Training Approach Slider Question

Training
1

Hi everyone,

I’m relatively new to cycling and even newer to structured training plans. I started riding around December 13, 2025, with an initial FTP of 132W. A couple of weeks later, I subscribed to TrainerRoad (on December 27, 2025), and my FTP jumped to 147W. After the new FTP model update on January 20, 2026, it increased again to 165W, and as of today, it’s 180W.

Here’s where I’m a bit confused: I’ve been experimenting with the Training Approach sliders (Moderate, Balanced, Aggressive).

  • Aggressive gives me the smallest gains (~1.6%)

  • Balanced gives ~3.6%

  • Moderate gives the largest (~7.2%)

Intuitively, I would have expected that “aggressive” gives the most gains, but TrainerRoad seems to show the opposite. I ran one month on Balanced, and it was fine, I never failed a workout, and I was 95% of the time within the model’s expectations.

I’d like to know: Is there a way to let TrainerRoad suggest the best default training approach for me? Right now, I feel like I’m just playing with sliders and seeing what number comes out, but I’d rather rely on the system to guide me.

Thanks in advance for any advice or insights!

2

Considering you’re new to cycling, I’d ignore the difference in prediction between balanced and moderate and use a balanced approach for a while. Long-term, I think balanced works best for most riders.

4 Likes
3

Agree with TxToast on that.

The times you’d want to play with slider is if you know you have a couple weeks you can really put time/effort in before some time off. Or when you have a pretty conservative training calendar and then you want the few workouts planned to be pushing it.
Like if you typically training well 6days a week, but want to scale back to a low volume plan of 3-4days a week. Could explore higher slider setting, although I think that TR AI would adjust the low load to high intensity anyhow fairly well (does in my experience).

4

I’m currently doing 3 hard rides and 2 easy rides per week, totaling about 4-5 hours. So far, I haven’t had any red days.

I’m a bit confused about the moderate toggle. It says it’s for beginners, but it seems to give me more training benefit compared to other settings. I’m guessing that might be because my heart rate is still relatively high and hasn’t fully adapted yet?

Also, when I adjust the slider, it doesn’t change the training volume. It only reduces the TSS by about 5-10%. Is that expected behavior?