Good choice, I’m late to the thread but the good thing about LV plans is that they allow for some extra volume through racing or last minute epics outside. If you’d signed up to a higher volume plan you’d probably struggle to fit in any outside rides/races without compromising on your health or skipping workouts. As has also been mentioned, the LV plans are not easy…
I’m a similar age to you, do a couple of hours less riding but roughly similar volume, and find the LV plan is the only one I can stick to with reasonable compliance. Even then, some of the workouts are hard to do when fresh, a few weeks ago I had Spencer +2 the day after a hard crit. No way I could finish the workout.
The other thing that you’d probably like is the Outside Workouts feature, that alone is worth me sticking with TR over a competitor.
I think you will enjoy it. I am 51 and just love to cycle. I don’t race, I just want to be fit. Trainerroad makes that simple. I also go out on the weekend, but not 200km :). Sometime I make it an outdoor session and then just keep going until I have done the route I want.
If you follow the plan during the week then do whatever you want at the weekend. You would have earned it.
My suggestion is to start with a low-volume plan and add outdoor or Zwift rides as you see fit. It is a matter of personality whether you will like the structure of TR. I, for one, love it. I have never tried Zwift and have no desire to, since I’d either prefer to ride outdoors or train with structure. TR telling me that I should ride at x % of my FTP for y minutes is really relaxing and meditative for me.
I’m sure one of us will send you a trail code (I could send you one), and you can give it a shot.
I just want to say that the way you have gone about things is great.
Asking questions before committing, providing enough context on questions for answers to being meaningful, and then posting back here on your experience.
