+1

Same boat. I was thinking about doing sustained power build because of this.

Sure thing, happy to clarify.

First off, TSS can't escalate from the beginning of a training season through to the end as there's more to the composition of each training phase than simply lifting TSS. The Build phase starts to incorporate differing types of stress that take different, and often enough, higher tolls on an athlete's body thereby requiring more thorough recovery either in the form of full rest or, in the case of higher-volume plans, lighter workouts following harder ones.

Additionally, the TSS metrics aren't always completely telling since we only report the bike TSS and the swim & run TSS's were estimated during my design process such that each overall weekly load escalates appropriately (and de-escalates during recovery and taper weeks).

I can assure you that if you follow the plan consistently that there won't be any deconditioning unless you recognize a focus that addresses one of your strengths when that time could be better spent targeting a limiter better served by this additional focus. But, as always, this is one limitation of broad plans delivered to individual athletes.

With that said, far and away most athletes who are new to structured training, or perhaps more effectively structured training, will see steady improvement as long as they don't over-commit (i.e. pick a plan that's too high in volume for their experience level, stress level, adaptability, etc.) and respect the stress-recovery balance.

Then, as athletes learn more about their capabilities and needs, the onus shifts more toward their own ability to make small modifications and a little away from feeling bound by a coach's plan design.

So yes, everything you'll see in these plans is intentional (except the occasional typos ;-) but you're not limited by the structure if you have a better grasp on what you require as an individual.

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Head Coach at TrainerRoad
Co-host of the Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast

Hi,

First off, apologies for the delayed responses. We're transitioning our Community Manager as Trevor D has moved on and Nick K is moving in and I haven't been getting my usual S/T heads-up's.

Your question isn't perfectly cut & dried since you can achieve similar training adaptation from very different forms of training, e.g. VO2max adaptation from long, slow distance well below FTP and also from short, hard workouts/intervals well above FTP. So while you're using climbs done above FTP to satisfy workout requirements that are much longer and lower in nature, you may still be deriving some (much?) of the intended benefit. It kinda depends on just how far above FTP, how often and how long you sustain the efforts.

Personally, I've had some fantastic fitness doing almost exactly what you're describing by riding hard instead of long with nothing over 90 minutes - and still performing well in 3-hour road races.

But I'm a little concerned with your intention to ride at .85 for up to 4 hours, at least this early in the season. That just sounds exhausting and something I worry won't carry for multiple weeks. What I mean is, rides like those will likely take quite a while to dissipate the fatigue accrued and possibly derail the following week/s.

My recommendation would be to slow those longer, multiple-hour rides down to something more aerobic in nature and less exhaustive, probably something in the .60-.75 IF range.

Beyond that though, what you lack in duration can often be addressed really well with proper intensity adjustments. So if your FTP is rising and you aren't burning out, getting sick or incurring injury, keep it up!

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Head Coach at TrainerRoad
Co-host of the Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast

Hi again,

This might sound like rehash, but it's because I firmly feel this is nearly universally the best way to go: always bet on Build.

For most types of endurance racing (so we're talking anything over 90 seconds here), the limiter is endurance and less about the more refined, race-specific types of fitness that can only really be built upon a strong base of endurance. And the endurance I'm talking about here is both aerobic as well as strength/muscular.

So assuming you've done (and are still doing) the necessary aerobic base conditioning, cultivating legitimate and reliable strength-endurance has to be your primary objective making everything else icing on that cake. Put another way, just focus on raising your FTP since it will benefit you across the board.

And the Build phase of training always places its greatest emphasis on this facet of training. Being able to push the pedals hard is useless (in terms of endurance sports, anyway) if you can't do it for relatively long periods of time much like riding for a long time won't be of great use if you can't push the pedals hard enough to keep up. You have to be strong and you have to have the type of endurance that extends this strength over long durations.

So emphasize your Build training in almost all situations where your choice is between greater strength-endurance/higher FTP vs greater race-specific capabilities.

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Head Coach at TrainerRoad
Co-host of the Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast

Hey there,

X-Terra is so similar to XC racing that I almost always steer this type of multisport athlete toward our MTB XC plans.

