At 58 and soon to be 59…I find low volume is sustainable. Have tried adding another riding day but built up too much tightness and had to deal with a couple months of physio. Back to being good to ride. Taking it slow for a bit but having a day off after a ride tends to help. Havent ever really done a light recovery ride the next day even though I have heard Chad talk about these on the podcast. I cant handle the volume of a mid plan. The mind wants to ride more but the body is lacking.
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Hey George!
This article should be pretty relevant and useful for you 
Specifically, there is a “Recovery Strategies” section that has some specific recommendations on ways you can adjust your plan to suit your increased recovery needs.
Cheers!
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Bryce: Thanks for the link. In reading that article there are numerous comments about producing 9-day masters plans. But that wouldn’t be needed if…we just had the ability to insert days and push the plan. Some weeks you need a push. Some you don’t. But we can push days when we need it if we had the ability. I know you said that capability is not in the plan, but I could not be more strongly in favor of it. Let me give you one more reason–so that we can race! I already have races scheduled in SSB Mid Vol I and I’m not going to replace a specific interval session with those races–not the same training stress. But I would like to push off the program so I can race, recover, and get right back to the plan–as Chad set it up. My mantra is ETFP–execute the flipping plan.
As it is, I’ve decided to use the ability to push or pull weeks to give me room. I go to the back of my current scheduled plan, push the last week back, then push each week back until I get a blank week behind my current week. Then I retrofit the plan, as it stands, backward as I go. Very clunky, but perhaps workable in lieu of a TR push/pull day capability. Thanks!
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understand your reasoning, however my personal point-of-view is that micro-cycles are 1 week and right now Monday is the day to progress 1-3 minute vo2max intervals. So if I miss Monday, it doesn’t make sense to start slipping everything by one day (based on my understanding of periodization). Over time those 1 day slips add up.
That thinking appears to align with Coach Chad and other coaches (like Friel) that recommend just skipping and continuing on with plan without trying to check off every workout as if it is a simple list. In other words, the goal isn’t completing every workout in a simple list-like fashion, the goal is following periodized training principles.
And finally, TR and other coaches recommend replacing workouts with races. Its really not ETFP from everything I’ve read and been told. And if you want to ETFP and race, then the strong recommendation is to select low volume and build your weeks around that.
Something worth considering.
edit:
For another perspective, Coach Joe Friel:
Following a training plan does not mean doing so rigidly. There will be times when you shouldn’t follow the plan because you are not recovered from a previous workout, or feel a cold coming on, or for whatever reason you sense that it is just not right to challenge your body.
…
Missing one scheduled workout is preferable to missing one week, or more, of training. When you come to race day, having missed one workout has no impact on performance.
When Things Don’t Go Right - Joe Friel
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BB: This is perhaps an esoteric point, but Joe Friel is making my point. I am not asking to execute the program dogmatically; I am asking to extend it, which is anti-dogmatic. People who stick to a week program do so primarily because their life demands it, not because their body is optimized for it. Hence the consistent call for 8-day programs or 9-day programs. But your body does understand training stress. If you’re going to stick to a “Monday is VO2 Max day” program, then it is good advice to just skip it and carry on with the program. But your body thinks otherwise. Optimally, rather than doing a VO2 Max interval session on a day where your body is not ready, you should get your body ready (i.e., recover/rest) and then do the workout. This would, however, mean that your program backs up. Your body doesn’t care, but your schedule may. Mine doesn’t! These programs build fitness systematically, so skipping a program, while OK, misses a building block. Not a disaster in the overall scheme, but not optimal. That’s what I mean by ETFP–doing the workouts in the order listed because they were built that way for a reason. The week is somewhat artificial; the program build isn’t. Let me put it to you this way–if you were doping, you could do 5-day weeks and probably be OK because you’d recover a lot faster! But if you’re not, then you take what your body and lifestyle give you.
Bottom line: if your life makes a one-week schedule useful, then stick to it, skip things that don’t work out, and carry on. If you have more flexibility, then extending a day here and there when you need it is, in my view, the optimal way to execute the program. My 2 cents.
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no. I’ve got 10 books on training and none of them advocate treating a plan as an ordered list, where each workout is checked off in succession.
The only thing I recall reading in all those books, and on coaching websites, is the same advice as TrainerRoad gives… if you miss a workout - move on. If you can’t complete a workout - move on.
I’ve never read “ETFP style workout compliance” in any book, or on any coaching website.
You are free to do as you please, just telling you what I’ve learned in 4 years of training.
Hope that helps.
