66yr old UK based rider been road cycling 5 yrs, age related racing last 3 yrs. Committed to high volume base, build and specialty training plan 12m ago with best racing results ever this season. Felt strange to not be out on the road for weeks on end but good to be able to achieve effective training when weather not conducive.Main attraction of TR compared to other apps has been the well structured training plans for various disciplines based on repeat FTP tests. Found high intensity VO2 workouts hard to handle towards end of plan last time, possibly due to over optimistic FTP. Must admit to being tempted by Sufferfest app with 4 dimensional FTP for this reason.Recent introduction of calendar and automatic import of road workouts with corresponding TSS a good feature as is the online blog. Other training apps undoubtedly more ‘immersive’ although text instructions and drills from trainer Chad with a good music app help somewhat. Those 2hr workouts take some managing sometimes.

I already have correspondence with the support team, who despite my direction as to the issues, focused only on the inability of the app to load and wanted to blame a slow internet connection (fibre to the house, nope!), ignoring other issues. Responses have been slow. The recent update to ‘fix’ the permanent loading loop on startup hasn’t worked, the app is beyond sluggish and is borderline useless, often actually useless. When it does work at all, a 20 second job now takes many minutes, only for the ai to overwrite things or for the changes to have not saved. This is TR going downhill people, the microsoftification of the beloved app. Things nobody wanted, AI everything (which as a coach, is awful!)…and for the pleasure you have to put up with is a bloated app and system that works worse than the ecosystem did five years ago. I’m just waiting for them to put the final nail in the coffin and add some awful zwift-wannabe 3d ride-along nonsense and then you know it’s doomed. To be clear, before the update the app was showing signs of bloat, but it was fine. Since the update…on the same unaltered hardware, it’s become utterly useless.

I have been riding TR for about 3 years now. It is totally awesome. It’s an unbelievably efficient system for getting you cycling fit in a minimum of time. I have stuck to the very smart training programs with 3 rides totalling 3.5 hours a week. Who hasn’t got time for that. Really. Do you watch that much tv? Then do it on a smart trainer! I used to use my bike with a Wahoo Kickr Snap which was seamless but have since switched to a Wattbike Atom. That works best if you switch the Atom on before you switch on the TR app. Power-based training like this with a Smart trainer especially really does make effective training as painless as possible and once you get to the harder parts of the program you have built your fitness to cope almost without realising it. Amazing. And the support is fantastic. I’ve had a few niggles with set up and the email response is rapid, helpful, and keeps going until you are sorted.

I’m really happy to recommend trainer road (and frequently do) and for me it remains the best bike training software with the flexibility to take your training as far as you want.You can really achieve a lot by remaining consistent and following the programs or, as some of my mates do, cherry picking workouts to prep for races/events.There’s loads of training programs to cover most disciplines - providing you’ve got a compatible trainer --mtb, xc multiple distances-cx-road, rr,crits,TT, sportive/century events-TriThis goes hand in hand with what volume best suits your time preferences which is all able to be modified to whatever extent.I’ve been using the app for over a year and it’s been consistently good with regular improvements which demonstrates the solid programming work being done behind the scenes. The new calendar is great and gives you an easy way to track your TSS and therefore progress without overtraining. Zwift is out there and I like it and use it too but for training without distractions/traffic I really think Trainer road is the best option.The website is great too as is the support which I’ve used too and they were prompt and on the button despite being out of their time zone.