But now that the tri plans are more fully developed, it's a tougher call but I find myself leaning toward using the Oly distance plans with the inclusion of outdoor trail rides during any non-interval workout, e.g. Tempo rides, Endurance rides, maybe even Sweet Spot workouts.

While these rides are sure to include some efforts outside of that day's prescribed power ranges due to the nature of inconsistent to vastly inconsistent terrain, if you can keep the majority of your ride (90% or so) on track then the rest of the efforts shouldn't turn the workout into something unintended.

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Head Coach at TrainerRoad
Co-host of the Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast

question about your training plans. you have the sync to training peaks feature which is nice. do you have plans the ability to add your plans to training peaks calendar so that one could look at training peaks calendar to see what's planned. basically like training peaks built in plans where you can just add all your workouts for a structured program ahead of time. For now, what I have done is save the half distance triathlon mid-volume base plan to pdf, add it to evernote, and I just annotate the pdf noting what I've done or not done. I didn't know if you have considering doing this. And I don't even know if trainingpeaks allows training plans to be added outside of their store.

I'm almost certain that this question has been asked....just not sure how to search for it.

I've got several workouts that need to be uploaded to Garmin Connect. Is there a simple/mass upload feature to GC that I can use, or do I need to upload them one at a time?

Thanks.

I just plug my Garmin into my computer and all workouts / rides are uploaded automatically. I've got Garmin Express and the Garmin Communicator plugin installed. The workouts are uploaded without having to fire up anything. I did 2 rides today and both got uploaded to GC just by plugging the Garmin into my computer via a USB cable. I've then got synching on and the rides were uploaded to Strava and Training Peaks automatically.

So, I have a Fenix 3. You're saying to use both the TR app and the fenix to track HR, power, cadence and use that? I have a Kurt kinetic road machine and use virtual power.

Ok, so I have searched and looked through the 106 pages of this thread looking for any information regarding the workouts attached to the Training Plans offered by Trainer Road, and the ability to import them into your workouts as a whole for the plan selected vs each one individually. Is this even possible? If so how?

Thanks,
Manny

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_____________________
From now on...

Hi,

Glad to hear you're enjoying the Ride-Sync feature. As of right now, you won't be able to do this. But if it's something you'd really be interested in seeing down the road, go ahead and let us know by following this link: https://trainerroad.uservoice.com/forums/131395-general

We regularly go through these requests in considering our next development plans.

I do have good news though - the team is getting ready to release a new feature that'll allow you to track your training progress much easier in a calendar format within TR. You'll have a much better idea of where you stand in relation to your training plan, and will also always know right away which workout is on-deck. Wondering "which workout is next?", or "Did I already do that workout?" will soon be a thing of the past. :-)

Stay tuned!

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Get Faster with TrainerRoad

Hi,

Unless they've changed anything on their end, you'll need to continue to upload them individually like you've been doing. We have had quite a few of our users request to see this done automatically; if you'd like to see it as well, vote on it by following this link: http://trainerroad.uservoice.com/...ut-to-garmin-connect :-)

Thanks!

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Get Faster with TrainerRoad

Hi,

The ability to do this is on its way, and we couldn't be more excited! Pretty soon you'll be able to do exactly as you suggest; have the ability to tap into a plan as a whole, and never lose track of the fitness path you're headed on. :-)

Stay tuned as we near the release of it. We have a feeling it'll be exactly what you were looking for.

Thanks for choosing TrainerRoad as your cycling tool!

Cheers,

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Get Faster with TrainerRoad

Nick, Thank you...that is exciting. I am looking forward to this!

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_____________________
From now on...

Okay. Thanks for the feedback. Love trainerroad

Most welcome!

Keep an eye out - we'll be sure to keep everyone up-to-speed via our social channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Blog).

Cheers,

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Get Faster with TrainerRoad

Course!

Couldn't be happier to have you on-board!

Cheers,

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Get Faster with TrainerRoad

Just voted.....

That's now live on the site! If you drill into a plan you can pick a plan and execute against it :).

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CEO at TrainerRoad
Co-host of the Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast

We would LOVE to send your rides automatically to Garmin Connect. The unfortunate thing about it is Garmin does not have an official API to push rides to GC.

They DO have a API to receive rides from GC, but no way to send them in.

