Training Peaks or Strava Premium?

funkydisciple

Hello!

Looking to take my fitness a bit more seriously and hopefully enter in some XC races. I commute to work on the bike, mainly roads, but a lot of hills, and it's about 10miles each way. I use strava free at the moment.

I wondered if you guys have paid for strava premium or training peaks or even anything else you have used to keep a track of your commute/training rides to see how you are progressing?

Thanks

cycleclinic

I have used golden cheetah and strava premium and a coach. Given up on all three. my training is just as effective not looking at data, in fact I enjoy riding more not having to download data and analyse it. I simply go for a ride and do what I feel like doing to get me to my goal This year that has been the 24hr TT. To be honest the data has told me nothing I can't feel. If I want to be fresh for an race I taper when I need to. If I dont care much I dont. The one thing they do is allow you to track FTP e.t.c but again you should know if you ability to climb e.t.c is improving.

I have even stopped FTP testing as I never ride flat out till I nearly puke for an hour. I do plenty of hard efforts, various 10 to 20 minutes intervals and shorter ones. They all work.

If you want to do XC races and that a great thing to do just ride. commuting is how I train. my route is 7.6 miles but if I am not tapering or recovering I make the route longer. I can make it hilly. Hills are great for intervals. Do a couple of sets a week and simply ride the other days and at the weekend get a longer ride in and that is your training. Every ride does not have to an eyeballs out effort. if you start to plateau that when you change the kind of efforts you do. Sprints, low cadance work, spinny efforts, underovers, soviets. For me it is back to hill intervals/pyramids/soviets and spinny efforts for the next month. I wont be analysiing any data. I dont even use a heart rate monitor anymore. I almost ignore the power meter now but it useful still in determining at the start of a ride if I am recovered enough to do the interval set.

All the data when used well can achieve the same thing but it takes time, do you love data that you have to decifer and interpret. if so go for it. If you can think of better things to do do those things and go ride.

jgsi

Ditto as above.... I still log everything on GC if I recover my desire for inconsequential statistics.
HRM and power meter is required more or less to get Zwift going nowadays..... these things do not help you win races.
The trouble with 'progression' is, unfortunately one day, it stops and you go backwards and thus could actually see you 'off' the bike unable to cope with not progressing.

cougie

Strava free is fine for your needs. If you get really serious and get a power meter then maybe rethink the situation but most people I know are a lot more serious than you and just on the free Strava. Save your cash.

topcattim

Try Stravistix as a free Chrome plug in. Gives you quite a bit of data that I think you would have to upgrade to Strava Premium for.
or Veloviewer. £10 a year, more data than you can shake a stick at.

3dbikerITA

https://www.cyclinganalytics.com/try


For me it is the best for those who do cycling, even without a power meter, very clear and exhaustive and it costs relatively little

patrick.rainer

Definitiv Training Peaks if you ask me...

kmcd21

TrainerRoad is effective

imafatman

I like Strava cos it's relatively simple.

Training Peaks is quite exhaustive and definitely more aimed at elite athletes or very serious amateurs. It's designed for coaches to manage their athletes performances and schedules etc... The UI is also quite complicated and cluttered, but you can really drill down deep if you need to.

Strava on the other hand, very simple and easy to use.

If you don't have a power meter then neither will be terribly useful.

Typical Analytical

I could be wrong but I think I remember hearing from a few different sources that commuting is not the best way to train.

Of course doesn't matter if commuting is not a choice any thus you have to do it anyway.

If you don't then I'd recommend indoor training.

Outdoor training and data analysis is much more complicated than indoor training with fixed power and controlled conditions.

Some tools are forthcoming to make that even more so.

_HENDO_

Stick with what you have for now.

Best option would be to hire a coach next as that'll get you further with your training than paying for a premium.
Save the premium stuff for when you want to get into training seriously, at which point Trainingpeaks would get my vote for analysing data.