It could be a lot of things. For me it’s that I want to try TR again but I know I will want to occasionally throw in some modified workouts or perhaps follow TR for part of the season and do my own thing for part of the season. Doesn’t seem like it should matter.. a workout creator is such an obvious and simple need.
The entire reason I left TR previously was that I was pregnant and I couldn’t do TR workouts (or anyone’s workouts for that matter) and had to create a bunch of my own stuff and workout creator was so glitchy that I had to find another solution.
I’m hesitant to sign up for TR knowing that it doesn’t meet all of my potential virtual training needs, especially as I weigh the pros and cons of following a TR plan vs hiring a coach vs buying a training plan from a coach for a specific event. At this point I lean towards option 3 to balance cost and flexibility in approach.
For what it’s worth, Workout Creator works pretty well when I write my workouts in Intervals.icu, export to .mrc, and drag it into Workout Creator. I have an easier time writing out workouts rather than drag/drop, so I prefer Intervals to TP for this function.
I created this spreadsheet that will convert times and %FTP into the text you need to make an intervals workout. Copy column D into Intervals and you’re ready to rock.
People would probably consider paying for TR if they’re self coaching, or working with a coach and just like the workout player and having the TR calendar / AI FTP, maybe red light green-light. For example, reduced rate for no access to workouts or plan builder? Or maybe no AIFTP / red light green light too but you still get the workout player and workouts flowing in (and, TR gets the data)?
The question from the TR side is - how many new subscriptions at a lower rate, vs. how many people are just paying the full rate right now that you’d cannibalize by offering a lower rate package?
I will end up coming back to TR at some point, but let my subscription lapse because I’m working with a coach, using TP Premium, and Zwift - so was trying to cut back a little. If it had been what I’m describing, I probably would have stayed opted in because the workout player just works.
I think for people who do use TR plans, such as myself, @Pbase‘s examples are ones where maybe you want to do the workout prescribed but alter the recovery intervals. Sure, it’s not precisely the workout prescribed, but a lot of times it’s still pretty close. And since there’s no clean way to just alter recovery intervals in-workout (which I would personally prefer), editing workouts in the Workout Creator is the next cleanest and easiest option.
It also does provide some flexibility for those of us who do use TR plans but also maybe want to do a block or 2 of something self-structured at different points in the year.
Can be done, but is awkward with potential fat finger errors. They’re likely to happen when the body’s not perfectly still.
Last week I cut the inter-set recoveries on Hunter -4 to five minutes, because ten seemed tedious & excessive. A button to say “I’m ready to go NOW” would make that easier. (Feature request? )
Not really sure how AIFTP or AT handle that, because doing so requires pausing the workout during the rests, & it doesn’t appear to record how long it was paused for, though I guess it’s possible there’s data relating to this that’s hidden in the back end.
My most recent use case for Workout Creator has been to see what happens when I sit on one power level for hours on end. Filling out the southeast corner of the power curve is fairly event-specific for me as a randonneur, but the only “flat” workouts I could find are those such as James, Low Saddle, Margarita, & Walker, which are only flat because they’re pushing up against the ceiling of what we call Z2, & are comparatively very short. Now I could do this purely off my head unit, but the workout player shows where I’ve been & that keeps me honest in regards to when I slack off or do a hero pull. Following the blue bar makes it so much easier to tune into it.
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