Any one tried it?
Alex Dowsett co-founder.
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I like Alex Dowsett based on his personality on podcasts and TV, but the info available on that website is very sparse. Maybe the website isnāt fully made yet, but when I click on links that seem like they should give details, I just get a sign-up page. Thereās nowhere near enough info available. Itās easy to say that you have AI FTP estimation and great data analysisā¦
The comparison table is at best rather subjective, possibly disingenuous too, which raises red flags for me. I certainly wouldnāt agree with some of their assessments of TrainerRoad.
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The screenshots certainly donāt depict a ābest in classā set of analysis tools at all.
I wonder where they think the product slots in. There are a few platforms like Vekta that aim to replace TrainingPeaks. Their plans make it seem that they are eying TrainerRoad instead. They seem to be aiming higher than low-, mid- and high-volume of yore (going off of their documentation). They seem to base their training off of classic TP/Coggan metrics (they write e. g. TS, but I wonder whether they do this to avoid copyright issues).
What I donāt understand is what they are doing differently and better than the competition. IMHO they seem late to the party:
- TR has a huge dataset and moved on from a static training plans.
- Vekta tries to supplant TP and bases their business model around coached athletes. Edit: Stride is also meant for coached athletes, thanks @JoPage.
- Wouldnāt it be better if they sold their training plans on TP and Vekta?
I really like Alex Dowsett, but this doesnāt seem like a sensible business venture to me.
I find that infuriating and they are shooting themselves in the foot. Why not show off your functionality to convince me to sign up?
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Interesting. I like Alex Dowsett
I think they will have a hard job of converting TR fans, however, they may snag mew users and disgruntled TR users looking for something that doesnāt quite fit in the TR model.
The notable things they are selling that are different
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FTP for running
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potentially more input and feedback from the AI system
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a cheaper price point
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use of HRV dataā¦..which some people seem to want
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Coaching integration
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As itās got a 30 day trial and you donāt have put in CC details I signed up, looks interesting. the FTP detection is like Xert, itās ongoing rather than once a momth, all looks polished, not tried putting in a plan yet, but the change log stopped in June after weekly updates
I suppose they have just been doing under the hood enhancements
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I hadnāt seen that this morning. I gotta correct my earlier post.
Iām skeptical, it seems to me a combination of sleep data (longer-term averages of sleep duration, etc.) and subjective metrics (how have you slept/do you feel?) do at least as good a job.
But they are hardly the only ones here to use HRV in readiness and recovery metrics.
There is a load of information available.
See the document pages, for exampleā¦
Guess they want people to create an account though
I didnāt find any of that info from the main site. So maybe my observation should be āinfo not made available sufficiently obviously for dummies like me!ā 
And whilst Iām sure they want people to create accounts, Iām not going to sign up for something just to figure out whether itās something worth signing up to.
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That is a fair comment.
There are supposedly Ai generated workoutsā¦
I just tried itā¦
ā90 minutes session with 40 minutes of work at thresholdā
It came up with 3 reps of various lengths and gave a range of 95- 103% of FTP.
The FTP and run threshold estimates seen accurate for me
(TR under estimated, then was almost spot on, then over estimated over three AiFTP cycles)
I like it, but would I pay for it? Not sure. Is it enough value.
The runs stuff is way ahead of TR imo.
Swim isnāt finished yet by the look of it
It seems a good offering for triathletes.
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It seems pretty good tbh
The FTP estimate is about the same as my coaches estimate, and about the same a TR was before I left a month or so ago.
If I go back to self coaching at some point then I wouldnt blindly rule this out, thatās for sure. The workout creator seems like a good thing too.
Certainly one for TR to watchā¦if they get a foothold, they could present a bit of competition
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Is it?
Iām only asking, because I cannot really see what features they have. I only learnt in this thread that running is supported. On the homepage, I could only find it in the table comparing Stride with e. g. TP and TR, in the documentation, I found a mention of ārunning thresholdā.
Not saying the functionality isnāt there, Iām saying I donāt know what functionality is there. The homepage ā¦ isnāt helping them win customers over.
Does it? I am really asking. Right now they only seem to offer training plans for cyclists, but no training plans that combine cycling with running (and swimming).
Perhaps this is a case where a (human) coach needs to work with the athlete ā or the athlete themselves needs to pick the right workouts.
I wish they would make that clear and explain without me having to create an account.
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It has got promise but needs a bit of work / refinement. Giving it some credit it was only released a few days ago.
