After quite some time away,and reading quite a bit on the old interwebs about the shiny newness at TR, I thought I’d give it a try again. I signed up in the week and I’ve been trying to get my head around all of the changes (there’s a lot from the old static plans) and I’ve been trawling the forum for answers but I still have a bit of confusion so here goes.
FTP (Don’t roll your eyes please!)
On sign up there was a banner that said that TR defines FTP as the power you can sustain for approximately an hour and that they use this number to set your zones for training, on entering the newness I’m now being told (mainly by this forum) that that is incorrect and that the FTP number that is detected is something else, mainly for selecting workouts. I’m asking this not to flame but because I’ve used the PDC method of determining FTP and zones for quite a while now and it works very well for me, as long as I keep the PDC updated. At the moment both Intervals.icu and WKO5 have me at 250 and 248 respectively and I feel that in the ‘traditional’ sense that they are pretty much nailed on. TR has me at 263, which to me seems very high.
How will using the TR AI detection affect my workouts? I’m reading (and if I understand it) that this will mean shorter intervals but at a greater intensity? Do the intervals progress in length as each monthly FTP goes by, or do they reset at the new level? I’m envisaging a scenerio where I’m forever being prescribed say 3x9 threshold over/unders at increasing intensity rather than progress TiZ.
How will manually setting my FTP to 250 affect things, I’m thinking to do this for the first month and then see what the next AIFTP detection is after I’ve completed a few TR workouts at this level. Is this a good idea considering I’ve not done and rated a TR workout in quite some time?
Plan Builder
On trying to select an option to build a plan, I looked at the General Fitness options, but there is no guidance as to the differences or objectives of each option (at least any I could find) , is there a difference between building endurance for gravel than road? What’s the difference between improving climbing and building endurance? Am I missing something here?
Also, when I’ve been playing around with Plan Builder, it tells me I need 60mins on a Tuesday, but than once the plan is applied, it ups that to 90mins. That’s quite the increase, why isn’t this displayed during the set up process of the plan? Again, it could be me missing something, but I’m probably limited to 75-90minutes mid-week mornings indoors, due to balancing dragging myself out of a comfy bed and having to reluctantly go to work.
My Riding and Training
This one is entirely on myself and no fault of any system. I no longer race, so I don’t need (or want to anymore thankfully) peak for one specific event. In fact my riding these days is purely for personal challenge, enjoyment and fitness. I’m currently deep into a couple of Audax challenges, got several multiday trips planned for the summer and given it’s alledgedly Spring here in the UK and better weather incoming (honest!) my riding is quite variable, but will likely look like , one long ride per month 200km+ , a 100km two out of the three remaining weekends, hopefully a mid-week evening ride of a couple of hours to break the monotony of work up, but also this will help with a couple of the Audax points challenges and then there’s the bikepacking trips. So with all that, is PlanBuilder the best fit, or could I, should I just use the AI Workouts option , which looks to me like the most flexible, and populate my calendar that way? Any advice on how other longer distance riders use TR here would be very appreciated.
Thanks!
