I'm doing a half ironman on Sunday and I've been following a mid volume 70.3 plan for 4.5 weeks. I haven't retested my FTP in that time because I was improving and finding the workouts challenging.

I'm pretty sure I have improved my FTP. Question is when should I retest? Friday would fit best with my schedule after resting up earlier in the week but is it too close to the event?

Would an FTP test in race negatively affect my race? Or would having a new FTP figure to work off provide more benefit?

Thanks

I asked Coach Chad what he thought about this and this is what he had to say:

"The fact that a good balance has been struck, even though it may not be the perfect balance, makes it hard to mess with when there’s any concern over a proximate race performance. An FTP increase when nearing your race date could lead to more productive workouts, but it could also lead to a higher level of unproductive fatigue. It's hard to say.


I’d probably base it on the importance of the event. If it’s super important, play it safe and don’t retest. Lower-priority, reassess and don’t worry too much about a potential excess fatigue on raceday, chalk it up to a learning experience."


I hope this helps!

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Get Faster with TrainerRoad

Thanks for the response. I'm only interested in re-testing because I plan to use a % of my FTP (as well as HR) to pace the bike leg. Eg. If I aim to hold 85% of my FTP and haven't retested then i'll potentially under perform on the bike.

In that case,
Ah I understand. In that case, I'd go ahead and retest, but be sure to listen to your body and don't be afraid step your FTP back down if your workouts become too difficult. When your body sends you messages, it's best to listen, especially when you're this close to your target event :)

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Get Faster with TrainerRoad

Hi Bryce,
Still working through SSBII mid volume but staring to think about the next step. I have no real goals this year so figure I would target Gravel Worlds in August to give my training a target (even if I don’t end up riding it). I would be doing the Privateer which ended up at 74 miles with 6,000+ feet of gain last year, most of which was concentrated in the middle of the race and all of which was primarily short, punchy climbs. (profile pic below) I assume this year will be similar and will include the “Bohemian Alps” section again.
Any suggestions for which build to use?

image.png1187×206 6.65 KB

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"It's good enough for who it's for" - Grandpa Wayne

Do you need a speed and cadence sensor or can you get by with a speed sensor?

You can get by with a speed sensor.

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

Hi, I've completed SSB1, 2, and the Build phase of TR at mid-volume. I'm planning on dropping to low-volume for the Specialty (rolling road) phase and riding outside on the weekends for fun. I'm curious if so long as I maintain the same TSS as a mid-volume plan will my fitness stay the same, increase, etc.?

Hey Flynnzu!

I recently wrote this article that should really help you in determining which set of plans is right for you :) Check it out and let me know what you think!

https://support.trainerroad.com/...852-Gravel-Training-

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Perfect - thanks. Although I have to admit I was hoping for a recommendation of anything other than Sustained Power Build because that one seems so much more monotonous than the rest - especially coming out of SSB. Oh well, sustained build here I come!

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"It's good enough for who it's for" - Grandpa Wayne

Hey Daleks!

When lowering your indoor volume and increasing your unstructured outdoor riding, this usually has an unfavorable effect on fitness. There is more more to maintinaining/improving fitness than simple TSS, and if you are trading off intensity and structure for more leisurely unstructured riding, this will usually come at a detriment to your fitness. It is impossible to say for sure how you will respond, but from a pure performance perspective, we recommend sticking with the Mid-Volume plan and using our new outside workouts feature to switch your indoor workouts into workouts that can be easily completed outdoors.

This feature is currently in beta, but to gain access and learn more about how to use this feature, you can check it out in the announcement post below.
https://forum.trainerroad.com/...tside-workouts/14411

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Get Faster with TrainerRoad

Bryce,

Just wanted to thank you for the plan and suggestion. I raced Pisgah Stage Race this past week and rode strong all five days. The TR plan was hard, but definitely set me up to make it through my first stage race.
Thanks again!

glen

Right on!! Thanks for the update :)

Congrats on a strong finish and feel free to reach out if you have any more questions.

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Get Faster with TrainerRoad

Hi Bryce:

I've been used TR for 5 years and helped me a a lot in saving precious family time while still have steady improvement!

