TrainerDay outdoor app and improved outdoor workouts?

#21

I wonder how Apple structured workouts will soon look like. At the time being, it’s garbage but they are moving in that direction.

I tried their companion Lock Screen feature and it looks nice. After years of using Wahoo/Garmin I now kinda feel like it may be a pivot point. And Apple is really close to that, they just need to add workout graph and lap data vs target, boom, that’s it. This year they did a big step into cycling and I believe they will go on.

I mean crisp and clear big screen, one less device to buy etc. QuadLock will be just fine for this.

Recent Garmin Edge update made indoor structured workouts on them useless (power target gets to 0 when it thinks you stopped pedaling, which happens all the time after, say, Z5 surge) and boom, you are riding at 0 power target. I wrote to support which is basically useless, there’s no way to downgrade this shit and so on. The typical Garmin software.

So I hope Apple will just crack it down with polished solution. Interesting though, there’s not a single app for that at the moment.

#22

I think there is a trend (small but growing) of performance cyclists accepting phones on bars. I am sure you know many purists think it is a sin but for doing workouts outdoors I think the experience could be significantly better. We were moving in this direction but since no one used the feature we gave up. I know CheckMyRide for example will show your up coming workouts from TD calendar for outdoor. I have a quad lock on my bike (for indoor actually), seems very stable, not always as easy to click in as I would like but fine.

Garmin does a good job with hardware but moderate at best with software. But yes it will be interesting to see what Apple will do, I don’t see Apple catering to the performance market but there might be enough overlap with the fitness market they do something that works for both.

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#23

Hey Alex, Thanks for the insight…I’ve got CMR loaded up and ready to go for outdoor workouts, likely only Z2. One issue though, and I don’t know that you can help. I don’t have power on my bike, so I’d need the workout data to show in heart rate, but I don’t see an option or setting to change from power to HR…any thoughts?
Second thing…after completing the outdoor workout will CMR push that completed workout to my plan calendar? and do I really care? It seems to me that TD doesn’t change my future workouts based on the metrics of my completed rides. It’s basically “here’s the plan we have created for you, keep up or don’t”, but the plan won’t change relative to my input. And that’s not a bash on TD, I’ve done TR and now I’m here…and much happier with the experience. I appreciate your thoughts. Scott

#24

Hi Scott. You would have to talk to CMR about heart rate. I would say for outdoor Z2 you don’t need to follow a TrainerDay plan. Just determine a good maximum outdoor HR and try to stick to that. If you connect CMR and TD to Strava you will see completed workouts on your TD calendar.

Hope that helps.