I don’t want to spend a lot of time worrying about this, but I have a gravel event in May that I’m trainer for. I have no experience with TR. I went ahead and created a custom plan without knowing what I was doing. Why would someone choose the custom plan vs going through the individual training phases? Would I be better off starting with base training?
What’s your experience of plan building? Some people may do better with a custom plan if they are an experienced plan builder. Im not so I let plan builder do the thinking for me.
I have no experience. This is also my first time training with power. I let TR do all the thinking. Last year I used HR and slowly increased mileage. I know TR has a lot of content. It’s a bit overwhelming. Do they have a primer video for the newbie?
I would set up a plan builder plan. I think the help files have a walk through of how to.
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Hmmmm. The OP’s event is about 8 weeks of training away. 
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A far as I know it’ll still come up with something, its better than trying to second guess a custom plan when you’ve no experience in plan building.
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I’m doing this more for completion than to be competitive. My goal overall is to be faster this year and to user power as a method for training.
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In that case I’d probably be tempted to just ride for fun for a couple of weeks, then do sweetspot base 1 for 6 weeks, then go do your event. After that, fire up plan builder and get it to build you a full 28 week base/build/specialty plan.
I have another event I’m doing 9 weeks from that event. So far I have a 70 mile gravel event in May followed by a 100 mile road event in early July. I was hoping to do another 100 mile road event mid June but I don’t think I can get the time off. I have another 100 road event some time in the fall. Should I set my July event up as a main and use the gravel event as training?
This is probably the best approach. TR uses your “A” event as the key driver of planning your training schedule. So set your May gravel event as a B event, and your July road event as A.
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As a rider who has never done structured training or used a power meter, I’m guessing it will be best to do complete blocks of Base and Build? I changed my event priority and now I’m prescribed a full block of Base, but an incomplete block of Build. I’m thinking now I should just make up a bogus event that will get me through whatever amount of training would be recommended for someone of my experience. Do you think this a good way to approach it?
So as someone who is new to structured training and using a power meter, and are looking to just complete the even vs. compete at the event, my advice is - don’t worry about what is “best”.
You’ll likely see significant gains just from doing structured training for the first time, any structured training.
There is no “best” for your situation….any plan is going to make you better. Don’t add the stress of wondering whether the plan is “the best”.
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There’s a guy with a YouTube channel. His name is Dylan Johnson. He has a lot of videos on how to structure your plan. There’s enough there to get you started.
Another resource is HighNorth. Read a lot. It’s not rocket science.
Those two resources are good even if you go with the TR template.
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Absolutely. I’d jump into base immediately, first block is six weeks.
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Such good advice.
I’d add to that: keep it very simple, start with a low volume plan (rolling road race is a good one, it is a middle-of-the-road plan), keep it vanilla and follow the suggestions. Oh, and feel free to ask questions here.
In addition to that, I’d try the following:
- You will need fans (plural) to keep you cool. Do not bother playing with settings, put them to max blast.
- Try things out, preferably more than once. Don’t worry about making mistakes. Stuff I’d try: erg mode and resistance mode, taking in food during exercise, body position.
- Do not worry about gaining or losing weight. Instead, check whether you are getting faster.
- Make sure to at least drink during exercises.
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When I asked if it was best, I was asking in general terms. I’m not concerned about choosing the “best” plan. It seemed logical to complete full blocks. I’m learning that this system is quite flexible. I can make changes without messing things up. I didn’t want to get a week or two in only to find out I set it up wrong. I think I’m going to keep my plan as is, and add a build block after my July event. That will get me through complete blocks of each, but adds recovery.
Is this controlled through my wahoo app or the trainer road app?
Thank you! I always feel I run the risk of irritating people. I’m naturally curious and ask lots of questions.
This is controlled through the TrainerRoad app. What is your setup?
- What indoor trainer do you have?
- Do you have a power meter on your bike?
- Do you have a heart rate strap or a smartwatch (e. g. an Apple Watch or a Garmin watch)?
Don’t be afraid of asking stupid questions.
I have a Wahoo Kickr. No power meter on the bike yet. I have an old Garmin HR monitor that uses Ant+. It connects to my cycling computer and Apple Watch, but not my phone which runs the TR app.
Edit: I checked this morning and my trainer is set to Erg mode
You could use an app such as HeartCast on your Apple Watch to use that as a heart rate monitor.
To come back to your original question: you’d control your Kickr via the TrainerRoad app. If you hit the bottom-right corner of the workout screen you can switch between erg mode and resistance mode.
Thanks. I found it. I’m probably going to get a new HR monitor. I’ve compared my Apple Watch and Garmin during a max HR test. The Apple Watch is not nearly as accurate. I think it doesn’t check often enough.