Online turbo training racing - beta testers wanted

birdy247

Hi

We are looking for beta testers to help test some new features being introduced to turbotraining.co.uk

The 2 main features we are keen to test and gather feedback include:

- Online racing - Race up to 5 people across the web on any course you choose. (see screenshot below). You can plot a course or upload a previous route from a GPS file.

- Online group sessions - Perform a workout with up to 5 others at the same time (all over the web).

The best part is everything runs through your existing web browser, we use a small 2Mb app which sits in your system try listening for data (similar to the garmin connect icon)

If you would be interested in helping out you can add yourself to the list here - http://www.turbotraining.co.uk/group-turbotraining-beta

If you have any questions, feel free to ask. Beta testing is of coruse free!



Thanks

dazzTurning

This looks amazing. If I am reading things correctly, I can be in my house on my turbo and I can race 4 of my mates around Richmond Park? What would I need to get involved?

birdy247

Yes, that's correct. Although its not just limited to Richmond park (that was just an example course). You can create any course you like.

It doesn't have to be only your friends either. Anyone wanting to race at the same time as you is a potential person you can race against.

Similar story to the group sessions. Either you and your friends can do the same workout at the same time (the group starts at either scheduled times i.e Tuesday at 7pm) or, a group has a "leader" who starts things (by pushing a button which triggers everyone elses timers to start).

To get involved you need a turbo trainer and a Ant+ stick. Power meter or no Power meter, it doesn't matter. We can interpret "power" from the speed:power curve of varying turbo trainers.

If you use the link above, you can click the "request beta invite" button (top right, or bottom of page). This will add you to the list.

rudivoller22

Any idea when this is likely to go live to all users? Very interested and about to go for TR but this would appeal to me.
Can it be incorporated with videos such as sufferfest in the same way TR can?

Looks great

birdy247

If you signup to the beta testing you will be able to try things out ahead of go live. Yes, you can hook it up to video. Here is a screenshot of the kind of thing you would see.



You can perform workouts solo (with our without video) or in a group (racing others or your past performances on a map, or a group workout session where you all see the same workout and each others data - from remote locations).

rudivoller22

Great thanks. Just signed up. Can you use it with rollers as well as a turbo?

birdy247

As long as you have an Ant+ device, then yes, it will work. Which rollers do you own? Feel free to PM me instead of using the open forum.

gubber12345

Sounds brilliant birdy247.i take it I need an internet connection for it to work, so gonna have to look into getting a cable setup out to the shed cos I'm just outts range of the wifi . I'll go sign up in the meantime

birdy247

Hi Gubber.

Yes, The group sessions and racing would require an active internet connection.

Great, will be sending out details to the next lot of beta testers shortly

Thanks

birdy247

Hi Gubber.

Yes, The group sessions and racing would require an active internet connection.

Great, will be sending out details to the next lot of beta testers shortly

Thanks

Guanajuato

That looks very cool! I'd signed up the other day when i was looking around, expecting a delivery of a TT from amazon that was mispriced. Never arrived '"Courier couldn't deliver" apparently. :-/ So I just need to get hold of a trainer & ANT+ dongle to try it out.

alphacharlie

Had my confirmation email from "turbotraining" so ordered my Ant+ stick and will be ready to try it out by Wednesday all being well
Cheers
AC

birdy247

We have released details to those chosen for phase 1 of beta testing. We will be scaling things u over the next few weeks, so you can still register using the following link http://www.turbotraining.co.uk/group-turbotraining-beta

Thanks to all those who have helped out so far.

Guanajuato

Upgraded to the power+ membership with the free ant+ dongle as I've just had a trainer delivered. Will give the normal thing a go first before signing up for the beta as I've no idea what I'm doing.

alphacharlie

Ant + dongle arrived today so set it up after work and tried the 20:00 Richmond Race

birdy247

alphacharlie wrote:

Ant + dongle arrived today so set it up after work and tried the 20:00 Richmond Race

What did you think?

alphacharlie

birdy247 wrote:

alphacharlie wrote:

Ant + dongle arrived today so set it up after work and tried the 20:00 Richmond Race

What did you think?

I liked it, been doing "sufferfest" videos for a few years now so was a pleasant change, myself and 3 other riders in the race which I think you won?
Wasn't sure what the distance was but now I know its one lap and 10.5 km I will be able to pace myself better next time.
Also not sure what the final results were as I'm only seeing my own stats, and the compare/detailed buttons dont seen to do anything?
I'll defo be back for more though
Cheers
AC

birdy247

alphacharlie wrote:

birdy247 wrote:

alphacharlie wrote:

Ant + dongle arrived today so set it up after work and tried the 20:00 Richmond Race

What did you think?

