If you are currently under recovered, then a masters plan may mean you get better recovery and thus better results. I always go with, training makes you weaker, recovery makes you stronger. You have to have both to improve.
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Yes, this is the potential issue I talked about in the original post.
I would switch it around so it works.
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Push the workout to your head unit and then follow it like you’re cycling “outside” in Zwift. My Garmin Edge at least happily controlled my Kickr with ERG. Removes all the fuss around having two apps open and what sensor can do two bluetooth connections or not. Edge gets everything over ANT+ and Zwift gets Bluetooth (and is just set not to control the trainer).
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I’m not against using your head unit to control things, but I don’t agree with your statement that you’ve eliminated the need for two apps. You’ve just switched from using TR to using the Edge. They both are going to require you to connect to two different systems. The only way to get that down to one is either TR pushes workouts to TP, which pushes to Zwift…or you rebuild the workouts yourself.
Oh yeah I saw your warning that if you switch mid plan it can mess up some things, but I didn’t touch anything. I just opened the app the plan had updated itself. I’m running the beta app on macOS and iOS if that makes any difference.
Fully agree!
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Thanks Nate! I’ll give this a go for my next training plan (which I’m still setting up but plan to start after the Thanksgiving holiday).
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I got a message that you’re experiencing a bug and an engineer is looking at it right now.
Sorry about that, Richard.
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I too would really like to have TrainerRoad workouts native in the Zwift workout interface. That would be sweet. Short of that support happening, using the Edge instead of the TrainerRoad app eliminates the concurrent Bluetooth connection issue of using two apps since it’s not an app, it’s a hardware device with ANT+ support that is already perfectly paired to my power meter, heart rate monitor, and trainer. I think it’s a seamless workaround instead of running both apps together (and the massive headaches involved in getting the right sensors paired to the right ones). I suppose having an ANT+ stick could do that too, but I already have my Edge and was already “dual-recording” on it because it’s my primary source-of-all-truth cycling computer.
How do I know if I should use a Masters plan? I’m a 40 year old MTBer mostly focused on enduro, been using TR for 3 years consistently, and I’ve seen some serious gains in fitness. Normally over the winter I would do the LV enduro plan, and add an extra Z2 workout most weeks. Before the Masters plans came out I was planning to do the MV enduro plan this year, essentially doubling my hours on the bike compared to previous winters. The idea of less intensity with the Masters plan is appealing, but I’ve also never had a problem completing 3 intense workouts + an extra Z2 on an LV plan. I don’t think I’ve ever failed a TR workout prescribed to me in a plan or TrainNow.
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Question on Custom Duration: is it “intelligent”? I thought I heard on a recent podcast that you could on a given day say you have 2 hours, but the AI might suggest a shorter workout based on your data. Say for argument’s sake 75 min. Is that correct or if you say 2h, you will always get 2h workouts?
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Overall amazing work TR, but I agree here. This change makes me sad. It’d be awesome if y’all would bring back “Sweet Spot Base” at LV, MV and HV, with nothing more intense than sweet spot. They’d be great off season training plans.
It’s funny to think about Sweet Spot Base as a feature request 
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I don’t know if it’s already been mentioned here, but I found a bug. Created a new TrainerRoad high volume master’s plan, clicked on the plan and clicked update. This resets the plan to a non master’s plan. I frequently do this because I often think I’m going to do an alternative workout but later change my mind as my evening training session approaches.
Just a note that for me at least, this update seems to have totally screwed up my training calendar. I had been in a Build block ahead of a December event, and as of this morning TR updated me to a Masters Base 2, to be followed by Masters Base 3 (no more build at all). I did’t opt in or request any change, this just happened.
After chatting with TR help, they suggested I delete my plan and rebuild it from the same (now-backdated) starting date. This didn’t really work that well though, since the effort:rest ratios have been changed; I just finished a rest week, and the rebuilt plan now has me resting this week. The new “plan” also completely eliminated my taper, and has me doing a hard 75 minute threshold workout 3 days before my event.
I’ve manually cobbled together a more reasonable plan, but this is obviously super annoying. I dig the idea of the Masters plans, but this change (or more accurately a glitch caused by the change) has totally altered the training I had planned, without asking me, and I gather there’s no way to go back to earlier versions of the plan.
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Not that it matters but under Masters / Climbing Road Race Menu the high volume comes before mid volume. Maybe it needs to be switched so it’s in order
This is pretty much the #1 change I’ve been waiting for the entire time I’ve been on TR. When I get some health issues sorted and get back on the bike, I’m gonna be all in on this.
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@Nate_Pearson - is there a plan to eventually allow us to add long Z2 to the beginning/end of rides? For example - on my Hard day, I want to do a 2 hour ride, but when I bump the duration up to 2 hours, it also bumps up the volume of the Hard part. I’d like to keep the difficulty from the 1 hour workout, but add 30 mins of Z2 at the beginning and end.
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Thanks! I’d be a fool not to give your advice a shot. I’ve just twiddled my way over to masters mid volume.
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If it’s working and you can nail all your workouts and stay recovered I don’t see why you would change. The TR team has said the masters plans are either for people generally 50 and over or people who struggle with three days of intensity per week. Doesn’t sound like you’re in that camp at this point.
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I’d like to see @Jonathan mix it up at the Little Sugar MTB 100K. A great mix of fast riding and tech. It was great to watch the Pros this year.
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