Having multiple, overlapping training plans is not conducive to effective training and can potentially lead to more harm than good. It can also be confusing to know which workout for the day you should complete.
Why Overlapping Training Plans Are Not Effective
Overtraining
TrainerRoad Training Plans are designed to progressively load and stress the body so it can adapt and become stronger and faster. By attempting to follow two plans at once, you risk overloading your body beyond its ability to recover and adapt. This can lead to overtraining syndrome, which includes symptoms like persistent fatigue, reduced performance, mood changes, disturbed sleep, and increased susceptibility to injuries and illnesses. In the worst-case scenario, it can lead to burnout, and you may lose your motivation to train altogether.
Recovery
Recovery is crucial for adaptation and progress. When you do a hard workout, your body needs time to recover and rebuild itself stronger than before. When you follow two training plans at once, you're more likely to have back-to-back hard workouts with insufficient recovery in between. This can hinder your progress and increase the risk of injury.
How to Remove Overlapping Training Plans
TrainerRoad detects if you’ve inadvertently added an overlapping plan to the calendar. We also prevent plan overlap for all newly created plans.
If you’re seeing a notification that you have an overlapping plan, you’ll need to adjust the start date of your training plan in order to proceed.
How to Fix an Overlapping Plan
Step 1. Take note of the date range for your first plan.
Step 2. Change the start date of plan 2 to be after the end date of plan 1.
You can also resolve a conflict by deleting a plan from this window.
Note: you will not receive a warning when deleting a plan. The plan is deleted immediately.
Step 3. Repeat the process for additional overlapping plans (if any).
Once overlapping plans have been fixed, the "Update Plans" button becomes clickable to proceed to your calendar.
How to fix plan overlap while creating a new plan
While creating a new custom plan, your start date defaults to today’s date. If you have an existing plan during this date range, you’ll need to either delete your existing plan or adjust the new plan’s start date to after the end date of your existing plan.
The error message will no longer appear once the conflict is resolved.
Note: if you no longer want the existing plan, you can delete it from this page.