TR pricing based on hours of Training?

TrainerRoad Software
23

I can see the trial discussion either way. I think it’d be better to offer one free month rather than 3 months at a reduced price.

I don’t get this: Strava doesn’t make any profit at the moment, and I don’t think it’ll be long for this world unless more people are paying. Spreading a lower subscription fee across a broader base seems to make sense to people who are currently paying, but the big step is from $0 to $1 and not from $1 to $5. Strava’s attitude has changed radically since its original founders returned to the helm, so I do expect a return to form.

I don’t get it: why are things different for mountain bikers (such as myself)? Sure, we need to practice bike handling, which would be in addition to structured training, but so what? Triathletes also have to run and swim, are they expected to get a break, too? What about CXers?

Usually when people think of tiered pricing, they support it, because they think they’ll get away paying less. But in the end, I don’t see this working out.

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24

Agreed.
Plus, have a look at the competition. A personal coach costs about $800/month where I live. No way my sponsor (aka wife) would agree to that. No way I would consider that without a significantly higher income. Training Peaks on its own costs I think $120 per year now. If you want to get a training plan on TP, that’s another $100–$160 for a 4–6 month training plan. Of course, you’d have to navigate the menu and know enough to pick wisely.

TrainerRoad has amazing support, a CEO that responds personally to email, knowledgeable staff, podcasts, educational youtube videos and more. I’m perfectly happy. In fact, I’d be willing to pay more once more features are added so that I can ditch TP. (I primarily use the latter for more fine-grained analysis or rides and races.)

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25

Just use a suitable alternative that matches your price expectations then.

What would that be, out of curiosity?

26

I would then export every workout and do it manually with wahoo if this were the case

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27

Looking at it by the numbers, annual plan is $189 which is about $16/mo. Or $0.50/day. If you’re injured the savings of not running the trainer, display and fans along with nutrition (protein, electrolyte, extra carbs) will probably come close to offsetting the difference. Even on 3hours a week you’re looking at about $1.25/hour. Which is about a cliff bar per hour or an individual Greek yogurt. Not too bad to me

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28

For comparison, my wife’s gym membership costs roughly $100 per month.

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29

I really like trainer road’s simplicity and science based approach, but I have been able to get very little out of it despite trying.

TR is a steal for a road racer, cross country racer, or tri-athlete, people who can or do replace a personal trainer and are able to have a high level of compliance with the plans.

As a more than casual MTBer who is trying to increase FTP to get less fatigued on big rides, but not race, I have been trying to do the LV plans, but it’s too much volume to do all 3 low volume rides and then do 2-3 outdoor rides. Doing LV, plus my outside rides is just too much intensity. I got injured when I first tried to back in October. So I try to do a couple of the planned SSB rides, and then add my outdoor ones, but I’ve struggled a lot. Recently I tried trad base instead of SSB for lower intensity.

It hurts to pay full price to barely comply with SSBLV while other users get SO much more out of it. I like what I’m doing with TR. I’m doing the best I can. I’d rather give my money to TR than to Zwift or the like. Perhaps I would feel better about what I am getting from TR if the app made recommendations for what ride to do next based on what rides I’ve missed and the TSS from my outdoor rides that I sync with trailforks. If it were more adaptive, that would feel more like a service.

30

I know plenty or roadies who have no interest in staring at walls for hours at a time and would rather be outside. It just sounds as if a traditional training plan is not a good fit for your and your goals.

TrainerRoad has maintenance plans that require even less commitment than its low-volume plans, so perhaps that would be more suited to complement your outdoor rides. Nevertheless, if indoor rides just aren’t your thing, perhaps TrainerRoad isn’t a good match for you.

You are asking for a coach essentially, and while TR is trying to offer more personalized training plans, I don’t see them reaching the required complexity any time soon.

That’s even doubly true for much of mountain biking, because very often you just can’t go easy. There are inclines where I either have to push hard way above FTP in my lowest gear to make it to the top — or walk. If you like trail riding, then a lot of the energy expended by your body as you shift it to suit the terrain is not captured, even if you have a power meter on your bike.

Sure, but just because you use it less, does not mean you cost TrainerRoad that much less. Most fitness studios charge you the same no matter if you come three times a week, once a week or once per month. However, unlike a fitness studio, TR does not really benefit from inactive users.

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31

I haven’t tried it but Xert provides day-by-day adaptive plans. It might be a good fit for you?

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32

Any other examples of this subscription pricing model than internet/mobile phone providers (where cost per use is more meaningful)?

