Is there a way to alternate energy training systems in plan builder when only doing one hard indoor session per week?

Training
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Apologies, I couldn’t find a snappier title for my question!

Just wondering whether anyone has encountered my issue or has any suggestions?

I’m using Plan Builder and doing 4 sessions per week. Last year I scheduled my week as follows:

Monday ( hard indoor)
Wednesday (group ride, officially endurance but realistically was dependant on the route and group)
Thursday ( hard indoor)
Saturday (group ride, officially ‘hard’ according to PB)

I was also doing Dialed Health workouts on a Tuesday and Friday so 6 sessions in a row with one rest day on Sunday.

I have followed the same schedule for the first quarter and realise that it’s not really working for me. My legs always seem sore and I need to make some changes. As an example I often failed to complete the Thursday workout often bailing quite early on. I’ve listened to lots of training podcasts recently and you tube videos and have come to the conclusion it is too much intensity and the scheduling pattern needs to change. Following suggestions from the podcasts etc I am moving my schedule to

Monday ( rest day)
Tuesday ( 1 hr hard indoor)
Wednesday ( 2.5 - 3 hr Group Ride where I try to go endurance pace if the session allows)
Thursday (1 hour endurance indoor)
Friday ( rest day)
Saturday ( Group ride, with some harder efforts)
Sunday ( either endurance ride outside or gym)

I’m happy with this schedule but as it’s only one hard indoor TR session per week, PB is always giving me the same energy session to train on Tuesday (sweet spot). The threshold session would be Saturday which is instead a group ride. Ideally, I would like to be able to alternate between SS and Threshold for the Tuesday workout. Now, I could manually make a switch using Train Now but it means that it won’t be a work out selected based upon the plan and its goals (a 4 day tour in Pyrenees where I’ve used Gran Fondo as a specialty)

Has anyone encountered this issue and found a work around. I even tried PB scheduling all 4 sessions (instead of the group rides) and allowed the session to run as an outdoor session during the group ride. I didn’t like that and inadvertently ended the ride after the planned workout finished!

Would be grateful how I could tweak the plan to allow me to train different energy sessions on the Tuesday indoor session.

I also need to find a way to fit in the second gym session. I know the recommendation is 'hard days hard which would mean probably Tuesday but I think I would be fried if I did hard intervals and then gym later in the day and followed that up with a group ride on Wednesday.

I realise the Wednesday group ride isn’t optimum timing but I can’t change that and is important to me for social interaction etc even if it compromises training slightly.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

2

Great question, I have similar constraints. I’m looking forward to hear how others solve this.

I have been manually picking and scheduling workouts. This means I have to manage progression, because AT only works on plans made with PB.

I chose this method over TN because I want meso cycles with rest weeks.

3

With just one hard, structured workout you’re not really following a plan. I would ditch plan builder and use Train Now for the hard indoor ride.

If you have a specific goal, you will need to focus on following a plan more closely.

2 Likes
4

Hey @Sundance :slight_smile:

A great way to tackle your situation is to create a custom training plan on TR and set what you want for each day on your Weekly Schedule: Indoor/Group Ride or Endurance.

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The nice thing is that if you set a Hard Intervals day as a group ride, if you look at the workout’s instruction for the day, you should see instructions on how to tackle the group ride so that you are working the energy systems scheduled for that day. In your case, it would be the Threshold workout.

If you wanted to change your SS Tuesday workout for a Threshold, then TrainNow is the best workaround as it provides you with a workout based on your recent training history :slight_smile:

As far as the second gym session goes, you could leave Sunday’s gym session set and add one on Tuesday, but focus more on movement quality, not load.

Lastly, I wanted to note that it’s important to listen to your body and give it rest if needed. A good rule of thumb is that you should be resting as hard as you’re training. It’s OK to prioritize recovery over training if you’re starting to fail workouts. Make sure to take your Recovery Weeks seriously :slight_smile:

You can also always DM me, and we can tweak things as we go!

5

Thanks for your reply, Caro.

I’ve followed your advice and built a plan with the Saturday Group Ride as a Hard Ride. I will try and make a concerted effort to do some efforts on this ride and try to make the mid week ride more of an endurance effort (as much as I can within the group dynamic, which is often difficult to do!)

I have also made a note of the indoor Threshold workouts that were scheduled for the Saturday when I was toggling back and forth. At least then if TrainNow doesn’t seem to suggest something appropriate I know the kind of threshold workouts that PB would be scheduling.

Many thanks. i will see how I get on.

1 Like
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Awesome :slight_smile: You can always see what workout you have scheduled as in Indoor for your Saturday Group Ride for that week by toggling it to Indoor. This way you can see the updated workout the plan is recommending.

Right-Click Capability

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That’s awesome! I didn’t know about that feature. That’s great as it gives me visibility of the planned workout if my outdoor ride is cancelled. Thanks for letting me know!

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8

Welcome!!