I’m sorry rosebiker, but it does feel like you are looking for somebody to have a arguement with now
For me (and this is my presonnal) TR is like Ford, they have a load of enginners, a load of data, and they produce cars (training plans) that work for most of the people, but at some point you have to move on from the generic plans, you can either stay with Ford, buy a ST and get some mods done, or move on to a BMW\Audi, but there is no right or wrong, it your body and your training, TR, SF, TD and Zwift are all tools that can chose and use, currently I use Trainer Day, training peaks (mainly to get the workouts to Zwift) and Zwift, this is working great for me, have my highest ever FTP and the data for intervals.icu is working for me, but thats it, working for me now
I subscribed to TR for 5 years, have no regrets to this
TR might not be the perfect fit for you, but you aren’t privy to the buisness decisions, funding and day to day running that is involved, and at the end of the day it’s buisness, I don’t subscribe at the moment and I believe that the podcast is their advertising tool, but if it’s not getting what you want from it, just move on, you don’t go into a Ford show room, and start compaining that the boot is to big, should have a V12, you go and buy the car that suits your needs, and with training software you should do the same. If enough people feel the same, TR will change, because at the end of the day they want you money
But there alternatives and people are doing that, I just google “cycle training plans” and found loads of information
And the people who do feel they way you do (like me) are probably hanging out somewhere else, you don’t go to the Garmin forum to find out how people are using the Wahoo bolt
My observation from what you posted here leads me to believe you are underestimating what the base line minimum is for training. The time crunch plans are really below that minimum and just designed for making sure you aren’t totally sedentary. So my advice is to think about whether structured training is really what you are after and kind of go from there.
Sorry my post was a bit of a general musing to many of the topics on here but on this…
TR is exactly for this audience(?). I remember this questions being raised on the podcast recently…
“I’m new to structured training/riding, should I pre-train with some easy sessions before starting base?”
The simple answer is no, TR is setup to jump straight into Base and follow a plan without needing to dig deeper.
But reading up, you specifically want ‘4-6 sessions of 30-60mins’ - this is where a small amount of knowledge will go far - and you’ve been given good advise above. From a compliance perspective and a getting faster perspective, this may not be as effective for the majority of users and could muddle the offering - and ultimately lead to less people getting faster.
In the beginner strength lifting community, there is a phrase that is constantly repeated.
“Just follow the program, you are a beginner”
If you’re starting out, honestly, just fire up TR, set up a basic low volume plan and just do the workouts it says. Don’t over think it. They are designed exactly for beginners.
If you are starting out from 0, TR provides a solid beginning foundation.
If you want more volume, you can always add rides. You can always switch to higher volume plans as you go through things. You can do things outside of TR as well.
But know that when you are deviating, “You are not doing the program:”
Take the beginner enthusiasm and channel it towards 90-100% compliance with your workouts rather than obsessing about “what is the best way to get to the end goal the fastest”. If you don’t, you’ll end up spending most of your time not doing the program and not making improvements.
For someone new to structured training and perhaps struggling with the SSB I/II structure, take a look at Half Tri Base Low or Mid volume. Those are good plans with some variety to the workouts (meaning more fun). If the 90+ min workouts are too long, just do 1/2 or 2/3 of those and call it good. Or do Tues + Thursday and whatever you want on the weekend.
Hard to say as clearly mentioned in this thread, it’s completely subjective. However, try to think long term. As someone who went from marathons, to cycling, to currently powerlifting, I’m sure I’ll eventually come back to a regular TR routine (cycling works better in terms of age). Sticking with my grand fathered price (same as yours) would prove beneficial in the long run.
I don’t understand why TR is a subscription at all. With Spotify you get all the new music that comes out, with a digital newspaper you get all the new issues that come out. With TR you just get the same thing, it’s a great thing, but it’s the same thing. Sweet spot base is always just sweet spot base as helpful as it is. They have already done the work, but we are being suckers paying for the same thing over and over again. I would buy TR for $500 rather than pay the subscription. Sorry plan builder and group workouts don’t make it worth the cost.
This is basically exactly what Plan Builder was created for?!? With regards to time constraints (no. days and time per workout)…choose plan (low, mid volume) based on number of days you want to train (can even alter it for each part of the plan), then just choose -2, -1, +1 etc versions of each workout to match how long you can train each day. You say have 1 hr to train…well basically every workout has a 1hr version.
Plan Builder was built for the target market you discuss.
Personally, the plans and workouts are a small portion of the value I get from TR so it hadn’t occurred to me - but yeah - if all you want are the plans and the workouts you’re looking for a more point in time purchase - something like a pre-written training plan. I don’t see them offering that, but it is definitely a different way to look at things
true, but Planbuilder does not offer much option: there is no option to define the maximum length of the session, just the overall hours per week.
Whatever I tried to change in plan builder, i ended up mostly with very similar plans.
Spotify is a terrible comparison. Spotify is not creating the content they are providing. They are just a platform that allows you access to someone else’s efforts.
TR had to create the content, model it, then manage the infrastructure.
Seeing the track record for TR, they are constantly pushing new innovative ideas to improve. I stay with TR for the long game (as mentioned) but also bc I believe the company is forging in the right direction.
I’m not sure why people are pushing back against you so much on this point, but probably because you dug yourself a hole saying too much other stuff… . Anyway, I totally agree that this limitation is a real weak point of the Plan Builder right now as IMO it’s more of just a Plan Loader with it more or less just filling your calendar with the stock plans in a certain order that could have been done manually by following the TR blog posts. Of course one can always make tweaks to add/remove/change workouts on their own, but that’s not the point - the Plan Builder should be able to handle that all for you.
Rosebiker, at 4x30 minutes per week you are well below the getting fast with structured training threshold that TR caters too. I’m sure they have read your posts and may now consider adding a plan for those that just want to spin the pedals a few times per week. Who knows, maybe TR will dethrone Peloton as a workout platform? Actually it sounds like Peloton would be more your speed.
Anyway, you don’t need to resubscribe to program 2-3 hours a week on a trainer. The sport is aerobic so just do some aerobic work (maybe 75% of HR max) and then when you feel like it, toss in a few intervals or do an interval session once a week. You can make it really simple like 2x10 min. @ sweet spot. Or, 5x1 min. sprint intervals. At 2-3 hours per week it doesn’t matter that much what you do as long as you stay consistent.
If you need visual entertainment, it’s really easy to put on a racing video or do GCN workouts from youtube or any number of free things.
Welcome to the 21st century. Nobody does single-pay apps anymore, unless it’s a $3.99 iPhone game. Everyone is into subscription mode. You pay a monthly license for MS Office 365, they don’t add new apps every month. It’s always Word, Excel, PowerPoint. There are no TR competitors who do single-pay.
. Anyway, I totally agree that this limitation is a real weak point of the Plan Builder right now as IMO it’s more of just a Plan Loader with it more or less just filling your calendar with the stock plans in a certain order that could have been done manually by following the TR blog posts. Of course one can always make tweaks to add/remove/change workouts on their own, but that’s not the point - the Plan Builder should be able to handle that all for you.