Okay, George, just got the word from the team! So, this is a good opportunity to point out that Plan Builder isn’t perfect 100% of the time, and an error like this comes from specific situations when time allows for multiple blocks to be stacked together. It’s definitely possible to end up with certain lengths of plans that either give you an extra week or two of training without a rest week, or you may find that we had to remove the rest week as we cut the plan down to fit the exact time leading to their goal event.
We try to remedy this by starting to cut a different phase as opposed to cutting down 1 phase entirely, but it still leaves us with edge cases where we don’t nail the 3:1 work:rest ratio, and its certainly something we plan to address moving forward.
That said, this instance merits some modification of through your calendar, where you should replace one of those weeks with a week of easier workouts. It’s best to err on the side of recovery instead of extra strain when this sort of adjustment is in question, but please let us know if you have any other concerns or if you’d like to discuss this further!
Hmmmm not much of an answer really. The plan Builder certainly needs a bit more intelligence. I would have been better just manually adding ssb1, ssb2, build etc manually and not bothered with the plan builder at all. I’m not impressed with it.
FWIW my strategy would be to give Plan Builder an extra week, so that Build might come out to 6 weeks instead of 5 weeks. And I’d start by creating the start date to be one week earlier (instead of moving the event date).
Plan Builder’s priority (in terms of how it executes logic) is probably not to maintain a 3:1 ratio all the time, but instead try to complete the as much as possible of the correct phases, given some inputs, including the “deadline” (your A event).
@bobw made a good observation that given the time constraints you mention, the optimal recommendation would be the result you got (likely, not a TR employee, just someone who’s designed and built systems like Plan Builder).
If simulate an earlier start date (say 1-2 weeks before now) you may get a plan that optimizes for 3:1 W:R ratio and delivers you to your event on-schedule. You’d basically start 1-2 weeks into SSB1, depending.
Long story short, I think plan builder is struggling to make recommendations given competing priorities of sufficient recovery and adequate training.
Even before TR, I struggle during a build. Therefore I can’t see doing more than 2:1 work:rest otherwise I’m highly likely to breakdown and that will force unscheduled recovery days (up to 7 days!).
So that comment was driven from my own perspective, a bit of “why don’t I give Plan Builder some breathing room and see if I get a couple 3-week (2:1) builds instead of 4:1.”
I had somewhat of a similar situation. The easy solution for me was to move my event up a week as a placeholder and the recalculated plan all made sense. That just gives me an extra week before the event. That’s pretty easy to fill with a short intense ride an endurance ride and a openers.
So PB isn’t perfect but it is pretty good at laying out longer term plans. You just have to use a little judgment if adjustment is needed.