There is an unsupported way where we could keep a copy of your username/password and impersonate you and send workouts in.

DC Rainmaker has written that some of the apps that have done this with a high volume of rides (I'd consider us high volume) have been blocked by Garmin.

The worst case here is that we build something like this, have a bunch of people start using it, and then have Garmin block us because we have too many people sending in rides.

So until we get the OK from Garmin this feature is on the back burner, sorry :(.

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CEO at TrainerRoad
Co-host of the Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast

I'm loving the new Training Plan integration on the site! You guys have done a great job, it looks really slick and makes following the week's planned workouts a whole lot easier.

I have a couple of questions:

(1) I started Sustained Power Build (High Volume) back on 11th April so I chose this as my "Active Plan", put those dates in and it's assigned all of the previous workouts that I have already completed to those on the plan, which was fantastic. This week it's ticked over to Week 5 of the plan, yesterday I completed the first workout of the week and if I go into that plan on the Plan History page it's been correctly assigned to the planned workout, but at the top of my Career Page it's still showing the schedule and Week Description for last week (Week 4). Is this a known bug or have I done something wrong along the way?

Edited to add: Ahhh, I spoke too soon, I've fixed this now. I had substituted a couple of trainer sessions for outdoor rides, but hadn't assigned them as "Outdoor Rides" on the schedule; now that I've done this it's ticked over to Week 5 on the Career Page now. That makes sense!

(2) I was also wondering if there will be a similar update to the TrainerRoad app (specifically the Windows version), where it pulls your active Training Plan and automatically prompts you to load the appropriate workout you have scheduled for today? That would be a really cool feature.

Thanks for all your hard work!

Hi, question(s) for Chad/Nate/Guys etc

This last winter was my first on power.

Came back from a bad A race last August and jumped right in with the sustained power sweet spot base, build and peak and got through them pretty religiously

My enthusiasm got me carried away and although I made good gains over the winter, my A race isn't tll the end of July. I miscounted...

So, questions -
1. What to do now ?(on trainer road) (bearing in mind I am going out once a week) and

2. My last tests have showed my results going down (maybe because I have been going out on Sundays for a month or 6 weeks now).

From reading my power files (outdoors) I guess that I power up the hills too hard and freewheel down the other side...

Help - I am worried about losing my winter gains :-(

thanks

Hey there,

You might not be losing your fitness, exactly, but you're likely keeping your body from realizing it by continually stressing a system that's in dire need of recovery and the opportunity to "absorb" the gains that keep getting beaten back by more work.

Powering up hills isn't necessarily a bad thing unless it's on a day when riding easy is the objective. So if you recognize that you just can't stay off the gas when you ride outside, try to make your outdoor day one with some intended intensity instead of the usual endurance/tempo day I typically recommend for outdoor work - no harm in that.

Finally, sounds like you need a break - and you have time for one.

I'd recommend doing 1-2 weeks of nothing intense and perhaps nothing overly long unless you're already accustomed to long hours in the saddle. Even then, keep the long stuff to once or twice a week and really focus of feeling better as the days move forward. Just do some endurance work, some casual riding maybe, maybe even a couple extra days of cross-training or time entirely off the bike.

You won't lose anything substantial even with a full couple weeks off the bike, nothing you can't get back relatively quickly (it's not till closer to 30 days where strength and endurance really start to go to hell).

You have what sounds like about 8 weeks meaning you could take it easy for a couple weeks still leaving a solid 6 weeks to repeat some or all of your Specialty phase, just make sure to include at least one week of the taper.

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Head Coach at TrainerRoad
Co-host of the Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast

Hi Chad

Food for thought.

Thanks

Chad/Nate,

This week was supposed to be week six for sweet spot 2 low volume for me. I ended up having an appendectomy yesterday, so I will be out of training for two weeks or so. My original plan was to finish sweet spot base and then do 4 weeks of the suffer fest build then roll that into HIM build and HIM specialty with the plan to race in october(haven't picked race yet).

With the two weeks off, should I start back with a couple of weeks in base training? Only do 3 weeks of sufferfest build, or do something else? How much fitness/FTP will I lose not being on a bike for 2 weeks?

Thanks for any input. Love trainerroad.