So, I love how much dedication the team at TrainerRoad has put into their product and the idea of making you faster. I love that they are innovating and adding the new Group Workouts feature. I have listened to every single podcast since the beginning.
However, is anyone a little disappointed with the Group Workouts feature?
I suspect that in 6 months this will be rarely used by a small portion of the trainerroad subscriber base. Maybe you don’t have 1 or 2 or 3 other people that can exercise at the same time for the Group Workout. If you did, wouldn’t you ride outside? Sure, Zwift has tons of people showing up for group rides and workouts. I guess you can schedule a work out at 5AM with a friend but what if they’re not doing the same plan or have the same workout goals? And I see the groups trying to get together on the forum - this is weird. Random strangers seeing me and the inside of my house? Naw, I’m good.
I guess I could see a world where someone was leading a workout at a specific time and I could join. For example, someone was going to do Grey at 6PM on Tuesday, and if I wanted to do Grey, and I was free at that time, and I wanted random strangers to see me half naked in my house, then I could join. But this would essentially be what what Peloton is doing, without the two-way video. I don’t know…I just don’t understand what this adds to the TR niche. There’s a reason Peloton isn’t two-way video. Has anyone asked for Zoom for the Trainer? I don’t know…I’m skeptical of this point.
How is this making me faster?
It’s weird that this is prioritized over all the triathletes trying to get their runs and swims sync’d. Why put more man hours into this?
Maybe TrainerRoad has exhausted it’s corner of what it does best. Maybe it sees the open world aspect of Zwift as a threat and this is the response. TrainerRoad has not about social (Zwift) or on-screen entertainment (Sufferfest), and I’m not sure that Group Workouts fills any niche.
Different strokes for different folks. I don’t necessarily plan on doing a lot but it’s great they made this available. Sometimes clubs will want to coordinate training over the winter (my club does trainer sessions together during winter) so this could be an alternative.
For a long time a subset of folks have been pushing TR to be more social. They delivered. Some people love it, others not. I don’t envy them because there’s always a risk some people are unhappy with certain new features. Don’t like it, don’t use it, let others enjoy and you can enjoy the features relevant to you
I love it but everyone is entitled to there opinion. Not sure why you just joined the forum 21 minutes ago and this is first post. Anyway… time to let this thread die.
Am I gonna use it? No… but why would I be disappointed? I feel the opposite - I’m happy that TR continues to add functionality to an already great product.
I pay for TR because of its base functionality, not because of potential future software capabilities. I think it’s great that they are continuously adding features to make a more dynamic and capable product. Some features will benefit me and my use cases, others won’t.
Compliance: some people are social and are motivated by doing things together. So whatever increases compliance improves your performance. Adding social features I think is very important for the future, I can see a world where teams can train together on a schedule with TR.
Personally, I’m usually ok with training indoors, I really like it. But I miss my team mates and riding and racing with them. Unfortunately, AFAIK none of them use TrainerRoad since I live in Japan and for the Japanese market you need a Japanese localization.
So I don’t think I will be able to use this feature any time soon. But I am happy that TrainerRoad is moving in this direction. The idea of “having rooms” isn’t bad, but needs to be implemented in the right way.
You mention after the pandemic is over that people won’t use it. Well I think it’s cool that the TR team got this up and running so fast. Knowing that people are missing the social aspect they took steps to help with it.
Don’t use it if you don’t like it, but to just complain about it without offering an improvement is just silly.
No, I think it is awesome motivational feature. Will I use it much? No. But I enjoy the social aspect of cycling and will use Group Workouts from time to time, for motivation or just to hang out and talk with fellow cyclists. Fellowship is a term usually not heard in this context, but fellowship is one reason I hang out on the forums and one reason I think Group Workouts is another great feature of the TrainerRoad platform.
Yeah I agree they responded with a feature delivered in 10 days to make it more social. It is a great experiment to get the ball rolling and see where it heads from here. What if next your coaches can dial in to check on you train and your position. I’m not saying that’s what needs to happen but small things like group workouts can evolve to other cooler things too.
I am a long time off/on user of TR. I have a coached athlete who I am going to do a workout with tomorrow. We live 40 miles apart - this is a great way to combine a workout and a coaching interaction. I use Zwift too, but this one is way more ‘professional’ for remote coaching. Yes, we could do on Zoom, but this option is all integrated. Pretty sweet, EASY to use. Zwift has a ton of moving parts - this is quick and easy to get non-tech folks up and running. Just my 2 cents.
Not really for me either, but could be good for TR, it might attract coaches to use it.
My local cycling club usually does a Monday night training session with the coach at our local Crit track. It opens up the club members to doing an extra night without all having to meet at a certain location, driven by coaches or by groups of members themselves.
Lots of use cases, just need to see where it goes I think
I’m not. I think it’s a great new feature. I might never use it, but I love that it’s there. And I appreciate that TR rolled it out so quickly during a time of need. Hats off to @Nate_Pearson and the TR crew.
Haven’t used it yet but really looking forward to doing so. Not so much with strangers but really like the idea of lining up a workout every week to do with a friend. Definitely not every workout.
Everytime I pay my monthly subscription on trainer road I calculate how much it costs me per session. its about a dollar a session for Feb 2020. Its the only digital subscription that continuously provides me with more features every couple of months (AT THE SAME PRICE!). so yeah, I may or may not use the feature but I am damn glad they have one and they continuously try to improve that is why I am such a happy subscriber and I always post trainerroad rides on strava but hey you’re allowed to have opinions.
I haven’t had an opportunity to use Group Workouts yet but I do hope I get the chance. Having people watch me as I screw my face up during VO2 just makes me laugh.
Whilst not for everyone, the TR Team have added a new feature which in time, may prove key to a specific audience.
All of Peloton is basically proof this is the correct answer for a portion of the population.
Put another way: the same information, presented in different ways, can get different results. Personally, I don’t engage much with the Peloton instructors, but I 100% see why some people do. The best workout is the one you do. A social workout won’t get you any fitter than one done solo, but it’ll get you fitter than the one you skipped because your friend wasn’t holding you to showing up on a day you weren’t feeling it.
Off topic, sorry, and I’m probably completely wrong, but weren’t local languages added at some point?
I live in Japan too, but generally have my OS set to English so don’t know if it’s in Japanese or not!
Edit for pertinency: I’m stoked the TR team is developing the app in different ways. I’m not very likely to use group workouts myself, but I think anything that brings people socially closer in these difficult times is very welcome.
I’ll put my hand up and say I was surprised with this direction and being honest disappointed this is where resources are being spent. Not a feature I am likely to ever use no matter how executed.
Planbuilder on the other hand was something I really wanted but have not been able to use because of the execution (lacking flexibility).
If however all of this fits in the business plan and has been done how and when it was done because for example it needed to precede items like the mobile app rebuild then I can appreciate the timing.
Not many firms are as forthcoming with their plans, TR does feel somewhat collaborative and open about most things.
Hmmm, I should have double checked this before posting, I thought workouts haven’t been localized yet. At least amongst my team mates (all Japanese, I’m the only non-Japanese), nobody is even aware of TrainerRoad, which is a pity. The homepage is English only, I think, and probably the web calendar as well (which you have to use from time to time).