Following a custom TrainerRoad training plan doesn’t mean you have to stop doing the rides that made you fall in love with the sport. Do you have a local group ride that happens every week? Or maybe you just want to go on a solo ride on the weekends without worrying too much about following a structured workout.
If you’ve ever wondered how to fit those rides around your training plan, we’ve made it easy. Now you can build those rides right into your training plan using Plan Builder!
Not using a custom plan? Not a problem. You can scroll to the bottom of the article for steps on how to add Group and Solo Rides to your Calendar.
How to Create a Plan with Group or Solo Rides
Proceed through Plan Builder, on the desktop app, mobile app, or TrainerRoad website, until you reach the Training Schedule step. At this step, you’ll see a preview of what a typical week will look like in your training plan. Each workout can be set to a TrainerRoad Indoor Cycling ride or one of our three Outdoor Cycling options: TrainerRoad Outside, Group Ride, and Solo Ride. Choose which day(s) you want to do a Group Ride or Solo Ride.
Each training day of the week has a “difficulty” associated with it: You'll see “Hard Intervals”, “Endurance”, “Easy Ride”, or "Hard Ride".
If you swap a “Hard Intervals” day to be a Group/Solo Ride, it will change to a “Hard Ride”. Don’t worry about doing structured intervals that day, but try to go hard whether you’re riding in a group or on your own. And if that ride ends up being particularly brutal, Red Light Green Light will make sure you get proper recovery to avoid burnout.
For days that call for Endurance or Easy Ride, try your best to do what your training plan would have prescribed. If you know your ride is going to be hard, we recommend scheduling it on a day that would have been “Hard Intervals”.
You can also set the duration of Group Rides and Solo Rides in Plan Builder. From a short 30-minute ride, up to 5 hours long.
How It Works
Once added to your Calendar, you’ll see Group Rides and Solo Rides built right into your training plan! In place of Progression Levels, you’ll see the difficulty of the day on each workout. And when you open those rides, you’ll have training guidance on how to approach that ride based on the difficulty that the plan calls for.
If a Group or Solo Ride happens to fall on a Red or Yellow Day, they’ll adapt accordingly. Hard Rides will adapt to be Easy Rides, and any ride will adapt to a Rest Day.
How to Replace Workouts with Group or Solo Rides
You can replace TrainerRoad workouts in existing training plans with Group or Solo Rides, or vice-versa, right on the Calendar.
To change a single workout on your Calendar, simply right-click on the workout you need to change and choose Ride Solo or Ride With a Group from the pop-out menu.
To change one of your recurring weekly workouts, click on the plan or training phase annotation on your Calendar (e.g. the name of your plan on your starting date or your Base, Build, Specialty phase) to bring up the Training Plan Overview window. Hover over your Training Days and click Edit Weekly Schedule. You can also click "Edit Plan" to re-enter the Plan Builder flow until you reach the Training Schedule section.
From here, you can change any training day of the week to be Indoor Cycling, or Outdoor Cycling with an option of TrainerRoad Workout, Group Ride, or Solo Ride. You can also adjust the duration of each day’s workout, and drag-and-drop each workout to any day of the week.
After you’ve made your desired changes, click Update and confirm that you want to overwrite your original plan settings and any previous edits you’ve made.
How To Add a Group or Solo Ride Without a Custom Plan
- Navigate to your TrainerRoad Calendar.
- Click on the day you want to schedule a Group or Solo Ride.
- From the menu, choose either "Solo Ride" or "Group Ride" from the menu.
- Set this ride to be a Solo or Group Ride and fill out the rest of the ride details.
Note: You can schedule these rides to repeat in your Calendar, so you won't have to add a ride each week or month if it repeats.