Long weekend rides with training plans?

I’m following a TrainerRoad training plan in prep for an event later this year, and as the weather warms up I’m going to want to do some longer training rides at the weekend instead of the 1h15 session listed. I wasn’t sure how best to factor this in - will the TrainerRoad platform auto-adapt the training plan for the following week based on the unexpected longer ride, or do I need to manually adjust the training plan to factor it in?

It doesn’t adapt to hours ridden as of now. It only adapts the workouts in that specific zone.
So let’s say you do a 3 hour endurance ride in the weekend. It will update your endurance progression level (if you match it to a workout, before or afterwards). But it won’t adjust the duration or intensity for the next weekday workout.

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As @PhydomiR says, if you switch your scheduled Workout to an Outside Workout and complete it as prescribed, your Plan will adapt in the same way it would if you completed it successfully indoors.

Alternatively, if you select a TrainerRoad that has not been scheduled (for example, a longer endurance ride) to do Outside, your Plan will adapt, accounting for this Workout.

Check out this article: How to Use Outside Workouts with Adaptive Training.

At the moment, your Plan will not adapt to an unstructured (non-TrainerRoad) Outside rides. However, this will change when we release Workout Levels Version 2 (the next update to Adaptive Training). All Workouts (unstructured and structured) will be accounted for by Adaptive Training :tada: :star-struck:.

Let me know if you have any questions about this!

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You can either try the low volume plan and add endurance or mid volume and swap Sundays sweet spot workout for endurance. Just don’t ride too hard so you can recover and nail those three interval days.

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When will at level 2 will be introduced ??

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Just do a bunch of unstructured rides from now until they choose you for open beta :man_shrugging:
Hammer fest everyday!

I had a similar question to the OP.
I rode the tour of Cambridge last year. Followed the TR Mid Volume Gran Fondo to the letter (didn’t miss a workout)…but on the day of the race I felt like I didn’t climatise or condition my body enough during my training to being on the bike for 4-4.5hrs.

The last hour I felt like the wheels started to fall off and this year I am going to try to work in more longer outdoor rides into my training plan for the same event.

I am following the same plan again this year but every Sunday I am going to try to slowly ramp up the ride length to get to 5hrs on the bike @ tempo. I’m planning on stepping up by adding 30 mins each week but periodising where possible to allow for recovery weeks.

The way I was hoping to add these rides was to add them as ‘C’ races, and add the duration of the rides and intensity so that the TSS works out to be tempo equivalent. I have just added these by plan builder but it doesn’t look like TR has really adapted my plan to compensate for the training load of the longer rides. eg on the day before a 5 hr ride, the plan still has the Saturday ride as a 90min 104tss anaerobic ride (Barnard+2). I would have assumed it would have given me something far less intense.

Any advise on the best way to manage this would be really appreciated.

Many thanks
Mike

Hey @Mike_Elder!

Oh very cool! That sounds like a fun event!

A couple of things jump to mind immediately:

  1. How dialled in was your race nutrition last year? If you followed the Training Plan exactly as scheduled, it should have prepared you physiologically, for the event.
  1. If you wish to add time in saddle, I’d recommend that you set one of your scheduled Workouts to Outside, and extend the warm-up and/ or cool- down.
  • Or you may wish to use Workout Alternates to find something a little longer. Check out this article: How to use Workout Alternates.
  • Keep prioritising the scheduled Workouts in your Plan- these will prepare you physiologically for your event. If you wish to add extra volume, make sure that it doesn’t interfere with your ability to complete the Key Workouts (as these are the true secrets to getting you faster and ensuring your are prepared for the event).

C events are treated as if adding another Workout to your Calendar. Ultimately, we don’t want to change the periodisation that has been designed to ensure success in your event. As I said, if you want to add more time in the saddle, I’d recommend that you use Workout Alternates to find a longer Workout with the same intention and purpose.

Let me know if you have questions about any of this!

  • Can you give more detail on this suggestion? I am not sure I’ve seen any way to do this and would like to understand exactly how this works.

Plan adaptations based on unstructured rides sounds very cool. I assume a power meter will be required for this to be functional? Will it also factor in non-TR virtual rides?

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