TR Outside Idea - What do you think?

TrainerRoad Software
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TR has a seasonal issue (as do all indoor software platforms).

We’ve been thinking about having a TR Outside plan. This would be different than the normal TR plan.

You’d get:

  • AI FTP Detection
  • Daily Readiness score based on recent training, sleep, and HRV
  • Workout Level 2 & Progression Levels (so outside workouts impact your progression levels)
  • Outside only training plans with Adaptive Training that push to your Garmin/Wahoo
  • Redlight/Greenlight (intra week programming adjustments)
  • Personal Records - We’d send these to your app via push notifications
  • Calendar
  • Post Ride Analysis

So most of TR but you wouldn’t get the indoor stuff.

The hope is that those who want to ride only outside during the summer months could switch the plan and still get benefit from TR.

This would be discounted from our current subscription.

So assuming the price is right, can ya’ll answer this poll, please?

  • I would subscribe to TR Outside during the summer
  • I would still suspend my subscription during the summer
  • I keep TR year round so this does not apply

0 voters

Also, what do you think? Let us know if we’re leaving anything out or if we need more features for it to be compelling. If we can keep more revenue during the summer that will really push us forward.

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I keep TR all year round since I work odd shifts so often can’t get out, but a summer plan of some shape would be awesome cos I do ride outside a lot more and have a plan where I’ve missed 3/4 of it cos it was sunny is pointless.

Having said that TrainNow will cover that off, just nothing planned/scheduled. But post-ride analysis will be awesome!

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I only ride indoors with very few exceptions… because the convenience and life…
So good to have…
but not for me…

now, run and swim… haha

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I do almost all of my structured work indoors anyhow. It’s difficult to find reasonable places to do intervals of any length.

I’d imagine you have a sample bias towards annual members on the forum.

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This reminds me of a conversation I had with Josh a few years ago…

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I tend to do most of my high intensity stuff indoors also as threshold etc is not worth it with traffic etc and occasionally swith the tempo and endurance ones to outside in the summer if I have time. I wouldn’t like to lose that flexibility for when I don’t have time. My rides outside in the main are unstructured relaxed social rides and I wouldn’t wish to lose them either.

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I do as much outside as I can following TR plans using outdoor rides. Indoor about 4 months only for weekdays due to lack of light and weekends only when impossible to ride outside. I pause my zwift during warmer weather but want my full TR year round. Love TR outdoor workouts on the garmin.

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It’s already summer in this part of the world (Chile), and here I am lol, riding indoors during the week and some group rides on weekends.

It’s an excellent feature tho! If I had more time during the week, I’d definitely use it and make my plan entirely outdoor for the summer.

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Can you explain how this is different from doing the normal TR plans, marking the rides Outdoors, and pushing them to your head unit?

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Cheaper and you’d be unable to get TR to control your trainer/load the indoor workout to your device.

Seems like a really good idea Nate. I’m a year round user as well so not the most useful data point, but it seems like it’d be a great option for those determined not to ride inside during Summer, and for a lot of newer riders who think they’d be better off. Possibly leading some of the latter to subscribe annually anyway :man_shrugging:.

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Im not following what you mean? You just log into TR and click the outdoor button.

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Yes, that’s it.

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I added this to the list above, but we could do this:

  • Daily Readiness score based on recent training, sleep, and HRV

We do this right now for Redlight/Greenlight and this is what changes your plan (without the sleep/hrv data but we can add that).

This would be for people who ride outside without structure. We could tell them what their readiness score is kinda like Whoop does, but I think we can do a better job than them because of our data set.

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Sorry, I still don’t understand how what’s being offered is different than just using any of the other plans and clicking “outside”.

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I’ve got some strong opinions but it’s not my poll.

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When it’s not too hot, smokey, or raining out I ride outside. This would be phenomenal if it can switch between indoor/outdoor workouts as the atmospheric conditions dictate!

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But this idea (unless I’m mistaken) is you don’t get the indoor functionality and thus pay less

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Nate - I think the poll will skew to your dedicated year round users based on who is in the forum. But I suspect you know that.

I am in the camp of feeling like I get enough value from the suite of TR product offerings (including the podcast) to keep the annual subscription.

Adding more features, either in a different plan or the core offering, to connect the TR experience with riding outdoors would be well received. Using outside rides in the AI FTP will go a long way on this front. I always thought it would be cool to have outside rides characterized after the fact using the same descriptors used for workouts but this may not be realistic or helpful given their inherent lack of structure.

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I know we all ride differently. I dont do outside workouts. They just dont tend to work for me. I prefer to do the riding I enjoy when I am outside. Inside…it is all about focus on the workout. I still do 50% of my riding inside during the summer.

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Do you (or TR) trust the value of HRV enough to give it significant weight in the algorithm? It seems that the user experience with many devices is erratic at best, especially whoop. I know this is being covered soon in the podcast but the science doesn’t seem solid enough for me to use HRV to drive training decisions.

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