TrainerRoad Origin Stories

I’m three weeks into my TrainerRoad experience, and I’m excited about what next year is going to feel like after all the structure, discipline and sweat. I came across TrainerRoad through iTunes. The Ask a Cycling Coach podcast was recommended by the algorithm, and that began my journey. After a month of binge listening, I signed up.

How about you? How’d you come to TrainerRoad?

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There was a fork, I took the one called ‘Trainer’…

:man_facepalming:

Ok, ok…Reader’s Digest version:

Used to race, then didn’t for a very long time.
Started riding single speed…sooo fun.
Got hit by a car…sooo unfun.
On the road back to health decided to test myself by doing a TT race.
Did a sh!t ton of reading & research on training etc.
Came across the TR/Justin Rossi videos.
Trained. Raced. Won.
Spent the summer KOMing and watching TR “podcasts”.
Decided to keep racing :grinning:, which meant more training :tired_face:.
Did NOT want to spend another godzillion hours cobbling together my own training plan.
(And second guessing all of it!)
Signed up for the Coach Chad Tour de Torture.

Next…

(btw, the other road was called ‘Doughnutland’…I still cry a little bit every day…)

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It must be tough to be @Captain_Doughnutman and to be forever outside of Doughnutland.

I had a car episode two years ago. I’m one year back on the bike and want to get stronger than I was before. Winging it wouldn’t get me there, so I’m all in here. I refuse to let the narrative be that I was a strong cyclist and now I’m not.

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I hear ya.
Funnily enough, I’m probably a stronger cyclist now since engaging in structured training then when I was actually racing; success was built on nothing but the vim of youth back then.

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Been with TR since 2013. I’ve rode bikes all my life, dabbled in some MTB stuff for a few years and then came back to road. Wanted some structure as sitting watching videos while on trainer wasn’t really benefitting me. Found TR and used their plans in the off season for next 2 years. I was on track to have a great 2016 and then my training got derailed when my wife was involved in a motor vehicle accident. Recovery from the ensuing concussion was a long road for both of us and I would just ride my bike when I could and any type of structure was out the window. It’s 2 years later and after a couple of months off due to another minor car accident I’m ready to get down to brass tacks again.

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Used to play Badminton competitively as a youth and was pretty fit until I started studying. Dropped everything during university and in the first years of working and felt “meh”.

Eventually discovered biking through friends, went all in, completely dug myself into a hole within just a couple of weeks. When trying to find out what was wrong I discovered that others watch their heart rate, which I previously considered as something that only the real pros do. Bought a heart rate strap out of desperation and found out that heart rate matters. Rode about 3 years with a heart rate strap only and had lots of fun.

Then had to stop again for a couple of years due to work and re-started about 3-4 months ago. Quickly increased my training pace again, quickly realised that I’m not getting where I want to be. Googled, found out that other folks are using power meters - again something that I considered pro-only equipment. Out of desperation I bought a Power2Max NGEco (after lots of research) and discovered a whole new dimension to training.

Shortlisted Sufferfest, Trainerroad and Xert, went ahead with Xert. Saw some training results but was put off by the confusing interface, lack of structure and my inability to judge whether I was on the right track. Felt I needed something that gives me more guidance and handholding to learn more about structured training and proper progress.

Revisited Sufferfest and Trainerroad, listened to the Podcast, signed up and here I am.

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Through the podcast. Took me a while (due to the lack of an Android option at the time) to meet the minimum hardware specs, but once I did I haven’t looked back.

I was doing a club turbo session, but originally, TrainerRoad was a method of balancing family life rather than loading up bike and turbo once a week.

Obviously, I rate and trust the training plans, but that is still an aspect for me - I can’t get out during the week for spins/ training/ club training sessions and some weekends family life takes over. I can get a meaningful (probably better) session in around that on the turbo with TrainerRoad.

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I started off using Zwift, but grew bored with it and researched alternative programs to use my smart trainer with. The overall feedback that I read online was that the gains with TrainerRoad were much greater due to the structured training aspect. I gave it a whirl and have stuck with it ever since.

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Same for me. I used Zwift and got bored with the novelty of the graphics very quickly.

I found myself using their workouts. They have a great UI for it but are severely lacking in plans and decent workouts.

I was aware of TR but hadn’t seriously looked into it, then I started listening to the podcast and was ultimately swayed by that. So glad I changed!

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I first heard about it as they were sponsoring (I think) The Cycling Podcast for a while and the presenters were following a plan and gave updates on their progress. From there I found the TrainerRoad Podcast and gave it a go, albeit after a few years of listening to the podcast

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Agreed! The novelty of racing on there wore off when I found out about the cheaters! (either that or I just sucked!)

