Home Search Results

3 results for “Mountain Bike Training”

Found 3 results

How to Use TrainerRoad AI Workouts

You can use TrainerRoad AI Workouts to train flexibly without a plan or add additional training to your plan. Each AI Workout is selected by TrainerRoad AI based on your workout history and predicted performance. What Are TrainerRoad AI Workouts? AI Workouts are one-off, intelligently chosen sessions that you can add to your TrainerRoad Calendar. AI selected workouts are chosen from the TrainerRoad library based on your recent training and predicted performance. You can add them to any day on your calendar to get a workout that fits your needs for that day. When you go to add an AI Workout to your Calendar a workout will be chosen for you based on this criteria: 1. Duration: Pick how long you want to ride for that day 2. Focus or Discipline: Choose a type of workout that matches your goals or the type of training you'd like to complete that day. Workouts are broken into Category and Zone. Category options include: Endurance, Climbing, Attacking, Criteriums, Zwift Racing, Group Rides, Cyclocross, Mountain Biking or Time Trialing Zone options include: Endurance, Tempo, Sweet Spot, Threshold, VO2 Max and Anaerobic 3. Interval Structure: Within each category of riding workouts will be broken into interval types. Choose the interval type that you would like to complete. 4. Inside or Outside: Before scheduling your workout you will have the option to choose whether you would like to complete the workout inside or outside. How to Add an AI Workout Step One: Open your Calendar (web or mobile) and select the + Add button in the upper right hand corner of the screen. Step Two: In the cycling category choose TrainerRoad AI Workout Screen Shot 2025-10-14 at 11.38.45 AM.png Step Three: Choose whether you would like to choose a workout based on Category or Zone Screen Shot 2025-10-14 at 11.41.36 AM.png Step Four: Set your ride length in the drop down Screen Shot 2025-10-14 at 11.42.50 AM.png Step Five: Scroll to the training focus (e.g., Endurance, Climbing, Attacking, Time Trial, Criterium, Cyclocross, Mountain Bike, Gravel, Zwift Race, Group Ride) or the zone (Endurance, Tempo, Sweet Spot, Threshold, VO2 Max and Anaerobic) that you would like to select a ride from Step Six: Choose the zone and type of interval structure you would like to complete and select this option Screen Shot 2025-10-14 at 11.44.00 AM.png Step Seven: Review the details of the type of workout you are selecting and click Schedule.

TrainerRoad AI • Last updated on Jan 21, 2026

The Basics of Specialty Training

To refine our cycling abilities and achieve peak fitness, making both highly specific to our cycling discipline and racing demands, we will progress through the third (and potentially final) training phase: the Specialty Phase. Specialty Phase training plans integrate the principle of specificity into training. Each training plan in this training phase strives to be as specific to your target events or riding discipline as possible. So the workouts you’ll find in this training phase focus on the specific cycling goals/efforts that you’ll be faced with on the road, mud, gravel, or whatever tickles your fancy. What You’ll Gain from Optimal Specialty Training During the Specialty Phase, we will increase our focus on the intensity levels that you will see in competition. In other words, we are increasing the specificity of your training to closely resemble the demands that you will see on race day. With this increase in specificity also comes a slight decrease in volume. By keeping the intensity high, and the volume levels moderate, your conditioning is maintained and a layer of “freshness” is revealed. This freshness is what we are looking for come race day, because if you've ever raced with overly fatigued legs, you know that that fatigue does not enhance your performance. While the Specialty Training Plans are primarily focused on increasing your fitness, the Specialty Phase is the perfect time to seek psychological, technical, and tactical adaptations as well. It is a good idea to get outdoors and train on the bike you will be racing to gain specific skills and comfort with the demands you will see on race day. This is important for all types of racers because, as we know, there is more to racing than your FTP. - Time trialists and triathletes will want to gain familiarity with their bikes, and possibly make tweaks for comfort out on the road. - Road racers will want to develop pack riding skills, tactical knowledge, and team dynamics. - Mountain bikers will want to practice riding technical sections and may want to tweak equipment like tires to further dial in their bike. - Gravel riders will want to get time out on the bike to make sure their bikes and fit will comfortable over rough and uneven surfaces. With the Calendar feature, replacing a planned indoor workout with an outdoor one is super simple. You can learn how to associate outdoor rides here. Picking a Specialty Plan If you're looking for guidance on which Specialty Phase to pick, we recommend checking out the discipline-specific articles for an in-depth recommendation that related to your goals and aspirations for the season. You can view these articles from the "Training Questions" section of our Help Center. Racing During the Specialty Phase Throughout the Specialty Phase, many athletes will be weaving lower-priority events into their training. This is assuming you’ll be racing a high-priority event at the end of the training phase. While this is the assumption, you don’t have to be racing to achieve a fitness peak. If you do have a race on the weekend but also have a workout scheduled that same day, consider this a “training race”. Forget about the scheduled workout for that day as you’ll be getting plenty of training stimulus from your race. In these cases, you may also need to adjust your scheduled workout that follows with a lower-intensity ride to maintain a good progression in your training plan. Sometimes a heap of stress from a race can necessitate these kinds of small adjustments. Tapering for Your Event I manufacture a tapering strategy into each Specialty Phase training plan I design. The goal of a taper is to minimize the negative physiological and psychological stresses of daily training to optimize sports performance. Instead of trying to eke out further positive physiological responses from increased training, our aim is to enhance performance by reducing training stimulus in a way that reveals a layer of “freshness” in the athlete. To properly taper for an event, I recommend 1-2 weeks of a progressive, nonlinear reduction in training volume while still maintaining a large portion of training intensity. Since many races will land on a Sunday, I design the taper week to leave out the Sunday workout in anticipation for the event. Should your event land on a Saturday, feel free to leave out Saturday’s scheduled workout in lieu of your event. Skipping Specialty Phase training amounts to missing out on the opportunity to capitalize on your season of hard work. Specialization is meant to sharpen your skills like a fine blade — should you establish your fundamental skills, build upon them in a slightly more specific manner, then why stop there? If the confines of timing ‘til your event are what you face, reducing the amount of time spent in Specialty training is an option. Summary of Specialty Phase Training Establishing base fitness paves the way for workloads that are heaped higher & higher during build training. With both forms of conditioning buttoned up, the intent is now to top off your fitness, uncover a high level of freshness and lock down your confidence over these final 8 weeks of training. What's Next? Now that you know the ins and outs of the three training phases, check out the "Adjusting Your Training Plan" section of the Help Center to learn how to make modifications to fit your schedule.

