Strava has already shown us what NOT to do. Simple plans with predictable costs are what most people want. And from a business perspective, a stable revenue stream is much easier to forecast and manage.
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I cannot believe how many people complain all the time about the price on this forum. It seems like every few days another thread is popping up complaining about the price. If you think its too expensive DONāT PAY FOR IT. It takes $0 for (insert your name here) to do a 2x20, 6x10 min, 4x5, etc workout.
You can find plenty of basic workouts that cyclists have been using forever, and just do that on a Garmin. Costs you nothing, just need to have the motivation to do the workout and push yourself through it.
The cost of a new TR subscription is basically one month of coaching from an individual coach. So many in these threads feel that they deserve so much but it shouldnāt cost them. Itās annoying to see so many complain about the cost to a company that offers a lot for free.
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This assumes that TR and itās users see the only valuable part of their service to be the time that you spend looking at the blue bars. The calendar, ride analysis, TSS charts, etc. can (and should) be utilized to track both indoor and outdoor training. If you donāt use all of that together then maybe the service is less valuable to you but TR seeās it all as a complete training package.
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The fact is that TR is not designed for everyone.
For you just ride. Forget TR or maybe just do it solidly for 3 months every winter if you live in a place with weather.
BTW, you donāt need to increase FTP in order to be less fatigued on big rides. You need base miles, better fat burning ability, and to shift your lactate curve. You might look into a big base block of MAF or polarized training. Itās really not hard to design a basic training plan where you do a lot of endurance riding and then once or twice a week do an interval session on one of your rides.
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And TR has fitness experts, programmers, support staff, they have to pay rent for office space and cloud servers, they produce podcasts and videos, etc. I donāt think the two are so different. I realize that the cost structures of a gym and TR are different. My point was to put TRās membership fee in perspective with something that I think is comparable in functionality.
Thank you! Iāll look into this 
Thank you, appreciate the recommendations on increasing my base. It would still be nice to do training during the week when I have enough time to get on the trainer, but not enough to get to the mountain. So whether its TR or something else I will be on the lookout.
TR is lucky to have you to support them in these discussions so that they donāt have to.
The podcast and this forum are free. So Iām paying my subscription to pay for the podcast so freeloaders can listen to it? Same with the forum? Hosting this forum and the podcast probably cost TR as much or more money than hosting my data from rides. Really how much cloud storage are we talking? That stuff is VERY scalable. Adding another TR user probably costs them next to nothing. Still not comparable to a studio.
I donāt.
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Pricing and marginal costs have no logical relationship. To take your gym/studio example, there is zero marginal cost for one more member to show up in a gym spinning class. The instructor is already there, the cleaning is already done, the building costs donāt go up. And yet they charge you the same as the first member, the one for which they had to engage all those costs.
But a gym is limited in itās membership before it gets crowded, whereas hosting cloud storage is cheap and scalable.
Again, value and pricing is not related to marginal cost. Otherwise Microsoft licenses would be free. In other words: cloud storage is not what youāre paying for. Otherwise you could get a Dropbox account instead.
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Well, thanks, but dropping economics class on me does not make me feel any better about the value I get from TR.
Iād love to see a sampling of the TR usage of the staunch defenders of this pricing model. Probable does not reflect the average user who signs up.
Well then, I assume you have an alternative at a price point that you find acceptable. Iām not a āstaunch defender of this pricing modelā, Iām someone who has evaluated a number of alternatives, and found this one to be the best fit for me; the alternatives included multiple apps, a gym membership that included spinning classes, and two studios offering spinning classes only. Iām certain that different needs and priorities would have made another alternative more attractive.
I sort of understand your point here, but I choose to see that a different way. The only reason Iām a Trainerroad subscriber now is because I was one of those freeloaders. I browsed the forums and listened to the podcasts, and I learned a lot being completely new to cycling. So when it came to deciding on a training platform, I went to Trainerroad specifically because I felt like thanking them for that information. And if my money now helps fund those resources for other new cyclists, perhaps theyāll want to join Trainerroad and grow the community in the forum, etc.
So yea, you kind of are paying for those freeloaders, but that doesnāt have to be a bad thing. I think it just comes down to what exactly you value. Strictly using a product vs. the community of the product vs. supporting a company whose values you share. Each of those adds different amounts of value (or none) to each individual. At the end of the day, maybe that value just isnāt there for you, and thatās fine as well.
As far as your plan, Iām starting to focus on XC and have had to change my plan as to not burn myself out as well. I went from a MV plan to a LV plan then adding rides. Iāll normally do the 3 planned TR rides, add a pump track or other technical skill type ride with low TSS during the week, and a longer more taxing ride on the weekend. Takes some tinkering, but it can certainly be done.
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Kind of rude to assert that Iām not putting the effort in. My bike and my trainer arenāt exactly sitting around unused, Iām doing 3-4 rides per week.
Thanks, really appreciate your anecdote as a similar type of rider.
Iām going to stop posting here, thanks everyone. Iāll check out xert and some other options and see if they work better for me.
You still havenāt answered the question, what competitive alternative would you choose for less? If Trainerroad is already one of the most cost-effective solutions and best value for the money, why would they undercut themselves?
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Peleton?
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This. 
TR is great because it caters to its core demographic of people who treat indoor structured training as a year-round lifestyle.
The product is what it is today - a very refined platform that continues to improve - thanks to constant feedback and nearly a decade of real data and subscription fees from serious cyclists of all fitness levels.
The casual rider canāt suddenly hop on and say, āI like what Iām seeing, but since Iām not a serious cyclist, I should be able to pay less money for the same product.ā
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