We're so glad you're liking the new feature! It's been huge for my planning too.

Ride on!

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Should it be harder to ride at 80 watts vs 180 watts??

Thank you so much for the calendar sync to MS Outlook, its awesome and exactly what I wanted. It lets me compare my TR workouts to my work travel and plan much easier.

Thank you for listening to your customers!

Hi

New trainerroad user here, just almost through SSB1, planning to move onto SSB2, sustained power build and 40k tt for a race later in the year (early September). This progression of plans will finish on the 21st July, so a good amount of weeks early. Started the plan early because I felt the need to get going with a goal rather than aimlessly meandering, and this would give me room to move when life comes up etc. Getting married in a few months so I thought I would push some weeks back there doing what I can in between to maintain fitness if/when necessary to fit around these commitments, is this a workable or good approach?

I have a specific question in that life happened at once last week, missed the Thurs and Sunday sweet spots sessions, but got in the Tuesday sweet spot and the Saturday over-unders, plus the Wednesday easy endurance and a few outdoor rides in between. Should I redo last week this week, considering I've got 5-6 weeks to play with spare before the goal event, pushing everything back a week, or is it less important in SSB1 and better to nail everything later on down the road?

Have had a bit of a layoff/social riding spell for 6 months prior to this program starting, but have been over 4w/kg on the TT bike in the past, so I do come from some previous fitness at least.

Hope that makes sense! and thanks for any help you can give!

Similar question to one posted above but with a few differences which make me wonder if I need to change anything...

My A race is an Ironman at the end of July (Whistler). I've completed two 140.6 races and countless 70.3s so I have a good sense of necessary training but also realistic expectations of life and athletic capability so I guess my big goal this year is to improve upon my bike splits at both races (that portion I'm typically middle MOP).

Current training set up:
70.3 base--mid volume 8 weeks
70.3 build--mild volume 8 weeks
70.3 race
10 weeks to Ironman...should I jump to Ironman build or Ironman specialty for the next 8 weeks?

Appreciate any thoughts and or feedback from those who better understand trainerroad! Thanks!

Yes, it should be considerably harder.

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Stoked you're liking it!!

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Hey there!

Those 10 weeks would be best spent on an additional Base Phase prior to starting the Base>Build>Specialty progression. Having an enormous base will help you succeed throughout the rest of your training plan, and can provide a big performance benefit on race day. The full Sweet Spot Base progression is 12 weeks long, so you'll have to cut out a couple weeks like this:

SSB I (Weeks 1-6)
SSB II (Weeks 1-3,6)

During this phase, just grab the runs and swims from the Half Distance Base :)

I hope this helps!

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Go ahead and just move onto the next week. When you miss a couple workouts in a week, it is usually best to just forget about it and move onto the next week. Excecution can't always be perfect, and it doesn't have to be :)

With the extra 6 weeks you have to play with, I would go through SSB II again before starting the Build Phase. This will give you an extra solid foundation for your training, and then you'll finish your Base>Build>Specialty progression right on the doorstep of your target event.

Happy training!

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That is awesome and a big help, thanks Bryce!

If his A-race is the Whistler IM, shouldn't he be doing the IM Base, Build and then Specialty? Looks like he has total 26 weeks with the HM coming in week 17.

When you guys do the next calendar function update can you also add a feature to push everything down (entire training plan)? I am nursing a cold and had to skip the last session for the SSBII and plan on doing the last ride to close it out (since it'll be over a week since my last completed session). Already scheduled a build plan earlier but the calendar wouldn't let me change the start date that was supposed to have the first ride yesterday. Ended up just deleting it and adding it again. It'd be nice to be able to alter the calendar in this way too.

Also, for the General Build Mid-Volume plan what are good alternatives for the longer sessions as some of the 1.5 hour on the weekdays and 2 hour sessions on the last day of the week I just can't consistently manage that long of a time commitment for those. A few of the 2 hour sessions have no shorter alternatives or any at all actually when I last looked and it'd also be nice if when you selected the workouts in a plan on your calendar (website) you'd be able to easily swap it out for similar/alternative sessions. Or maybe I'm not figuring out the best way but I'm manually clicking on the session in my calendar then opening the link to the actual dedicated page for the session and then looking at the bottom for workout variations. At that time selecting one of those to manually add to the calendar and then deleting the original/longer session. I know you can do it within the Android app as you get ready to load the session there is a workout variation link there but I wanted to get it all done in advance if I could so I didn't have to think about it early in the morning. Just a wish list on another feature for convenience.

You can push weeks in the calendar, but only future weeks, not current or previous. I've used push then copy/paste/delete to get around this in the past.

Yeah, I was wondering the same thing--why go back to base building? Basically I have 26 weeks until Ironman Whistler with a 70.3 race in mid-May. Perhaps a better way of asking the question--train for the half and then ramp things up for the full OR start from the beginning with the full 140.6 plans? I guess I thought the initial weeks of 70.3 and 140.6 training would look similar but maybe that was an incorrect assumption. If the former, I was curious to hear what plans (or I guess weeks of plans) from TrainerRoad I should use during those 10 weeks post 70.3

TR is fantastic--much better than some other canned programs I've used before so I'm excited for this season.

ps. "he" should be a "she" :) No worries I've been guilty of making that same mistake before

LOL. I should know better.

I just took the Ramp FTP test for the first time. I had been using the 20 min test in years past. after the last ramp I could make, I dropped my power way down and cooled down for about 10 minutes without stopping the workout/test. Will this at all impact the calculated FTP or does the algorithm cutoff once the power drops?
Thanks!

no, i believe they just use your best 1 minute power for your new FTP.

https://blog.trainerroad.com/new-ramp-test-makes-ftp-testing-more-efficient-and-less-stressful/

Hi, I've been lurking on the forum for a while, but thought I'd finally register to ask a couple of questions.

