A recent request on the Forum for a 1-hour version of Beacon points out how hard it is to find workouts, at least on the Workouts webpage. It would be useful to be able to specify the duration of the workout desired - 60-90 minutes is too broad (and should probably be listed as 60-89 minutes, instead). It would be more useful if we could fill a field to search for 60-minute workouts (or 45 or 75, etc.), or maybe have 30, 45, 60, 75 and 90 minute checkboxes.
Similarly, it would be useful if we could specify a specific interval duration, like 8 minutes, instead of (or in addition to) burst, short, medium or long. Maybe there needs to be a way to differentiate between minutes and seconds, too, like 8m or 30s.
Finally, interval intensity filtering: How about being able to search on a ranges of percentages of FTP? For example, searching on āThresholdā currently gives a lot of workouts above 100%, when we may want something between 90-100% or at least less than 100%.
Of course this all depends on having workouts cataloged in a database with each of these attributes. Additionally, Iāve noticed that a lot of workouts like https://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/workouts/20753-barren canāt be categorized this way. This probably isnāt a serious problem. But we may want to step back and come up with a system is flexible or easy to make additions to.
I agree with the above. Iāve stopped using the workout filters and just browse through the training plans until I find something that fits the bill. That only really works because Iām reasonably familiar with a few plans
Spot on. The duration filter is the biggest culprit - the 3 first categories probably spit out 20% of the catalog (<60), 70% of it (60-90) and whatever is left above 90.
Perhaps having slider values rather than tick boxes. I.E. Time: Slider from 0-250min. TSS, IF, Interval Duration, interval % of FTP could all be done this way.
Yes, a slider would be good, perhaps with a second slider to allow specifying a range. This could be one slider for max. and the other for min. Or one could be for the average like 95% FTP, and the second could specify the range, like plus/minus 5%.
+1 on that ! Current time ranges are too broad for me.
Also, it would be nice to add some filters on TSS - currently I usually select the workout type, sort by TSS and then scroll down until the desired combination of time / TSS.
Personally, I think it would be cool to be able to filter workouts based on interval time, at least as far as the popular ones (like maybe 30min, 20min, 15min, 10min, 5min, 1min, 30sec), it might be tough to categorize a lot of stuff, but this might go a ways to making searching for specific interval lengths a bit easier.
I just posted on that other thread (before seeing this one lol), some tips that I use when searching which do help quite a bit:
Search from the web, not app.
If you know the interval length you want - in his case 4x8, just use the ā4x8ā as your search term, then tick āthresholdā as your filter if there are too many to look through. This works for steady blocks of efforts best.
For VO2 stuff you usually need to use something like ā15 secondsā or ā2 minutesā as the search term. Note that ā3 minuteā vs ā3-minuteā will give different results unfortunately, so you should try both.
I also use the % of FTP (ie 140%) as the search then filter down, or another keyword from the workout iām trying to find an alternate for.
Once you get results from your search term, use the duration and zones filters to narrow it down.
Search by a keyword: racewinners, opener, etc
Even with those tips, youāll still miss some workouts due to the way the text is written. Sometimes itās ā4x8 minuteā and sometimes itās ā4x8-minuteā, sometimes chunks of VO2 work is listed as ā3x12-minuteā when the individual efforts in there might only be a few seconds/minutes etc.
When you need complicated tips on getting a search/filter system to yield the results you are looking for, it usually means the search/filter engine and/or UI is not great.
I agree fully with that. Just giving some tips that I use for anyone else that might find them useful in the meantime.
Likely youād want to be much more granular in your search than this, especially with VO2 youāre going to be concerned about interval length first and foremost.
Since you want 20 mins in VO2: Hurd -2 gives you exactly that in 8 x 2.5 min efforts. Took like 30s of searching to find it. Search by the interval length you want and tick VO2, odds are very good youāll find something matching.
This is a great idea, along with the refined overall time suggestions already offered. I had been thinking filtering workouts by their nature (ie, sustained intervals vs. over-under) would work but actual work interval time would cover that and be more versatile.
Everyone here at TR feels exactly the same way . We have some pieces in the pipeline that will improve the filtering and make it easier to find the workout youāre looking for.
As for sorting by specific % FTP and duration, I think that would be much trickier since many of our workouts have intervals of varying durations and intensities. For example, workouts like this would be really hard to characterize:
While we could add a lot of complex filters, in everything we do we aim to keep things as simple as possible. With the changes weāre currently working on, we feel that it will be much easier to find the workout youāre looking for without adding much complication.
That being said, I personally think adding an āover-underā class into the interval type could be useful and Iāll pass that onto our Product Managers. Something like
Filters like this look nice but as someone whoās fairly new to indoor trainingā¦ I donāt even know where to begin so filters donāt helpā¦ but a āsmartā / suggestive workout selector could be useful. For instance, āI have 30 min that i want to maximizeā , ārecovery ridesā , āI have 1hr plz nuke my legs ridesāā¦ or something similar.
. We have some pieces in the pipeline that will improve the filtering and make it easier to find the workout youāre looking for.
) could something like that be filtered by time in zone (ie x minutes @ VO2 max)?