Hours per week Clarification on TR plans

Training
1

I hate asking this but I’m not finding the answer I’m looking for without actually signing up for TrainerRoad.

Below is what the website shows for the SSB plans and volume per week.

  • Low Volume I (3.5 Hrs/Wk)

  • Low Volume II (3.5 Hrs/Wk)

  • Mid Volume I (5.8 Hrs/Wk)

  • Mid Volume II (6.3 Hrs/Wk)

  • High Volume I (8.9 Hrs/Wk)

  • High Volume II (10.4 Hrs/Wk)

Here is the question: Is the number of hours listed ONLY the interval sessions you’re supposed to do on the trainer?

10.4 hours per week for the High Volume II is not a lot of hours if those are the only rides you’re completing during the week. Now if they are only structured trainer workouts on 4-5 days per week that don’t include any base rides that is a different story. 10.4 hours of intervals per week IS a ton of WORK, not a ton of HOURS.

As a background I average 11 hours per week up to 16 in the summer and average 533 TSS up to 800 during the summer. I’m confused when I read High Volume but it only shows 10.4 hours per week. I’ll ride 1.5-2 hours Tues - Fri and then 3-4 hours on Saturday and Sunday. If I signed up for TrainerRoad I would not reduce the number of hours I’m training per week as the 2 hrs during the week and 3-4 hours on the weekends have allowed me to make huge gains in repeatability and sustained power in marathon MTB events.

Thanks for the clarification.

2

Not all TSS is created equal and this is emphasized especially with indoor training. The plans are simply guidelines. If you want to add/subtract time you can.

From experience I was putting in 8-10 hours on the bike this summer and 6-7 on the trainer hurts just as good.

The 10.4 hours you see listed is all structured training. Some of that time is spent doing sweet spot, over/unders, low intensity base building, and etc.

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3

Echoing @Dymerej, those trainer hours are very different than riding a bike outside, whether they’re intervals or endurance miles. Here’s what a week of High Volume looks like:

36%20PM
36%20PM1744×288 31.6 KB

Those are mostly intervals, with one 90 minute non-interval day. Ouch. None of these look like a good time to me, but if you really need the training stress, there’s plenty of it here. Some of the weekend rides have outdoor alternatives prescribed in the weekly notes that are much longer than a 2-hour interval session. Hope this helps. You’ll get plenty of training stress on these plans.

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Thx, exactly what I was looking for. 3 day and 2 day block scenario.

I wouldn’t structure it that way unless the person couldn’t ride more than 2 hours at any given time; i.e. that .83 and .80 IF on presumably Sat/Sun I would push the Sunday to a 3-4 hour base ride vs doing a bunch of SST on that day (unless the weather was terrible). Everyone has their own preferences and what works better for their scenarios.

Just looking at that week the amount of time at just below threshold is a ton and I can see why people are toast after doing a week like that unless they have a high level of fitness and years of training.

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5

Yeah, I couldn’t sustain that. The medium volume is my go-to. Sundays used to be a LSD ride, but those were swapped out for more SST intervals at one plan revision so people had an alternative. The endurance ride alternative for this Sunday ride is a 2:45 trainer ride with 130 TSS.

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