I've looked at the high-volume sprint plan. I don't know exactly what the previous plan had included, but this one is balls to the wall.

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"FTP is a bit 2015, don't you think?" - Gustav Iden

I haven't dug in very deep, but looking at the 140.6 mid volume build which I'm in the middle of, it looks like they've reduced the intensity, at least around the VO2 max workouts each week. They got rid of all of the 120% FTP intervals and replaced them with a lot of ~105% intervals. They've also dropped the intensity in the mid-week tempo rides by ~5% (80-85% down to 75-80%). Not massive changes, but generally seems everything has been tweaked down.

I am starting week 8 of the HV IM Plan and what I see is a reduction in time. I had some outdoor rides that were 7-8 hours and they are gone, next weeks 6 hour ride is now 4:15.

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All I Wanted Was A Pepsi, Just One Pepsi

Team Zoot, Team Zoot Mid-Atlantic

I'd say it is less of the same. Very similar workouts, just a little easier. I just finished the Sprint HV and see a weekly TSS reduction of 75ish on the big weeks. I am really curious what prompted these changes. I am about to jump into the Oly plan and would love to make my planned workouts easier if some TR coach will guarantee me the same results!

Everyone I know (a dozen or so people) who used TR to train for HIM and IM (most medium volume HIM) crashed and burned. My takeaway was it was too much bike intensity and combined with the running people were overtraining and getting injured. Only one is still in the sport (with my coach). I like their podcast and wanted to try the product but decided to stick with my coach who gives me a lot more than just workouts.

Every one I've looked it has been scaled back a lot. I've already been doing that myself to make them survivable, now I'm trying to figure out how to adjust them if at all.

Having the workout levels without guidance on where you fall relative them is kinda annoying. They are using that information for TrainNow...so let me see it! I don't care about waiting on the AT so much, but it'd be helpful to see where I sit according to the plan goals so I have a better idea on if I should be trying to adjust or not.

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"What the mind can conceive and believe, the mind and body can achieve; and those who stay will be champions."

I haven't seen the new plans, but did they actually get a real triathlon coach to revise/redo the plans? Or did they just wing it like they did last time, oversell it, and wait for the users to show that it wasn't working for most?

starting out with structured training i went with TR because i liked what their "ecosystem" offered, but from tri i was like those you spoke of... i was always wrecked. it was so much freaking hard work, and i was always absolutely spent.

im on 80/20 now and when i can actually stick to the plan and life doesnt disrupt training i feel that i get better results and i can walk normal the majority of the time.

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80/20 Endurance Ambassador

When I looked at what my friends who did TR plans we’re doing — it looked like they took a good single sport cycling training plan, removed the easy ride days and replaced them with hard runs, then added a couple of basic swim workouts for good measure.

Deep down, because I’m a masochist, I really wanted to try one of the high volume plans, bury myself, and see if I could hack it. But alas, I liked my coach and was getting good results without injuries so haven’t gotten to try it out.

I'm in the mid-volume full IM specialty phase. I took a look at my current (the old plan) and the new plan and for the most part it follows the same structure which is:

Mon: off
Tue: Swim
Bike (threshold intervals)
Wed: Tempo Run
Thurs: Bike (continuous HIM/IM pace)
Run (base run or a brick)
Fri: Swim
Bike (easy)
Sat: Long Ride
Run (brick or recovery)
Sun: Long Run
Swim

The Tuesday interval workouts (actually most of the workouts) seem to have a smaller IF. Overall the bigger weeks are a little bit smaller (biggest was 19:53, now 18:38) and the smaller weeks are a little bigger (not counting taper weeks....12:58 to 13:43). I won't miss doing VO2 intervals at all.

I think TrainerRoad really excels at their cycling plans. I did just cycling with them for a year and really liked their plans and made a bunch of gains (about 30 watts which put me at 4.7w/kg) and had some good race success. I don't think their tri plans are quote as strong - but some of that is just the nature of the beast. Making a cookie cutter plan that works for different people who have different strengths isn't every going to be perfect (same goes with plans from good coaches I've bought off Training Peaks). But after doing some tweaking to fit me I've had some good success with them in the past (male in my 30's....missed a KQ in my first IM but just over a minute, a crap T2 away from being on podium in the second HIM I did). I think a lot of people fall into the trap of choosing a higher volume plan than they can handle. Which I get. Triathletes are all egocentric masochists and want to choose the hardest most advanced plan (ie high volume). But then the background and/or base fitness isn't there and you burn out.

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Matt

I had been doing the MV General Build plan when this changed and was in the latter half. The Workout Level of the Sunday ride (2 hours) was 9.9 for this past weekend, and now the plan has it adjusted to 3.0. If this new metric is accurate its a significant reduction in difficulty. I guess I'm more likely to be a consistently paying customer if I don't fail workouts, but if their data on growth truly showed this was necessary, then why the change now?

I have a month out until Des Moines 70.3. Is there an easy way to grab the last month of the revised workouts ?