Question on how to arrange a training week when racing

Training
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So after listening to the latest Podcast, I’m guilty of doing too much training on race weeks.
I always thought that when you put a race in your Training plan that TR would adapt and take care of the rest, so say for example if the program sees that you have a race scheduled and still prescribed three workouts that week, it was because it was ok and things would adjust if you get a yellow/red day after.
I’ve done it this way, have seen workout adapt down to Achievable and just push through tired legs if they where still able to spin was I consider a good cadence and put out the power.
Now I understand if you normally have three hard days during a week then a race takes the place of one of the hard days.

Now my question, my hard days are Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday and I’m on the CX plan.
If I have a training C race on Wednesday, how would I arrange that week and how easy do I make Tuesday’s ride?
There are also times I’ll have a training C race on Wednesday and Saturday or Sunday would be a B race in the same week.
I would like to use Train Now to let Ai pick the workout in the lower zone but another thing that has happened to me is that doing that sometimes make the program do and AI FTP detection early to find the right workout and that get annoying because it has bought the FTP down for no reason in the past.

Also for B and A races I get the workout Pahrah all of the time as an opener, it a workout that I like and always feel good afterwards but is that considered a hard workout that should be counted in the week’s three workout limit?

Hopefully when the Ai 3.0 update drops maybe some of these question will get addressed in the new update.
Thanks I know it’s a lot.

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I’ll be interested in the replies to this as I’ll have the same issue once my Road Race season starts in April and I’ll have a mix of midweek races (C) and weekend races - some A, some B and some C.

Not quite the same, but at the minute I like to do one Zwift race a week. On advice, I have put a regular Zwift Race into my TR Plan, replacing one of my Hard days. As a Masters athlete, this only leaves me with one Hard Workout per week so I was tempted to leave both in - but that would probably get me too fatigued.

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Hey @Kendogz161!

These are great questions! I’ll do my best to explain how TrainerRoad works here and how you can move forward. :slightly_smiling_face:

I took a look at your Calendar, and a few things stood out that might explain why you’re feeling tired or doing too much:

  1. Since you started training in November 2024, you haven’t really taken a full break.
  2. Recovery Weeks aren’t being fully respected as there are still extra rides and intensity.
  3. You’re frequently stacking C and B events in the same week.

Ongoing Training

Since kicking off your training plan in November, you haven’t taken a proper break from structured training or racing and that can definitely lead to accumulated fatigue. I see your plan ends the first week of December, and you’ve already got another one starting just two weeks later.

I’d recommend taking at least ~3 weeks off with very light riding (or even complete rest) to give your body a full reset before starting the next plan. Especially since there wasn’t much training/structured history prior to November (from what I see on your Calendar), so jumping into a full plan plus regular racing can take a toll.

Something I always like to think of is:

“Rather than thinking about how much time I have to train, it’s better to ask how much training I can actually recover from.”

Recovery is the key ingredient to getting faster. Without it, you’re just layering on more stress and breaking down muscles that aren’t able to rebuild and adapt. This can lead to burnout or forced time off the bike.

Recovery Weeks

I noticed that in many of your scheduled Recovery Weeks (where TrainerRoad plans only low-intensity endurance rides), you’re still adding intervals or other unstructured rides like Zwift. While it’s tempting to keep riding if you feel okay, the goal of those weeks is to absorb the training and come back stronger so you can hit your next block with high quality rather than " just push through tired legs".

Try to fully respect those Recovery Weeks and your future self will thank you when you can hit the next block with more quality and less fatigue.

C and B Events in the Same Week

You’ve run into a common challenge: mixing C and B races in the same week without adjusting the rest of your training.

A few tips:

  • C Events are treated like tough workouts and part of your training so this means no taper, no opener, and no structural changes to the plan. So if you’re doing a C race on Wednesday, treat it like a hard interval day and plan your week accordingly.

Solutions to the common scenarios you run into your Calendar you are describing:

  • If you have a C race on Wednesday, you could:
    • Move your Tuesday interval workout to Monday, so you get a rest day before racing.
    • Or, change the C race to a B event, that tells TrainerRoad to give you an opener (like Pahrah) beforehand instead of stacking it on top of a hard workout.
  • If you have a C race midweek and a B race on the weekend, I’d suggest marking both as B events. That way, TrainerRoad will give you openers before each and structure your week accordingly. Those two races count as your hard efforts that week, and you might only need one more (likely Thursday), depending on how fatigue and recovery play out. (If you have 3 events, then mark them all as B Events as well).

How to Add A, B, and C Events to Your Calendar

Hopefully the above was helpful! Let me know if you have any questions!

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I think my reply above will help ya!

And yes! You did the right thing to replace an interval workout with a Zwift race. Over time you can see if you feel up to adding more volume or simply performing that TR interval workout on Zwift instead of doing the Zwift race :slight_smile:

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Caro you are a Legend and if I recall a Cyclocross races too so double that Legend.
Will do, I’ll move my next plan start date one week down to give myself the three weeks off.
Also for those training races, the day after say I want to do a lower intensity endurance ride, will Train Now be able to handle that? When I set them up as B races some weeks has me two days off the bike mid week, I would like to fill that in with something but at a lower power zone.
Since the beginning was in November but it wasn’t a TR plan I never counted it as training, but thanks for the advice.
Is there any way that i can save this post for future reference ?

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:blush: Welcome!

TrainNow should be able to recommend you an endurance workout that is “A low-intensity spin to improve your aerobic fitness”. If not you can always manually pick Lazy Mountain.

But again, remember “Rather than thinking about how much time I have to train, it’s better to ask how much training I can actually recover from.”

If you are feeling tired after your race it may be best to just rest. A workout like Lazy Mountain should feel rather easy, so if you’re feeling tired while completing it, it may be a sign to not do anything that day, haha. More doesn’t always mean faster.

When race season comes around, (especially cyclocross where there’s back to back events), your racing becomes your training, so the idea is that you’ve done the work (training) leading to your race season so that you can then focus on effectively recover from race to race without overdoing it. With all the racing your doing, I would focus on maintaining your freshness. Does that make sense?

I sent you a DM with the info above so you have it for quick reference!

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Ok, yes this make sense.
I will also save/ favorite Lazy Mountain as one of my go to workouts.
Thank you Caro.

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Welcome!