Feature Request - Show Target Power & Duration of Next Interval

[octagrapher]

This may be more useful for those who do TR workouts in resistance mode or have non-electronic trainers.

During a workout, it would be nice to be able to see what’s coming up next. For example, in the last 10 seconds of an interval, I get notified that I’m about to greatly increase my effort to 305w for 10 seconds. In ERG mode, this isn’t too much of an issue since the user would just anticipate it. For those in resistance mode, the user would have to process that they will be increasing their power by a lot in the next interval, but there isn’t any good indication as to how much. Visually, the graph does give some context, but usually, it’s best interpreted to understand big jumps in power is coming up but not necessarily communicate where (whether it’s indicated by a watt number or power zone number) unless the upcoming effort is right at FTP since it is visually marked.

Additional Background
From using the Peloton platform (I use Peloton, TR, and Zwift currently), doing power zone workouts on that platform can only be done using resistance, however, how the workout instructions are relayed and how the user perceives where they are at facilitate the flow of executing the workout nicely. In this case, instructions are typically told in 7 power zones and visually the user sees their current output in relation to these 7 zones. Understandably, the tradeoff is that the user is not working at or around a specific power but rather within a zone which may throw off intended training stimuli (e.g. tempo and sweet spot are both to be found in zone 3). For the most part, they use instructions like low, mid, or high zones to guide where in the zones work is to be done. When utilizing resistance mode, this kind of paradigm works rather well in terms of understanding upcoming instructions and current effort.

Of course, I’m not suggesting that TR goes down this route, but there may be some ideas there that may help facilitate resistance mode for indoor workouts and suggesting that from a low-hanging fruit, surfacing what’s coming up next (10s to the next interval) may be a good start.

My use of resistance mode isn’t as extensive since I do have a smart trainer, however, while I do have ERG mode, better understanding what’s next would be a nice-to-have.

TL;DR
As a user, I would like to be able to understand what I’m about to do in the workout so that I can prepare myself for the effort (in ERG mode, mental prep. in Resistance mode, mental and gearing/resistance prep).

Possible solutions: Interval notification preview (show what’s the next effort 10s before it begins). Color the graph intervals based on the zones they are in (at the very least the user would be able to process what zone they’ll be working in next).

Hypothesis: Better execution of workouts especially for those that use resistance mode or have non-electronic trainers.

[bce1992]

would be great to see the power of the following interval during a ride at the dashboard.

[csan]

During a workout, it would be nice if there was some kind of announcement/indication about the next interval. Target and duration. Because some workouts have many, yet distinct from each other, intervals. So, with an indication the rider could think and choose beforehand what gear and/or cadence to use. This would be very useful specially on micro intervals. Where usually you don’t have much time to wait for the watt average to stabilize to check the wattage.

[Rizzi]

It’s there already:
In the app settings there is interval sounds option (beep some seconds before each interval change).
During the workout you can swipe the graph and switch to interval view.
TR support might help out on further questions (platform/app version).

[mcneese.chad]

Yes, I am nearly certain it is already present in the mobile app (Apple / Android).

I have not seen it for the Win/Mac, but I may need to use the side graph view swap similar to the mobile version.

[HLaB]

Coach Chad sometimes gives you a notification/ announcement via text before the interval chimes too.

[mcneese.chad]

That sound is about the return of workout instructions after a longer time of no instructions being shown.

The OP in interested in learning specifically what power and duration is on tap for an upcoming interval. That is not typically addressed in the workout instructions. They do sometimes talk about them, but they are often vague and not consistent in their delivery.

[HLaB]

Ahh right sorry I mis read, I am about to go to bed, I guess I should have went earlier. I was thinking of an the text announcement like "in a bit we do it all again " or whatever he says.

[mcneese.chad]

LOL, no sweat. I’ve made more than my share of mis-reads from lack of sleep, mid-workout brain fade, and just being human

[dendroica1]

On the mobile app you can swipe left on the bottom part of the screen and see the duration and power for past, current and next 2 upcoming intervals. I took a quick screenshot to show what it looks like.

[alex_smallet]

That would be a nice feature to have. I also thought about it as soon as I started using the app.

Also having Coach Chad actually reading the script himself would be much nicer because during workout I usually do not pay attention to the app screen and often miss most of the text. Even more so it would be nice to have a choice who will read the notifications. Maybe some people would like to listen to Amber’s voice or Jonathan’s. Furthermore - for international audience this information could be in their own language read by some popular cyclists.

[mcneese.chad]

I can’t search right now, but there are.nrw voice over options that can function with audio readers.

Ivy posted about it a couple of days ago, if someone else can share it or help with a search.

[csan]

@mcneese.chad

The OP in interested in learning specifically what power and duration is on tap for an upcoming interval. That is not typically addressed in the workout instructions. They do sometimes talk about them, but they are often vague and not consistent in their delivery.

You nailed it! Exactly this.

[csan]

@dendroica1

On the mobile app you can swipe left on the bottom part of the screen and see the duration and power for past, current and next 2 upcoming intervals. I took a quick screenshot to show what it looks like.

This! However i would prefer to have the info displayed without me touching the phone with my sweaty hands. (and having the risk of having the phone falling from the stand too!)
Just a simple line with target and duration.

[FlyingPenguin]

Second this, I tried on the android mobile app and was able to scroll, but when I accidentally got near the yellow line it moved, when I released the press then the workout moved to that point, running the interval I had been on (thankfully I was just playing, not doing a workout properly, I wouldn’t dare to do it in a live workout}. On the ipad app I couldn’t even get the scroll function to work.

What I’d love to see is another page you could scroll to (as well as the current interval, overall average page) without risking moving the yellow mark, that just lists the intervals, one per line, like Zwift does by default, and is scrollable

[bobw]

The thing is, there’s limited screen space: you just can’t have everything on there at once, especially on a mobile phone.

I use an iPad (my wife’s) for workouts, it’s just a case of a quick flick, not a scroll, and you get the info on the upcoming intervals, another flick and you get data such as average power, average cadence, normalised power, etc. about the current interval.

Edit: just checked this - the app updated so I’ve the very latest version and the above does work.

[FlyingPenguin]

Self correction, on the ipad I can only scroll the workout when paused, despite a lot of exploratory dragging, and the workout continues from wherever I leave the line, not ideal. When it’s running I can’t browse at all, but I can hit the little arrow on the right to move the page from graph to summary metrics, being able to hit that twice to get to a workout summary would be great.

[WindWarrior]

@bobw

The thing is, there’s limited screen space: you just can’t have everything on there at once, especially on a mobile phone.

Garmin figured out how to do it on the even more limited screen of a 530…

Max effort sprint with 5 seconds left and I’m limping along at 3W looking forward to that 1 minute rest interval at 132+ W

[csan]

Just a simple tooltip would be nice.

[csan]

Did Ebbetts today. Each big interval had different 5 seconds sprints. Pain the ass to sprint blindly. With a tooltip, ghosttip or whatever, giving time to think ahead about what gear and cadence to use would be great.

Ritter should be even more complicated.