I think you should probably just stick with gels and waffles. Tires probably aren’t great for nutrition, especially during harder workouts.
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Used this thread to make my decision to purchase one of the resistance models. Thought I’d share my experience in the case it might help others trying to make a similar decision. Here’s a little about me. I’ve been using TrainerRoad for about 6 months now, use a pair of Garmin Vector pedals for power, and am currently sitting at an FTP of 344.
I was a little nervous about “downgrading” from a smart trainer to this one and don’t regret it. The low inertia was very noticeable at first and for the first couple months it felt like my indoor FTP was 5-10% lower than outdoors. However, now that I’ve gotten used to the low-inertia I don’t notice any difference and my FTP seems to be pretty close indoor and out. The main potential issue I see with the trainer is spinning out at higher power. I can get through the anaerobic workouts my plan has scheduled so far, but have to spin pretty fast (110-120) to get above 600 W. With my FTP, for VO2 workouts and ramp tests I’m starting to bump into the comfortable cadence limit in my hardest gear (50-11) at around 450W. I probably still have some room to raise my FTP, but too much more, I’d estimate maybe around 360, and I think I’ll start running into some issues. Because of this limitation, slow cadence work isn’t really possible unfortunately.
However, overall my training has improved with this trainer. I switched so that I didn’t have to use a trainer tire. I have a Bontrager R3 on my bike and haven’t noticed any unusual wear yet. Having to swap tires every time I wanted to ride indoors meant I skipped a lot of workouts. Now I can swap between indoor and outdoor rides with minimal effort meaning my training is a lot more consistent now. Bonus, I have a great warmup trainer for races now too!
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Appreciate the perspectives here. I picked up an Omnium last fall when I had my knee replaced. Allowed me to have an easy-to-mount stable trainer in the garage, vs using my SportCrafters rollers w/Overdrive and Inertia drums and a modded InsideRide Floating Fork Stand (FFS – not sure they thought about the acronym…) that fits on my SportCrafters rails. That setup is on a floating platform in my basement. I avoided navigating stairs, and the gyrations to mount the bike on the rollers – even with the fork mount.
Since then I’ve landed on the rollers sans fork stand for most workouts, and the Omnium for those times I don’t want to have to think about stability and handling the bike.
FWIW at age 67 unlikely I’ll ever see and FTP above 300, so unlikely I’ll outperform the resistance available. Yes, the Omnium does have less inertia, but that’s not a big issue for me.
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how are you using it with tr workouts?
Not OP but I picked one up as I’m currently in the process of moving homes and the place I’m in doesn’t have enough space for a dedicated trainer space.
It’s fine for TR workouts, the only issue I could see is depending on your gear ratio might spin out, I’ve got my TT bike on it with a 52 - 10/30 and it’s enough range for everything including VO2, I’ve only had to use the 12T for some sprints so more space to grow.
Had my gravel bike on there with a 42 - 9/42 and that was less ideal spent most of my time in the 13 cog for even sweetspot work.
If you’ve got electronic gearing something I’ve noticed is useful is to put the gear you’re on on your garmin and use that when going between intervals. So for recovery I’ll be in the 21T and then for efforts will be in the 15T, just reduces the mental load for figuring out what gear to be in. And shifting 5-10 seconds before the effort starts to get everything to stabilize before it starts
do you find that it is easy to stay on power target?
Yeah, sometimes can be a bit hard if you’re between useful cadence’s. But sometimes I find it easier to hold power than on my smart trainer
Okay but you can cite paywalled research because quite a few of us on this forum might have access. Can you name some of those studies?
Not sure we can expect an answer from them since it’s been nearly 4 years since they last logged in to the forum.
Sometimes technology is truly challenging for me. 
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No harm in trying and it’s good to find some of these other topics related to current issues.
I just happened to check their status and see they have not been here in ages, so I thought I’d mention it at least.