So I’ve read a lot about optimal CTL being between 100 and 150 for high level professional and elite athletes. For past few years with a personal coach I trained comfortably between 90-100. In TR I selected the high volume plan for road racing but it has me only doing a CTL of about 60 and only about 10 hrs per week. I’m 51 years old and retired so time isn’t really an issue. I’m a little concerned that my volume is too low as I comfortably do all my workouts and have yet to struggle to complete any of them. I know you need more recovery as you get older but I am racing Unbound 200 in 2024 and am concerned that CTL (as a measure of weekly training load) is just too low and I’m afraid I won’t be prepared. Am I unreasonably worried? Is the AI throwing enough at me?

I think the solution is simple: you are far to the right side of the curve and out of TR’s range to program for. TR is based on the assumption that everyone is time constrained for both working out and recovery. If you fall outside this assumption, the auto TR plans won’t give you a plan with the amount of volume you are used to. Your only solution is to use the prescribed workouts as a guide for the type of workout- e.g., endurance, sweet spot, above threshold, and pick variants that match the intent but at a higher volume. Or just throw in additional endurance workouts to bulk up your overall volume

I have a few thoughts. Struggling to complete workouts after a reduction in volume is worrying, there is either too many intensity days compounding with not enough recovery for you to complete them or your ftp is set higher than what it actually is. I would also question why you are being given a rather large reduction in volume. Not sure how many hours you were doing beforehand but dropping from a CTL of ~100 down to 60 is probably going to lead to reduced fitness over time. In general most people can consistently progress with 1-2 hard workouts per week and filling in the rest of their time with endurance and recovery. I know some people have success with selecting a TR plan that has that amount of intensity days and then adding additional easy volume. I don’t know if you can get TR to build you a plan like that or if you have to add the workouts manually.

I think you misread my post… I said I don’t have any trouble with any of the workouts. I was averaging 15-20 hrs before. I don’t select a specific plan but used the auto builder with AI. As far as my ftp goes, it was auto detected at 311, which is low for me but what I would expect this time of year. I am currently in base block so the harder workouts aren’t super hard like I imagine they will be during build blocks, but there are three ‘harder’ workouts per week with recovery/endurance rides in between. I guess I’m just not used to an endurance ride being only an hour long. But why is AI only prescribing 10 hrs? Shouldn’t a weekend endurance ride be more than 2-2.5 hrs?

Sorry, read it as yet I struggle to complete workouts, my mistake. I agree that a reduction in volume from 15-20hr a week to 10 is worrying. I would personally add in more volume around or after workouts as you have historically been fine with it and removing that stimulus is almost definitely going to make you slower. As for why the tr ai is doing that no idea, it seems to top out at ~10hr from what I have seen and getting it to give you more volume is difficult. I would guess that they see less compliance on longer weekend rides (I know very old plans had them and they swapped them with threshold work to get more compliance) but if that is the case I would expect them to adapt and give you longer rides as you complete the currently assigned but it does not seem to do that as of yet.

When creating your plan you can select the time available and the plan will adjust. For example, the default may be 10-ish hours but if you want to do more plug that in. It may give a warning for a high stress level but you can do it.

Check out this thread. Similar discussion. [image] TR says 4 hours a week training for a 164k & 2,100m elevation gran fondo? Training I’m just 2 weeks into my first TR custom plan for above event in late March 2025. The program has me only doing 4 hours a week right up until the event. This just doesn’t sound right to me. I need more time in the saddle than that for a 6 hour event! Am I missing something here? Why the incredibly low volume for a high volume event?? I guess I will follow the plan but will also include my own long IRL rides.

Just in case you missed it: [image] Optimal CTL for Unbound 200 preparation Training When creating your plan you can select the time available and the plan will adjust. For example, the default may be 10-ish hours but if you want to do more plug that in. It may give a warning for a high stress level but you can do it. You can tweak Plan Builder to generate plan up to 21h/week (with 3 intensity days) or 24h/week (2 intensity days)

TrainerRoad

Optimal CTL for Unbound 200 preparation

Training

Pbase December 27, 2024, 1:54am 7

Check out this thread. Similar discussion.

Topic		Replies	Views
CTL Check! Dec/2024 Training	505	16280	May 25, 2025
How High Do You Try To Ramp CTL Training	72	14771	July 23, 2022
What is your CTL at for Christmas? Training	88	3014	December 29, 2022
How fresh should you be when entering any given training plan? Training	2	584	September 3, 2019
How important is CTL Ramp Rate for Trainer Road? Training plan-modification , calendar	13	2572	December 15, 2020

Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast

This is the only podcast dedicated to making you a faster cyclist. Listen to the latest episode and more.

We Are Here to Help!

Browse hundreds of articles in our Support Center or contact our world-class support team to get back on track.

Privacy Policy Disclaimer Terms Cookie Settings

Optimal CTL for Unbound 200 preparation

Related topics

Get Faster with Adaptive Training

Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast

We Are Here to Help!