I'm a weak runner and swimmer so I'm planning a A-race marathon in Dec using barry-p training and an IM 70.3 next April.

What TR plan would you suggest for my goals? Thanks!

Wow, thanks so much for your support of TrainerRoad over the years! We really appreciate it.

I chatted with Coach Chad about this sincethis was a little bit out of my area of expertise, and he had this to say:

"Train for the IM


Don’t focus solely on the marathon becasue focusing all your energy on the run will require too much catch-up in the other two disciplines, one of them (bike, obviously) being the most important, and catch-up for such a long event is not a good idea."


What this means, is that you will schedule your Full Distance Base plan to start 28 week prior to the data of your chosen Ironman in April. This will have about 12 weeks of overlap with your marathon training, however, if your goal is to do well in the Ironman, this overlap is crucial for the development of your cycling and swimming disciplines.


You can still follow the Barry-P running program, just simply delete the TR running workouts out of the calendar and add the Barry P running workouts in manually.


I hope this helps!

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Get Faster with TrainerRoad

Hey quick confirmation for me: Kurt InRide v1; compatible? I found this article that says:

https://support.trainerroad.com/...-inRide-Power-Meter-
The inRide 1 is only compatible with with the Legacy (AIR) app. To find out if you have an inRide 1, follow the instructions listed on this page.

And then it links to the Kurt page. My Macbook can pick up my InRide 1 and it works fine in Zwift; is that good enough?

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JustinDoesTriathlon

Owner, FuelRodz Endurance.

Hey Justin,

Unfortunately, the InRide needs to pair with the Devices Layer within TrainerRoad, so being able to pair with your Macbook will not be sufficient.

I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news :(

That being said, if you have a speed sensor, you can use our VirtualPower feature to replicate what the InRide does by calculating a power reading from your speed. While this does add some complication, it is a very cheap way to power up and running on your indoor setup.

Cheers!

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Get Faster with TrainerRoad

Heading into the build next week. Will be Sustained Power Build medium volume. I will try to substitute in an outdoor ride from time to time which will usually be the last ride of the week as it lands on Saturdays for me and tends to be an endurance ride in the plan.

However, I would occasionally like to sprinkle in the the local Wednesday night throw down ride which for me matches up with Ride #3 each week in the plan. Throw down ride is 2-2.5 hours usually. Any suggestions of how to modify the schedule on those weeks where I can get outside Wednesday nights? My thought was to simply move indoor ride #3 from Wed to Friday dropping indoor ride #4 from the week as that is typically the toughest ride for me each week with respect to intensity.

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"It's good enough for who it's for" - Grandpa Wayne

Oh well, that's life. Looks like I'll need to grab either the Wahoo speed sensor or InRide 2; they're basically the same price, any preference which I should lean towards? It'll just be on the Kinetic.

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JustinDoesTriathlon

Owner, FuelRodz Endurance.

I would recommend picking up a speed sensor over the InRide 2. When I worked as a Support agent, we saw a lot of issues with the InRide 2, and since all the power calculations take place inside the sensor itself, there is nothing we can do to troubleshoot them. With a simple speed sensor, all of the calculations take place within TrainerRoad which leads to a more stable and reliable experience.

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Get Faster with TrainerRoad

Sounds good, thanks much!

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JustinDoesTriathlon

Owner, FuelRodz Endurance.

Hi Bryce:

It's a very useful advice, thanks!

Hey Bryce, first of all I just wanted to give you a big thank you- using TR I have been able to knock 30 mins off my 70.3 PB!

I have until around September until my next race and was thinking about how to approach it. I am doing another 70.3 but was wondering would doing the full distance plan leave me in a better position than doing the half distance plans again?

If your goal is a Half Ironman, then the Half-Distance Plans will be your best option. Each of our plans are precisely tuned for their respective distance, and all of the workouts are designed specifically with one goal in mind: To make you faster on race day.

I hope that clears things up!

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Get Faster with TrainerRoad

Thanks mate. So given the next race is probably 5 odd months away should I do a couple of build and then a speciality to close it out?