06.29.2012 - Monday Training and Training Roads Plans

5:55 AM - No real training this morning.  I finished the training plan that I followed the past 6 weeks to train for my Duathlon a week ago so today was the first day of a new plan. I also got a new bike two weeks ago and with a race a week away and being out of town all last week I needed to do some bike fitting this morning.  I don't have any speed cadence sensors on the new bike and it just has platform pedals on it right now, but I got some photos of my position on the old and new bike to see how my fit compared and what adjustments I could make to optimize the new bike.  I got a total of about 15 minutes of ride time and about 45 minutes of bike fitting stuff. 

I was supposed to do a lot of all-out surges on this morning's ride per the new training plan.  It is a computer-generated Trainer Roads plan.  I used a Trainer Roads plan for the last 6 weeks.  In the past, I have only used Trainer Roads for Power Training on the Bike.  I had looked at the triathlon plans before, but they looked like beginner stuff. They had me doing 35 minutes runs twice a week that grew to 50 minutes and 45 minute long runs that grew into 50 minutes runs one week and 90-minute long runs the next week.  I was going into those plans doing 75 minute runs twice a week and 2 hour-long runs every week so I felt the Trainer Roads triathlon plans weren't going to get me to where I needed to be for long coarse triathlons.   I did the Trainer Roads workouts the past 6 weeks because I had spent all my training peak on virtual races and need to start over at zero.  So... the shorter runs in the Trainer Roads plans were about where I needed to be and I was training for a 90-minute Duathlon and not a 5-hour Triathlon so the lower volume didn't concern me as much.  I have to say I was surprised how well I raced on that Trainer Roads plan.  I felt that the plan got me as ready as I could be (starting from zero) in the 6 weeks that I had to work with.  So...I am considering do the Trainer Roads plan for the next 4-5 months. 

Has anyone else used the Trainer Roads Season Planning options to set up your training plans?  If so what were your thoughts on them?  I may bail on the Trainer Roads plan and stick with what I have done in the past, but for now, I am going to experiment with the Trainer Roads plans.  At the very least, it puts the ball in someone else's court to decide what to do every day.  I don't think it is a good long term option for me, but for the short term, it will probably be just fine.