Been using trainerroad for a couple of years now, with some lapses, but made some strong gains each time I've come back. I'm looking at doing a home training camp in May, I'm currently going through the Oly plans at mid volume (the build is hard!!), do you have a recommended week of a plan I could use? I'm taking the week off work, so it'll all be training and recovery, so the extra load should be ok, plus I can run from the front door and I've got a pool I can swim in every day during the week.

Secondly, my wife is interested in trying trainerroad out (I've got referrals to use), but I use favero bepro power pedals on my bike which are too much of a faff to swap between bikes several times a week, and my turbo is a Cycleops Silencer which is great for me, but can't be used with virtual power. I do also have a wheel-on mag trainer, which I'm 99% sure is the same as the lifeline TT-01 Wiggle and CRC are selling, just with a different name and paint job. The TT-01 isn't on the virtual power list either, but I'm happy to do some runs with it using my power meter to work out a virtual power curve for it, but if you can recommend another trainer from the VP list that should work that'd be great as well.

Thanks!

Thanks for pointing that out. I definitely did miss that and it would've made things easier on me if I knew that a bit earlier since I previously modified the build plan I loaded. Plus it would've made deleting those other workouts much faster too with that clear week function. Just don't spend that much time on the website to figure those things out yet and mostly just use the Android app to run the sessions.

@cheeseheadinDC, he is absolutely right, I'm so sorry I misread your original post.

Let's try this again:

Based on my calculations you have 24 weeks from next Monday until your Ironman on July 28th. In that case, your preparation should look like this

IM Base (Weeks 1-12)
IM Build (Weeks 1-8)
IM Specialty (Weeks 1-3,8)

Since the IM is your A race, it is important to take the full IM progression, or at least as much as you can, rather than training using the HIM training progression.

Your Half Ironman will fall towards the end of the IM Build phase, and that is perfect. We actually recommend that Ironman athletes complete a Half Ironman during their preparation, so that won't be an issue at all. Simply ease up on your training the week leading up to your HIM and do some of the workouts from Week 8 of HIM Specialty. Week 8 of HIM Specialty is a taper week designed for the Half Distance triathlon, so it will be the perfect way to prep for your Half.

Sorry for the mixup before, I hope this helps!

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We actually do have a way to facilitate pushing the whole plan forwards :) Simply click the three dot menu (...) on the week you would like to push forwards. Then click "Push Week". The arrows will help to clarify which direction you will be shifting your planned training.


We do plan to make it easier to swap out for a shorter/longer workout with similar demands in the future. I agree that this can be a bit of a pain currently, and that the experience could be much more streamlined, so this is something we are aiming to improve on. Being able to swap rather than Add/Delete from Calendar will be a big improvement IMO.

As a workaround for now, if a workout does not have a "-1" or "-2" variation, then you can use the the Workout Search filters to sort by workout demands (Vo2, Threshold, etc) and duration to find a similar workout at a more appropriate duration.

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Hi Bryce + TrainerRoad,

I was hoping you could give me some direction for timing of my current training plan and also some more specifics for the plans themselves.

I'll be doing my first Ironman @ IM Canada in Whistler on July 28, 2019. I've just finished the 12 weeks of the High Volume Full Distance Base plan and will start the 8-week Build phase this week also at high volume. After the Build, I assume the expectation would be to continue on with the Specialty for the 8 weeks. This puts me 8 weeks out from the race, what should I be doing for these 8 weeks? OR is there something else I should be doing now?

I have read that it is known to be quite a hilly and challenging course and was wondering if I should be including some “hill type” workouts on top of the default Full Distance plan workouts? Or should I potentially just swap out for example one prescribed workout a week for a hill training type workout. Or should I just stick with what the default workouts are for this plan?


For the base plan, I added a 5th bike (would do the Thursday workout on Wednesday as well). I was wondering if I continue to do this extra bike, would it ultimately benefit me as a biker or would it hurt me more because I’m having to recover more. I have completed every single added workout with the exception of 2 over the last 12 weeks. If I’m able to complete all the workouts @ a decent quality, does this mean I should continue them?

Thanks, much appreciated!

With an extra 8 Weeks, I would recommend repeating the last 8 Weeks of Base before jumping into the Build Phase. Having taken the time to develop a huge aerobic base will pay off on the long run :)


For hilly races, through the use of proper gear range, you should be able to keep a fairly constant effort through the bike leg. Therefore, no plan adjustment should be neccessary. If you are worried about having enough gear range to successfully climb the hills while staying in zone, you have a cocuple options. First, you could upgrade your drivetrain to something with a wider range if that's within your budget. If not, then you could so some slow frequency work during your Sweet Spot workouts to help improve your ability to put out power at a low cadence.


If you can add an extra bike workout without degrading your overall training, then keep at it! Always listen to your body for warning signs, but if your body says it's all good, then you're good to go :)

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Thanks for the reply, Bryce. Out of curiosity, what would be the result (or upsides/downsides) if I were to do the 8 week Build phase twice for those 8 extra weeks OR the Specialty phase twice?

Thanks!

Hey Bryce,

Quick question i have two 8 weeks block coming up first ending with a 70.3 and the second with and IM. So perfectly tailored for the build and speciality phase or so i thought.
My idea was to do 70.3 Build and then Full distance speciality.
Taken a closer look at 70.3 build plan i can see the rides are no longer than 1.5 h (mostly sweet spot kind of work). Given the very hilly 70.3 i will be doing the bike ride will be around 3-3:15h in length, thus I feel like i would not gain the correct endurance/race type stimuli.
Should i abandon the 70.3 build and just do Full distance build/speciality, or use the half distance build plan but substitute some of the sat. rides with more endurance focused ones? Or is there a better approach?