Hi all, looking for a bit of advice.
First off, I just want to say I’m really loving the new updates from the TrainerRoad team. The way the plan adapts and the overall structure has been brilliant.
I’ve a week off work next week, so I have significantly more time available to train. I’ve updated my availability in the TR calendar for that week and switched my approach to “Demanding” to take advantage of the extra time.
I did notice that after changing it to Demanding my projected AI FTP dipped slightly, but honestly I’m not too concerned about that. I’m not chasing the number right now, I just want to make the most out of the week while I can recover properly (sleep, nutrition, etc.).
The plan would be to bring volume back down again the following week, as I won’t be able to sustain that load once work returns.
Does this sound like the right way to approach a one-off week with extra availability? Or is there a smarter way to leverage it without digging too deep a hole?
For context, I’m still in Build phase and racing soon, so I want it to be productive but not compromise the following weeks.
Appreciate any guidance!
Sounds like a reasonable approach to me. Nate did talk on the podcast about how people could use the training approach to dial things down when they have a busy week off the bike, so no reason the opposite can’t be true.
The FTP prediction will have to assume that you’re keeping it on ‘demanding’ for the rest of the simulation window rather than changing back after a week, so is giving you a hint to make sure you do that!
Yes, that sounds like a great idea. I’ve done similar when I know I won’t have my bike for a vacation or something as well.
With the TR platform there are plenty of ways to achieve this - one like you have done by moving the slider more aggressive. although I haven’t found that to be very ‘oooh thats a tough week’ (maybe it shifts TSS/IF a blip up) in a way that goes in the direction I have wanted. So usually I have just went into a planned Tuesday interval day and manually selected a replacement ‘harder’ option or changed the duration manually to increase it by 25% or something. Another good option is if you’ve been doing a lot of hard interval work at or above FTP, maybe add in something ‘new’ like long sweetspot intervals on an endurance day the day after a hard interval day (or maybe immediately after some short intervals go into SS to add volume). Where on tired legs you can still probably muster some long diesel effort.