The start of TR coincided with the start of my journey into triathlon the previous year. I’d bought a bike and did my first race in 2010 and TR started in 2011. I signed up for the beta and I’ve never left!

My first 4 minute test ride with my old powertap wheel and cyclops Fluid 2 trainer. Memories!

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I’ve dabbled with a few things intermittently over a number of years - bit of Sufferfest, bit of Zwift, bit of TrainerRoad without really committing to consistently structured training over a proper period. Got a bit fed up with being dropped by my mates on hillier rides, which motivated me to starting taking training a bit more seriously and to lose some weight. Did a gym 28-Day transformation programme in July which really motivated and kick started some weight loss and a desire to train properly. Started reading and watching a few YouTube channels. Came across the Ask A Cycling Coach podcast from TrainerRoad and was completely swept up by the knowledge, passion, enthusiasm of the TrainerRoad team. This quickly led to me signing up to an annual subscription and I’ve trained consistently since August. Seeing some great gains and looking forward to beating my mates up the local hills. Have signed up to some serious events next year to keep me focused and motivated.

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I saw on Strava that a few people that I follow were using Trainerroad. I had no idea what it was, so Googled it and it opened up a can of worms into the world of structured training! I never even considered getting a stationary indoor trainer as I live in Zambia and we have good MTB riding weather 365 days of the year…. (on leap years we have that one single day where you cannot go and ride :rofl:)

My wife has a scoliosis and she really wants to cycle for exercise, but struggles with the jarring and bumping while riding outdoors, so she suggested we get an indoor trainer for her…. We then got her to ride along on Zwift as she does not really want to train or increase FTP, she just wants to ride a long for an hour or so every other day and she is not competitive at all! I then registered for Trainerroad and started SSB Mid Volume, and I love it. I do it differently though as I quite like riding in the Zwift worlds, so I manually write down the TR Workouts on paper, stick them to my handlebars and ride them in Zwift. They then upload to Strava from Zwift and then TR gets updated from Strava. I just match the TR Workouts with the Strava Workouts in the TR Calendar, it works a charm!

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my first ftp test is dated Nov 18, 2014, so TR and I go way back. I had become aware of them, as many early folks had, through DC Rainmaker, and I didn’t have a power meter and wanted to start training with power. I had only started cycling in fall 2013, but in that first year I went from buying a new hybrid bike, getting a cheap indoor trainer, losing 60lbs and doing my first century and a road race. Anyhow, I think my FTP from that first test was like 200 (I did the 2x8), but I had such wildly varying power readings on this old traveltrac trainer (not sure I even had the right virtual power curve), but I tried to just train as consistently as I could.

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Through Slowtwitch forums for me, back in the day! TR got a lot of love there - rightly so - back in its early beta days. It’s the only indoor cycling platform I’ve ever used: it was a good (or not so good) old-fashioned spreadsheet before TR came along to make me faster!

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Only been a trainer road member for a few months, until then I was purely a zwift user on virtual power. I have since bought a quark dzero on the advice on the facebook group which I couldn’t be happier with and my rides are getting better and better.

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Was getting into triathlons a couple of years ago and looking at programs. Tried TR as I liked the plans and the training helped me excel on the bike in my tri.

After the year I tried zwift for a couple of months for the social aspect and was not making gains so decided to go back ans re-join. Glad I did as I am making gains again and as a bonus can catch up on my netflix shows while riding. Longest trainer ride to date is 4 hours which surprisingly was not too bad with no breaks.

The new calendar and analytics is a great addition and looking forward to the day when my runs auto import into the caledar from my garmin.

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Accidentally discovered MTB in Bend while on a family vacation about 2 years ago. I did the Peterson loop on a Giant Anthem rental in my minimalist shoes (super thin soles lol) and had never really ridden a MTB before. 20 miles, 2k feet of climbing and 4 hours later I had fallen in love with the sport. Came back to South Florida and didn’t really think it was something I could do down here so kinda forgot about it. Fast forward 1 year - I discovered there are many MTB parks in SoFlo, got my first bike, discovered the MTBPodcast Jonathan hosts and the rest is history.
My only complaint is that @Nate_Pearson hasn’t adopted the MTBPodcast and made it part of @Jonathan job requirements lol. Poor Jonathan is wayyyy too busy to do the podcast on a regular basis outside of his regular office hours and trainer road is missing an opportunity to pull in more members like me. I would have never discovered TR had it not been for that podcast (not so subtle hint :stuck_out_tongue:).

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Hard core! :muscle: