Why I'm choosing TrainerRoad over Zwift
Thought I would share my thought process. I'm guessing I'm the minority here, as Zwift continues to gain popularity.
Background (indoor cycling): I use a 10-year old fluid trainer while watching movies, 3-4 times a week for an hour, alternating between 2 one hour workouts. I found this un-motivating, and every winter I would gain about 10 pounds and find myself really slow in the spring.
Goals: I'm going to buy a smart trainer and want to follow a structured plan that maintains/increases my FTP. I don't have a goal event, rather I'm looking to get faster, maintaining/improving my fitness, so I can ride (outside) in the spring with a really good base. I live close to Toronto, and ride outside as much as I can, so I would use the trainer close to 90-95% mid-Dec to mid-Mar, and maybe when we have long periods of rain / bad weather at other times of the year. I've been on my trainer 3 times since the end of March, and I ride 4 times a week outside.
Why I'm choosing TR / avoiding Zwift (for now):
- Technology: simply put, I don't want (lack of) technology to get in the way of riding indoors. I like that TR can be used on a basic smart phone, and should work close to 100% of the time without issues. I have an iPhone 6, Apple TV, and that's about it. I don't want to get into a 'cycle' where either I have technology performance issues/bugs that get in the way of riding, or I need to upgrade my hardware. I played video games when I was younger, but I'm not a gamer. I would play multiplayer games with friends who were true gamers, they would spend $ to buy the latest computers and graphic cards...while I was turned off by having to do this, and my lack of upgraded technology would prohibit me from continuing to play games. I don't play games at all anymore.
- Schedule: I don't have flexibility with the time of the day that I ride. It's pretty much weekday mornings before work / when my kid wakes up, for 1-1.5 hours. On the weekends I have a bit more wiggle room, but not too different from weekdays. Therefore, I don't see myself joining races or group rides (that have a start time). I know people who do this, but they schedule their time around these events. If I had a more flexible schedule that may work, but I don't.
- Movies/Shows: riding the bike indoors is when I catch up on Netflix and movies. I love this time as I love movies, documentaries and good series. I'm planning to watch all the Game of Thrones this winter, after missing the last couple seasons (that's 50+ hours of viewing!). I don't get a lot of other times to watch movies, or binge on Netflix series. I built a stand recently that is similar in function to the wahoo standing desk. My TV/DVD player is set-up on it and ready to go (at a much better eye-level than previous set-up), and my iPhone sits perfectly under the TV to view the TR workout. I'm hoping this adds to the motivation. With Zwift, if I'm simply joining a map and riding around, I'm not sure I would continue to be motivated by riding around, even if following a workout (I've read a bit about them). It's the movies that I look forward to. Seeing the avatar on the screen, with the landscape and all is certainly cool from a video game perspective, but to me this does not compare to riding outside...so I'm not looking to re-create the feeling.
- Keeping it simple: when I'm ready to ride, I want to get on the bike and go. I figure with a TR plan, I would simply call up the current day's workout, and hit 'start'. DVD/Netflix would take less than a minute to fire up. I don't want anything more complicated...this is the critical thing for me.