Hi, newbie here, I’ve been using the software for a couple of weeks and I love it. One of the first things I liked was having the coach instructions because it doesn’t feel like just watching blue bars on the screen. However, after a few workouts it starts to feel more monotonous and robotic and makes me question myself about my ability to stay engaged in the long term.
One of the things that I think would help making it feel more personal would be calling people by their name. It’s been studied and demonstrated that in several areas (ie. sales, marketing, advertising, software UX) people have a more positive reaction and create a deeper connection when they’re called by their name.
"A person’s name is to him or her the sweetest and most important sound in any language.” – Dale Carnegie
Now I’m not talking about decorating every single sentence, but more like having it sprinkled here and there:
“Hey [first_name], welcome to [workout],”
“One more minute, [first_name] blah blah”
It’s a simple improvement with a huge impact, specially considering that the engagement / entertainment factor could be one of the challenges of TrainerRoad.
I dont think the text is monotonous at all. I think Chads done a pretty good job of making it quite informal.
Whilst its not a bad idea, i dont see having your name sprinkled in as a factor thats likely to encourage long term engagement. That comes from the quality of the training i think
I think it’s a pretty good idea as well. We all have various things that motivate us and help bring us into the workout for some or even many this might be a good motivator. Deep in the pain cave in the middle of a VO2 interval seeing the workout text say “Almost there, keep going [insert name]!” might be great for some folk, new or grizzled trainerroad veterans, to help them get through those last painful seconds. While personally I haven’t had the workout text on in years I can definitely see this being a motivator and just that little bit of personalization that will immerse people in the workout that much better. I think a level of personalization would be great for any future updates or trainerroad 2.0.
Inane little tidbits like this might not change much for most of us. But who knows, it might help a serial workout quitter tough it out through the last interval to the final cool down. And in the end that will definitely make you faster.
Sorry, I probably didn’t express myself correctly. It’s not the text that is monotonous; quite the opposite, actually. I’ve found it informative, useful and even entertaining. I’m learning a lot with every workout. It’s reading something generic, rather than specific or unique to me.
So what’s already great about the text is like it feels like an informal conversation. Eventually, you kinda start feeling like you know Chad. But think about it, you never get to feel like he knows you. It feels more like an instructor speaking in front of an audience vs a personal coach, next to me, teaching me and pushing me to go harder when I need to.
Say my name, say my name
If no one is around you, say, “Baby I love you”
If you ain’t runnin’ game
Say my name, say my name
You acting kind of shady, ain’t callin’ me baby
Why the sudden change?
@Nate_Pearson I think if I wear a microphone while watching the podcast and completing (or failing) a workout, YOU, PERSONALLY should receive a voicemail with my utterances. That way, you could understand my intolerance for platitudes while “in the suck.” (types guy who bailed on Kaweah while everyone talked about positive self-affirmation, suffering for a reason, etc…)
Actually, I pretty much ignore the text, except sometimes I do Chad’s cadence/aero/mashing drills.
But as the CEO, you should still bear the brunt of my frustrations when I miserably quit on a workout. Hearing the concussion miss-the-helmet story gave me the eeeby-jeebies… glad to see you’re getting back into a moderation of intensity.
Nate, that would require planning on which workout to fail, and I honestly plan to complete them all.
I honestly couldn’t swear at Jonathan, that would be like wailing on my (insert minor family member here).
Swearing at Pete might end with a war-ax to the nugget
Swearing at Amber seems wrong for so many reason, but mostly because she’d murder me with watts if we ever came across eachother on the road, with. a. smile. on. her. face. (in the most non-sexist way possible, the road don’t lie).
So that leads to Chad
I already ignore most of his in-workout text… any more would seem like piling on.
Coach Chad does throw in a few comedy nuggets every once in a while.
Who doesn’t love it when he encourages you to maybe up the intensity by 2-3% for the final round of O/Us. So you do. Then, Coach Chad says ‘hey, why don’t we do the Overs out of the saddle…?’ So you try. Your legs feel like matchsticks, just waiting to break and you laugh out loud, realising you’ve submitted to peer pressure.
If Coach Chad was saying my name, I’d feel like I had a personal responsibility to do this s**t! I’d be a broken man
I would love the messages to stay on the screen a bit longer, I often miss things as I am watching a movie.
Maybe a voice over option would be good, like my Tomtom I could choose different voices to tell me to sprint, Now
! You should tag me in a story and tell me and swear at us. 
)
