TrainerRoad.com

TH3 FRB · February 16, 2012 9:05AM

Who has played with TrainerRoad.com software? I don't care about virtual power but I really like the (unnecessary) novelty of having a 24" display of my workout data up next to my 37" HD TV in the pain cave. Plus, I've been hacking my OS workouts with slightly longer SST on the weekend so it would be fun to load up a program to follow evfen though it's easy enough to make up my own. Basically this is about more toys and cool stuff. At $10/month I probably have to do it.

Tom Glynn · February 16, 2012 9:24AM

A bunch of us have been playing with it. Think about joing our March OS hack group. We are testing the program. John and I have also talked to the owners and they are willing to help get EN workouts on the site. There are a lot of cool features coming soon to help groups of people interact with each other over the web.

TH3 FRB · February 16, 2012 9:51AM

Getting our OS workouts loaded would be awesome. And some EN online virtual time trials...mo fun!

Joseph Lombardi · February 16, 2012 10:30AM

I Like it so far....and many of the existing workouts line up well with ours...ie. there are a number of 3x15, 2x20, etc....plus they have the 30-60-90 freerides.....I need to improve my background video files/selections!

brianrobkelly@hotmail.com · February 16, 2012 10:33AM

i have been using it and really like. lot's of various rides which looks like it will keep the boredom factor down. and some of them even have continual instructions as you ride which is kind of helpful if you do not know everything there is to know about cycling...like me...oh, by the way, the rides are way hard!

Tom Glynn · February 16, 2012 11:39PM

@Joseph, can't beat the Suffest Videos! They sync up seamlessly with TrainerRoad. VO2 work is "Revolver" and 2 x 20 is Hell Hath No Fury (HHNF).

Videos are really cheap.

All good stuff.

jamison.gaddy · February 16, 2012 11:45PM

I'm interested in the videos. The website videos look great but didn't really give a idea of what the rider (trainer) would be looking at. Great to hear some good feedback. Do the videos run behind the power file or do I have to choose to watch the video? I'm trying to ask if they are transparent and allow both of the screens to overlay. How does it work? Thanks

Tom Glynn · February 17, 2012 12:17AM

@Jamison. You Tube - it's really easy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yK5-boDjV4E

Joseph Lombardi · February 17, 2012 4:45AM

Tom- YES!...I have HHF (those women kick a$$).... and I also run some Spinerval Rides off of CD...I just need more!....

Tom Glynn · February 17, 2012 10:11AM

Downward Spiral (VO2) and Angels (FT) are great rides too!

[Deleted User] · February 17, 2012 10:31AM

I just wasted lots of hours and 6 disks trying to burn the Sufferfest downloads that I purchased onto DVDs that will play in my DVD player.
GGRRrrrrrrr. So frustrating! I even tried a trial time with WonderShare which is supposed to convert MP4 files to DVDs that will work - but no luck.
Has anyone successfully done this??

Reidweber · February 17, 2012 11:32AM

Wow. There's a thread about us here already. Let me know if you have any specific questions about the software. To give you a little update, we've got two new advanced build plans with lots of new 90 minute workouts that we'll be adding over the next few weeks. We also plan to add the EN 2x 20 test workout soon.
We're excited about the March hack. Team and group training is something Nate and I have been planning on since we started.

Tom Glynn · February 17, 2012 12:50PM

@Reid,

There are several threads about you already

For those that don't know, Nate and Reid are the creators of the TrainingRoad software product.

Reid, I'm sure there are bunch of folks here that would like to get a little more back ground on you & Nate, your product and what you have coming up, so feel free to post away!

tom

Tom Glynn · February 17, 2012 1:46PM

@Carol,

have you tried "Handbrake"? Not sure if it will work, but it's free and you may want to look at it. Personally, I'd just send an email to Sufferfest and tell them what you want to do.

[Deleted User] · February 17, 2012 3:02PM

@Tom, THANKS! I'll check out "handbrake". Apparently lots of people have emailed Sufferfest (including me) and they really have no good solution. Frustrating!

Joseph Lombardi · February 17, 2012 5:53PM

Carol et al.... I burned Sufferfest using a free download called Any Video Converter...no problems..

http://www.any-video-converter.com/products/for_video_free/

jamison.gaddy · February 17, 2012 9:15PM

Yeah thanks, little gun shy with youtube. Recently looking for some ironman motivation clips to play prior to class presentation, and I got the blue screen of death. It destroyed my hard drive, not cool.

brianrobkelly@hotmail.com · February 18, 2012 10:20AM

did the "Hell hath no Fury" ride this am...freakin' hard! was 80 min ride..i cut it to 60..or should i say, it cut me to 60. those spikes in power continously are killers! great thing is this is only practice/training....just keep pushin it! this has to make me stronger

John Withrow · February 18, 2012 7:06PM

I also did Hell Hath no Fury as well this morning, was a sick workout! Did you sinc up the video with it? When I dropped the video into the Trainerroad software the video was more of a series of pictures instead of a video and the sound was broken as well. If I played the video in a normal VLC player it works fine. Do other people put the videos inside the Trainerroad software or play them outside the software and just have it "close" to being sinc'ed up?