I liked it, been doing "sufferfest" videos for a few years now so was a pleasant change, myself and 3 other riders in the race which I think you won?
Wasn't sure what the distance was but now I know its one lap and 10.5 km I will be able to pace myself better next time.
I'll defo be back for more
Cheers
AC

Great! Glad you enjoyed things. That is just a demo course (it was a lap of Richmond Park). You can create any course you want, upload a GPS trace etc... We are keeping things quite controlled during the beta test phase. Users will be able to plot their own courses from next week onwards.

Thanks for the feedback and see you racing again soon!

alphacharlie

birdy247 wrote:

alphacharlie wrote:

birdy247 wrote:

alphacharlie wrote:

Ant + dongle arrived today so set it up after work and tried the 20:00 Richmond Race

What did you think?

I liked it, been doing "sufferfest" videos for a few years now so was a pleasant change, myself and 3 other riders in the race which I think you won?
Wasn't sure what the distance was but now I know its one lap and 10.5 km I will be able to pace myself better next time.
I'll defo be back for more
Cheers
AC

Great! Glad you enjoyed things. That is just a demo course (it was a lap of Richmond Park). You can create any course you want, upload a GPS trace etc... We are keeping things quite controlled during the beta test phase. Users will be able to plot their own courses from next week onwards.

Thanks for the feedback and see you racing again soon!

Thanks,
Just edited the post you quoted with a couple more things, ref "results" and "buttons" but I'm guessing more features will come online as things develop.
Looking forward to plotting my own route/race
AC

Guanajuato

Dongle arrived today (Thanks!) so I've had a go on the normal power+ bit. Whether the proxy power is accurate i don't know, but it felt quite hard going - the warm up had me dripping! The power+ gives me the feedback to keep on track, whether the numbers are right or not.
Struggled a bit to match the power requirements, but got better at it. Maybe my pedaling technique isn't all that smooth. In the end, the tone of the hum was quite useful.
Strangely, using the turbo made different bits ache than normal rides - particularly my hamstring.

colinsmith123

Guanajuato wrote:

Dongle arrived today (Thanks!) so I've had a go on the normal power+ bit. Whether the proxy power is accurate i don't know, but it felt quite hard going - the warm up had me dripping! The power+ gives me the feedback to keep on track, whether the numbers are right or not.
Struggled a bit to match the power requirements, but got better at it. Maybe my pedaling technique isn't all that smooth. In the end, the tone of the hum was quite useful.
Strangely, using the turbo made different bits ache than normal rides - particularly my hamstring.

did you do an FTP test? If not then carry out an FTP (functional threshold power) test. There are as many ways to do this as there are days in the year. Though I am sure there will be a few on http://www.turbotraining.co.uk. The accuracy of the proxy power is not important, it is the relevant improvement you make against benchmarks you set that is important. Eg. your proxy FTP increasing from say 300w to 330w.

In MY experience, pedalling technique can be improved, and I found the tips given on http://www.trainerroad.com last year very helpful. Anyone know if http://www.turbotraining.co.uk has the same features included? As winter approaches I've not signed up for either as yet. The lower cost of turbotraining appeals, the features built in to TR equally appeal.

Guanajuato

colinsmith123 wrote:

did you do an FTP test? If not then carry out an FTP (functional threshold power) test. There are as many ways to do this as there are days in the year. Though I am sure there will be a few on http://www.turbotraining.co.uk. The accuracy of the proxy power is not important, it is the relevant improvement you make against benchmarks you set that is important. Eg. your proxy FTP increasing from say 300w to 330w.

Thanks. That's really helpful!
I've started with the beginner's training plan. that's got a FTP test sometime in the first week. Currently using the default of 180W as FTP, as I have absolutely NO clue! Once I do the FTP test, I guess as long as I use the same trainer setup, it will use that baseline, as the sessions seem to be based on a function of FTP. having a few sessions before the FTP test is good, as it gets you familiar with how the system works and how to use the trainer, so the unfamiliarity isn't too much of an issue.
Does anyone else have trouble getting on the bike on a turbo, with it being a couple of inches higher and not being able to tip it? Or is it just me being an old, inflexible fart? :oops:

colinsmith123

Nope. No trouble getting on the turbo. As I always use my zimmer-frame for support when I get on my bike

Reading back through your post, maybe 180 might be a good target for your FTP to start with. If you've still got something left in the tank for the last 25% of the effort time (eg. 20 min FTP effort 20% = 5 mins), up the power by 5% and with the last 10% another 5%. Equally don't be foolhardy, start off too hard, over do it and fail.

