“I find myself to be in disagreement with the Trainer Road plans (Sustained power - High Volume)”
1, Before generating the plan (after the Ramp test) i had used TSS as my weekly target to guide how much vollume/intensity i wanted as my weekly goal [~900 TSS]
1.1 CTL/Fitness score was my guidance telling me if i was making improvements (i.e. Aimed to keep my CTL the same) [~128 CTL/Fitness]
Fast forward to my setup of the Trainer Road High Volume (Sustained Power Plan) i could see the projected TSS was around 500TSS.
I know this isn’t necessary bad, But for me this felt Counter Productive as each session that was perscribed to me was between 1.0-3.0 Recovery>Productive) I’ve promptly switched out all the session to “Stretch” variations (Successfully completed with between Easy/Moderate perceived exertion).
My question is, has anyone come into Trainer Raod already acclimated high TSS weeks and how were you able to leverage the TR platform to make you faster?
(I find myself perscribing my own “next” workout each day at this point as i feel that despite TR having my entire training history - it doesn’t quite understand me well enough yet)
I hear you… I did update my FTP (2 days after the Ramp Test on TR)
But this doesn’t account for the “feature” of TR to automatically assign Recovery, Achieveable & Productive level workouts in my calendar when it first generates me a plan.
Without realising it…
I did manually update my FTP despite completing my ramp test a few days prior (maybe i don’t test well?)
I did manually change the scale of each suggested workout to increase the TSS to reflect what i would usually do on other platforms
Similar FTP, I ride 10-12 hrs a week, intervals on Monday and Wed, Endurance for the rest. A week of Stretch workouts would ruin my legs for days if not weeks, something seems off.
I usually have to clock 15hours to maintain my TSS/CTL
Structured plans is something new to me.
-I’ve come to TR because I feel “deliberate training” is what I now in terms of stimulus.
“Ignorance is bliss”
Just to add a-bit of context, I had approached cycling with the mindset of “if someone with a similar body composition as me could do something, then I can do it as well”
I dropped powerlifting for cycling 7months prior
Why this tangent might be insightful is that when I loaded my by Strava history to TR “Red Light / Green Light” had my entire month of March in Orange with a couple Red days
What are you training for? Specific events / types of event? Higher watts? Longer TTE? Higher w/kg? Something else?
I would like to raise my floor (I want to be a “Diesel”, Always enjoyed climbing - there is also a non-zero chance that i will do the Le Col 8848 Everest challenge towards the end of this month)
What other platforms have you used before? How did you set your FTP on those platforms? Can you post an example week from your pre TR days and a recent week of your self selected TR workouts?
Zwift & Intervals.icu both have me with and eFTP at around 296/300
Below is the Lactate Shuttle failed workout i would push on Zwift up Alpe Du Zwift
Are you just riding indoors, or are there are outdoor rides in the mix too?
Indoors + 25KM Commute (each way) to work twice a week
Have you uploaded your history into something like intervals.icu / WKO5 and looked at it that way? As an example, intervals.icu will show you how you compare to others (in your age group) in terms of power at different durations - you might see something you specifically want to work on.
My suggestion - not that I am qualified to suggest really - is that if you can consistently find 15h / week to train, then continuing to use all those hours, rather than, say, looking to achieve 900 TSS in fewer hours, will produce better long term results.
I think you’re on the right track here with your line of thinking that your Progression Levels weren’t yet caught up with the level of fitness you were bringing into your TR plan.
The good news is that Adaptive Training will now see what kinds of workouts you’re capable of completing and adjust your Progression Levels accordingly. From this point on, you’ll start to get recommendations based on those higher-level workouts you just completed.
If you’re still looking for some extra volume/TSS, you can look into adjusting your TR plan’s custom workout duration. That should help bump you up closer to the 15hr/week mark you were hitting before.
Hope this helps – feel free to let me know if you have any additional questions about adjusting your training plan!
