Optimize app and Optimized Stress Score

Yes. I’ve know that the Optimize tool will be part of an “all access pass” model, but I didn’t realize they were going to get rid of the “buy a single plan” option, or I wouldn’t have waited for BF to buy!

Hmm, it’s very tempting at this price. But maybe not so much at full price. Converting to a full subscription model without warning is kind of a change. Lots to think about here.

Very important question: how do you apply plans from within the app? Do they automatically show up in TrainingPeaks through an integration, or does it need to applied manually by a Fascat coach? This is basically the dealbreaker for me. Important at a discounted price but absolutely critical if I were to consider something full price.

Good question. My hope is that it will send workouts directly to my Garmin and skip TP entirely (when you link Optimize to Garmin this is one thing you have to give it permission to do, anyway). I’ve always hesitated to try FasCat plans or a coach due to the reliance on TP: one more app and subscription to think about.

Yeah, I just moved to intervals.icu instead of TrainingPeaks for data, and I’m not a huge fan of re-activating TP Premium just to be able to use Optimize, when I’m unclear how useful Optimize is relative to Garmin’s Training Readiness on my Forerunner 955.

Update: Frank responded in the Fascat forum - looks like you need to chat with them in the app, then they add it to your TP account manually. Which makes tinkering with plans and moving things around much, much less appealing.

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You can still get Frank’s standalone plans. You just need to buy them on the TP website, not FasCat

I think Frank is still relying on TP as the middle person to send workouts to devices as the plans you decide to purchase or use via Optimize, will go to TP, then to your devices if they’re built with structure. Very similar to what MyProCoach, 8020 training plan subscriptions do.

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Here’s Frank’s latest response concerning stand-alone plans.

We are no longer selling plans individually.

There’s more in the APP than we could ever send you one by one in TrainingPeaks. We will be releasing new plans, new workouts (with video) and new recipes starting in December. Plus new features and technology that we can’t do and release in TrainingPeaks.

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IMO, it’s an amazing good deal at $150. Among other things you get a free month of individualized coaching if you subscribe for a year. Don’t know how that works so we will see. The app still has some rough places to it. I am willing to work through that. I have several of their plans in TP and just started 16 week SS build. I like TP because I can move the days around and sync the workouts to Zwift/Garmin. To my knowledge you cannot do that from the app. However, as was mentioned, they can sync (if you send them a note) back to TP.

I think (no inside information just observation) Frank sees some handwriting on the wall for athletes paying for multiple apps to accomplish their training. We will see how it goes …

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I hate speculating about futures, but I think Frank is on the right track. Meal plans, weight lifting, and cycling plans all rolled into a single app. Integrating sleep and HRV with training load. Actionable info with optimize score if you add time and more cycling to the plan.

The app just launched, we will see how it evolves and develops. Only time will tell.

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I think it is certainly the evolution of things. We have so much data these days beyond just the result of a workout and bringing it all together and using it to make more intelligent actionable choices is powerful.

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Anyone taken the plunge? $150 with 4 weeks of tailored coaching and a 30 minute coaching call is one hell of a deal, on the face of it.

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I’m seriously considering it. I wish we were hearing more from the user community about how things are working. At $150 it might be worth being the lab rat and getting in early.

A correction as I dig into this. It appears they use several Garmin devices too. (Although this doesn’t explicitly say it’s just as good to them as a Whoop/Oura, it just lists the devices. Wish they would clarify). Garmin devices that record HRV and sleep - complete list – FasCat Coaching

Ok, so I took the plunge since I’m apparently the kind of schmuck who’s willing to pay for multiple apps at the same time. Basically, I’m sort of using this and JOIN at the same time (it’s base, so I figure it’s all time on the bike, right?).

I’m doing a mix of the workouts between JOIN and the Fascat 16 Weeks of Sweet Spot and marking the Fascat workouts as planned non-JOIN rides. It’s weird, but I’m finding it to be a nice way to keep the ADD part of my brain busy.

Some observations:

  • the integrations are very bare bones - it basically just pulls in HRV and sleep data along with training load. Nothing else. I have a Garmin 955 and it only pulled in sleep data at first. I redid my Garmin connection and it fixed itself to correctly pull HRV data in, too. No idea how useful the Optimization score is since it’s got like three days’ worth of data

  • the only way to get a training plan is to email or chat Fascat and one of their coaches drops it on your TP calendar. I emailed them at like 6am Tuesday and they sent me the plan by 7:15, so they’re definitely paying attention.

  • there are notes that there’s going to be a lot more content coming in December, like more plans, videos, and some other stuff.

  • I plan to do the 30 days of free coaching soon-ish but haven’t checked in about it yet, so nothing to say there.

  • the app definitely feels like it’s still in Beta, but I’m looking at as a mix of a Kickstarter, some plans to mess, and a bit of free coaching. Feels pretty worthwhile in that context. Still no sign of the Android app, although Frank said it’s with the vetting process at the Play store.

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Thanks so much for sharing!

Have you figured out how they expected you to do the workouts when riding indoors? If they don’t go to TP without asking them to move it, how were they expecting you to do the ride? On your cycling computer? Something else? They don’t have their own workout app do they?

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@FergusYL Are you sure you don’t want to add AI Endurance and Kudo Coach into the mix as well? :smiley: haha

Hm, I use Android so I have the app on an iPad I had laying around and can’t check it now. Maybe it has Activity integration with TrainingPeaks? I’m not sure if workouts are coming across directly from Garmin, but I’ll double check all the integrations when I get home.

And @jcolp - hilariously enough, I had Spoked.ai in the mix briefly before Optimize. I think it has a lot of potential but was a little too pricey to mess around woth ($13/month). I basically purged a bunch of streaming service subs I forgot about, so paying for an extra training app feels like free money after cancelling 4-5 subs.

But how do you do the workout?

I looked at Spoked as well but it was back in the “too much information” area for me and I found it hard to use and unfriendly. The price was also ouchy. For me it would be $255/year.

Fascat pushed the 16 Week Sweet Spot plan to my TrainingPeaks account, so I’m doing them out of Zwift. And that’s the rub for now with Optimize - you can’t export workouts directly to any external app or head until as far as I can tell. You can use a free TP account but then you have little/no ability to shuffle workouts around.

Sorry. I’m not sure how, but I’m not asking the question correctly…I’ll try again. Sorry!

If they never intended to send the workout to TP (you have to request it, and in their forums he clearly didn’t want it to be that way when it was designed…they’re trying to eliminate TP)…how DID they expect you to do the workouts? Do they have a workout player?

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