I’m new to TrainerRoad and looking for your thoughts and advice. I decided to start things off on Sweet spot base mid vol as felt I had enough time to invest.
I aim to get one big outdoor endurance ride in on the weekends(weather permitting) so looks like I will have to move certain workouts to try and make that possible and may even have to sacrifice a workout to make sure I can get the long endurance ride in.
In week one i swapped out Taku from my calendar and set my week up as Monday Mountfield, Tuesday rest day, Wednesday Reinstein, Thursday Glassy, Friday rest day Saturday 4 hour endurance ride and Sunday rest day.
I found Mountfield and Glassy to be good manageable workouts but suffered badly through Reinstein over/unders even had to take a couple of breaks before going again and getting it done.
As I struggled with the over/unders I was thinking I might be better prepared with a couple of rest days in advance of Tunemah in week 2 as it looks similar to Reinstein.
I removed Carter from Tuesday in week 2 and put Carson in its place so have completed Ericsson on Monday and Carson Tuesday and now have today and tomorrow as rest days ahead of tackling Tunemah Friday.
Is this a good move? Legs a little heavy today after Ericsson and Carson and I’m thinking doing the easy Carter workout today or tomorrow might be good for my legs.
Just looking for advice really from people with more experience. Anyone else find the sweet spot fine but over/unders a struggle and how did you manage your weeks to give you the best chance of completing them without blowing up along the way?
Pay attention to the TSS of the ride you are doing on the weekends relative to the workouts you are removing. It may seem best to remove the easier of the workouts because you feel like you need to do the harder ones to stay on the plan, but the reality is your outdoor workout is probably more TSS than you think and should probably substitute for your harder weekend workout. Particularly as you get a base under you.
As far as deleting carter and moving carson up, I have played around a lot with days of the week. from having back to back to back sweetspot to now having a “carter” type workout in between each workout. One day of z2 is typically enough for me, but mileage may vary. I would rather have “carter” between ericsson and carson so that carson is quality, than have two days before Tunemah.
Good point about keeping an eye on TSS when choosing an outdoor ride over TR workout. If weather allows me out this Sunday I’ll be opting out of Leavitt + 2
I would say: start with a low volume plan, do the training as prescribed, complete all the sessions, dial in your nutrition and regenration. Reap the benefits.
But I do not know much about your experience on the bike.
And if you need more volume, start by tacking on 15-20 mins of Z2 at the end of every workout.
Then add the “easy day 2” workout
Then, if you need more, move up to MV
I thought about the plan afterwards thinking maybe I should have opted for the low volume and then just do my weekend ride, but when I was getting started 3-3.5 hours seemed very little at the time. I think for this time of year and weather that wouldn’t encourage you to get outside on the bike that mid volume is probably manageable but time will tell.
Got in to road cycling 6 years back after enjoying a few charity rides. Got involved in cycling at club level that summer and have built up my annual distance from around 5k mark the first couple of years up to 7/8k the last 3 years.
All of my riding has all been on the road. I’m only starting out on a turbo this winter with the aim of being in really good shape come spring.
When I say training I mean just regularly getting out and creating my own interval sessions on the garmin to try and push myself. I’ve never really had proper structure or coach led training.
It’s been said by many, including Coach Chad, that most people are better off choosing a lower volume plan than they initially consider. Just because you have the time doesn’t mean you fill it with workouts, you need adequate recovery as well. Doing the Low Volume plans lets you add long rides at the weekend should the weather and/or your freshness allow, much better mentally than skipping workouts.
Also, the plans have been designed, so playing around with them defeats part of their purpose. It’s worth doing at least a Base 1, Base 2, Build sequence as prescribed to get a feel for what’s happening. I can’t remember if the TR team have mentioned the level of compliance for the various volumes, they do comment occasionally on how they monitor such things and modify the plans accordingly.
Thanks all appreciate the responses and recommendations. I’m going to finish off the week and then move to low volume and see how it goes.
I took a glance at low vol workouts and week 1 aside each week has 3 solid workouts I can get through on weekdays and will have the weekends to get out on the roads.
Jarenty - I did do the ramp test so happy enough I’m working in the correct zones.
