How to Add A, B, and C Events to Your Calendar

A key component of any training plan is knowing when your events are going to take place and how you are going to prioritize them. With Calendar, you can add events at any time and TrainerRoad will adapt your plan accordingly.

What Types of Events Are There?

Before adding any events to your Calendar it’s first important to know the different classifications of events. As athletes, races are often very important to us. For many, it's the whole reason we train, and in an ideal world, we would roll up to each race with the ability to perform at our maximum physical potential.

However, the reality is that the human body cannot maintain the optimal conditions required to perform at its absolute peak for very long. "Peaking", as we call it, requires an optimal balance of fitness and freshness, and these "stars align" for only a brief window. Through the use of our Training Plans, you'll be able to plan your season so that the "stars align" on the day that your performance is most important to you.

The first step of Building your season is Event & Race Prioritization. The terminology we use for this is A, B, and C races. Below, we’ll explain how each of these types of races will fit into your season.

A Race

These will be races that you will perform at your absolute peak fitness and should be events that are the most important to you. It is best to have around one or two "A" races per year.
If you have multiple A races, they should be at least 12 weeks apart in order to be in peak form for both. If you have two A races within 12 weeks of each other, we recommend prioritizing one as an A race and the other as a B race.
"A" races often have two-week tapers leading up to them, which call for a reduction in overall Training Stress resulting in an increase in freshness, all while maintaining fitness to create this elusive "Peak.”

B Races

While you won’t be fully peaked for these, B races will be excellent trials of your fitness, and you can still be very competitive in them. Keep in mind that your competitors are restricted by the same human limitations as you are, so while you can’t always be in your absolute peak form, they can’t either.
While these races can be season objectives in their own right, they mostly allow you extra opportunities to try different race/nutrition strategies to see what works for you and your body.
These races can be particularly important because they build mental racing experience and confidence that you can carry into your higher-priority "A" events.
You will be given the option to add opener workouts in the days leading up to their B race when adding events using Plan Builder.

C Races

These races are strictly for practice, experience, and fun. The outcomes should carry much less emotional value, and as such, you will simply "train through" them. They should hold a similar value as a key hard workout.
Keep in mind that structured work is what makes you faster, not simply riding hard all the time, and recovery is just as important.
Since these are essentially viewed as a form of training, no taper is required, and if possible, you should schedule them in the same manner as which you’d find a really tough workout, i.e., following an easy or off day.

Takeaway: You can't perform at your peak physical fitness forever, so it is important to decide when you want to be your fastest and plan accordingly.

How Event Priority Affects Adaptations

A Events - TrainerRoad will add a taper for the event and an opener workout the day before the event (if you've enabled this option in the Plan Builder flow).
B Events - TrainerRoad will add an opener workout the day before the event (if you've enabled this option in the Plan Builder flow).
C Events - These events are essentially training/workouts, no taper is involved so TrainerRoad will remove any scheduled workouts on this day.

For more on how to prioritize your events to build a training plan, check out this Article:

How to Prioritize Your Races and Build a Seasonal Race Plan

Adding an Event to the Calendar

1. To add a Race/Event to your calendar, either click on the specific day that your event will take place, or the "+ Add" button on the top right part of your screen.

2. Select "Event" from the drawer on the right of the screen.

3. Enter the pertinent information regarding the event, such as whether it's an A, B, or C event, its duration, and intensity, etc.

4. Once the event is added, you'll be prompted to adapt your plan to include the event. Select "Adapt".

Editing an Existing Event in the Calendar

To edit an Event, simply select it from the Calendar to open the dialogue box then click the Edit/Pencil icon. To simply move the event, you can also drag and drop the event from one day to another if, for example, it was rescheduled.

After editing your Event adaptations will be prompted based on A, B & C Events prioritization.

Marking an Event Complete

If you import an outside ride file on the day of your event, it will automatically match that activity to the event and mark it as complete. In case that doesn't happen automatically you can also associate your event's ride file manually (see Match a Planned Workout with a Completed Workout/Ride).

If you don't have a ride file for your event, you can also manually mark the event as complete by clicking on the event from the Calendar and selecting Mark as Complete.

Add an Event in Plan Builder

You can use Plan Builder if you'd like to build a training plan leading up to a specific event as well as add multiple events during the Plan Builder flow.

To learn more about how to use Plan Builder check out this article: