This is my first week using trainer road. I had been completing the ftp builder 12 week on Zwift but have joined now I can import the TR workouts to Zwift. I’m training for a long weekend in Majorca at the start of May and have put my A event as a six hour ride the first Saturday of May.
The weekly hours I have been assigned seems very low, only 3.5 hours.
I tried increasing this however it suggested I would be at risk of overtraining.
Since Majorca last May I haven’t done any riding and have only started back indoors around Christmas time.
Do I just trust the process?
Or
Should I up my hours and see how I feel?
Thanks
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There are quite a few posts along similar lines with regard to the new Plan Builder. The overtraining warning seems to be triggered quite easily, you could try moving the slider to ‘Demanding’ or even ‘Aggresive’ instead of ‘Balanced’ when setting up your plan, ignore the warning and see what the plan looks like in terms of time and intensity.
Alternatively, run with the plan but add in more endurance riding as you see fit, you could keep an eye on the Red Light/Green Light warnings but again these are advice not set in stone rules, your body will ultimately tell you if you are doing too much, but if you ignore the warnings and fall apart then that’s on you not TrainerRoad.
If you do add in more endurance riding, it might be worth going through Plan Builder again in a couple of months, the AI might have a better understanding of what you are capable of and produce something that’s more in line with what you feel is more appropriate. FWIW I’ve gone with Plan Builder set to ‘Demanding’ and I’m adding in extra endurance at the weekends , I’ve let TrainerRoad manage my interval sessions both in length and the progression levels, which seems to be working okay at the moment.
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Hey @alexrbts! Welcome to TrainerRoad 
I would definitely recommend trusting the process if you haven’t done any riding and have recently started up again.
As @Chop_Stick mentioned, I would run the plan and add more endurance riding as you see fit, always watching for fatigue levels. You don’t want to overdo it and get to May spent. It’s better to progress into it rather than burning all the matches right away.
A good way to add volume over time is adding extra time in the warm-up and cool-down periods, or adding an additional easy endurance ride to your weeks. This is a great way to add time on the saddle without adding on more fatigue. We want quality work when completing our workouts over quantity
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Thank you both for the responses! I had a free onboarding call with Kent yesterday, it was brilliant. He followed up with an email including some reading…and I will be sticking to the low volume and following the process!
I joined trainerroad following the zwift integration and I’m very impressed with so far, excellent value for money especially the onboarding call!
Here’s the document in case others want to read it:
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