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 it’s 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. I’ve 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 I’ve 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 “week” 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 can’t 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.
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.
I’ve 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 I’d get three. I’d been kicking around a 21 days cycle, at every 3rd day, I’d 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! 
