Maybe someone can teach me how to dumb down the instructions a bit, but I find the TR intervals for outdoor rides too complicated…
For example, the over/under workout Sonoran, it’s frequently alternating between 2min under and 2-4min over. And then the duration changes from 2min to 4min to 3 min to 3.5min…For indoors, I can just tune it out and ride in ERG mode. But for outdoors…
I like to switch my training rides to outdoors when I have time, but I find it really difficult to focus on my riding when I’m just staring down at my Garmin and looking at the time intervals.
Does anyone else have have this issue? Or tips on how to simplify workouts?
Warm Up:
Ride for 12 minutes gradually raising your power from 118 to 212.
25 minutes easy before the main set.
Main Set:
2 minutes at 223 watts, followed by 2 minutes at 247 watts.
4 minutes at 223 watts.
2 minutes at 247 watts, followed by 2 minutes at 223 watts, 12 minutes rest.
3 minutes at 223 watts.
3.5 minutes at 247 watts, followed by 12 minutes rest.
2 minutes at 223 watts, followed by 2 minutes at 247 watts.
4 minutes at 223 watts.
2 minutes at 247 watts, followed by 2 minutes at 223 watts.
Cool Down:
28.5 minutes easy.
Is this same as below?
“Ride 30min endurance and do some warmups to just under FTP”
“then do 3 sets of 12min over/unders, 3min under @ 215-225WW 1min over at 240-250W”
“Rest 12min in between sets”
“Rest of the ride endurance”
Or does the alternating between 2, 3, 3.5 and 4min make a difference?
My biggest gripe was not the workout itself, but rather the annoying popup on my garmin everytime I have a new effort. The sprints were 6 seconds and I couldn’t see my watts in real time so I just had to guesstimate.
You’re workout doesn’t seem too bad, if I were doing it I was just write down 225/250 as my targets on post it, my hand, or just remember it. Then let the lap timer do the rest. I’ve also just manually done workouts like that by hitting the lap timer kinda like you had it. Are you using a garmin? Besides the annoying pop-up, my 840 edge does a pretty good job with my outdoor workouts.
Outdoor workouts are definitely more challenging than indoor workouts when it comes to execution but are you using the workout screen on your Garmin? You mentioned staring at the timer and I wasn’t sure if you just meant that as a literal timer or if you’re using the workout screen but don’t like it. On mine it shows the upcoming set instructions at the top, then shows my current set targets, it shows my target power and actual power and then a graph of how close I’m tracking to target. I have the bottom set up with distance, HR, and ride timer. It’s not nearly as easy as executing indoor but between the instructions on the screen and the beeps to let me know when the next set is coming I feel like my Garmin does a good job. I have an Edge 540, I can’t remember how different things were on my 530 before. I used to try to find sections to do every workout as perfect as I could but that was exhausting so now I just accept that sometimes a hill, stoplight, or other person are going to temporarily interrupt things and just execute everything I can to the best ability I can and don’t let those interruptions distract from the overall purpose of the workout.
Doing over-unders outdoors is redundant. Over-unders is supposed to mimic the varying terrain of outdoor riding at VO2 max efforts. When I’m doing outdoor VO2 max intervals, I keep it as simple as possible because if you’re doing them right you’ll be cross eyed and can’t focus on anything but the effort. I also do them in a place where there’s minimal traffic again because it’s hard to keep situational awareness during these efforts
This. Workouts don’t need to be complicated to be effective. Most of the workout library was created before outside workouts were an option and the variety was to break the monotony of the inside trainer. A little variety outside can be nice also, but it’s mainly for entertainment value not because it creates better adaptations. I don’t even load outside workouts on my head unit. I just find a workout that is simple enough to remember and do the intervals during the ride and the system will associate the workout to my ride after I upload it.
The text format makes it a bit hard for me to grasp fully but IMO, the specific durations aren’t all that important. Where they may be important is when trying to systematically progress. So maybe one week you do 2m/2m O/U and then the next you progress by doing 2/2.5 or something.
But in this specific case I’d say you’d probably be good by just doing:
Warm up (do whatever warmup makes sense for you given terrain and time)
3x12m 2m under and 2 min over (unders 220-225, overs 245-250)
Rest 10-15m between sets
Ride endurance the rest of the ride home
You can adjust the durations from there but that probably gets you 95% of the way.
@N8fyn, you’re asking a great question that a lot of athletes bump into when trying to follow complex indoor workouts outdoors. You’re definitely not alone here!
TrainerRoad is flexible, especially when it comes to outdoor rides. The truth is: the exact durations (2min vs. 3min vs. 3.5min) aren’t magic. The goal is training the physiological system, not hitting second-by-second targets.
So your simplified version would be as @mwglow15 mentioned:
Warm up (do whatever warmup makes sense for you given terrain and time)
3x12m 2m under and 2 min over (unders 220-225, overs 245-250)
Rest 10-15m between sets
Ride endurance the rest of the ride home*
As other have mentioned, you can also make use of Workout Alternates to pick an alternate with similar training stress but simpler structure and that fits the type of terrain your training on better.
There are many different types of over under workouts. Small variations around ftp? Just ride it around a set power target and you will be fine.
But there are lots of other types of over under workouts that you can do outside just fine and you would be losing the goals of the workout if you skipped doing the over under parts.
