I totally understand where you are coming from Jonathon. I was the one who revived this thread and asked the question as I felt that we were not being answered!
[Feb 14]
Thanks for the feedback!
I get this, and I think our current annotation > time off > Adaptation model works for folks who have a set ‘end date’ event in mind that is rigid, where NOT all of our athletes need to abide by that timeframe at all.
Will pass this along to the team! Cheers."
This issue was passed along to the team February 14th. And I asked the following close to three months later.
I was then responded to the same day.
I did not get the answer I wanted. I have adaptive training enabled. I thought the team was working on a way to give us back push and pull. I too am not satisfied in any way with the annotation system. I want to complete all my workouts even when life gets in the way. HOWEVER, I understand that this is not all about me and accepted that I was not going to get an answer. I understand the annotation system and quite frankly hate it but its a first world problem and am more than willing to live with it. I also understand Ivy is the community manager and does an excellent job giving us the information she can. I posted the following.
"I thought there was going to be a push or pull option or something brought back for those of us on AT. Life comes up. I would like to be able to push or pull and have the plan adapt to it. I would like to still have the option of doing that weeks training a week later and not just miss it.
I guess the annotations is all we have. I must have read the thread incorrectly."
And I gave up on the matter.
Ivy responded with
"It sounds like you’d like to move a particular week of training a week later, even if this week of training isn’t best for you. This was the issue we built for with the new annotations.
We were finding push/pull was getting people’s training off track. Annotations make sure we give you the right workout after your time off so you continue getting faster.
You may end up getting the exact same workout(s) when you’re back from your time off OR Adaptive Training may find a better workout based on fitness changes."
I had already given up at this point. Ivy’s response to me frustrated me a little more. At 53 years old I am not really a racer and up here in Canada our season is incredibly short and if I am lucky I get to race three times a season. I am more of a trainer for health and fitness than I am a racer.
At 53 I think I have earned the right to choose what is best for me and my program.
“It sounds like you’d like to move a particular week of training a week later, even if this week of training isn’t best for you.” I would hope that I should be allowed to have some input in deciding what is best for me. I understand your algorithm thinks it knows what is best for me BUT what is best for my mental health and well being? If I am training for health and fitness and not really racing I personally get upset/angry and a little depressed when I do not get the opportunity to do all my workouts. Your software is designed to make everyone faster. That is awesome. I want to be faster but realistically I am a cat 5 racer. When I race cat 5 I am racing in the 17 to 75 age group. How much am I going to actually be able to compete in this race. I enjoy it… But Most likely I am going to get yanked from the race before it is even over. Because of this it is mostly the training and riding outside that rewards me.
As I said, I had left the topic as I realized that Ivy was unable to give me an answer to the question that I asked. I realized all I was going to get was a solution that trainer road had chosen for this issue that did not fit my needs or the needs of many other users. I did not feel like flogging a dead horse.
Today is my first day looking at this topic as I had a notification on it.
“As Ivy mentioned, removal of push-week functionality was a deliberate decision made to reduce confusion for our athletes. Looking at the data, very few of our athletes used the push-week functionality, and it was a common source of confusion. It still remains an area we need to improve and it’s on our list of things to do, but it’s important to accurately identify and differentiate vocal minorities and silent majorities. We have to prioritize building the features that will enable the majority of our athletes to get faster. As of now, placing refinement of this aspect of the user experience ahead of larger issues would be a disservice to the majority of our athletes.”
- I disagree greatly on this. It would be interesting to know how many users are top shelf racers vs the rest of us normal human beings.
- Very few users used the push pull week as very few of us actually needed to use it in the past. I only used it one time I think in the past when I had hernia surgery. In the past the world was a normal place. We had races, events and could go anywhere on earth without issues. That was before 50 versions of covid. That has changed cycling and many things for the entire planet. Covid has affected your user base more than any one thing that has happened since the founding of your company. Quite frankly I feel your algo cannot fully compensate on how this pandemic will affect all of your users!!! Many of us want the opportunity to keep some sense of empowerment and control of our lives and our training as there are already so many things outside of our control.
I asked a question. It really was not answered… I will go back to being a member of your silent minority now. I just wanted to explain where I and maybe a lot of users are coming from.
I do not agree with began’s wording or approach in dealing with this issue. However he was very clear in what many of us feel on the matter. I do not want an explanation of how to do something I do not want to do that does not serve my purpose. I want an actual solution to my problem. HOWEVER I know I am not going to get a solution to my problem as it has been made perfectly clear that myself and riders like me are not the users you are catering to. I fully accept that. Love the product. Love the podcast. Love everything you all do for us users. I love everything you all including IVY bring our way.