Having as big a fan as possible in front of you will make a big difference to your performance on the turbo.

dilatory

So I got my beta invite and am interested in trying this out. My question is how do you keep this fair? You use a virtual power but users manually input their FTP so I'm not quite sure how you calculate it. I mean in TrainerRoad you do a Virtual power FTP test and it doesn't matter the number because it's still your absolute power number. You can ignore the number but the workouts still matter because it's still whatever % of how hard you can go. How does this thing work it out for the online races?

Alex_Simmons/RST

colinsmith123 wrote:

The accuracy of the proxy power is not important, it is the relevant improvement you make against benchmarks you set that is important. Eg. your proxy FTP increasing from say 300w to 330w.

It is if you want to compare results from session to session. Many indoor trainers are not consistent in their resistance-speed curve and will vary due to many factors, both during a session and from session to session.

Alex_Simmons/RST

dilatory wrote:

So I got my beta invite and am interested in trying this out. My question is how do you keep this fair? You use a virtual power but users manually input their FTP so I'm not quite sure how you calculate it. I mean in TrainerRoad you do a Virtual power FTP test and it doesn't matter the number because it's still your absolute power number. You can ignore the number but the workouts still matter because it's still whatever % of how hard you can go. How does this thing work it out for the online races?

If you are virtual racing, then I'd have thought it was your absolute power, along with air resistance, weight and rolling resistance assumptions that determine how fast anyone "virtually" travels at.

Aside from virtual power guesstimates, I'm interested in how it assess one's aerodynamics? W/kg is pretty straighforward, but W/m^2 is not.

In any case, this sort of stuff is presumably meant to be more about having some fun than about being accurate.

colinsmith123

Alex_Simmons/RST wrote:

colinsmith123 wrote:

The accuracy of the proxy power is not important, it is the relevant improvement you make against benchmarks you set that is important. Eg. your proxy FTP increasing from say 300w to 330w.

It is if you want to compare results from session to session. Many indoor trainers are not consistent in their resistance-speed curve and will vary due to many factors, both during a session and from session to session.

Alex, you're absolutely right. and part of the reason I invested in a PM.However I chose not focus on this variability of turbos when using virtual power, as it comes across as a negative. It is the overall improvement that is far more important.

birdy247

dilatory wrote:

So I got my beta invite and am interested in trying this out. My question is how do you keep this fair? You use a virtual power but users manually input their FTP so I'm not quite sure how you calculate it. I mean in TrainerRoad you do a Virtual power FTP test and it doesn't matter the number because it's still your absolute power number. You can ignore the number but the workouts still matter because it's still whatever % of how hard you can go. How does this thing work it out for the online races?

Hi, you can also perform a FTP test on this software. Also, it is constantly monitoring your workouts to see if your FTP may have changed.

virtual speed for racing is based on a combination of road gradient, power (either handicapped - scaled to FTP, or raw power). There are of course many other factors we could take into account as Alex already mentioned.

The new features we are releasing should be seen to compliment the current structured workouts etc.. The virtual racing is a great way to push yourself in a more unstructured way. Its god fun and very motivating.

birdy247

More beta invites sent out today. Be sure to check your mailboxes if you applied.

alphacharlie

I've been Beta testing for a week now and loving what I am seeing/doing so far, having been an avid Sufferlandrian for a few years a change in training options has got me going again.
Using the "winter power booster" training schedule and also trying to sample the online race activities too although limited to one option at the moment its a good short workout.
Cheers
AC

alphacharlie

Now over a month using the program so thought I'd update with my thoughts;
1. Its re-ignited my passion for training on the turbo
2. Seeing the data on screen and after the workout is great for monitoring progression
3. The program is easy to use and intuitive
4. Aaron and Rob have been very supportive both via email and telephone have helped me with a few glitches I suffered
5. The racing is addictive!! Be it against live opposition or historic times it certainly gets the heart and mind going.
6. I'm following a winter training program so riding 4 times a week on that and slipping in the races as and when I can, the whole way the program work evolves every week and you see subtle changes to things

So all in all my experience has been very positive and £5/month for the full experience is well worth while, quite a few of my mates are very interested in the progress and I'm sure once i report back that the video background is running and I create a local race circuit there will be more folk signing up.

Thanks guys
AC