I remember when Netflix used to mail out DVDs and the subscription model scaled based on how many you could get at a time. That makes sense as the cost to the company is based on how often they have to mail out a DVD.

The main costs (I assume, no expert) for TR is hosting your data, maintaining the apps and development. That doesn’t significantly scale based on your individual usage, so it wouldn’t really make sense to change the pricing model.

There’s not a huge incentive for TR and it actually disincentivises their most loyal user base.

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33

Thank you for the many answers and the different views, no question
TrainerRoad is a super platform with a great community.

I may not be able to explain everything clearly because my English is not the best!

I would like to add the following:

I do duathlon training, on the one hand I don’t train as much on the bike as someone who only does bike training,
on the other hand there are unfortunately no duathlon plans here, only triathlon, but they don’t quite fit for me.

In other words, I can only use Trainerroad almost 50%, then things like holidays come, my girlfriend lives 770km away from me, I don’t have a smart trainer there: - \

Even an injury, whether short or long, could prevent me!

I currently pay monthly, usually on the 2nd of every month, now I have 3 weeks of vacation,
I can only use 2 weeks from a month, then only 3 weeks from the next month, so it makes no sense to stop the monthly costs, because then i can’t ride the weeks before or after my holiday, so comes my idea for calculate according to effort.

Of course I could pay annually, but even then 2 emergency buttons would not be bad,
on the one hand a vacation button, where you can stay up to 5 weeks in total, on the other hand also an injury button, no idea, maybe also limited.

So emergency buttons might be a good alternative, maybe you can also offer this for annual subscribers?

P.S .: Please see my prices in the start post only as an idea!

P.P.S.: every month i get a code to share for a free month for new users, in a year i share more or less a 1 year subcription (virtual) to someone.
For me it could make more sense, when i get for example a free month, clear not every month, but for example every half year, when i pay 12x a year the monthly subrciption, or?

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35

how long you have been a user to become grandfathered?
can i get grandfathered with actual subscription too, or is it only for very old users here?
can i get grandfathered only with anual subscription or with monthly too?

36

The price changed and the people who have remained subscribed from previous price points are ‘grandfathered’ at their original price.

37

so, when the price will increase tomorrow, ill be grandfathered to the price before, because i am a old user then?

38

Yes. And the CEO @Nate_Pearson has promised that for as long as he is CEO this won’t change.

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39

As long as you don’t unsubscribe you would keep that pricing

41

I think what needs to change is the way that you’re using TR. Sounds like you’re effectively treating TR and outdoor riding as 2 separate things. They’re not. If you’re using a TR plan for all your high intensity work and then adding z1-2 outdoor riding then treating them separately works. But if you’re doing intensity outside that isn’t on the TR plan that’s going to mess up your plan.

Best way to tackle it would be to pick a plan that is appropriate for the total volume of riding you want to do, or at least the total volume of higher intensity riding (sweetspot and above). Then do one or some of:

  1. Use the TR outdoor workout feature to load some of the workouts into your Garmin or Wahoo and do them outside
  2. Ride outside without using TR outdoor workouts but at least follow the approximate structure/objective of the workout on the plan. E.g. if you’re doing a MTB ride with longer climbs then you can aim to do those climbs at 85-95% FTP and substitute the ride for a SS workout
  3. Ride outside doing whatever you want, then look at the data afterwards and rejig the plan to fit around what you did. This is the least optimal approach from a structured training perspective, but maybe the most fun if you just want to ride your bike and not feel inhibited by going off plan :wink:

I mostly do a mix of 2) and 3). 2) for solo rides where I can set my own structure, 3) for group rides and races. I typically have a pretty good idea what a group ride or race is going to entail, and I might even have a plan to ride it a certain way to align better with my training plan for that week. I’m fully aware that in theory I could probably be a stronger cyclist if I stuck to doing 1) and 2) and being more structured, but I’d have less fun which in the long run would mean I didn’t train as much so in practice I’d be slower.

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42

I like the simplicity of the TR pricing. I’d rather spend my focus on trying to improve performance rather than worrying about slipping into higher costs as I increase TSS.

43

A fitness studio is taught by a person who needs to be paid! And they are paying rent for the studio, and it needs to be cleaned, maintained, etc. There is NO comparison between a fitness studio and TR where SSBLV has been built already and I have to pay for it year after year. No comparison.

44

Of course. All the web infrastructure, maintenance, technical support, research, development, plan updates doesn’t cost TR a dime.

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