Understanding your Training Plans • Last updated on Aug 13, 2026

Choosing the Right Discipline For Your Events

TrainerRoad builds your plan around your A event's selected discipline or type. This guide is here to help you understand what each discipline trains and how to choose a match for your event. Why Event Type Matters Your event type influences: - Which training phases you get (for example, a plan that emphasizes sustained power vs short, punchy power) - Which training zones and workout profiles are emphasized - What fitness you are most prepared to express on event day No discipline is “better” than any others. Each discipline simply trains your body in a different way to prepare for different event demands. The Simple Way to Choose In many cases, the event’s advertised label is enough: - Criterium → Criterium - Time Trial → Time Trial - Cyclocross → Cyclocross - XCO, XCM, Short Track → the matching MTB discipline - Triathlon Event → the matching triathlon discipline It gets trickier when the event label is broad, like Road Race, Gravel, or Gran Fondo. When that happens, use these four factors to identify the dominant effort type your event will demand: 1. Advertised discipline 2. How long you will ride (duration) 3. Climbing profile (how many climbs, how long, how steep) 4. Your goal (race for results vs ride for a steady finish or target time) A helpful reminder: distance alone is not a reliable guide. The same distance can mean very different effort types depending on terrain, surface, and speed. Duration tells you much more about pacing demands. A quick Decision Guide For More Ambiguous Road & Gravel Events Road races: Rolling Road Race vs Climbing Road Race Start here if your event is a mass start road race and you are unsure which road discipline fits. - Rolling Road Race is usually best when the decisive moments are repeated surges, attacks, and short climbs. Think punchy efforts and frequent changes in pace. - Climbing Road Race is usually best when long, sustained climbs are the defining feature. Think sustained climbing power and longer efforts. Helpful shortcut: - If the key climbs are short and punchy, lean Rolling. - If the key climbs are long and sustained, lean Climbing. If you are not sure, pick the discipline that best matches where you expect the hardest efforts to happen. On some courses, long climbs early do not decide the race, and the event can still be ridden like a Rolling Road Race. Long Road Events: Gran Fondo Gran Fondo is the best fit for events where the dominant demand is steady pacing and endurance. - Typical match: long road events where your goal is to finish strong, ride a steady pace, or hit a target time. - Terrain can be flat or mountainous. For most riders, the pacing challenge is still the main limiter once the duration is long enough. Gravel Events Gravel events can be very different, so the best match depends on duration and how the event is raced. - If your event is primarily a long, steady endurance day where pacing is the priority, Gravel is usually the best fit. - If your event is shorter and raced aggressively with frequent surges, you may also consider Rolling Road Race, Climbing Road Race, or Cross Country Marathon, depending on terrain and surface. Helpful shortcut: - Over about 4 hours: Gravel is usually the best starting point because pacing and endurance are critical for most athletes. - Under about 4 hours: Gravel still works well, but a more race-focused discipline(Rolling/Climbing Road Race) can be a good option if the event is punchy and you are racing for position. Time Trials Time Trial discipline is built around steady, controlled efforts against the clock. - Best fit: most TTs, especially flatter courses or those where pacing is steady and continuous - If your TT is unusually punchy or very climb-heavy, Climbing Road Race can be a reasonable alternative, depending on how the effort actually feels on the day. Hill Climbs There is no dedicated hill climb discipline, so match based on climb duration: - Over about 20 to 30 minutes: Time Trial - About 2 to 30 minutes: Climbing Road Race - Under about 2 minutes: Rolling Road Race or Climbing Road Race (choose based on whether the effort is more punchy or more sustained) If you are doing a season of mixed hill climbs, Climbing Road Race is usually the most well-rounded option. Stage Races Stage races are their own category because day-to-day recovery becomes part of the performance demand. Choose the discipline that matches the stage race type you are doing. If your stage race includes mixed stages, pick the discipline that best represents the dominant demands across the event. Off-Road Event Types in TrainerRoad Off-road events vary significantly. The easiest way to pick the right TrainerRoad event type is to match the discipline to the effort you will repeat most often: short surges, sustained hard laps, or long pacing with hard climbs late. Short Track Cross Country (STXC) Pick STXC if your event is: - About 20 to 30 minutes - Very fast and intense with constant accelerations This plan builds