rip on the bike now and then!
set up a plan from start of this year after nearly 3 months of quite low volume and sporadic training due to work and injury
TR recommended a pretty low volume plan similar to you. But I know I can handle bigger volume from the past (hit ~500 hours cycling most years without burning out) and also have 2-3 days a week where I cycle commute for 2 hours/day. So I added those onto the plan as easy solo rides.
First few weeks I was doing 10-12 hours including those commute rides and a 2.5-3 hour weekend ride. But I really did do that extra volume as easy as possible to try and leave myself fresh for the 2 hard workouts. Also threw the kitchen sink at recovery - dry January, focus on quality food, plenty of sleep, bit of pilates/stretching most days
TR still thought I was overdoing it initially and had yellow days popping up all over the place. But I just about managed to find non-yellow days to fit in the 2 interval sessions in each of the first 2 weeks. And I felt good and nailed those sessions
By week 3 TR was starting to figure out I was coping OK and the yellow days started to become more infrequent. Last week was a recovery week, looking ahead at the new AI Simulation I can see a few yellow days only popping up after intervals, and that Dynamic Endurance is starting to increase those weekend rides up to 4 hours which is what I set as the max. Predicted FTP at the end of this block is looking good. Most importantly I feel good and motivated for next block.
In your case if you haven’t done that higher volume in the past then I would be more conservative at ramping it up. But adding in some more easy Z1-2 riding on days when it’s not going to impact your intervals should gradually get you to a position where you can handle more volume. And FWIW my N=1 over many years of training is that volume and consistency have always given me my best numbers. I.e. If I’m able to consistently do 10 hours/week that’s always put me in a better place than consistently doing 5-6 hours/week, no matter how well structured that lower volume is. The key being consistency - a block of 10 hours/week where you’re digging yourself into a hole, followed by a couple of easy weeks before you can face doing another interval session, if obviously much worse than just building up gradually and sustainably.
When you age, among other things, your ability to recover decreases. You may have ample recovery time, but that doesn’t mean your ability to recover increases accordingly.
Interval workouts are key to getting faster. You should prioritize those and only add endurance work when you are sure you can handle the added volume long-term.
Adding Z2 work will add more fatigue, which means you may only manage less difficult interval workouts.
