I signed up with TrainerRoad around 2 months ago and am following my first training plan (increase FTP). I have a 1.5 hr workout on Tuesday, 1 hr on Thursday and 1 hr on Sunday. Saturday has a 2.5-hour free ride (group outside or Zwift). Training approach is set to balanced. I started cycling about a year ago and have been tracking everything on intervals.icu.
The major problem I have with TrainerRoad is that it frequently detects high training stress and then changes workouts from threshold/sweetspot/VO2max to endurance or blocks the day completely. I totally understand that if I have done a longer and harder ride than planned outside.
However, today I did a 2.5 hr ride with Maria on Zwift (intervals.icu: 77% Z2, 16% Z1, 6% Z3). Heart rate was in Z1 (73%) and Z2 (26%). So really, an endurance ride as my plan has scheduled. I was supposed to do a 1-hr threshold workout tomorrow and TrainerRoad changed that to a 45-min super easy endurance workout due to high training stress. However, on intervals.icu I am just in the middle of the grey zone in between fresh and optimal so very far away from high training stress whatsoever. And I can say that the intervals.icu graph works very well. I once reached the red zone after a 200k ride and that felt appropriate.
I tried changing the training approach to aggressive but it still keeps the 45-min endurance workout for tomorrow. This is even more annoying as I will be travelling on Monday (entered in TrainerRoad) so have multiple rest days anyway.
Am I doing anything wrong? I could of course do an even easier ride on Saturday but that would then be Z1 and not Z2 anymore. That would feel like wasted time.
Sorry, this post was on hold for a bit and I could not edit or cancel it. I think I figured out what happened. I set the training approach to “demanding” and manually added the Threshold workout again. TrainerRoad does not show the high stress warning anymore and did leave the workout unchanged on this setting.
The issue was that once the workout was changed to endurance it would not put it back automatically when the training approach was increased. I guess I just need to use a higher training approach setting.
I think you’re right that we won’t immediately adapt existing workouts when you adjust the training approach slider. It likely takes some sort of action to trigger the next set of adaptations.
Make sure to stay in tune with your body since you’ve adjusted your training approach. If at any point you feel overly fatigued, maybe back it off a bit.
The issue was that TrainerRoad had removed the initially scheduled Threshold workout and switched it to short endurance. When I changed the slider to a more demanding approach it did not remember that there was initially a threshold workout scheduled but left it at that easy endurance. So, I think it is important to have the training approach selected correctly upfront!
Can I ask another question for my next training plan? I noted that TrainerRoad suggests a 5-day training plan for me but one day is a 30 min super easy endurance ride (see below). Is that actually productive? I heard an interview with one of the 80/20 proponents who stated that a recovery ride is not more effective than just rest. Could I cut that day? Maybe make the other endurance ride longer? Having less training days to fit into my work schedule would reduce stress much more for me than making the workouts easier Or do you believe that this short Z1 ride is actually important and it is better to do one 30 min and one 1:30 hours endurance ride?
Hi @KarlRadman! I think I totally understand the issue.
When TR has adaptations to your training, it should give you a chance to preview the adaptations. After you have previewed the adaptation to your training program there should be an option to accept adaptations or ignore them and leave the plan unchanged.
You selected the option to accept adaptations.
Sounds like you really wanted to leave your plan unchanged.
Does that make sense? Just reject the adaptations.
I think I had set the app to auto accept adaptations and was therefore not asked if I wanted to accept. I was also not aware that it would only adapt to lower TSS but not increase again to higher TTS when increasing the training approach setting.
It is great to learn what it can and cannot do so I can handle things accordingly.
Those recovery rides can actually be really beneficial for your recovery, but they might not be as productive in the same way as your really hard workouts.
If dropping down from 5 workouts a week to 4 is going to help you significantly manage your stress levels, then I’d say you should definitely do that. At a certain point, adding more work to your week becomes counterproductive, and it’s important that we know where that line is and respect it.
With that being said, it doesn’t make sense to take the work from the workout you’re cutting and adding it to another day unless you’re going to be able to sustain it throughout your plan. Sometimes cutting that extra day isn’t going to help much if you’re still doing the same amount of work in the week.
In short, my advice is to cut that easy recovery ride if it’s going to significantly help you manage the rest of your week, but maybe skip adding the volume to your endurance day for now, until you’ve become really consistent with the work you already have.
When you go back into Plan Builder and switch from 5 to 4 workouts a week, TR will likely give you the most appropriate schedule for your current abilities anyway, so don’t worry about manipulating things too much. We’ll take care of that for you.
This is where I am struggling a bit with the Trainerroad recommendations. If I change the training plan to 4 days but keep 3 intense workouts, it changes the remaining endurance workout to 45 min. My understanding is that usually it is recommended to have one long endurance ride to have sufficient zone 2 so I don’t quite understand why TrainerRoad isn’t recommending a longer endurance ride.
It is totally fine for me to do 1.5 or even 2 hours when I train. Doing only 0.5 or 1 hour does not make things easier. But having full evenings available for other commitments is helpful. Hence, I prefer less days but more time per day.
Each type of plan is unique. We don’t just trim things from one master plan, but rather create each as a unique starting point based on your training history. Telling us you can only train 5 days a week vs 4 vs 3 is somewhat more complex than simply pulling days off the same plan.
You can, of course, fine-tune things as much as you’d like, and selecting a 4-day plan and bumping up that Endurance day is totally reasonable.
Let me know if that works for you and if you have any other questions about this moving forward.
Or do you believe that this short Z1 ride is actually important and it is better to do one 30 min and one 1:30 hours endurance ride?
