Did you take sufficient rest during the prescribed rest week (week 4)? How did you feel coming into this week? Your legs should be fresh from the relative rest. You probably performed a 20-min FTP test earlier in the week which is quite taxing. Did you follow the outlined procedure so your FTP is accurate?

I'm just coming off the Sustained Power Build (high volume) and felt the plan to be quite though from a mental perspective. I'm repeating the first 4 weeks of the plan right now and feel a lot more confident when doing the 2 interval sessions.

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Pain is temporary.

How are you feeling? This is the most important question when deciding what to do here. We all have tough days of training where we sometimes can't finish the intervals, but having 2 of these in the same week may be an indicator that you need some rest and recovery.

If you're unsure, I'd recommend re-doing the 5th week and then asking yourself the same question – how do you feel? If you made it through the week just fine this time, move onto the rest of the plan. However, if it was still a struggle, perhaps a couple recovery days or a rest week may be necessary before finishing up this block. Hard workouts are good for you, but when they are so hard that you are sometimes unable to complete them, you're no longer benefitting from them and it's time to take a step back.

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Professional Mountain Biker and Community Manager at TrainerRoad - Cycling's Most Effective Training Tool

Thanks a lot guys. So I went through my recovery week and I did the 8 min FTP test on Saturday. The next day I felt almost a little sick all day so I did no training. On Monday evening I decided to run a fairly hard 3 miles. The next morning is when I did the 3 x 10 min(mount baldy -2) workout. So it was only 12 hrs after I did the fairly hard 3 mi run. So I figured I wasn't quite as fresh as I needed to be. But the next bike workout (5 x 6 min) was on Thursday and thought I was fairly rested for that one.(Only an easy 5 mile run the day before) I did a 2 hr workout Saturday(icefall) that was fairly difficult but made it through. I think I will just repeat the week and see if I can get through it.

I know exactly which workouts you are talking about. I struggled with them as well. In my opinion the rest period between the intervals is too short. I doubled the rest period (stop pedaling for 2 more min) and then I was able to hit the intervals at the tail end of the workouts.

I didn't want to start a new thread since I would name that thread "Trainer Road Plan" as well...

I've done a base training phase throughout the winter, and now looking at 16 weeks to racing a full. What two plans would you recommend? My initial plan was Sustained Power Build High Volume Plan (substituting Sundays workouts for long easy rides outside) followed by the Full Distance Tri Plan.

Does that seem reasonable or would you recommend something different like the Sweet Spot High Volume Plan followed by Full Distance Tri Plan?


Thanks for the input!

You nailed it, Sustained Build followed by Full Distance Specialty is exactly what I'd prescribe. Depending on how long your Sunday rides are, I'd recommend taking extra care on the rest days on Monday so you don't start the next week fatigued, but I think that's a good strategy. The 8th week of the Specialty plan is a taper week, so just make sure that comes right before your event and you should be strong, rested, and ready to race. Keep us posted on your success!

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Professional Mountain Biker and Community Manager at TrainerRoad - Cycling's Most Effective Training Tool

Thanks for the quick feedback Trevor, I appreciate it!

The new plans are awesome. At least the build ones. I'm not yet sure about the new triathlon plans... They seem odd to me but I guess I'm just not used to that structure.

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Endurance coach | Physiotherapist (primary care) | Bikefitter | Swede

Is there anything in particular that seems odd to you about the new specialty plans? Maybe I can help clear something up. Essentially, the old tri plans included both Base and Build blocks in them. With our new plan structure now, athletes are able to hand select each block on their own to really target their specific needs. With that, Specialty plans are now only 8 weeks and incredibly focused on the high end of training for whatever the specific discipline is you are going for.

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Professional Mountain Biker and Community Manager at TrainerRoad - Cycling's Most Effective Training Tool

Hey Trevor,

I'm looking at the mid and high volume half distance plans. I like the idea of adding a second day of intensity in the high volume plan, with a VO2 max workout every other week, but I like the time commitments of the mid volume plan. The mid volume plan literally has only 2 days of work > ftp in the whole 8 weeks. Other than the Monday FTP-ish work, the rest of the week is pretty tame in the mid distance plan. Why not incorporate the second harder workout on Fridays like the high volume plan?

I wanted to ask Coach Chad about this to get you the best answer and here's what he said:

"If you have that added bit of time and the extra work doesn't come at the expense of any other quality workouts then give it a shot and see how things go!"

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Professional Mountain Biker and Community Manager at TrainerRoad - Cycling's Most Effective Training Tool