I’m an engineer/math major and serious data geek too. Tried for 3 years as paid TP Premium user to leverage TP charts to gain insight, and this is what I learned:
- follow the plan and adjust workouts by feel
- minor TSS variations or watching TSB only makes me second guess the plan, and not follow it, so focus on following the plan and adjust by feel
- during base I like to accumulate enough miles in my legs to drive CTL above 70, can do this in TrainerRoad because exact number doesn’t really matter too much although I like to be around 90 for a really big event like double century or huge climbing ride.
- during early base a PWR:HR of under 6% on long tempo or aerobic endurance rides just confirms what I’m feeling, and usually obtained within 2-3 weeks so at least for me (not everyone) it has become a “nice to know” and not a “need to know.” Would be nice to see this in TR.
- WKO4 has some really sweet modeling tools for vo2max and FTP, but they are nowhere to be found in TP Premium. And they are fun tools to have, but definitely not need to have.
- I’m also using WKO4 for quick answers to questions like “which rides over 2 hours had TSS of 250 or higher” - no need to pay for TP Premium. Those answers help me pick long outdoor rides for the weekend, or add real-world data to discussions on the forum. WKO has replaced using Veloviewer (roughly $20/year paid), and WKO is far more flexible than Veloviewer.
Sometimes having too much data is worse than not having enough data. Of course that is the very point of this thread, if you prefer to train by a set of numbers (CTL/ATL/TSB) then I get your frustration. I’ve come to the conclusion its better to follow the plan and feelings, and not train by numbers that can’t account for everything going on in my life.
I’m all-in with TrainerRoad and WKO4, not paying for anything else.