Looking to add some guided structure for a few months. Just need something to provide the 2-3 workouts a week. I’ll do a fair amount of endurance riding outside of this. I have experience with TrainerRoad from a few years ago but know the market has a bunch of new players since then. I remember it having a bunch of suggestions to do more z1/z2 rides when I would ride 15+ hours a week.
What do you use and would you recommend it?
I’m a big fan of TrainerRoad. Their adaptive system is the only way that I can stay consistent with work, travel, etc. Just put in the time off, or if you have to skip a workout and it adapts. I do just two structured workouts a week on it, and usually 2 outside rides and it has been a real game changer to my fitness vs. just unstructured riding before or trying to follow some rigid plan.
PowerWatts has a very good program for 2-3 days a week that I did a couple of years ago.
Athletica.ai is another one that might be worth a look if you are a zone 2 fan.
I tried JOIN and found it okay but have no comparison tbh
TrainerDay is the cheapest platform I know of—it can be used free, but the bonus features, including training-plan creation, cost $5/mo. It’s strictly erg mode, no simulated riding environment.
I had done nothing in this space before, and decided to try TrainerRoad (recommended by a local A grade crit rider). It seems to “work really well for me”. Punched in a bunch of stuff, came up with a plan. I tend to follow the plan “pretty” closely, but not completely.
Things I like - you can add in your “normal rides” - so I commute to work, so I added them in at the start, and it “understands them” and takes them into account for rest / TSS etc. You can shift your training things around, so if you feel like today isn’t the day, you can move it to tomorrow, or you can also do things like change the type of training, make it longer/shorter/more intense etc. It syncs with Zwift, but also grabs data from Strava so it can take my outdoor rides into account.
So far, the only real downside I’ve had is that the event I’m building up to - is basically like a 7 day stage event, with 150+ km most days, and trying to work out how to enter that was difficult to find in the options.
From memory, TR has a “free 30 day” option where you can get your money back if it doesn’t work for you.
I set up TR for a multi day bikepacking event and I just put in a Stage Race with 160 KMS/day for x days on the start date, it was a royal pain to enter that many race days but it gave me a good training plan.
Big fan of Xert personally but there’s a bit of a learning curve to it
I’ve used both TrainerRoad and Join extensively. Like geometry, nutrition, and everything else related to cycling, much will depend on your personal preferences and what you wish to get out of it. For context, I train between 10-14 hours per week — primarily for road racing and TTs.
I used TrainerRoad from their pre-AI days to their first year of AI/ML ‘adaptive training’, always on their high-volume plans, which averaged about 10 hours a week. Their implementation of adaptive training was decent, provided you trained mostly indoors. At the time, they were struggling to integrate outdoor ride data with the rest of the platform properly. And, much of their training was optimised for time-crunched athletes. (I don’t know how much of that has changed or improved since 2022).
Wondering if I could make bigger gains with a training approach that favoured more volume mixed with Threshold/VO2 intensity (some might call this polarised), I started using Join. I’ve found it to be a better fit for my goals, and I still use it with good results.
TR is a great single app solution for folks who want a single, fairly comprehensive tool that helps them plan, execute, and evaluate their training all within the same TR ecosystem.
If you have more time to train and/or already use (and pay for) other training analysis tools like TrainingPeaks heavily, Join may be a better option. Join’s app design is very basic compared to TR. You can not see your year planned out ahead as you can in TR. (If you’re using things like TrainingPeaks, that will not matter). TR has features that Join doesn’t have, such as performance levels, which I imagine are motivating to those new to stuctured training and using different power systems. In contrast, Join’s implementation of AI is better at ingesting and utilising outdoor ride data to adapt the plan.
That’s my anecdotal, N=1 take for you. Happy to add specifics as needed.
That’s what I ended up doing, after googling a bunch, and the answer was in the TR forums.
By far the best base training program ive used is Tim Cusicks Basecamp. Not an app, but a group training, semi custom training plan added to training peaks, which you get free during the program. Strength and nutrition training included also. Ive done it a few times, and would totally do it again. Anyway, have a look, www.joinbasecamp.com/referral/6hoZkI3xJXbL?utm_source=referral_program