Trainerroad for Ironman Plan?

Does anyone here use Trainerroad?

Have you used their Full Distance Tri plan?

I was just wondering if it was worth the cost. I was thinking about using it over the winter months for Ironman Lanzarote 2020.

At the minute I use Zwift but just for those crappy days outside. I thought The structured plan of TR might be good.

Cheers!

I dont but also interested in the answers.

When I trained for Lanza last year I did all the rises outside as I cant stand the turbo. It was miserable. I had to stop once to change my soaked gloves and stood there with my hands in my arm pits trying to get the feeling back in my fingers. Think for 2020 I need a better home setup.

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I think the issue with indoor training is the attrition caused by weather and gravity. If you’re going to do Florida or Barcelona, fine. But for something like Lanza, there’s not the physically & mentally debilitating effect of the hills & wind.

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Yes this is true. Last year I spent ages planning the hilliest and most exposed routes I could. Covered pretty much the entire Chilterns / Dunstable downs.

Had to replicate the long drags of Lanza though, all I have nearby are short sharp shocks.

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Yes, and I’ve got a quite long running thread over on the TR forums if you’re interested. “Ironman in 2019”, we’ve got about fifty people doing IM this year.

I’ve used them for a few years and still am, I think they’re pretty good. Of course you have to be consistent to benefit from any training which is my problem, but they’re now much more flexible and you can move sessions around in the Calendar if life gets in the way.

Indoors is perfect for winter training, but this season I’ve struggled with the long rides on the trainer. They’ve adapted these to Outdoor versions which you can opt in to, which is fine now the weather is better but it’s just guidance notes at the moment. They’ve got some other stuff like interaction with garmin on the cards too.

The early days can be frustrating until you have the kit set up properly, fans, towels, drinks ( tv, WiFi if you want it)

I’ve used it for the last three years. Initially did their 40km TT plan as I was focusing on going under the hour back on 2016. When I was training for the Outlaw in 2017 also used the IM plan and have been for IMCH this year. I really like it. I like the structure and that I don’t have to think too much. TBH I dip in and out of the swim sets and running I do my own sessions.

Do I think it’s worth it? Well, it works for me and I think it’s pretty good value. I’ve now also got a bank of favourite sessions that I do when I know I want a particular type of session. The main drawback I find is the sheer volume of some of their plans. I’ve never done any of the high volume ones as I just can’t recover enough.

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Should also add I’ve never done over 2.5hrs on the turbo so I’ve never done their really long turbo sessions. I’d rather freeze outside.

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I’ve done four hour WattBike session as;

50-55minutes bike
5-10minutes treadmill

That (DOES NOT) break the monotony

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I’ve done 4hrs on zwift. It was when had a bad shoulder so no option but even with a distraction it was grim.

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Are any of you still running TR? @wheezy @joex

If you’ve got a subscription, would you mind taking a quick peek at the mid volume 70.3 plan and letting me know, roughly, how it looks. Tempted to pay a month’s subscription, pull up the plan, write down all the sessions and then slot them into a training program along with my own running stuff. I can chop and change then at will, but am unsure on how to structure a 12 week program on the bike, specifally for 70.3 type stuff.

TIA

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Do lots of aerobic rides - try to get used to the aero position
Do some longish rides at target power for HIM - 60 -120 mins
Do one “hard” session a week - 4-6 x 4 mins @ 105-115% FTP

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Want a free month’s trial? if you DM me your e-mail address I believe I can send you a code for a free month.

Turns out if I go to the website rather than the app, the link is there. Here you go, if you want it… https://www.trainerroad.com?referral=LZ6A8KRP

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I can do the same. Don’t know if you can double up?! Doubt it, unless you want to sign up on a second account for another free month.

The new adaptive training is sounding very interesting. The TrainNow suggested workouts are already pretty handy

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sweet thanks.

@funkster thanks bud - I think i’m just being lazy though in not engaging my brain properly! The likelihood is i’ll still pick and choose from any off the shelf plan to fit around how i’m feeling and what’s going on in my life.

I’d also offer a referral but you’ve already got one :slight_smile:

Always best to start with low volume, and low volume != easy

12 weeks will only get you through a shortened 4 weeks of base then 8 weeks of build - the full cycle would be 24 weeks.

Bike only and very broadly speaking, HD MV Base is four bikes per week; 1 VO2, 1 Tempo, 1 Sweet Spot, 1 Endurance and HD MV Build phase is four bikes; 1 VO2, 1 Threshold, 1 Tempo, 1 Endurance.

Ta.

Not starting from scratch, so that’s fine. Just need ideas for those tempo, SS sessions etc and to understand what percentages they use. All stuff that in running is just 2nd nature to me now. But i’m not fully down yet with whether a bike session should be 70%, 80%, 90% etc and what they mean to me .

:+1:

Basically if you’re down with the “three hard days max” per week approach, I think you’re best off selecting a plan that gives you two hard bikes leaving you space for one hard run. Or in my case, as I’m doing “no hard running” for now I’ve got space for three hard bikes.

Anyway, Adaptive Training is about to change all that and “the plans” will essentially become baselines or frameworks, as the workout you actually get will depend on your performance in the previous workout.

Off topic slightly, but I’m interested to see where they rank me on the new Levels. The latest podcast said that was due to land in the mainstream release imminently.

I’m already using TrainNow quite a bit, as my coach occasionally put’s in a “riders choice” type session, alongside the structured ones he inputs into TrainingPeaks. Tuesday’s was that before, which was the Zwift Racing League, but with that having ended, I’m plugging with TrainNow. They do seem fairly well aligned with where I’m at. I had a tendency to self-select random workouts that were way too hard before

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I’ve seen mine - it wasn’t pretty! :smiley: And :shushing_face: I’m not supposed to tell anyone that.

What I understand from it though is that if you haven’t done any endurance workouts recently you’re going to score at the bottom. Because I had a 1 for Endurance :rofl: Harsh but it makes sense given what it’s really communicating. And for VO2max I had 5.9 - and guess what? The last workout I had done was a VO2max with a score of 5.9.

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While I have gone back to using TR, tbh, I’ve got to a point where I wouldn’t follow a plan as prescriptively as I have in the past. While I’m on the SS base plan low volume, atm, I’m using it more as a guide, then anything. I don’t think they’ve released the Trainnow function on IOS yet, but that’s what I’m waiting for as I think that could be really good.