I’ve got some myself IMHO there is too much discussion in this thread on stuff that doesn’t matter including statements about no TR surveys Help us improve TrainerRoad! (Survey)).
Trying to get this thread back on a more productive track… I heard Nate on the podcast say they judge many new features based on a simple question “will it make you faster?” And back to my original point, its best to assume this isn’t a trivial feature to implement and so its going to go on a prioritized list. There are a long list of things people want, along with things that TR wants to implement to stay competitive. And IMHO at a high-level those are the only two things that matter - priority and effort-to-implement.
I think you should argue from the “this will help make me faster” standpoint. The workaround right now is to look at a TT result, for example (don’t laugh at my big guy on endurance bike non-aeroness) one of my Merckx class no-aerobar 10 mile TT has this in Strava description “27:47 / 21.6mph / 281W / 159bpm / 69 degrees / wind 5mph SSW.” Most of that info is useless in virtual world, unless I’m feeding it and the course into Best Bike Split.
Bear with me for a minute, this is going somewhere I promise… Thinking out loud, if TR wants to help make me faster on a TT then I would sure like to be able to set a workout goal to exceed 281W average power for 28 minutes. And since TR is my partner to help make me faster, on the trainer I might start doing Lola a 30-minute practice TT workout. Or maybe focus late build phase on power goals for 30-minute intervals.
Wouldn’t it be really nice if TR somehow incorporated goal tracking like that, a power goal for a target duration? Goes along with what we hear on the podcast - know the demands of your target event and train for it. Guess I’d rather have that than fake speed, even if the fake speed were pretty accurate (aka riding solo in Zwift).
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.
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 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.
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.
IMHO there is too much discussion in this thread on stuff that doesn’t matter including statements about no TR surveys Help us improve TrainerRoad! (Survey)).