I wanted to try Fascat but I got so frustrated with it that I gave up before I ever really got into any plans. Not having a native workout player in the app is a non starter for me. I’m on limited time, I need to load and ride when I’m inside… not transfer to Zwift, or Wahoo, etc… I also can hardly ever get AI to work. It just buffers and says it’s taking too long try again later more times than not.
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Thanks for the comments, everyone! I heard about CoachCat on the VeloVeloVeloVeloVelo PodcastPodcastPodcast today and was curious to find out more. Thanks to y’all I now know more 
I don’t see how something like CoachCat isn’t the future of training for people like us, but like someone mentioned here: The future isn’t today.
I got interested in CoachCat because earlier this week, TR’s AI had estimated my new FTP 1W lower than last month’s, and I wanted to know why.
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So I finally bit the bullet and bought a year on Fascat Coachcat while it was half off.
The support has been phenomenal and the app and AI have taken huge strides forward in recent months and weeks.
Much like TR, you can add races to your calendar for the entire year. The main differences are that Coachcat will keep you in base training most of the time, and then update your training plan based on your upcoming events at the right time. IE, my plan switched to “Gravel Punchy” with 6 weeks until my race. I also have noticed it doesn’t seem to prescribe full recovery weeks, but focuses on taking recovery days every week. IE, Mon recovery, Tues/Wed Intensity, Thur Zone 2, Fri recovery, Sat long effort. During the base phase the Intensity doesn’t exceed sweet spot hardly ever, during the race plan those Intensity days take no prisoners… 2x20 threshold, 6x3 vo2s, and so on… I’ve really come to appreciate the recovery days. I still do a 30 min spin + 30 min of upper body kettlebells on those days, but nothing intense, at all.
I’ve kept my TR subscription active during this time just to see what AI ftp has to say, to which it thinks I’ve added 2 watts in my first month on Fascat(305 → 307). Negligible, but my durability already feels to me much better than when I was on TR.
I’ve also enjoyed entering my hrv and sleep metrics daily, with 3 kids under 5, my sleep isn’t always great, and Coachcat AI has recommended I dial it back on days my sleep and hrv are way off, or at the very least it’s told me to really focus on how my legs feel and that it’s perfectly ok to bail out if it gets too intense and the plan will adjust to compensate. IE the other day I couldn’t manage my 2x20 threshold effort, a workout I’ve finished with no issues weeks prior, it quickly prescribed a shorter workout with shorter intensity intervals to keep me on track without having to lose a whole day.
Coachcat doesn’t recommended testing ftp often, but it does rate the 20 minute test higher than a ramp test when or if you do. It also doesn’t have the 28 day AI ftp feature, but it does monitor every workout and recommend a higher/lower ftp based on feedback you give to the AI chat.
Lastly, it recommends riding your intervals outside as much as possible and using incline over ERG when indoors as to get a more real world feel for training. After years of ERG monotony, I’m loving it honestly.
I plan to finish up the year at least and then decide on returning to TR or Coachcat.
Another side note, if you have issues you can schedule a call directly with a real coach from Fascat through the support chat, which I’ve already used twice.
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Thanks for the feedback. I have been very curious how well CoachCat works since it was launched.
I reckon that is what they mean by “switching from base to race”.
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Quick question, is the base phase made up of the thier typical 16 weeks of sweet spot or a variation of that progression?
Its their 2022 16 weeks of SS plan by default.
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When i used it, i did a max effort on a 40 min climb, unfortunately it just took my max 20 power from that to estimate my ftp…hopefully they updated the “ai ftp detection” (which it wasnt), to actually be ai now
Yeah I don’t think the FasCat FTP detection is AI FTP detection despite its name… It appears to be a simple 95% of 20 min peak power calculation. Not like TR that does appear to ingest all my data and spit out a pretty darn accurate FTP estimate in my experience. Also, in my experience if you don’t do all out efforts on FasCat it rarely suggests an alteration. As most folks who have ridden for a while realize guessing your FTP based on feeling is usually pretty accurate. At one point I felt my FTP on FasCat was low and I questioned coach cat about it. Coach Cat did not offer to analyze my data, but did offer to bring a human coach in to do a physical analysis of my power files. based on those responses I was all but convinced that it is not AI FTP detection. After fighting a bit with the AI bot it then suggested a 10 W increase to my FTP… That made me lose a lot of confidence in the hope for continually accurate FTP prediction based on the sum of all my data. I don’t see how it can say my FTP was accurate at one moment then after questioning to then say it was 10 W higher. I just want a good estimate of my FTP based on the data contained in my 8-12 hours/week of ride data…That is what AI FTP should produce whether I’ve done a full gas 20 min all out effort recently or not.
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