Whatever you're likely to throw yourself at, there should be something that gets you closer to where you want to be. If you prefer a more traditional base plan of lower-intensity work then that's available too, as is higher-intensity base work for disciplines like sprint triathlon. The recommended route for this within the app is sweet spot training, which mostly involves working at between 85% and 95% of your FTP. In the base phase you'll be concentrating on building up your base fitness. TrainerRoad splits up its plans into three phases, and the blocks of training range from 4 to 12 weeks depending on what you go for. Once you're set up with an FTP you can decide what you actually want to achieve, and work through a plan to get you where you're going. It wouldn't be at all the same for an elite rider and a fourth cat to both push 400W for five minutes if they're both working at 125% of their FTP then the actual output is very different, but five minutes is going to seem like a long time for either. It's important that the app works this way so that the sessions can be meaningful for any level of rider. The ramp test gives you an FTP to work to, which is very important as all the intervals in TrainerRoad are expressed as a percentage of that number. Having done the longer tests and now the newer one, I've found that the results are pretty similar, and the ramp test isn't as long, so I'll take it. TrainerRoad used to use a different test protocol of either a single 20-minute effort or two 8-minute blocks, but those have been superseded by the new test which has the advantage that it can be completed with the trainer in ERG mode where it simply adjusts the power to follow the line. In theory this is the power that you can hold for an hour most of us would struggle to push out whatever TrainerRoad decrees our FTP is for that long, but the numbers are consistent with other platforms. Once you've collapsed onto your bars the app will do the sums and tell you what your FTP is. This is a session where you start at around 50% of your functional threshold power (FTP) вЂ“ you'll have to estimate this if you don't know what it is вЂ“ and it gets harder and harder until you physically can't do it any more. The first line you'll follow, if you're doing things in order, is a ramp test. That line you're following is embedded in a big ecosystem which is designed to take you from first principles to whatever particular goal you have in mind.

That's it: start at one end and see if you can make it to the other, which will be anywhere between 20 minutes and several hours away. If you're wearing a heart rate monitor then there's a red line showing that, and a white line for your cadence. You can see the effort you're supposed to produce as a sort of chart of green blocks, and you can see the actual power you're putting out as a yellow line on top. The higher the line goes, the harder you're working.

Cons: Not as immersive as the likes of Zwift, requires commitmentДЄt its most basic, TrainerRoad is following a line across a screen.

Pros: Very focused training, lots of workouts, counts outdoor rides in your training load.

It's not as visually or socially exciting as Zwift, but it's more focused on getting results, and if results are what you're after it may end up being a better way to spend your monthly subscription. If you're serious about training indoors, and you have a specific goal in mind, then TrainerRoad is an extremely useful tool that'll help you to use your time effectively.

Trainerroad review