Tom Glynn · February 18, 2012 8:37PM

There are a couple of Sufferfest videos that don't work that well because the are large, high quality videos. There is a youtube video on how to fix this:

http://youtu.be/bky8n6cTVMA

John Stark · February 18, 2012 10:20PM

I have played with TR alone and with Tom. One thing we have learned that it helps to dial down the intensity when you are first starting out with TR. 90% seems to be the sweet spot when you first use it. We EN folks are used to steady state stuff and TR is far from steady state.

There is a little number on the bottom left corner of the software that says "100." Us the up and down arrows to dial it down.

brianrobkelly@hotmail.com · February 20, 2012 1:27PM

Hi,I did the FTP test on trainer road..42 min (2x20 intervals, with 2 min rest between sets) with a normalized power rating at 264. That becomes my FTP measurement for the next weeks of testing..correct?

Thanks

Brian

liebs45 · February 20, 2012 2:03PM

You got it dude!

Tom Glynn · February 21, 2012 1:07AM

just noticed that TR has a download button on the saved workout file. It creates a TCX (Garmin) file and can be imported into WKO or Golden Cheetah for analysis. Pretty cool!

brianrobkelly@hotmail.com · February 21, 2012 10:10AM

really enjoying trainer road and using power readings. They have a 6 week advanced strength and endurance plan all laid out for you. Threshold training. today it was 4x10' min FTP with 90 sec rest between intervals, with a not to easy warm up for 60 min total. They all seem to mesh nicely with our training, plus for me variety helps the mind on the trainer. I believe the variety and intensity is reall going to pay off in the summer, and especially on that FREAKIN' IMOO BIKE COURSE!

Joseph Lombardi · February 21, 2012 10:30AM

So used Trainerroad today for my bike test; I had previously done one other bike test 6 weeks ago with Trainerroad...but I used their 5/10/20min test (I also used my roadbike)...today...I should have chosen their FreeRide but put on Eichorn which is a 2x20 but with a 5min. recovery segment....I figured I would just start my second interval after 2min recovery and end the segment 3 min. early...in theory this work fine as far as the work goes...but it somewhat messes up the FTP calculation because TrainerRoad give you the Avg. for their prescribed 20min. segments...so by starting the second one early and ending early I mess up the avg. data for the second workset...

Not a total wash...but just something I need to not do again.

I also downloaded the TCX into TrainingPeaks...Nice.

Joseph Lombardi · February 21, 2012 2:46PM

Very cool ...I was able to download the tcx file from Trainerroad into Training Peaks WKO then slice out the test minutes...to get the Normalized FTP for the test...240..which as I noted was slightly belwo the 242 of my first test ...but because this was the full blown 20/2/20 I feel it is a better representation...I could have pushed much harder knowing I only had 1x20 segment as in the 5/10/20 protocol (which I might repeat for fun on my Tribike just to see how it goes)

dayooper951 · February 24, 2012 11:45AM

Posted By brian Kelly on 20 Feb 2012 01:27 PM

Hi,I did the FTP test on trainer road..42 min (2x20 intervals, with 2 min rest between sets) with a normalized power rating at 264. That becomes my FTP measurement for the next weeks of testing..correct?

Thanks

Brian

How were you able to break it down to the NP of 264 during your test? I've just been doing the TR 20 min test and not sure how to get the NP for the 42 minute test since they don't have that workout yet, wish they would add it. Is there a way to get that info? The free rides just seem to break rides down in 10 minutes sections.

Can you tell I'm challenged by technology

Cary Blanco · February 24, 2012 12:08PM

@Steve,

I assume you're using virtual power and not using WKO+.

We're waiting on the trainerroad guys to make an EN specific test with 2x20' (2') as the main part of the workout. trainerroad would then determine your FTP by getting the normalized power from the whole 42' section.

brianrobkelly@hotmail.com · February 24, 2012 1:03PM

Steve, i just did a 42 minute free ride.. with a 2 min break in the middle. thenI shut it down, and all the #'s are displayed. theNP # is right around where i thought it would be, so i think it is accurate. i am a tech dork too, but this entire program seems easy to digest, and i really enjoy using the different types of rides..some of these rides are just killers..good fun! and at the end, wheather i have #'s or not, i know i am working my ass off trying to stay on these rides

Joseph Lombardi · February 24, 2012 3:08PM

Brian...thats the best way to do it...though as I found out...if you use WKO you can "cut out" the test segment from the warm up and cooldown and get those numbers.

TrainerRoad.com

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