Thought I’d write up my first impressions of TR as I’ve been using it for about a month now and thought this might be helpful for people who are looking into it for winter. Also, I wish I’d read something like this a year ago as I probably would have been using TR for much longer and a lot of reviews and write ups spend most of their focus is on power meters / smart trainers etc, but for me I don’t have the fun budget for either.
My Situation – Just had my second child (2-month-old) so training time is a max of a couple of hours in the evening as I’m ‘on call’ if our eldest wakes up (2-year-old)! Prior to our second’s arrival I used a Wattbike Pro at the gym and did my own sessions with no real structure
My Setup – Giant Defy 1 + Cyclotron Mag Turbo Trainer + Giant Garmin Speed & Cadence Sensors + Trainerroad App on a Samsung Galaxy S7 + Garmin Edge 810 all located in my garden shed with a couple of rechargeable lights
My Level – As mentioned I am pretty familiar training with power as I had been using a Wattbike Pro for about a year and at it’s peak, my FTP was 275 (tested using the Wattbike’s 20 FTP Test) so understand working at different % of FTP
Setting up the TR was really straightforward and once it had picked up the speed and cadence sensors it was game on. I carried out the 20 minute test as I actually prefer these to ramp tests and came out with an FTP of 411, which is no way in hell accurate (on the Wattbike I could barely hold 300 watts for a minute!) but as always mentioned - and rarely absorbed - with Virtual Power the numbers are irrelevant its about keeping the setup consistent so that the 411 over the course of using TR it increases.
Some of the greatest benefits for me I didn’t appreciate until I started to use TR is the in ride coaching which I’m finding invaluable for breathing, form & positioning and sports science knowledge! I also really like the intensity feature which you can change during a session to increase/decrease the target power based on how you feel.
For me the only downside of this is when I linked my rides to Strava my power stats were over-inflated, so I also record the ride on my Garmin (with GPS turned off), appreciate it’s an extra step but it stops me being worried about people thinking my power stats are much higher than they are and also getting into the trap of thinking I need to get a power meter!
I hope someone finds these ramblings useful!
