Hi all,
I’m pretty new to TR and am using it since 1.5 months only.
After trial period I’ve decided to sign up for Gran Fondo training plan which I’m enjoying greatly, especially seeing most of my progression levels going up day by day
What I’m missing though are session which target either anaerobic or sprint areas.
Is that expected? I understand those skills may not be crucial for this type of plan but at the same time seeing those staying at 1.0 level makes me feel like I’m missing out on something.
Could I simply swap some of my sessions to try to improve those areas or I should rather strictly stick to the plan?
Are you training for any certain event or just picking the Gran Fondo plan?
The Grand Fondo plan isn’t going to give you workouts that increase your Sprint/Anaerobic levels. It’s not designed for that. If you are training for a Grand Fondo event then stick with the plan. I did the GF training plan last year and TR got me in the top 10 for my event (200 mile race).
If you’re not doing a GF, and want to get some Sprint/Anaerobic workouts in then I’d recommend picking a plan that includes short high power efforts (like a MTB plan) or quit the GF plan and just do the Train Now feature which can give you different types of workouts and you can choose the Sprint/Anaerobic ones to do.
As @akusafrnr mentioned, we’d recommend sticking with the Gran Fondo plan as it is if that’s the event you’re preparing for. Trust that you’re not missing out on anything by having your Anaerobic and Sprint training zones remain lower – the zones that are most important for your event are the ones we are targeting in the plan!
If you’re not training strictly for a fondo, though, and do indeed really want to get some of those Anaerobic/Sprint workouts in, you can browse our Workout Library to find them. We’d recommend using the search filters to find “Productive” sessions.
And yes, we’d also advise swapping out any workouts you hand-pick with “hard” workouts that are already slotted into your plan. Try to maintain 2-3 “hard” (interval) sessions per week, and keep the rest of your riding in zones 1 and 2. If you start piling on too many hard days, you’ll risk excess fatigue/burnout, which we obviously don’t want!
Hope that helps – feel free to let us know if you have any other questions!
for current season trying out reverse periodization
over January had sprint and anaerobic attacks progression (workouts a la Charing -2 and Boxer), lot of fun
second half of January did number of VO2max workouts (4x4/4). Those were weird, usually I gather around 2-3min >90% HRmax per workout but this time it was 5-7min and it felt relatively easy, not sure how or why
AI FTP did not increase/decrease, I was expecting slight decrease. Possibly high volume Festive 500 “training camp” was still kicking in
but I have been at 25% of my usual volume since then, so I guess next AI FTP in 2 weeks will be interesting
Thanks @svens@ZackeryWeimer and @akusafrnr.
My question raises from the fact that I’ve completed previously number of training plans in Wahoo SYSTM where variety of sessions is much wider.
I’m preping currently for 150km event this summer so as per your advice I will stick to the current plan. It ends in a bit more than a month anyway. Then I can focus on any areas which may require improving or stick to another longer-term plan preparing me for the event.
At the same time i‘ll be monitoring my AI FTP. This will probably tell me in a long run if my approach makes sense
