I’ve signed up for the RBC Gran Fondo this year (76 mi./6,200 ft. climbing). I’ll be done my current TR plan in June after my century on June 5, and am wanting to lay out the best TR plan for the RBC.
I’ll have about 3 months to train for the RBC. I suppose it’ll be obvious to choose the TR Gran Fondo plan, but given that the major climbing in the RBC is largely in the last 30-35 miles, wanted to solicit some ideas around TR to maximize my training for this event. Muscular endurance and pacing will probably be the two key concepts for this ride. Any thoughts/suggestions for TR and non-TR training tactics?
In order to get the most from TR it’s probably worthwhile using Plan Builder so you can benefit fully from adaptive training. In just choosing the Gran Fondo plan you’re limiting your experience and value of the subscription. There is some good info here How to Use Adaptive Training - TrainerRoad Blog and I’m sure a member of the TR team could help if something isn’t clear.
Owing to family and other commitments I use low volume plans then try to beef them up with longer weekend rides rather than an indoor session. You could maybe plan two or three longer rides where you ‘simulate’ the course by doing Z2 ride for say, 30 miles, then some tempo or sweetspot hills to finish off. Just be careful you don’t cook yourself and do too much on a longer training day - you’re aiming to peak for the event, not a training ride.
Depending on what your local geography and preference for outdoor rides is, I really enjoy planning a route that has a number of hills/sections that I hit the lap button and aim to hold a very specific power target. The target will depend on what I need from the ride, how training has been that week, what I have left to do on the ride etc etc.
AT will work with either the output of Plan Builder, or a Base/Build/Specialty plan that you add to your calendar.
Say you decide to take a short break and then do 8-week build and remaining weeks doing specialty, using Plan Builder getting that specific re-build may require playing with back dating the start. You can also simply add Build and Specialty to your calendar, and still benefit from AT.
Thanks. I had added a new training plan that started after my June event recovery week. TR built the second plan to be 4 weeks of base, 6 weeks of sustained power build and 3 weeks of Climbing Road Race specialty. I wonder if that is better/worse than doing a whole new plan that incorporates both events.
Coach Chad advocates taking 1-3 weeks off after finishing base/build/specialty. Personally at that time of year I would probably ride around and enjoy my fitness for awhile, without doing any formal training. Then I’d likely do a re-build path which is described in “How to Build a Second Fitness Peak” section of that article. And a re-build isn’t another base/build/specialty. I’ve only done a second fitness peak once, with May and November events. After the May event I took a month off and traveled with the family, then group rides in July and August, then returned to an 8-week (re-) build phase in Sept/Oct. Worked great.
Given my own experience, I would likely go with the recommendations in that article, versus returning to base that you got out of plan builder. I’d also defer the decision until I finished the first event and took some time off training to ride around and enjoy my fitness.
Honestly I think it is a judgement call, and one that you should make based on how you feel after the June event and time off.
Thanks for the correction re adaptive training, I haven’t really been keeping up-to-date with the Ask a Cycling Coach podcast so wasn’t aware that AT now ‘governs’ off the shelf plans.
Thanks for sharing the article and your experience. Very helpful! I’ll definitely reassess as I go along and make sure I have adequate recovery/off-training time in between.
I’m trying to figure out how to put in a short Build block less than the standard 8 weeks, but not clear how to do so.