From FTP to Durability: Balancing Structure, Endurance, and Enjoyment for Peaks Challenge

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Hey everyone,

I’ve been using TrainerRoad for about five months to build my fitness back up, and in that time my FTP has gone from 191 W → 244 W (diamonds in image below). I’m really happy with the progress — the structure has made a huge difference, and it’s been motivating to see consistent improvement.

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Recently though, I felt like things had started to level off a bit, so I decided to test where I’m at by doing “The Grade” climb on Zwift to see if it was a TR AI FTP error. The result? My eFTP came out exactly the same! Kudos TrainerRoad.

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I found the test absolutely brutal. I ended up setting 215 all-time records, including PBs from 3 minutes to 15 minutes, which was a satisfying confirmation that TR’s numbers are spot on — it means I don’t plan to repeat that kind of suffering anytime soon! I’m a convert to never doing an FTP test again.

I want to stick to a structured plan, but I get tempted by Zwift races, hard hill climb days, and unstructured rides which make me miss my hard workout days mid-week. As fun as they are, I feel like those rides are a “waste” because they don’t count toward my TrainerRoad Career or adaptive training progression (even though I know TR will analyse them, it doesn’t scratch the same itch as seeing those Career progression numbers go up).

So, I’m trying to find the right balance: sticking with TR’s structure while still keeping the joy and variety that make cycling fun and want some group opinions (or tough love).

  • How do you balance endurance building with the mental itch for unstructured or hard rides?
  • Have you found ways to make unstructured rides still “fit” into your overall training plan — or at least not feel wasted?
  • Do I really need as much threshold / VO2 work as my plan recommends for my long event duration, or should I be manually over-indexing on Endurance base & SS rides?

Thanks in advance — TR has been a game-changer for me, and I’m keen to keep improving in a way that’s both effective and enjoyable.

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If I know I will be doing 2-3 hard rides per week, 1-2 of those will usually be a hard MTB ride and the remaining will be structured workouts. I don’t pay attention to how unstructured rides could impact progression levels.

Yes, limit hard rides/intense workouts to 2-3 per week.

All of the above.

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Hey @AnthJano, welcome to the forum! :partying_face:

I’m so glad that you’re enjoying TR! It sounds like it’s working well for you. :relieved_face:

I wouldn’t consider those unstructured rides a waste, as they do serve an important purpose, which is to give us a little freedom on our bikes, test our fitness in a unique way, and motivate us to keep training.

If building fitness is your absolute #1 goal above all else, then you’d probably want to stick to structured training, but it sounds like you have some other goals and things that you enjoy about cycling, so it’s best to keep a balance, however you can.

You’re clearly building fitness with what you’re doing, and it’s normal for those gains to start to slow eventually. If you really want to see how far you can progress, maybe give yourself a budget of how many hard workouts you’ll let yourself miss each month. Maybe it’s one a week, two a month, or just one a month.. That’s totally up to you!

The more structured training you can get in, the steadier your progress will likely be, but remember that those unstructured rides have value too, and they aren’t necessarily bad for fitness!

In terms of training specifics, what type of events are you training for? Threshold and VO2 Max training are important for pretty much all disciplines, as they’re a key part of building fitness. The type of workouts we prescribe is determined by the discipline of your events/plan, though, and there are many types of workouts!