As the title states does TrainerDay publish a roadmap somewhere or updates on what features are currently being worked on?
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I have thought about this. I have been a development manager for 20+ years and learned the pitfalls of roadmaps and it may sound strange I generally think they are a bad idea. I love to see them when companies do them but what I find is that if I feel the pulse of what is going on on a daily basis I adjust things all the time. Roadmaps can easily set expectations for people that then cause frustration if you donāt follow them. Many companies just follow a plan even if that plan is not the best plan at the moment. But you are right at the minimum I do know what we are doing for the next 2-4 weeks and even visibility to that would be nice. I also know our general big picture goals.
So we are getting to the point that TD is on the road to getting big, and we need to get more mature. So let me share it here and I will think about a long term strategy. We partially use trello but we should get better at this and we could make it public.
Big picture goals for 2024
- Rock solid app stability for as many of our supported devices as possible.
- Improve usability / simplify and make stuff as obvious as possible for both the new user and existing. TrainerRoad is super good a this for example, we are so/soā¦
- Bring more features from the web to the app
- Improve the outdoor experience
- Add more intelligence to the TODAY feature
There are a couple of big things we are working on right now that I donāt want to share yet as I donāt really know where they are going exactly 
I should be able to share once the concepts stabilize a bit more, I hope in the next 30-60 days. One of them will be a killer outdoor feature if it works like we expect it to.
Some of the smaller ones are
- App - add a back button (really on the fly inserting of intervals very quickly)
- Some app workout screen small improvements
- Strava / Intervals sync improvements
- Lots of small bug fixes on web and app that affect smaller number of users
I will try review and add to this smaller list soon.
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First of all thanks for a great reply and a so far really good application. And as a product owner and developer, kudos on avoiding detailed promises
From my point of view as a recent convert from TrainerRoad I am very happy with the current feature set, however if I could have one wish it would be to make it easier to customize the coach jack plans (this might be ignorance from my part).
I would really like the option of adjusting the ramp using either time or intensity, even though I understand that increasing volume might be the better option.
For time limited cyclist or if you want to move the zone 2 training to another modality it would be great to be able to set the ramp rate on intensity instead.
In the same area I really liked TrainerRoads UI for adjusting what type of workout to do on each day as well as the time limit on each day, something similar would make it easier to adapt the training days to other forms of exercise.
But as I said in the beginning I really enjoy both the application and the responsiveness here, keep up the great work
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You are welcome, I believe you are saying you are a product owner and developerā¦ this is a nice life and much of mineā¦ These days I donāt do much development, for this project just some of the hard to understand and design algorithmsā¦ I started programming in 1978 and still do some now, but more on the fun side of things. Itās interesting to clearly see the mental changes that occur over time.
Based on peoples desires (āneeds?ā), I agree with you, this is a good suggestion. I have my own beliefs but as I product owner, know it is not about me It is important and I like to give people what the want and with the popularization of TSS based training your suggestions fits expectations and kind of works from a time crunched stand point.
I am always attempting to influence/guide to the decision process
As you pointed out there is no optimum way to do this now. We do increase intensity over time but you have no control over that ramp rate. You do have control over the āTSS base levelā as well as you can set daily time limits. TSS level is based mostly on the setting at the bottom called āride feel.ā I would have to review it but a simple change might just be to make this ride feel have different ramp rates, itās actually possible it does this now, I designed this a long time ago and donāt remember. I can check if you want me to.
That would come a long way to solving what I am looking for. From my point of view there is no immediate rush since I am currently in a cycling focused training block.
But once summer comes around it would be a great thing to have.
Ok, just to be completely transparent, as you can see above that is not part of any of the big picture goals, so I am not sure I will get to it in time for summer. It would be more likely something that would be ready for next spring if we get a bit ahead. Even though you are the first to actually request this, and / or fully comprehend the idea, I do know others would appreciate it, especially those with the TrainerRoad/TrainingPeaks CTL based mindset that are very time crunched. As I said I am not sold that this is the best even for time crunchedā¦ But my opinion is my opinion and that does not make it rightā¦ I was big believer in this approach for years, I just moved away from it. Not that I donāt see a value in PMC details in general, more just that itās hard to substitute intensity for volume and get the desired results, especially long term. But I am not trying to get you to change your thinking (unless you want me to :))
You mention improvements to TODAY. One request I have is to allow me to see (and use) my next week of workouts synced from Training Peaks.
You can see this on the library/plan tab but TP only allows the next few days from their WOD API, this is not something we can change.
Thanks, that was my worry. TP is great in some ways but they havenāt really improved anything in 3 years
Thanks, for the clarification and to be clear I have no expectation that itās a change that must be done. Regarding how to handle time crunches I am always open to change my mind
But I am having trouble wrapping my head around how to achieve progression without higher intensities at a fixed amount of time.
My thinking is that you need to increase the load to continue to make adaptations and if I have 5 hours a week to ride there is a limit to how much load I can trigger while focusing on low intensity riding. I do believe that an optimal solution would be to ride more, but if thatās not possible isnāt increasing intensity on the hours you have a better solution than to maintain the same level of effort?
So workouts should get harder, and via harder they will have more TSS but TSS increase is the result not the goal (a subtle but important difference). You can set daily limits in our app and it will do this now. The other thing is that you donāt need to work super hard at the beginning of a build process. It can feel super easy so 1 minute at threshold, 2m, 3mā¦ increasing each week and at the end of 16 weeks could be 2 X 8m at threshold or something. This is logical muscle and physiological adaption increase. It never feels super hard until getting to the end of a longer block and you should be prepared and it should just be hard. Starting with 2 X 7 and going to 2 X 20 over 16 weeks is completely un-necessary. If you love suffering itās fine but you are getting a minimal benefit over easy going to moderately hard and taking significantly more risk.
So this thinking is just like lifting a little heavier weight or more reps, not trying to increase your TSS at the gym. TSS is great to monitor over training and generally it should be going up a bit you just donāt need to spend your time trying to maximize your TSS/CTL unless itās via volume.
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Donāt forget that TSS is relative to FTP. The same workout done now on a FTP = X, may be quite a bit higher in āWork doneā compared to the one done 2 months ago with an FTP that was lower. The TSS will be the same but the total work done is higher. TSS, CTL is a help for planning sustainable training ramp rate, itās not an absolute number for performance results. If FTP increases, youāre getting better despite the PMC chart showing a CTL plateau.
You are right that available training time is the limiter for CTL. But not for increased performance.
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Funny I was going to say the same thing but you said it better than I would have.