I am currently in the build phase of a relatively long training program in preparation for 4 days of intense cycling in the French mountains. At first glance, the program seems quite rigid, and I’m having trouble seeing the focus on long days in the mountains.
I’ve set up an event as a Climbing Road Race and marked the 4 days. The training plan is set to 3 weekly sessions and is a Master’s program.
The plan seems quite simple: VO2 Max, Threshold, and Endurance.
When the weather allows, I’ll likely end up riding with the local cycling club 1 to 2 days of the 3 weekly sessions I have available.
Will I be ready when it doesn’t seem like there’s much focus on longer sweet spot and threshold sessions?
How much, if any, data did you upload to TR before starting?
What was your volume like before starting the plan?
have you ever done structured training before?
when creating the plan, how much time did you indicate you have available to train on each training day?
The AI is pretty conservative with new users, and especially conservative with new users with little or no previous data and/or not having much recent volume/training. As you progress through your plan and it “gets to know you” things come together well in my experience.
You can adjust how long you have available to train if you click on whatever phase you’re in from your calendar. This will --eventually-- lead to the AI serving up longer workouts. You can also always use Workout Alternates to choose longer or different workouts.
I’m just guessing here, but if AI suggested a 3 day/wk low volume plan you might not have much experience with structured training or haven’t done a whole lot of volume recently? That might explain the AI plan recommendation. The TR philosophy for “time crunched” or low volume athletes is to use intensity to make up for lack of time for proper Z2 riding. Rest assured, this can still lead to massive gains in fitness (especially if new to structure).
Depending on how you plan to tackle the 4 days of riding in the mountains, it might be a good idea to edit your plan from “Climbing Road Race” to “Gran Fondo.”
The Climbing RR plan features more higher intensity efforts than the Gran Fondo plan does. Its workouts also have a lot of short bursts of power to simulate the kind of efforts one has to make to stick with a peloton up a climb.
The Gran Fondo plan focuses more on sustained power for long days in the saddle and the epic cols we tend to think of when we hear “French mountains.” That plan will also get you on longer Sweet Spot and Threshold workouts compared to the Climbing RR plan.
Beyond that, it sounds like you’re on the right track! Riding with the local club is a great idea too – when you start doing that, if the group rides are hard, we’d recommend replacing one of your interval sessions for that week so you don’t pile on too much intensity.
Hope that suggestion helps you out – feel free to let us know if you need a hand making any of those changes!
I uploaded several years of training, with the most recent years including watt data. I’ve been cycling quite consistently and have used TR for several years. However, during the summer, it has always been unstructured with the cycling club.
I have requested 3 training days per week from TR, as that is what I have available.
I’m going to ‘attack’ the 4 days from a survival standpoint I’m heavy, over 100 kg. It’s not a race, just a cycling holiday with some guys from the club.
It seems like the right idea to switch to a Gran Fondo plan. I’ve tried, but it doesn’t look like any changes have been made – could you check?
Something must be wrong. My training plan has now been changed, and the start of the build phase has been moved to today’s date. Suddenly, the endurance and threshold training sessions have been swapped around.
For clarity’s sake, that change you saw before was because I was trying to make adjustments to your plan – I wanted to double-check that things were looking as we’d expect them to. Everything should be all set now!
During the Build Phase, you won’t see the Sweet Spot workouts we were discussing above as the Sweet Spot sessions get cut out of the Masters version of the Sustained Power Build Phase. Endurance workouts take their place instead so athletes can get some extra recovery between hard workouts.
If you’d like to slot in some Sweet Spot workouts, though, we’d recommend using our Workout Library and using the search filters to find a “Productive” Sweet Spot session (“Intervals” or “Sustained Power” would be a good fit for your event preparation). You can also filter by duration based on how much time you have to ride. That search page should look something like this:
The VO2 Max and Threshold workouts will still be beneficial in your preparation, though. Both types of workouts will see you holding power at and above Threshold for relatively long durations. The Threshold workouts will, of course, translate pretty directly into the kind of fitness you’ll need for riding in the mountains, while the VO2 Max workouts will help “pull” your fitness up with some quality above-Threshold work.
Then, going back into the Specialty Phase, you’ll see the reintroduction of Sweet Spot workouts. That will get you back into more event-specific training as you hit the final couple of blocks before your trip – and likely with a nice bump up in your fitness after your Build Phase.
Hope that helps clear things up – let me know if you have any other questions!
That’s absolutely perfect, Zack. I just had to adjust the length of my training days, and now everything seems to be in order again.
One quick question comes to mind I can imagine that I might slack off on the structure when the weather improves. Meaning, I’ll likely be riding outdoors more and may not hit the intervals as perfectly as on the indoor trainer. Does it make sense to prioritize sweet spot training already now, or should I trust that the AI will keep me more or less on track? Does that make sense?
I think it would still make sense to generally follow the plan “as is.” Many athletes find that doing VO2 outside is harder than something like Sweet Spot, so the order of those workouts may also work out a little more nicely when considering your overall plan and when you’re looking to get back out as the weather gets nicer.
We recommend trying to follow along as closely as you can when doing Outside Workouts, but we also understand it can be difficult at times to get them done as perfectly as we can on the trainer. As long as you’re pretty close, though, you’ll still be getting the physical adaptations we’re looking for. And yes, Adaptive Training will continue to keep you on track!
I’m heavy, over 100 kg. It’s not a race, just a cycling holiday with some guys from the club.