repeatable high-intensity efforts and quick recovery between surges. Cross Country Olympic (XCO) Pick XCO if your event is: - About 60 to 100 minutes - Lap-based with repeated climbs and technical features This plan builds the ability to repeat hard efforts near and above threshold across a full race-length effort. Cross Country Marathon (XCM) Pick XCM if your event is: - About 3 to 8 hours - Off-road with meaningful climbing and repeated hard sections This plan builds long endurance and fatigue resistance, while still preparing you for surges and hard climbs late in the race. Cyclocross (CX) Pick Cyclocross if your event is: - About 45 to 70 minutes - Constantly changing pace with repeated bursts, corners, and short run-ups This plan builds repeatable high-intensity efforts and recovery for one-hour racing. Off-Road Triathlon Many off-road tri formats align closely with Olympic distance demands on the bike, even if the bike leg is shorter, because the terrain is more demanding. - Best starting point: Off-Road Triathlon - Only choose Sprint, Half, or Full if the event distances truly match those formats Quick Tie-Breakers - XCO vs XCM: around an hour and very intense, choose XCO. Multi-hour pacing with hard climbs late, choose XCM. - XCM vs Gravel: if it feels like an off-road race with frequent punchy efforts, choose XCM. If it is more about steady pacing for a long day on mixed surface, choose Gravel. Common Exceptions: When A Different Event Might Help You If there is more than one good option, that is normal. Look at your event’s advertised type, expected finish time, and whether you are racing for results or pacing for a finish or target time. Long events where you are racing for results If the event is long but your goal is explicitly competitive and the race is likely to be decided by surges, attacks, and climbs, you may choose a discipline that places more emphasis on variability and intensity. That can be a good choice, but there is a trade-off: - More emphasis on punchy and race-like fitness - Less emphasis on the deepest steady endurance compared to Gran Fondo or Gravel If your main goal is to pace steadily and finish strong, Gran Fondo or Gravel is still usually the best match. longer climbing events or stage races where you will ride a steady pace In these cases It can be smart to pick a Gran Fondo or Gravel plan, to train for smooth steady efforts instead of training to chase and make breaks up a climb. Mixed terrain/discipline race like a stage race or mixed surface event In those cases, pick the discipline that best matches: - The effort type you will spend the most time doing - Will you be holding a steady pace, or chasing and making breaks? - The effort type you most want to improve for your goal An example could be a longer event where you ride Road, Gravel, & Single Track with plenty of elevation gain: - If you intend to hold a steady pace, Gravel would be a good choice. - If you are going to race it, Climbing Road Race or Cross Country Marathon would better fit that intent for most athletes. Between those you would want to pick what you want to improve. Have More Than One A event? A events should be planned at least 8 weeks apart. TrainerRoad will focus the plan around your A events, in order. After each A event, the plan can shift focus toward the next A event. After the final A event, the plan uses your last B event discipline, or your last C event discipline if there is no B event. A events are the strongest drivers of plan focus. Changing Your Event Type In many cases, you can change an event’s discipline. When you do, TrainerRoad may prompt you to update your plan so training matches the new discipline. There are a few situations where changing discipline requires deleting and recreating the event instead, such as switching between cycling and triathlon categories, or switching between stage race and single-day event categories. FAQs How do I Build a Custom Training Plan? You can use the resources below to learn how to build a custom plan and to dig deeper into their structure: - TrainerRoad Plan Builder Over View & Walk Through - Understand the structure & science behind TrainerRoad Plans. How to Choose Which Event to Make My A Event? In most cases, you want your A event to be your primary event for the season. You can learn more here: - How to Add A, B, & C Events to Your Calendar - How to Prioritize Your Races and Build a Seasonal Race Plan I'm not Training For an Event, What can I do? TrainerRoad has many goal-based plan options as well. You can learn about them here. How Should I Choose the Event Intensity? It's helpful to think of the intensity rating of the event as the aspirational pace you want to ride it. Every athlete is different but here is a bit of general guidance: - Recovery - Tempo could be an all-day or repeated-day effort(rest day or easy day during a stage race). - Tempo - Hard could be a race level effort for 3-8 hours. - Hard - All out efforts would be a max level effort for shorter events(1-3 hours)

Choosing Your Training Plan • Last updated on Feb 13, 2026