When subscribing to a new plan and configuring the options prior to adding it to your calendar, how about an extra option that allows users to select whether they want to run the plan over a seven day week or a nine day week?
For example, a seven day week is the current, standard option (Monday to Sunday). A nine day week would increase the number of rest days and extend the seven day week to nine days: week 1 would be Monday to the following Tuesday; week 2 Wednesday to the following Thursday; week 3 Friday to the following Saturday; and so on. Joe Friel talks about this in more detail in his excellent book Fast After 50.
The option to select a nine day week would be of benefit to older users who might need more recovery time, those with physically-demanding jobs who may need to factor in more recovery time between work and training, and time-crunched users amongst others. It would also increase the likelihood of such users finishing all the workouts in a plan rather than having to skip some.
I know that users can currently move workouts about in the calendar to suit their individual needs but itâs a bit of a pain moving all the workouts in a six or eight plan individually. Much better if this could be done automatically at the start and then leave users to tweak things as required.
This was an issue for me with a 24 hour day. Iâve since added 2 hours to my day. It is hard to get the watch makers, my employer and essentially anyone else to agree with me but this is the path Iâve chosen. Very liberating having 2 extra hours a day, totally worth it.
Yes I dropped To low volume and added in a 4th SS workout on the last 3 weeks of the base plan and on the first few weeks did a 4th workout but it was a Z2 workout. Helped me without feeling to cooked by the last week which is hard. When i did the MV plan last year I was cooked by week 5. I failed 1 workout and almost failed a second in the last week. I was 39 at the time so I am definitely following the thread for any future announcements.
Not sure what the demographic of TR users is but the ability to click on something to make the training âweekâ longer or shorter would be awesome for us older users. I really struggle by the time I get to BUILD. I know I need more recovery but manually moving the workouts sucks. IE A 9 day week would give more recovery albeit slower progression but at my age I will take it. Anybody who is getting burnout would benefit by this option. At some point Coach Chad is gonna be on board with this. Then Nate, then Jonathan. Ha ha.
Hey @tx246!
Thanks for the suggestion. We appreciate that older athletes have different recovery needs than younger athletes. It is likely something we will focus on in the future. Unfortunately, I canât say when that will be, given the other major projects we are working on at the moment. However, your voice is heard and I will ensure to remind the team that this is something there is interest in.
Hey! Hmm⌠Adaptive Training is normally very quick to respond to your workout completion and surveys, so Iâm trying to look into your calendar to get some more context, but Iâm not able to get the full picture based upon your prior plan settings/volume/training approach.
Can you describe what you experienced so we can try and help? DM is great also if youâd rather discuss there, but weâre here to lend a hand and make sure youâre getting the most out of AT!
hello Ivy. Ive had success over the years with SweetSpot Base Plans. Low volume. I get nice progressions during SSB but when I get to Build or even in the last part of SSB Im cooked. Granted in prior years there was no survey and AT. I would start Base Season in Dec but just hit a wall in April. Last year I was handling the load fine until I wasnt. I was using a Low Volume Rolling Road Race Plan Builder I believe. The A event was a week long bikepack trip parallel to PCH in Oregon. Lots of climbing on gravel. The event was in July but by June I was struggling. Took a week completely off the bike then came back Polarized hoping to get my legs back. Sorta worked but the back half of the trip I was cooked. It was 1100 TSS but I had done similar trips and felt great. After the trip my body was saying nope to everything. Finally caved and have done a 2 month total reset. Starting over. Looking back at fatigue and form, my workload just never let me feel good ever. Even after rest weeks. I could do the prescribed workout but it would wipe me out. Skipped a bunch of interval sessions.
I think it would benefit me and probably others if we started with more built in rest. I realize the progression will take longer. By the time Im telling AT I dont or cant do the workouts as prescribed I should of backed off sooner.
I definitely get performance plateaus and just cant seem to get over em with what I have been doing.
Thank you for that context.
Taking a closer look at your training, I do not think this is an instance where more rest days within your training âweekâ would improve your training experience. Iâll cover why.
Youâre doing really well at complying to your workouts outside; something thats really tricky for athletes to nail and youâre crushing it! It does look like youâre consistently doing 4 or 5 workouts a week, though, where the Low Volume plans only prescribe 3.
That said, I donât think more rest days will help you really nail those key workouts and tough intervals better than what youâre already achieving. Instead, we would recommend cutting back those non-structured days when the fatigue feels like itâs ramping, and focusing more on making those work days count so that you feel recovered and ready to attack those days AND add more volume when you feel up for it!
If youâre feeling as though Build phases push you, and that even rest weeks arenât making you feel recovered, that really reinforces that itâs a more effective approach to look critically at the factors that significantly impact how your key workouts feel:
Nutrition, off-the-bike stress, sleep hygiene, fueling on the bike, and making time away from training true recovery (ie just being away from the bike doesnât equate recovery and rest if youâre under-fueled, stressed, sleep deprived, etc.)
We have heaps of blogs on recovery, nutrition, and managing all those off-the-bike factors. Nailing these will also set you up effectively to add those extra endurance days that you dig, and youâll feel charged and ready to do so!
Whats more, I do think that using Adaptive Training and its use of surveys and detecting needed changes for workouts based upon your performance will me make a significant difference here to ensure youâre served workouts within the scope of your progression that will challenge you, but not burn you out. However, speaking from personal experience, even the easiest workouts burn me out when Iâm not doing all the aforementioned things outside of training that set me up for success and to absolutely crush those workouts.
Let me know if you have any questions about this; adding volume, AT, recovery resources, etc. Weâre here to help!
Thanks for the reply Ivy. Im a podcast listener and really do try and implement the nutritional, sleep and recovery strategies. After all of these years I am beginning to think that there just might be some physiological reasons. I dont appear to be gifted in the aerobic dept. I seem to have to work much harder to maintain pace of the group. Higher FTP makes everything easier is not a joke. When I train, I can get to low resting and recovering heart rate but boy making or improving my sustained power has not been my jam but repeatability for short efforts above my FTP is attainable. Group rides are the attraction. I have no racing in my future. I do have a goal for 2023 and that is RAGBRI. Riding across Iowa 450 to 500mi in July with 20k other people. Its a long way out. Im headed to the weight room and just relying on TrainNow for a bit. I took 2 months off and easing back in. May concentrate on Polarized to keep the system from being overwhelmed. Maybe if the survey had a pre workout survey along with a post survey. I feel crappy but can do the workouts until I cant.
Good luck with the Cross! Really enjoy your perspective on the Pod.
Iâve often thought I could be more productive if the plan was on something other than a 7 day cycle. Basically I only seem to be able to tolerate an intense workout about every 3rd day. On a 7 day cycle, I only get two. On a 9 day cycle Iâd get three. Iâd been kicking around a 21 days cycle, at every 3rd day, Iâd get in 7. On 7 day cycle, I only get in 6 in the same 21 days. 9 gets me the same benefit was 21 does though. Might be nice to have 7, 8, and 9 day options (8 being divisible by both 2 and 4, and 9 being divisible by 3).
back to the future! 
