TrainerRoad - Feature Requests of what athletes expect / want in the future

Thanks for the kind words!

We’ve been doing onboarding calls with athletes and learning a lot. One issue we have is that plan builder is too focused on having to have an event. You don’t HAVE to have an event, but it makes it seem like you do.

There’s a big group of people that want to train, but aren’t aiming for a single day.

So we’re changing the first steps of plan builder to be like this.

(not final copy of course)

For the bottom choice.

And for the race/event flow, we’re going to have you first pick the race/event you are making a training plan for.

We’re also going to ask you what the terrain and distance are so we can better build you a plan.

[PWeber]

Perfect!

[Nate_Pearson]

@gwhilts

If I could tell plan builder to build me a plan with 3 structured work outs each week (say M-W-F) with an accommodation for easy/moderate 90 min unstructured rides Tue and Thur, and a 3 hr hard group ride on Saturday, it would be GREAT.

That sounds like Training with a capital T :-D. But yes, you’d be able to do this with the new plan builder.

[Nate_Pearson]

We should just live stream product meetings :-D. Then listen to the chat as people tell us how to improve.

@tim_nh

I also want to be able to go back into the plan and make changes. If I discover I don’t like my current volume (or training days, or whatever), I should be able to go into my current plan and change it for the rest of the plan, or an arbitrary portion of the future.

You can do that! Click on the phase name at the top of the calendar

Then you can go in and change the volume or plan block for that period!

So you could go low->mid->high through each plan block if you wanted (not recommended)

@OreoCookie

One immediate comment: I would be careful with mouse overs as a lot of people use touch these days. I exclusively use TR on my iPad and iPhone, and TR’s website thinks that I am on a PC with a mouse.

Another thing: I think the defaults should be based on an athlete’s training history. E. g. if an athlete did a MV plan before, I think the default should be MV.

Yes, it will be based on training history.

But if you did MV 4 years ago, then haven’t been training, it shouldn’t recommend mid volume right away.

[Hampstenfan]

So my anniversary/resubscription date is tomorrow. I was actively following this thread to help me think through re-upping vs saying goodbye given all the discussion about things wanted/“promised” and then delayed – plus limited communication other than “we’re working on it as a top priority”. I was truly on the fence – not hopeful as I wanted to be about what TR will deliver, but also thinking about the value of my legacy pricing…

@Nate_Pearson, the last 24 hour of your posting here has just retained a customer. Looking forward to master’s plans and the other items coming up soon.

[hpbieker]

I do not expect major support for non-cycling activities, but it would be nice if you could show various non-cycling activities in the calendar and calculate the hrTSS (similar to what you added for running). Personally I do XC Skiing in the winter and the added strain of say 200-400 hrTSS in a weekend is important for planning of cycling activities.

[swgregg]

Great it’s all working out for you. Looking forward to seeing the changes.

[Nate_Pearson]

@swgregg

Nate, an additional idea - I wonder if you could use optional pulse surveys for users to get new feature feedback? It seems to be a valued tool for you inside the company and I wonder if it would yield similar value with users.

Tiny Pulse is cool because it’s anonymous. It can be hard for employees to say something negative about their boss/ceo.

But lucky for us, people on the forum seem to have NO PROBLEM speaking “truth to power” about what they like and don’t like about TR :-D.

Really the most valuable thing we’ve done recently is allow new athletes to schedule onboarding calls. We record them and summarize the data to see what’s confusing about our product.

Its so helpful to just watch real athletes walk through the product.

[KonaSS]

In regards to how long your race is - seems like estimated finish time would be more meaningful that distance. Is it a 100 mile race on road, gravel, or mountain, That is going to change the finish time signifcantly. Fitness is going to have a big impact as well. My finish time for 100 miles may be 5:00 hrs and others in the same race may be 8 hrs.

[AlexMartins]

now we’re talking

That’s exactly what I mention would be VERY NICE

[J.Muzyka]

As a new user, I had been using Training Peaks for my training along with Wahoo Systm. My ftp is 305 per tests and Intervals.icu results. It’s remained proper when comparing my heart rate to training zones. However, TrainerRoad’s AI FTP detection wanted to give me 273 as my ftp and downgrade all my future planned rids to ~30min when I’ve been doing 2+hr rides. That right there killed the legitimacy of the AI FTP detection for me. I’d rather stick to ramp tests and workout analysis to know where my levels need to be at. Relying too much on AI to dictate your training, I feel, is a great way to plateau and I don’t trust it.

