hi565

Has anyone here used CTS?

I have been looking around at it and i am becoming curious. Whats your feedback about it? is it worth it? I kind of think its a little weird because if you use the lowest one (which is the i would mot likely use) you only talk to the trainer on a forum.

Thanks

ZackJones

When Performance Bike was offering a free trail to Team Performance members I signed up. At the time I was commuting to work and wanted to integrate training into my commute. Unfortuantely, my coach never could grasp this concept and kept scheduling me to do additional rides on top of my commute. At the end of the free trial I elected not to continue.

If they could have adopted my cookie-cutter training into my commuting I would have continued using them. If Team Performance ever offers another free 30 days I'll sign up again

hi565

Does anyone know where i can get 30-day free trail?

rule

CTS offers a 30-day trial (Classic Package) if you buy a copy of The Ultimate Ride. There are instructions in the book for how you can go about signing up and receiving your trial to their entry/lowest level Classic Package. You do have to pay an account set-up charge though and tell them by a certain time that you want to cancel. Otherwise, they will re-up your membership for the full 6-month program.

I received the book for Christmas and decided to give the Classic Package a try. I am just coming to the end of my first week of training. In order to get a training program using the Classic Package, I filled out a fairly cursory questionnaire, the key points of which were the amount of hours that I would be wanting to train, the exact date of a key cycling event in which I wished to participate during the coming season, and if memory serves a few questions about my average ride stats.

With that, a somewhat canned training schedule was produced pending my completion of a CTS Field Test. Instructions for how to conduct and report the results of my field test are included in the CTS forum. A prompt to complete my field test also appeared on my CTS member page. Once I completed the requested field test, I filled out a forum questionnaire to post my ride results. A CTS Resident Coach used this Field Test ride data to tweak my schedule to dial in the heart rate ranges to be used in my training. I got no coaching feedback or contact as a result of the field test information that I posted. I just noticed that in the next day or so the heart rate intervals had been updated. Although I posted Power data, there are no references to it in my training plan. You only get Power integrated if you are using one of the high-end and more expensive plans. So despite all of the hoopla that CTS preaches about Power, they ignore it for training purposes until you hit one of their more expensive plans. That is disappointing, and is a big gripe that you see a lot posted on the forums.

Beyond this initial schedule tweak interaction, in the Classic package no CTS coach will review my ride data unless I post a specific question on the CTS forums. There are end-of-the-period questionnaire routines that provide some coach follow-up review, but no direct interaction unless I post a specific question in the Coaching Community or Tech Talk forums.

The forums even so are surprisingly quiet from what I can see from the posts of the last month. There are typically an average of about a half dozen or so posts/replies a day, with some days as many as 12 and other days as few as 1. A lot of the questions are repetitive and of the how-to variety, such that other CTS members end up answering them. Most of the coach specific questions are given very specific and well directed answers. Other coach specific questions are answered by directing the individual to email tech support or customer service.

The how-to information available on the site is pretty cursory and at times confusing. As a result, there are a lot of 'how do I reschedule my rest day' type posts. Some of the more technical posts end up with a CTS Coach directing the individual to consider upgrading their membership package as well.

The one thing that I most notice about interacting with a coach via the forum is that you have to ask your question in an open environment. As a result, a lot of the question and answer information posts are of absolutely no value to anybody else, like where a guy is reporting that he is sick or is going out of town for a week. It's more like I am getting a glimpse at an email that they are passing back and forth, which is kind of weird. The more expensive packages get you what I would really describe as Coach/Athlete interaction, but that is more of a personal observation I guess. You might think that the forum post approach is fine...for $39US a month. I was really surprised to find that I would have to step all the way up to a $149US a month plan in order to begin working with CTS and Power. Then again, you might think that is about right or even cheap.

As for the training schedule that I have received, so far no complaints. It is geared specifically toward the time that I have indicated that I have available and gives me a nice rounded training program in view of my key ride (i.e. to be ready by) target date. I don't feel like the coaching interaction works well on this entry level package though, which is somewhat disappointing. You would have to be pretty good at asking all your dumb questions out in an open forum in order to receive any coaching feedback. Even then, a lot of times you are going to be directed to one of the more detailed and expensive programs. Folks seem to respond well to all the 'new guy with a problem' questions, but it still is a weird vehicle for interaction. The folks who have moved up to the more expensive coaching packages are pretty quick to point out how much better the interaction is. I have contacted Customer Service with a quick question, and was directed to Chris Charmichael's personal secretary...which was kind of funny. She was very nice and helpful but you could just hear her thinking, "Why on earth did they transfer this guy to me?"

Sorry for the long post, but hope this helps.

ultra-g

I heard there is some training PC software out there that you can purchase online.

They have an article about it in this month's Bicycling magazine.

Maybe you should check it out. I don't know the website though, but it sounded interesting, and cheaper than CTS.

qroo

I have used CTS for the past four weeks and I really like it. I signed up for the Select package so I am paying about $150/month. My coach is very approachable and if anything, I think he wants me to check in with him more than I am. I have seen some improvement just in the short time I have been following the program, but of course, it could be that I am more determined now because I am accountable to someone. If you have specific questions, please feel free to PM me.