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Think of it as a working hypothesis, then you’ll be more open to the concept. This really isn’t a revolutionary idea at all, but it may seem like it to you. That’s OK. You’ll come to see that we’re actually talking about small differences–skipping one workout versus backing up one day. In either case, if you skip a lot of workouts or I back up the program too much, neither is good. But neither approach, if done sparingly, makes a huge difference in the scheme of things. I would assert that one is better if schedule flexibility allows. If yours doesn’t, or you feel better about sticking to the week, great! Being consistent is probably the most important factor.
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not at all. Trendsetter and iconoclastic are two words that spring to mind. Rock on 
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There’s no “probably” about it. Consistency is the most important factor. If you’re older, time constrained, new to training, etc. it’s even more the case.
Following any training plan to the best of your ability, consistently, in whatever way suits you is going to yield results.
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Great first post @Ehrpower
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The ability to insert a day goes toward the idea that there should be more ways to globally change your calendar based on recovery ability. For those of us that know our recovery is a little slower it would be nice not have to deal with inevitably tweaking workouts every week.
I’d like to see something like recovery speed be one of the factors that goes into setting up a workout schedule from the start. Say that in your profile your recovery speed is set to “normal” then you get the default plans inserted into your calendar. On the other hand, if it’s set to “slow” the normal plan is modified to reduce the training stress of certain workouts. Maybe recovery workouts are easier, or the late week workouts are changed to something with slightly lower training stress.
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I think the ability to insert a day would be useful. Joe Friel advocates a 9 day training week for older masters athletes (in his book “Fast after 50”). Personally I would like the option to run a 7day week followed by a 9 day week etc, to build rest into the “week” on an ongoing basis rather than a more traditional periodisation schedule (eg 3wks on 1wk off). This sort of “irregularity” is difficult to cater for in a fixed plan whatever the duration of the training week. Now I am not advocating this as the best approach to training (I am certainly not a coach), just one that would suit me - particularly in helping me fit structured indoor training around outside group rides which don’t necessarily adhere to a strict schedule (either in timing or intensity/stress).
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I agree. Sounds great. But don’t kid yourself, this will not happen. This does not jibe with making you a faster cyclist nor does it target their main market. As older athletes it’s up to us to edit/manipulate their calendar.
I’m only 50 though so this has not really applied to me. I’ve been going pretty much every day I can for a long time up to just before my surgery. I’ve never had a problem finishing a workout or had to miss days or anything. The day before my surgery i was at 98.5% fatigued. Although it did not make it so I was unable to complete workouts I know that it severely reduced my progress.
I’m recovering from surgery now and my fatigue is down to around 23% and my fitness has dropped about 20 points from 76 or something. When I start back up I will be doing mid volume with full rest days taken. Unfortunately I walk about 13 miles a day for work and also commute by bike. So my rest days will be somewhat restful lol.
We just have to try our best on these plans and listen to our bodies(I dont, i get bored). This is totally not a targeted issue for TR.
I’ve done a few Lynda Wallenfells plans specifically written for Masters Mountain Bikers (I’m 52). Her advice is to skip the Wednesday workout if you feel not fully recovered from Tuesday, or are too tired. She also dials back the Wednesday ride to Z1-ish.
I tend to do the same with the Intermediate plans in TR. I use the Wednesday ride as an optional ride.
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I do LV plans (Monday, Wednesday, Saturday), and slip in another workout if I feel up to it (sort of Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday). I stay at 3 workouts when I have a lot of things in the weekend (like skiing) and do the long ride on Fridays.
The 9-day plans are nice on paper, but don’t fit so well with a working week… In theory you can do those by inserting a week every 3-4 weeks of a medium or high volume program, and then shift days as needed. The calendar function allows that to be done in a few seconds.
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I’m in my late 40’s and definitely find now that I need 2 days off or easy before I can REALLY go hard again. For instance, I rode easy and long this past Saturday, and then on Sunday did a hard TR trainer workout - Hunger - and then went outside and rode 2 more hours easy. I rested yesterday and will again today so that I can go hard enough on tomorrow’s TR workout - Mendel.
Recovery is definitely not as good as we age but, if you do it right you can still smash the big workouts!
-Hugh
my blog: ex-prosays.blogspot.com
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I’m more convinced this is the right way to approach TR plans (mine target days are Mon, Wed, Fri). I’ve been able to complete a high volume plan when work/family allows, but that is the exception. And now I’m weaving in strength training, another logistical challenge.
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@Nate_Pearson Any news on this?
I disagree, simply because they’ve already given us the ability to push everything out by a week. This new request is just adding the ability to push everything out by a different value (1 day).
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Well I would love to see it added.
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