Has anyone tried using the free Garmin training plans included on the app and ALSO used trainer road plans fully? I used trainerroad for a few years and yes it did make me faster, but often I would test 2-3 watts faster and feeling very tired all the time (I understand fatigue is part of training.) As my results felt disappointing to me and just assumed I’m not genetically made to be a fast cyclist. I think peak trainer road I made 3.2 watts per kilo from 2.8 following sweetspot base build and special. Anyway I’ve started using The Garmin Grand Fondo plan. I did low volume plan Trainerrtoad so 3x a week. The Garmin is 5x a week typically 2x intensity a week but the threshold workouts are typically only 5x5 never long like 20x3 with trainer road etc. Then you have 2 1 hour zone 2 and a one 2-3 hour z2. It’s more polarazied I guess?! So total 6 hours a week and 2 hours is intensity. So I seem to be getting results faster and improving my fitness than when I used trainerroad. I don’t believe my nutrition has changed. Has anyone else had better results from switching from sweet spot training to another medium? Interested in thoughts I hope this doesn’t come across as a Trainerroad bash as I think its a great product with the ai etc. I’m just not sure It the best for me. Interested in your thoughts!
Haven’t used or looked at the Garmin plans. However in 2020 I switched to a plan that sounds similar in concept to the Garmin Gran Fondo plan. About 4 or 5 days riding, mostly endurance rides with 2-3 days of intervals. My time commitment averaged out to about 7-8 hours/week, versus the 5-6 hours/week I was putting into TR plans. Was still doing sweet spot intervals, but different types and with less total time (shorter/fewer intervals). Surprisingly it improved my power and fitness and performance. I’ve got some theories on why, but thats speculation. Subjectively I felt fresher. Like you said, I would come from an off-season and get faster with TR, but bigger gains with doing more endurance and fewer intervals. Counter-intuitive but it worked for me the past 3+ years.
I played around with the Garmin stuff for about 10 min but didn’t have the mental bandwidth to learn a new training management system. Not saying it is hard… I just prefer the ease of using TR.
I haven’t followed the garmin suggested workouts but I like taking peaks at their suggestions.
Lately it’s been 2x 17-22 minutes at threshold and another day of VO2max. Whether it’s 6x 2, 5x5, it’s usually different every week. The rest of the workouts are endurance, so definitely more polarized. I’ve thought about following them but haven’t, maybe someday.
This has been pretty much my exact experience. I guess can still use trainer road with all the nice tech behind it and do you town plan as they have the workouts in built. Garmin is more volume though so you need 5 days a week to commit vs 3.5 hours like trainer road.
It’s clunky and not intuitive at all. Trainer road wins on ease of use and the calendar etc. I’ll probably just make my own plan on trainer road using the garmin workouts as a guide. I’ve never tried the polarized plans on trainer road fyi.
Another thing I thought strange about garmin plan was the first week of every training block you do a 10 minute ftp test (1 hour total workout) followed by the next day a standard 20 minute ftp. They do 3 weeks on and one recovery week. The recovery week is 2 1 hour endurance and and vo2 max 2x3 mins which is interesting.
