I always put a note of some sort on my rides in TR, most are very similar, but I find them super helpful to see where i have come from over the past 2 training seasons leading into my 3rd.
BUT… when i look at “all Rides” for specific workout i never see anyone else, or very rarely, see other riders notes. Any reason why people skip the notes?? just curious?
P.S. love the new plan builder!
Getting stronger with each ride!
I almost always put notes as well! They’re mostly for myself… tips on how hard, how I felt or how to attack the workout (or one like it) next time. Since I go back and read the notes before a workout, I try to make them someone motivating (“Tough, but doable!” “All mental, don’t give up!”) LOL!
I don’t, mostly because I feel like almost every ride note would be: “That was hard, and I didn’t think I would get through it, but somehow I did.”
Sometimes I do on TR. I hand write all my notes everyday in a calendar log book. I find it easier to scan through my training over the years. I include weight, avg. HR, avg Watts, NP, TSS and length of ride in minutes and type of workout. My short notes might say “feeling fatigued” or “felt good”. Sometimes they say something like “ate like shit yesterday, time to focus”. It’s funny to look back at sometimes.
Thanks for bringing this up. I’m going to start making more notes. I think it will be good info over the years, and is also interesting fodder for the masses.
Well, I don’t keep copious notes, but the notes I keep are generally on my Strava. Since I sync to Garmin Connect, Strava, and Training Peaks, I don’t need to keep notes on everything
Funny, cause I’ve been thinking the exact same thing 
Personally I use(d) to do notes on almost every ride, except for uneventful rides and when not following a plan.
But I totally agree that it’s super useful to revisit old rides. I hate myself for not having made notes when I go back and look at an old ride
I can’t stress enough how useful it is:
1: You can follow your progress and you get a hint of what’s to come, so you can be prepared for “that pesky 3rd interval, where you always bail”.
2: Also interesting to see how the same ride sometimes can result in totally different notes, just to throw any fixed expectations off the cart…
3: Injuries can also be tracked.
4: Notes to self.
Even though I understand the reasons for changing the workouts in the plans, I feel it’s quite a loss that I’m not able to revisit an old ride at a certain week in the plan I’m doing. Especially if the workout is almost identical, but just tweaked a bit at that point in the plan.
I also find it interesting to read other people’s notes - but there’s just so few 
I never realized there was a notes section, so thank you for pointing that out! Since this is my 1st season using TR, definitely going to add notes. But that brings up a security/privacy point, didn’t know you can read other athletes’ notes. Not that I don’t mind if folks read what I felt, ate, recovery, etc, but for my competition I don’t want them seeing those little details.
So I’m curious if you can set the notes section to private, or the workout which includes the notes? Just curious as I’m still learning to use and understand TR…
I leave notes when there is something to note.
If I nailed the workout I typically don’t write anything down. Unless I really slam dunked it, or it was too easy. For instance last Tuesday I noted that the workout was too easy and when I redo the plan I’ll switch up to a workout with longer intervals from he get go.
Otherwise if I completely fail to meet my expectations I’ll put notes if I wasn’t feeling good, or if I had some unusual stress. I’ve even put notes in because I had a bad w/o due to what I felt was poor fueling the day before.
But I doubt I’ll put notes for every ride, the good workouts speak for themselves.
I have never left a note/comment on my workouts. Interesting that so many do!
I’ve been making post ride notes on most rides pretty religiously for 3 years (I did it for years before that but very sporadically). (I use TrainingPeaks but the tool doesn’t matter). These notes are extremely valuable in a host of ways. Sure, most are some variation on “felt good” or “felt bad” but they add up. Plus for key rides, (races, FTP tests, key/favorite workouts you repeat often) they are great for studying up on for future rides of the same ilk. Its also nice to be able to look back a year later on a workout you cut short and see if you failed vs you ran out of time but felt great 
If nothing else, it is valuable to articulate a few key things from any workout even if you never read the note again. Making a note makes you do that.
i believe if you set your profile to private no one can see your rides or stats of any sort.
Personally if you are in TR already, i don’t mind what you see,(you are gonna get fast anyway) but my strava feed is what i want others to see/think i am doing…
I add notes - here’s Clark from earlier today https://www.trainerroad.com/career/bobw/rides/68726217-clark There’s nothing personal in there, so I’m not bothered about anyone reading it, it’s more explaining any abnormalities such as the delivery of firewood near the end of the first interval!
Being able to look back at workouts either that you’ve done before so can directly compare or if you’ve areas of weakness then you can figure out if you are improving if you do another workout of that type.
I’m sure one of the older podcasts talks about using notes.
For me, the best is to keep notes in a separate file. Last year I have taken the habit to make weekly reviews to support my training.
Individual ride notes are not so useful when I go back to them. I train for middle triathlon distance; however, having weekly notes allows me to reflect more broadly: on training load, nutrition, recovery, bike fit issues, vacation interference, training plan modifications, other issues.