Hi. New TR user here but longtime (now masters) athlete.
I’m at start of base and have a 3.5hrs “solo ride - hard ride” scheduled for the weekend. It says to “go hard…keep pace high…push up climbs…get sweat going”. 250 TSS.
Could somebody please give me an idea of how hard this should be in terms of zones / ftp?
Like are we talking z3 on flats / z4 on climbs??? Or is that too much?
Cheers.
There are calculators to help you with estimating that. Just google TSS calculator.
Usually you enter the workout duration, the NP and the FTP values and you get the estimated TSS.
Solid mid/high z3, rpe 6-7/10 in the first hour, the same power in the third hour probably feeling like 8/10
Pedalling downhills (if safe to do so) as little coasting as possible, knocking into a low enough gear uphills to keep under threshold
Atleast, that would be my interpretation
Fuelling will be massive by comparison if you want to function for the next couple of days. I don’t know your ftp, but for me that would be 850 kcals per hour of energy burn. I’d be looking (for me) for 100g carbs/hour minimum, good fuel up the night before etc etc. treat that workout with respect
250 TSS in 3.5 hours is a serious effort. I think you are about right with the upper end of Z3
Take, as an example from the TR workout catalogue, Pendleton Log In to TrainerRoad
That gives 222TSS in 3 hours at 0.86IF from 7x20-minute intervals at 88-94% FTP wtih brief, 3-minute recoveries between intervals.
That is a very, very hard session.
I’d normally expect about 200TSS for a hard 3.5 hours
Example of 3.5hr and 249 TSS
10 minute warm-up ave 70%
4x 30 minutes at 92%
with 20 minutes 70% between efforts…
is 249 TSS in 3h30m and an IF of 0.84%
Thanks everyone for the responses - very much appreciated.
I hear you, this is a very tough session - but that makes me question why I have been scheduled it so very very early (like I said, right at the start of base when my target event isn’t till July).
As stated previously, I’m brand new here could someone please tell me if this is “normal” for TR?
Square root of (250/100/3.5)≈0.84 IF
Tss= t(in sec)x100xIF²/3600
IF=NP/FTP
This was also my question. It doesn’t sound very base-y, or very TR-ish, for that matter. 
My guess is that OP has in Plan Builder configured one of hard interval days as “Solo Ride” with 3.5h time availability. In this case, TR inserts into calendar workout with generic instructions and higher TSS compared to actual structured workout recommended by TR itself.
Did same, with 2 different results depending on schedule modifications:
TR probably assumes fartlek riding style
Yes! This sounds right mate.
Basically when I was setting up my programme I put in that I wanted to do 3.5hr endurance (z1/2) rides on both weekend days as this is what I am used to doing (and I have the time available).
What would be the fix?
If I want to keep the weekend rides more sensible but need to do an extra 100 TSS should I perhaps add a weekday session? I only have 2 in at the moment and could accommodate a third.
You can drag-and-drop hard workouts to different days, keeping them as TR indoor or outdoor workout. Simply move 2 endurance days to weekend and mark them as “Solo Ride” instead.
EDIT: do this during Plan Builder configuration to update whole plan. If you do it in calendar, it does not change actual structure anymore.
Me too
I’m in base, and my 4 hour weekend ride is a scheduled 171 TSS . (3 hard sessions during the week) the long ride ends up being around 200-225 TSS because it’s hilly.
Ah yes I just tried it in calendar and discovered this.
So I can modify things via plan builder during the plan? Is that correct?
Yep, that’s correct.
Thank you
That does seem nuts during base doesn’t it?
Are you new to TR too?
Not new
You might change the workout to something like Rumble. Mark it as outside. No use killing your self during the base phase.
Okay cool will have a look at that cheers
I thought it was a session a coach set or Fastcat, sounds like their kind of session.
No no - it was generated by TR
