I will give a quick intro to provide some context for my current experience and reason for the post. I have been using TR for about a year now and have certainly seen some good results. I have also ridden in much more demanding terrain after moving from Ohio to Virginia, and have been doing bigger and longer races every year. So, I’m sure that’s all contributing to the numbers I’m seeing. My current issue is that I’m starting a general FTP build program and feel like its a bit underwhelming. I have friends in the area that have more traditional coaches, and i see them RACKING up the base miles so far this winter. Meanwhile my training is throwing 45 minute “endurance” rides at me, where my HR is barely hitting Z2. For context, I ride 150+ miles per week during warmer months when I can get outside more. I compete throughout the year in 100+ mile races, stage races and enjoy big days for 6+ hours on the bike regularly enough in between.
So, with the AI adaptation, should I just extend these endurance rides and hope the AI eventually catches up to see I can handle it? I have done this a few times in the past and just end up seeing a ton of Red and Yellow days with constant adaptations recommended. Anyone had a good experience and figured out how to get large volume training prescribed?
If its not already on aggressive, you could always try upping it from balanced to demanding or aggressive. I wouldnt simply stop taking into account the AI’s opinions of yellow/red days.
And that is not to say that the AI is always right to assign those colours but from a value perspective, if you turn all of that off, what are you left with ?, a calendar app with a library of workouts?
Had a similar issue here. After any “free” ride that was Z2 it’d give me a yellow or red day after even though my legs felt great. TSS on my plan was also much lower than I was used to.
Finally had my onboarding call yesterday and they had me change my approach to demanding (to start) and I also changed my training plan from TT to gravel (have a weird mix of early events). Clearly too early to see the impact but looking at the plan it seems more in line with what I’m used to and I’ll test the “demanding” approach with the Festive 500 next week, hopefully it more closely matches my legs.
Based on what I’m seeing with your career, I think where you’re at currently is actually a really good spot. I’m not seeing red days where we’re replacing your key workouts – you’re getting all of thoes in. Yellow days are really only ever showing up on rest days, which is perfect.
You’re doing a lot of hard work right now with all of the hard indoor workouts, and it’s likely more than you’ve done in quite a while. That big push from mid-August through October was mostly unstructured outdoor riding, and four indoor workouts plus a longer solo ride each week is actually a lot of stimulus since those hard indoor workouts are so focused.
I’d actually go with @kevistraining’s advice here and use the check volume tool every now and then becuase if you stay consistent with this type of training, you can likely push your volume out a bit slowly over time and do really well.
Those other athletes that are racking up base miles are clearly on a different plan. Our philosophy may be a bit different than their coaches’ and we think you’ll see bigger gains over time with three hard workotus a week rather than simply getting base miles in. The athletes that benefit from that type of training are able to ride a ton and will pile intensity ontop of that volume later in the year. If they don’t have the time or recovery abilities for that approach, it likely won’t last long.
My advice would be to follow your current plan as best as you can and use the check volume tool every few weeks. Give it a shot and see where you end up in the 2026 season..
I appreciate all the responses. After reading them all and going back through my training plan I saw I was on mid volume 1 base plan. I ended up bumping that from 1-3 which increased my endurance rides from 30 min to 2 hours, but my actual workouts have yet to start populating any 2 hour rides, even after refreshing everything. I will heed the advice of most here and keep doing what I’m doing, other than the tweak I made to volume. I think this is the first year I have carried some decent fitness into the winter training, and I’m anxious about building on that more and more, but I probably need to find some patience and trust the app and everyone behind it is much smarter than me!
Use it as a guide but don’t put too much focus on it. The TR AI/Machine Learning doesn’t learn you if applies you to the average in their database. I rode three days in a row almost every week early this year, Z2 and sweet spot and it seemed like I was red every week. It never learned my activities, TSS load, frequency…nothing. So I don’t have much faith in it.
I can attest that cranking out mega miles and intensity can lead to getting slower. But, hey, sometimes it leads to getting faster too. I’m sure the best is the ai plan, no more, no less.
