During the summer months I do all my workouts outside. I generally have two things that annoys me (and a third that’s on the wish list).
Outside workouts automatically gets associated if I ride outside. Typically, I would commute to work and back, and do my wo in the evening. I regularly have to disassociate my commutes with the wo. My commute might be 30 minutes without power, and the wo could be 2 hours of SS. Especially with the new automatic push there needs to be some sort of logic and/or accept before the association.
When looking at the prescribed wo after it’s done, I would like to see the percentages (as it’s described in the indoor wo). I rename my wo after the fact to what it was (say 5x5 @110%). The outside only has wattages, so I either have to do math or find the inside wo in the library. Even better if TR could automatically rename the ride, e.g. “Red Lake 5x5 @108%”.
A nice thing would be if, in the description, TR could state if lap button is used or not between intervals. Skimming through the wo on my Edge is tedious so I never do it. I usually know when lap button is used (3x15 @SS), and when it’s not being used (ON/OFFS). But I have been caught off guard sometimes. Helps planning where and how to do the wo.
Agree, but with a slight modification to add rest time between intervals and total time, so you can differentiate between workouts:
SS 120 - 4x20, 5r is perfect for me. (stolen from someone else here, but can’t remember who to give credit)
Not sure if this is a TrainerRoad or Wahoo issue. I would like to be able to see my power when I pause the workout. Now, when I pause the workout I can’t see my current power number.
I completely second this, it is my main issue with using TR outdoors. Part of the problem is not being able to tell on my home computer which workouts have the breaks before the set until I download to my garmin edge. Sometimes have to download several workouts to get appropriate workout that does have the set breaks. Maybe user error.
I’m totally with you on this, but I think it’s a Wahoo issue. Another Wahoo issue the average power for the interval being off if you advance or go back to start an interval where you want to based on road conditions. The average interval power is usually wrong if you advance/go back.
Mentioned above, but there should be an option to have outdoor workouts play just like the indoor workouts. I, for one, like have the variation in targets through a workout, even when it’s outside. It’s just as easy, and more stimulating, to follow a shifting target as it is to stay locked on a target that doesn’t change for 90 minutes (boring).
Also, I do all my TR workouts outside, and often I pick a hill, or at least flat, of the right duration. It would be cool to have a larger selection of workouts designed with the terrain in mind. My memory of the original Cyclist’s Training Bible was that the workouts in the appendix were base around the type of terrain that you could find, which is really helpful.
Wouldn’t it be better to just create a set of alternative workouts in this case? If you are not going to do Byers Peak as 5x12 @ 95-97-99-98-97% with 6.5 min recovery you might just a different workout? And the progression levels will end up too high if you keep doing an easier workout than what TrainerRoad thinks because it doesn’t check what is actually done.
I would like the option to have an alternate library if possible and with a more conventional and descriptive naming. Instead of Steamboat +2 it could be SS 5x5 Spin ups. The description seems just fine, and I don’t mind the variation in intensity in this case. I would also like a lap button between the warm-up and each interval. Some of the workouts already have this and I really appreciate that function.
Other than that, just keeping the workouts simple is really nice. Unless I am on a trainer, I don’t care to follow exact details of some of the workouts because I don’t think it makes a difference.
Is it a trainerroad thing or a garmin thing where my workout carries on even when I’m stopped at a red light etc? I have to manually pause it. I’d like it to auto pause (yes I have auto pause on my garmin), then carry on the interval when I start again. I know it kindve interrupts the principle but if it was to be exact then I’d do it on the trainer.
Lap button at end of warmup, and each rest period, and only there. Or for sets of short intervals, at the end of the rest between sets.
Fix the repeat count on all workouts. Often the Garmin will say something like 1/2 at the end of each work interval in a set, but it’s really something like 1/6 for the whole set. When Garmin says there’s only one interval left, I want only one interval left!
This may be a Garmin problem, but having the name stick with the completed workout when uploading to Strava, TP, etc. right now the other platforms just get their default name.
Shifting the target to something shorter than step is OK, but no shorter than 30 seconds. I don’t need to be beeped at every time I have to slow down for … whatever.
And if you’re sending all workouts to all platforms, I can only hope the outdoor selection will go away in the TR app, and I won’t have to bounce between indoor/outdoor to select alternates and see the profile.
Hi @Nate_Pearson, every now & then, somebody pipes up on the forum asking to be able to do custom workouts outdoors, either their own workouts, or those from a Team. Just adding those voices to the discussion.
I personally have my own workaround, (a non-supported means ) others might find it clunky, but it would be useful for athletes to be able to push custom workouts to head units.
Another way would be for the TR app, by choice of the user, to record GPS data, since many phones get quadlocked to handlebars these days. The app is already asking for location data access, so why not record a trace with it? Perhaps with a simplified interface so it’s less distracting.
I would like to be able to preview a workout before I go out and do it. For inside rides, I can go to my career page, select today’s ride and mouse over the graphic to view interval lengths and power settings. As soon as I switch the ride to outside, the graphic disappears. And I’ve found that the workout descriptions are often incorrect or too simplified. Could we have a graphic version of the outside ride that we can preview?
This request resulted mostly from my poor boomer vision. I couldn’t read the 3-point fonts on my head unit. Things have improved since I got some stick-on lenses for my helmet’s visor, but I would still like to preview rides to see if intervals are actually going to change every two minutes (in which case I’ll select an alternate).
I would also like to change how intervals are counted, although I am not sure whether this is a limitation of my Wahoo head unit or something TR can address: my Bolt counts all resistance changes, so it counts the warm-up (1), the rest period between warm-up and the first interval (2), the first interval (3), rest (4), second interval (5), etc.
I’d prefer it it only counted the actual intervals and said (2/5), meaning I’m doing the second of five intervals.
Why?
In practice, neither matters much for me, because I first have to navigate to a point where it is safe and suitable to do intervals. That alone is typically a nice warm-up. And when I am done, I need to get back home.
Agreed. Outdoor workouts need to be simpler, and 4 x 10 at threshold or some such should be enough.
I don’t think there is a right or wrong answer, I think this is a matter of preference and TR should accommodate both. I’m like Alex Wild — not in terms of FTP, but in that if I am given a power range, I will always, always aim for the top, just to be sure.
I’m going to go for why, rather than how or what as that’s you’re job
The biggest issue I’ve seen with trying to execute workouts outdoor all through 2024 is finding the right route for the workout. All the detailed requests above I tend to agree with but stem from this root. i.e. I wouldn’t care how complex the interval was if I was on the right road to do it without being interrupted by junctions and traffic lights.
I usually look for a hill that can, say, take a ten minute threshold effort, but that might mean a long ride or drive to get there when really you want a ten minute warmup out the door and then get into it and get home. I know a lot of riders think this is no problem but it stresses me out and every time I’m looking at the map trying to find something suitable without luck.
Sometimes I take a chance during a ride hit the lap button and hope I can get through only to have the interval ruined by something, unexpected, and that feels like a fail that I can’t recover from even if I get the rest of the intervals done pretty well.
One other thing is that I tend to dual record, the workout on my edge so I can easily see targets, but discard at the end. Record without the workout on my watch as it has better metrics and is newer, and save that. I don’t think that optimises TRs understanding of the ride.
) others might find it clunky, but it would be useful for athletes to be able to push custom workouts to head units.
