Plan Builder for Masters Age Athletes [Feature Request]

I agree with you completely about TR missing the boat

I really like the plans but am looking for a plan which incorporates both my age and strength/gym sessions.
I have just signed up with Fascat as well and will report back on how it goes

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Thanks for all the info. This looks good to me. I did heavy weights with strength coach and enjoyed it but found it impossible to co-ordinate with cycle training. This seems to have the answers.
I will look at the videos and wait for their home strength training program to come out.
Keep posting, you are helping us all through this incredibly complex subject.

It’s definitely a feature request that has been heard by our development team. There are certainly a lot of moving parts to have more tiers and options withing plans, but it’s been passed along to our development team for them to see what they can do, and how/if they can make that feature work for more riders! :crossed_fingers:

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H Ivy, no disrespect, and I know you are new to TrainerRoad, just wanted to mention that masters plans have been in the works for nearly four years now. Wanted to help you understand some of the frustration from the faithful.

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Totally! And while I shouldn’t speak too much to what we’re working on behind the scenes, it’s definitely been heard by our team in a way that resonates more now than ever! Stay tuned! :metal:

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Ivy,

I’m not sure more plans is the answer. A more intelligent plan builder / workout construction would be a more flexible way to go to be able to meet a wider range of needs.

That is:

  • Classifying workouts into week "Chunks in groups of 3 / 5 / 6 workouts to for a week
  • Classifying Chunks by focus (e.g., SS, VO2, etc.) area
  • Creating progression of Chunks - e.g., SS Chunk 3A is followed by SS Chunk 3B
  • Some way to handle multi-sport & cross-training / strength
  • Allowing people to select: # of days / week they can train; active to rest ration - e.g., 2:1, 3:1, etc.; Period - e.g., base, build - which would then determine combination of focus progression; etc.

I’m not minimizing the amount of work to implement the above, but it would create the foundation for a much more flexible plan builder system that could handle the specifics of people’s lifestyles (# of days a week I can train; ability to recover; active to recovery week ratio; single vs. multi-sport; etc. without having to create an endless variation of every more targeted plans (e.g., SSBMV1, SSBMV1 masters, etc.).

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You’d think Plan Builder could have a “ratio selector” to choose your ratio of “on” to “off” weeks. Pick those and your race date and the PB would build around that. If the programming got too complex with open ended choices of ratios, TR could start off just offering a drop down selector w/ just the most common (3:1 and 2:1).

I don’t use PB, and don’t plan to since I’ve been making my own plans for years, but my plan builder that I built myself can do this. I’m not a programmer nor an IT pro, either.

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Thank you! Can you speak to what you’d like in regards to multi-sport and cross-training/strength? Would this just look like accounting for the TSS from those activities and calculating rest and the intensity of your TrainerRoad workouts accordingly?
We have had feature suggestions for most of the points you offered, but I want to make sure we are letting our developers know exactly what our athletes are looking for!

For multi-sport (e.g., triathlon / duathlon) I’m probably not the correct person, as I don’t do either.

For strength training, it could be as simple as the person selecting number of days they want to strength train / cross-train, workouts would be “tagged” with whether or not they work with double day of TR + strength / cross-train, and the super plan builder would add notes for the days that are compatible with strength / cross-training.

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Based on podcast and/or forum comments, that would be my expectation and I welcome that approach versus creating more plans. My only 30,000 foot comment to expand on your post, is that it should be possible to have logic around work/recovery. For example Tue and Saturday are focus days, therefore Mon and Fri should be off or active recovery or shorter endurance rides. Its not clear in my own mind if creating two tiers of focus will solve the concurrent training, or if there should be 3 tiers (2 cycling and 1 concurrent). And again some logic would be required around organizing the concurrent workouts (e.g. I want Tue and Sat to both be double days, with morning on cycling primary chunk and afternoon for strength training chunk).

Perfect! Thanks for expanding upon that, passing this along to our feature development team! :v: :star2:

New to TR and structured training as such but at 53 and been an avid cyclist for decades both on and off road, Ive really found the PB to be an interesting experience!
This thread has been great and I have learnt a lot, definitely think TR has a way to go for PB to work for older cyclists, definitely need more recovery rides between interval training.

Well this is interesting…it suggests that despite literally the largest database on training in the world they are having trouble coming up with something that works better than what they already have. So that’s comforting!

I’m 51 and have been training and racing for 30 years. I’m doing the LV plans and adding in zone 2 rides, doing a little zone 2 after the planned workout, and doing a group ride or two ride shooting for ~500 tss per week but I agree, it’s hard to cram lifting into the mix.

LV sweet spot base 2 is really hard, sometimes I just need to push everything back a few days or a week to get some recovery…but fortunately it’s easy to do. Also…I’m not above knocking down the intensity a few percent (cough…mary austin…cough). 97% is literally a different world than 100%!

Joe

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Can any other masters share a weekly plan that successfully incorporates 2-3 weekday 1 hour TR sessions, 2 strength sessions, 1-2 rest days, and 2 longer Z2 outdoor sessions on weekends? I’ve had good luck with the SSLV plans and longer weekend rides, but struggling to figure out the smartest way to program the strength and rest days. Thanks!

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Sounds like you’ve done most of the work already. :grin:

I’m a beginner (only been training for a year), so keep my comments in perspective. As @trpnhntr is quoted just above, I found that I couldn’t (yet?) handle three hard days per week and do much better – in fact, am getting much stronger – with 2 sweet-spot workouts weekly. Since I also know that strength training is critical to aging gracefully, I pay for two hours/week with a trainer to do weights. So…

Mon: Sweet-spot on TR
Tue: Weights
Wed: Rest (or light yoga for recovery and range of motion)
Thu: Sweet-spot on TR
Fri: Weights
Sat: Long, steady Z2 ride outside
Sun: Rest

You could easily add another day on the bike by making the strength training shorter, or doing strength training then a Z2 ride on the same day. I’ve read the body (muscles AND joints) needs at least two good strength sessions per week, so those two hours are an investment in my long-term future health.

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Just turned 50. Based on Joe Friel’s Fast After 50 I have been experimenting with intensity + frequency over duration. Indoors I do hard sessions for one hour max. I also have been racing on Zwift, selecting races that I should complete in 45 minutes or less. I find that the shorter races keep me motivated without shattering me, and I can recover fairly quickly. I ride first thing in the morning, generally fasted (only caffeine before riding) and then protein shake immediately post-ride.

In addition, my wife and I are doing Daily Burn 365 5 times a week which are a mix of strength, cardio, bodyweight, and mobility/yoga. 30 minute videos that are easy to work in at lunchtime, the intensity in these sessions is not so bad that I feel sore after.

My schedule looks roughly like this:

Monday: SS + DailyBurn
Tuesday: Z2 or short Zwift race (e.g., 20k TT) + DailyBurn
Wednesday: VO2 or 1 hour race + DailyBurn
Thursday: No bike, DailyBurn
Friday: Z2 (90 minutes MAX) or Zwift event ride if there is one + DailyBurn
Saturday: Zwift event ride
Sunday: Rest

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Hi everyone.
Have TR done anything about the Masters question?
I have been using another companies plan for a while. Its time to work out what plan to use next. I do miss the precision of TR but it does seem that a shame that I have to edit their plan.

No nothing has been implemented.

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I wonder what the problem is here. Doesn’t seem that tricky but in fairness I know nothing