Thanks for the reference to the survey. I missed that as a resource, and have updated my prior post.
I like that the speed/distance reported to Strava are realistic for me, but I would really like it if the distance (and speed secondarily) could be displayed during a workout. The reason for this is that I like to maintain mileage goals and when I used Zwift I would ride zone 2 after my intervals to fill in my weekly mileage targets. Since switching to TR I have not been able to do this. It is really annoying to be surprised when the ride uploads to Strava and the distance is something like 19.82 miles. Perhaps this is silly but I always feel good ending a ride on an even number.
Check out TR’s thoughts on this here - https://support.trainerroad.com/hc/en-us/articles/203103294-Speed-Distance-on-an-Indoor-Trainer
What you might find, as you start to train more seriously, is that weekly time targets and time in zone are more relevant and useful than abitrary mileage.
I moved your request under one from a while ago with the same goal.
I stopped caring about speed and distance in the 90s when I bought my first HR monitor. I cared even less about it when I bought a power meter. Now, I feel super pro when I come back from a long endurance ride and I realise I averaged 16mph, 95rpm for my Z2. I also feel pro when I have no idea how far or fast I went when someone asks me. Maybe that’s just me.
Of course, none of that is true when I let my ego get in the way because part way through an outdoor solo ride I realise I can finish with a fast avg. speed over say, 80-100 miles, and casually mention it at the weekend group ride. Of course, that ruins my weeks training and I suffer on said ride. Sometimes it’s worth having that fun, but I don’t treat myself to a mileage/speed ride very often.
I don’t know about that as I have been training fairly seriously for the last 10 years or so…I do get the point that time in zone is important in making adaptations but once a workout is done and I’m either recovering or spending time in zone 2 I have always enjoyed seeing what my miles are. At the end of the day I disagree that miles are arbitrary as races are not won based on watts or time in zone. They are won based on who covered the distance in the shortest amount of time.
Chad, I think it may be a bit different now as the distance is more accurate now that with the update to methodology of calculating distance. Maybe I’m wrong but it is a lack of data point which seems readily available and easy to display. There is a toggle for displaying cadence on the graph. There could be a toggle to display distance and users could decide if they want to see it. It would be interesting on the back end to see how it effects users both who see and who don’t see distance in their workouts.
I didnt say miles were abitrary. And I’m not really sure what your point is here or how it relates to TR displaying fictional miles.
It’s fine if you want to have a mileage target, I have them, but i also accept the limitations of that data and recognise that there are better ways to measure my training. Even outdoors, 1 mile can be very different to another. This is why time and effort (time in zones) are better training metrics.
I don’t disagree with you at all that miles ridden have little to do with training metrics especially indoors. It’s just a nice data point to see.
Yes, mileage that is abitrary, such as “mileage” done on the trainer. Thats not the same as saying that mileage is, itself, abitrary.
Regardless of the core info driving the speed and distance, the essence of the two requests was the same… to make Speed and/or Distance visible and accessible in the course of a workout, not just afterwards. That’s why I merged them and still believe that was correct.