Jon, you are too humble - I’m sure listeners love listening to your stories. I was also far more invested with you, Nate, Thor etc than the current guests
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I was also a fan of the TR team’s personal experiences. The issue of negative feedback is probably from folks who listen to other podcasts by professional racers (top 1%) and find different recommendations. Back in the day, TR folks pioneered the podcast scene and offered a fresh look into how to race faster. As a weekend warrior, I learned a lot and improved my results.
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Just to add to the cacophony of voices: while I understand that the format of the past (with mostly fixed hosts and lots of personal banter) was very entertaining and fun, I very much appreciate that you take the risk to mix it up.
Don’t stop doing that, I don’t think you have found the next great recipe yet, but I really like that you are taking risks to try different formats.
Your latest podcasts were thematically centered around a single topic or family of topics where you invite an expert and pick apart one subject. So if it didn’t interest me, I didn’t have to listen to it.
Depending on how you measure success, that is either good or bad. Personally, I like that it frees up some podcast listening time for other things. But when I do listen, I tend to listen more intently. On the flip side, I really need to listen and the podcast is less suited as background material.
PS I always loved you commenting on your own races. I’m sad you stopped, because you heard complaints. Wasn’t me!
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Totally agree. Would be interesting - there is more than enough content online with professionals and how they race and train, but not enough on us mere mortals, and parents 
.
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Which successful athletes are actually regularly using TrainerRoad? Not just once in a while, like Blummenfelt and the Norwegians when they are doing their testing.
I’m assuming you have not listened to any of the old successful athletes podcasts. The athletes featured were typically age group athletes, not pro. There are lots of successful AG athletes using TR. Much more relatable for most of us compared to what the pros do.
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We have/had an Olympic gold medalist on this forum, for example. Most are amateurs (in the sense that they don’t make a living off of cycling), though. I also remember questions by (former?) TR users in the podcast who now rides in the world tour. I still vividly remember the sentence “cruising at 380 W”.
I would reckon that the pros who use TR in some capacity use its workout library and the player.
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Who was that?
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I was going to time my next Ironman around the Podcast team doing a group deep dive like they did with the 40k TT. Then it sort of fell off the radar as circumstances changed for the pod team, and I still haven’t done my 2nd IM!
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I’d actually love to get your take on what to do about that. I am a average-to-good crit rider who can’t climb, and so road racing on punchy courses is what really interests me. Since there are so few races in my area, I’ve decided to take matters into my own hands, and I’m organising my own event.
I’d love to hear an episode where you speak to someone about what it takes to organise a great event. You could cover things like:
- How do you make the event attractive to racers?
- How do you make the event attractive to spectators?
- How to you attract, engage, and provide value for sponsors?
- What makes a good course for a crit, a road race, a time trial, a sprint wars
- How do you ensure there’s a good vibe on the day?
- How do you put together a budget for an event?
Obviously, a lot of that will vary from region to region, and country to country, but I think the themes there would be great.
(For what it’s worth, my event is called “Thunda in Tanunda”)
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Anna Kiesenhofer. She won the women’s road race at the Tokyo Olympics in a spectacular race. She is self-coached.
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I watched that race and it was spectacular!
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Me, too. What a race, what a story. She was clearly the strongest athlete on that day. Nobody can claim it was luck. I vividly remember her collapsing after she got to the finish line, gasping for air. You could tell, she gave everything she had.
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From what I remember, did not go back and check, the views on YT for the SAP were not as high as the normal podcast. Not even close. To make some variation on the achievements of the Athletes Jon made some Podcasts with people who had done some very niche events. Made it almost easier to relate to pro riders. Because you successfully have followed a trainingplan on TR does not mean that you have much input to a podcast. Ask me about my training on TR and you will have a 5 min. podcast.
But the stories about what you did with the training and how things worked out might be more interesting than you give yourself credit for. I think that is why people hang around after races is to discuss about how they did and how they got there.
I suspect the podcast would have grown as they worked the kinks out but not to the same level as the ask a cycling coach podcast. At some point it is a bandwidth issue too. No company has all the resources to do all the things that might be interesting.
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Yes, I miss the stories and the banter.
Some people have the “rizz” and some don’t. I could imagine it takes a long time vetting who to put on. The last podcast with Melisa Rollins was kinda a “successful athletes” podcast. A fun interview and someone who started riding on TR and with their parents. Hope she is on again sometime!
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Maybe. But I wonder what the view levels are like post-Chad, too. It seems like the same format every week in that we have a professional athlete talking about their training up to an event and a recap of their execution with some listener questions thrown in. I love TR as a platform, but I listen a lot less now.
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Post Chad podcasts are formulaic and dull. The original “Three Amigos” were so much better. I’m no longer interested in a “professional athlete” talking about their recent event. I’d rather hear from more relatable amateur athletes. Masters etc… Folks who actually train with TrainerRoad.
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