I think you can do an initial onboarding call with TR
That sounds like me 15 years ago. 150-200 miles/week with over half that in fast group rides with impromptu KOMs, town line sprints… I was never fitter before and certainly not since.
I’m at a bit of a crossroad with my indoor cycling journey. As a 58 year old who’s never raced I’m pretty much over structured training and now want to just ride for fun. I’ve stayed loyal to TR for many years because it’s been super reliable, I love the company and the people that work there, and it’s been excellent value on my grandfathered plan. My TR sub still has another 10 months left so not going anywhere yet, but unless I have a change of mindset I feel TR may have run it’s course for me. Having just tried Zwift+ and been impressed, perhaps it’s time to change up my indoor riding sessions. Will see what happens next year.
Intervals.icu? Not used it but isn’t that a program/workout builder for the self coached athlete?
You’re actually describing CoachCat by FasCat. 30 min. onboarding call, interactive coaching, integration with wearable data, pushing planned workouts to 3rd party apps and more than 2 weeks of future training visibility. You make whatever changes are recommended. It’s all there at basically the same price as TR. I’m a TR subscriber who wanted all that stuff on the TR platform, but alas…
Do you tell people watching WWE that it’s not real? Or point out the inaccuracies in superhero movies? Some things can just be for fun or entertainment you know.
No way . You mean Hulk Hogan took roids just to do some fakies?
I’ve noticed this somewhat with my riding friends who just ride as hard as they can as much as they can, no structure. And they have become very fast with increased endurance.
Zwifty ridiculousness! 
Dearest Nathan,
Truly sloppy indeed!
Was it the 
or the bold words I used when pouring my heart out?
Yes, I should have known better. Yes, I paused typing just as I was about to add that emoji and those bold letters. BUT I DID IT ANYWAY!
And, for that sir, I am truly sorry.
How rude it would be of me to use AI on an AI-Powered Cycling Training Forum!
I wrote this very personal post myself but rest assured that now I have refrained from adding the sorely needed em dashes, punctuation, spelling, and grammatical corrections in this reply begs for.
Regretfully yours,
Aye Yi Yi!
https://www.trainerroad.com/forum/faq
Might be worth a re-read
And why wouldn’t they?
Putting in the time you can & want to spent, maximize intensity so you can recover and ride the routes you want to get better. Maybe with the exception where one want to win specific races, the rest is nutrition & sleep.
And Zwift allows exactly that. The plans help balancing somewhat the different effort levels wrt your objective, but you could also just leave that to auto regulation.
I just signed up with switch to winter time and will follow their plan there it fits me and leave it where it doesn’t.
At TR I will look again once they return to their motivating straight progression system from past days and got rid of whoever sold them this AI idea 
imo, Zwift’s Ai coaching approach wont solve the issues that I personally found with TR’s Ai coaching so there will be no temptation here.
Its not so much the volume or the training choices specifically, its the other aspects that you would get with a human or open ai coach.
e.g. I can tell a human/ai coach to look at my calendar which is accurate for the next 8 weeks & updated weekly, that if my wifes on shift that evening then I cannot train, or if I am out for drinks on the Saturday night, then a 4 hour endurance ride on Sunday morning may not be the best thing to do.
Or that my limit per week is 5 sessions otherwise I risk being divorced lol
Going to an Ai model directly solved these issues for me as it can think outside the box & make these decisions, in comparison to the locked down versions used elsewhere within training programs which try to set a schedule for me.
Until the training platforms get smarter with their delivery, I am staying on the outside.
If only, JmGant!
I think we would all like a white glove consultatuve coaching option. However, I’m wondering how that would be sustainable and scalable. What I have experienced is that when I do reach out to TR I have received replies with real options for consideration from real people. It’s pretty clear to me that the TR crew does a good job balancing what’s happening with me and the program (AI Coach) while also factoring being mindful that suggestions coming from them (Humans) are for consideration, not coaching.
Maybe a TR call-in show?
I do like a lot of the historical and ongoing content coming from the Ask a Cyclist Podcast. Perhaps a live call-in show would be cool. 
Been with TR since the early days. My very quick take on this is that if you are really serious about training/racing/improving then TR > Zwift coach/workouts. If you are (like me) no longer competitive and using the systems for general fitness, fun and wellbeing then the decision becomes less obvious and really rests on your personal preference. For me it’s unequivocal - I’m not going to pay for both so I just need to decide whether to stick with Zwift and TR or go for Zwift+. At the moment I’m not sure
In my experience, it’s absolutely the best thing to do.
I’m one of those that TR did not work for past the initial newbie gains.
After 2 years of stagnation within a 5-10w band, I got a coach and in that 2 years I’ve gained 30w along with a huge bump in TTE and durability.
My only regret is that I waited for that stagnation to come good for too long - my advice, if you’re feeling stuck and thinking of trying something else, go for it! It can’t work perfectly for everyone.
Spot on. I’ve done and found exactly the same but not as eloquently! Made me smile. I’ve signed up for the Zwift plus and Zwift and TrainerRoad renew in Feb 27. Then, I decide. Jury is out still but I’m using Zwift not TrainerRoad until then and cut one of them.
I subscribe to both currently, but with nothing to train for on my Calendar … I’m just in it for fun now. No need for being serious anymore 
My TR sub ends in a couple weeks and I’m going to let it lapse. Keeping Zwift for fun.
I am genuinely asking, what was different with couch that you increased your FTP that much, it seems a lot if you did the same volume. For time-crunched athletes TR could definitely can do the job of a couch, for higher volume 15-20 hours a week i am not sure that it handles it better.