I will be interest to see how it works when they implement swims
Generated today run in about 14 seconds (8 with 6x pickups, based on my threshold that it detected)
Looks like they are working on the principle of coaches and athletes creating and sharing workouts and plans, although Iām not really sure. You can create and share both plans and workouts i.e make them public
Also a free option
Its right in the middle of the menu on the home page
I agree its not clear that all the support information is in DOCs though.
Re: Runs
- I think so, it has correctly given my my RUN threshold (and bike and HR), looking at my history it seems to correctly track up and down (I did wonder if it just read from my Garmin account but it doesnāt as there are small differences.)
- You can quickly create run workouts (or bike with the ai workout dialogue, see post above)
- The training load numbers look correct and the load chart is doing a good job, Green, Yellow, Red
- Its also given me my heart rate threshold.
Correct at this time, Alex has said this is coming. You or your coach can create your own workouts and plans at the moment. I am wondering if they are hoping coaches will create and share plans a bit like Interval.icu
Copyright issues, I think you are correct on this.
RE: Zones there are presets and you can create your own (its not just the Coggan zones.)
Bike Presets: Coggan 7 zones, Sweet spot 5 zones, Polarised 3 zones
Run Presets: Daniels 5-Zone Pace, McMillan 7-Zone Pace
HR Presets: Karvonen 5-Zone Heart Rate, Polarized 3-Zone Heart Rate
Overall, I think its a good start but totally agree the sales pitch is a bit lacking, it should at least point-out there is a lot of detail in the documents section (which it doesnāt even mention, unless I missed it)
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On my phone (iPhone, using Chrome) I just donāt have a menu like that at all. At the top I just have this:
So perhaps itās just a website bug / design issue. Regardless of whether itās my dumbness or the website being not optimal, it would probably help them to make the info a bit more prominent.
As I say, I like Alex on a human level, and I think that a bit of competition is always a good thing. Iāve not seen anything yet to tempt me from TrainerRoad, but am interested to hear of peopleās experiences.
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Hi everyone. Really appreciate the kind words on me and the feedback on Stride, we need it! The Trainerroad business is a titan and a real source of inspiration to us, especially the committed community it has, much like the British TT scene.
To answer your comments, yes, the homepage does not tell you enough, especially the phone web page. Weāve been working away at whatās after sign up features and product that works has been the sole aim before launch (weāre 2 weeks into being live now). We didnāt anticipate simply signing up being a big barrier to entry as we donāt ask for any credit card details or hold back any part of the platform either for 30 days.
We arenāt targeting replacing anyone specifically, thereās room in this industry for many platforms and everyone has their preference and thereās some great stuff out there!
We want to make coaches lives more efficient and easier with coach led AI tools, the goal is that they can focus on the important bit which is the human to human contact. But we also recognise human coaching is unaffordable to many which is why we have the tools in place for someone to feel like theyāre maximising their training. There is a big training plans update coming soon to run alongside the existing plans.
The comparison work is born from my wish one day to have a real time view of where Ganna was pulling away from me and where iād hold him, (much like race car games on the playstation where you could get a ghost view of your own pb or the fastest time by someone else to use as reference) then that way I can analyse how did I on climbs and descents compared to him, and cornering as well, the real interesting part Iād be keen on seeing is gradient transition, whoās fighting the deceleration as you go from a -ve to a +ve gradient better than others. BUT this is all based on him being willing to learn from others also, itās a āgive to getā scenario with your files. But for team managers this could be super insightful to give points of improvement over just physiology.
Lastly on the comparison stuff as there was some skepticism to it I believe, the ability to view a group ride, TTT or race as a team event as well the individual aspect to it is important. being able to see the story of the race in data form as well as getting it from the riders direct, its how Iāve used it for some pro racing Iāve had to dig into.
Anyways I could ramble on, but enjoyed seeing you guys chatting about us over here at Stride, Thank you 
.
Alex D
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Iām glad to hear that. Itād really help to have a few pages where you explain what the product can do with sample data and such.
In my experience it helps to figure out areas where (at least you think) your product is better than the competition. Given the enormous size difference between you and the competition, you likely want this competition to be asymmetric in some fashion.
In your post, you explain the importance of good data analysis. Here, you likely have TR beaten hands-down, and your competition is likely something like TP. When I was still racing, Iād subscribe to TP just for its analysis tools.
One more question: do you plan on offering coaching services through your app? That might be a good way to dog food your app, youāll scratch your own itches much more quickly than those of others.