After AI FTP detection tried to bring my ftp down 30 points I cancelled my subscription so it doesn’t auto-renew at the end of the month. We’ll see what happens between now and then but I don’t think it’s able to properly analyze workouts done outside or through any other platform so it’s skewing the numbers for people who do “outside” rides.

[BenB]

You don’t have to use AI FTP, you can do a ramp test, or 8 min test, or 20 min test, or actual 1hr power. I guess if AI is your only reason for using TR then I get it, but it seems like an easy solution if you’d rather stick to ramp tests - just do a ramp test?

[hpbieker]

You don’t have to accept the AI FTP and you can use other ways of determining it like the ramp test or the 20 minute test. You can also set it manually to the same value as in SYSTM.

[JoeX]

@Nate_Pearson

We should just live stream product meetings

That would be one helluva sprint planning session! Count me in.

[J.Muzyka]

Yep, that’s my plan and I did reject the AI FTP score and set it myself. I’m going to test out TR in combination with Systm over the next month and I may renew one more month to continue if I like it. (To give it a fair shake.)

I don’t really trust the AI FTP detection so I’ll continue using the Half Monty and Full Monty from Systm to set my ftp. What I like about TR is the simplified workouts. Some workouts don’t need to be complicated and Systm schedules a fair amount of “NoVids” which isn’t much different from a TR workout except for using 4DP values.

However, TR does a better job at handling NoVid workouts than Systm does right this moment with the ability to extend training and the metrics it gives me during the workout. I like that about TR.

What I love about Systm are the Sufferfest videos, 4DP metrics and rider profile, the simulated race ProRides, and On Location threshold workouts.

TR also has a much better calendar than Systm does. So kudos for that. I mean, better as in every aspect of the TR calendar interface is better than Systm.

What I don’t like with TR so far, other than the AI FTP detection not working, is that the workout library for TR is huge and I don’t understand yet how all these weird names are associated with “30/30” or “4x20” workouts. But Systm has a similar issue too with videos that are not “NoVid.”

The traditional TrainerRoad training plan I was looked like a great way to lead me straight off the cliff of burnout. And the AI “Adaptive Training” keeps trying to give me 30 minute endurance workouts instead of the traditional 1-2hr sessions that I’m used to. Which is odd to me. So I won’t be using Adaptive Training or AI FTP Detection. At least not until TR learns more about me.

Thankfully the TR library seems to be well categorized to find what I need, but as I said, the names can be confusing and a little bit of a turn off for a new person like me.

I do like the “Ride Now” feature and that I could choose my duration and intensity then pick my ride. I’ll ignore the “Achievable,” “Stretch,” “Breakthrough,” “Not Recommended” bit until TR learns more about me.

I’ll give it a shot over the next month or so. I’m about to have my last race of the season so I have nothing but time coming up to screw around before getting “serious” again. I’ve loaded a polarized plan to my calendar to work with since that more closely resembles the type of training I’m most used to but I may just use TR as another tool to use in conjunction with Systm and Zwift but all controlled through my Training Peaks account.

[Pbase]

Your naming point is a good one. Back before there was TR AI, the plans were static and the rides were all named after climbs. It was great for socializing about the rides because we all knew exactly what Spanish Needle was and what plans it was in. Now that there is a much bigger workout library, I do think there is some value in just naming the workouts something like “VO2 4x4 w/3 min rests and 20 min w/u/c/d”.

[J.Muzyka]

100% I know it might be boring, but I did “Mizri Ghar” yesterday and I just felt “Tempo: 3x20” would have been easier for me to understand. It’s also easier when it uploads to Strava and TrainingPeaks to know what you’re looking at. I have a Tempo High Cadence 4x3 session scheduled next week in my Training Peaks account. I know what that looks like. I don’t know what “Muah” is.

[DXR]

• Muah is a term that means kiss
• A kiss can increase the rate or cadence of one’s heart
• Rotating the cranks is like the heart of your bike
• So, Muah is clearly a high cadence workout

So simple.