Group rides, racing, and coaching with live voice, data and video are coming! It's is an exciting time to be a cyclist, especially if you spend time training indoors. Nate Pearson enlightens us this week on the future of Trainer Road and indoor training.
Indoor training: I’ve discussed it before, especially the potential of linking lonely riders together in sophisticated ways. This technology is now becoming a reality. So this week I spoke with Nate Pearson, a co-founder of TrainerRoad, about the evolution of indoor training, and the future possibilities. Here’s a quick reminder of what Trainer Road is-
Trainerroad: Structured indoor cycling workouts to competitive cyclists
Started: August 2010Beta: Mid-Sept 2011Launch: Mid-Dec 2011
I like Trainer Road because:
There’s more to it that though. Trainer Road is creating a complete training eco-system by making indoor training the star of the fitness show. There’s merit in this approach, and if all training elements come together at some point, Trainer Road will be a competitor in the broader training software/tool market.Here's what you find in this episode:
Q1. Is replicating real-world riding in a virtual reality where indoor training should go? Don’t you think that if we have control over all elements we might as well take it further than real world training can take us?
Q 2. What is your vision for indoor training? Is virtual training going to take over athletes’ training or do you see a close rival?
Q 3. What other types of events do you think we will see in the future?
Also on the idea of interaction: You have already rolled out a private community section for a coaching company called Endurance Nation.
Q 4. Can you tell us more about it?This private community section as far as I’m aware includes; the ability to add private training plans, message board, leaderboards and training data.
Q 5. Have I missed anything there?With all of the benefits we have mentioned so far, Trainer Road is on track to be a complete coaching replacement, for the beginner/self-coached athletes.
Some of the arguments for this are in what Trainer Road offers, such as:
Q 6. Do you agree or there will always be some room for human coaching? Once Trainer Road has the ability for a coach to create and assign workouts.
Q 7. Does this disrupt or enhance the coaching industry?
Q 8. Is there any plans to incorporate outdoor training into Trainer Road?
Q 9. Will you be moving into the ride analysis space?