I post this with the greatest respect to everyone involved as there’s maybe a danger of being misunderstood!
I’d like to hear of anyones experience going from being Coached, to using TR’s Planner. I’ve had a great year with weight loss and FTP gains but with three years of being coached under my belt I’m still top 20 XCM at best - I appreciate its not magic. Admittedly there’s been no racing this year to test out my new increases and weight, but I’m wondering now that I have enough knowledge and resources to move to TR to plan and manage my season which will be a 8/10th of the cost.
I’d welcome your thoughts. I used TR many years ago in its infancy but am not up to speed with its current ability.
I think one big thing you loose going from personal coach to TR is the accountability. You don’t actually have to look Chad in the eye and explain why you bailed a workout or try and convince him that the mid-week chain-gang was really a recovery spin.
Other than that though I think you get a very good portion of the benefits but at a fraction of the cost.
I was coached previously but when I had my role made redundant I cut that back and got a trial of TR to keep me ticking over. Despite that I probably went into a bit of a decline (just not carb loading to the same degree), definitely did decline when the trial ended. I’ve hopefully got things sorted out and I’ve went into a solid 3weeks of TR and it seems to be moving me back in the right direction judging from my non wind assisted PRs on local bumps on Monday
I’ve had switched between a coach and TR a couple of times and settled with TR, I don’t need accountability of a coach as I’m rigid with myself and dont miss a workout or event, if something in life gets in the way then I just let it adapt but as I said this rarely, if ever happens.
For me, the cost of a coach doesn’t warrant the facility of having to say “sorry I missed that work out” just adapt with TR AI and carry on.
I often thought I was over training but RLGL has now taken care of that and I always follow the guidance of an endurance day after an Amber.
Yesterday I just hit my highest FTP in 3 years at the age of 59, giving me 4.5 w/kg - very happy.
That said, I would consider this, when you move to TR, YOU are the coach. Not TR. TR becomes your guide and makes good suggestions. But despite all the metrics and the AI, etc. etc. TR doesn’t know you. I bet there are some lessons you learned with your coach. What works best for you, what doesn’t. What kind of workouts do you like, what don’t you like, but still need to do. When can you push through, when to back off. TR becomes a great tool and guide to help you with these decisions, but ultimately to be the best version of you, you will have to make some decisions on when to overrule/change your plan.
