Indoor Training Apps

It’s getting to the time of year where I need to either start using the turbo trainer or I’ll be back to doing more running as the trails around here are almost unridable when they’re wet.

As such, I’m looking at indoor training app’s again and can’t decide which one to go for.

Over the years I’ve used TrainerRoad, Zwift and Sufferfest/SYSTM. They all seem to have their pros and cons but reading someone’s post about Rouvy got me thinking if there’s any others worth looking at?

I’m not really interested in the Zwift racing of the gaming aspect of it. Sufferfest seems to work well but the whole Sufferlandria text on the screens etc is shit. TrainerRoad seems to work well but is dull unless there’s something worth watching on tv at the same time.

What are the other systems like, FulGaz, Roy, RGT and any others I’ve not thought of?

RGT/Whoosh (the new name) is free, and possibly worth a go. I had Zwift for over 5 years, but didn’t use it enough – mainly had if for recovery from a spinal break.

I’m lucky I commute by bike all year, so base miles are always there, plus I road ride too !

I think RGT is now part of Wahoo SYSTM and MyWoosh is something entirely separate (and, as pointed out, free).

I’ve not tried it yet, but Indie Velo is getting regular feature updates, think it’s still free beta signup.

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I’m keen to try out Rouby and would like to hear of others experience.

I’ve not tried Xert but I think that’s one of the cheapest ones. Rouvy is meant to be nice to watch on the screen if you like to see scenic views etc.

Ive done 2 years of trainer road and it was effective but like you say, there’s no eye candy. Whilst my current subscription is winding down I’m using TR on my phone for endurance or tempo rides and watching Amazon / Disney on the tv.

I’ve just started on Zwift but so far only done some racing – I quite like that at the moment but it’s just balls to the wall riding so far – no structured training!

I quite like Rouvy.

Not least as we have 3 user profiles on one account for £90summat a year rather than all needing our own subscription.  My wife, my boy and I all use it.  Only pain is swapping cassettes on the turbo!

The routes are pretty good and the video adds a really nice feel to a ride.  Zwift was too hectic for me with all the users wizzing about.  I just want to pedal on my own in my own power zones.  I did their FTP test and there are structured workouts.  There are other riders on a course, I like the virtual team so you can pace/draft. I’ve not done an event yet.

joebristol
Full Member
I’ve not tried Xert but I think that’s one of the cheapest ones.

Xert is great, but it’s a graph chasing app like TrainerRoad (but better imo)

do we currently have a Zwift thread?

I haven’t found a current Zwift thread – I’ve got a 4w/kw one going which people update from time to time but it’s not Zwift specific

Bookimarking, I bought one of the JetBlack Volts in the Evans sale and now the weather has turned will get it going this week.

I really like SYSTM, mostly because it allows you to follow a plan that is not only on trainer, but includes strength and things like yoga if you want, only about a third of the content is the old sufferfest vids, I like the fact that it explains the sports science behind why your doing a particular session, and the strength and mobility work has really helped.

Couldn’t get into Zwift, felt like being stuck in a cycling version of Tron..

I started a Rouvy post the other day. As mentioned above, chose it for 3 users on one sub. Have had it a couple of years connected to a Kickr Snap and PC with output to an old telly on a wall bracket. It hooks up to my Garmin HR monitor and cadence sensor reliably.

Not used it as much as I expected as don’t get much opportunity due to regular commute and weekend ride. I’m hoping to use it more this Autumn/Winter for a bit structure to improve as they have expanded their training programmes and I enjoy travelling around the world from the garage with one eye on Youtube..

Not tried the racing yet but it is strangely compelling trying to chase down another human rider over an Alpine pass.

I do need to spend a bit of time with the settings as the interval sessions have been a bit erratic and have been either impossibly difficult or surprisingly easy, based my last use this weekend (I may have got fitter in the interim or it could just be operator error or the Kickr Snap doing funky stuff). GRX seems to spin out a bit too easily on the stock settings.

I’ve not tried any other programme as a comparison..

I quite like the tacx desktop app for longer sustained efforts. Tons of famous climbs.

I have never got as fit as during lockdown when I spend an hr 4 times a week giving it the beans up Alp d’huez.

What do you mean by “<span style=”background-color: #eeeeee; color: #000000; font-family: Roboto, ‘Helvetica Neue’, Arial, ‘Noto Sans’, sans-serif, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ‘Segoe UI’, ‘Apple Color Emoji’, ‘Segoe UI Emoji’, ‘Segoe UI Symbol’, ‘Noto Color Emoji’;”>the whole Sufferlandria text on the screens etc is shit.”</span>

Zwift is too gamified for me, I hear the workout and training plans are not great?

TrainerRoad the plans and workouts are good, but you have to supply your own music or video which at the prices they are charging is too much. I don’t know how anyone can actually follow a TV programme when doing intervals anyway?

This is why I like SYSTM and the Sufferfest, On Location and Pro-rides, the content is engaging when I’m going easy enough to follow along and its just a wheel to follow when I’m going hard.

TBH if I’m doing Z2/Z3 base on the turbo I don’t need an app because I can just watch TV or Film downloaded from whatever streaming service I fancy.

I don’t know how anyone can actually follow a TV programme when doing intervals anyway?

I don’t think anyone does, do they? If I’m just chasing lines on a screen I’ll just be some kind of action movie or the like on as a background distraction.

Another Jet Black Volt newbie/lurker thinking about getting started this week. Thinking Zwift for the social aspect of riding with mates, but interested in Rouvy too, and maybe Xert for the graph chasing while watching netflix etc

I’ve done the odd trial of Rouvy, after finding it had an augmented reality video for the ~6.9 mile Road To Hell climb out of Denbigh, in advance of attempting my biggest climb to date

https://www.strava.com/segments/6671093

Gave a good idea of what to expect when I attempted the real thing, without wind assist/resistance and without the ~15 rolling miles to get to the climb start, plus even my newer H3 turbo cannot quite fully simulate the max gradients on that evil ramp near Peneil. With fresh legs I was convinced I could do an IRL sub 30min time at ~80Kg last summer, but for now my best is just under 34mins from March ’22, while long covid since has obliterated my health and I’m struggling to get under 91Kg having lost a bit of weight in the last couple of months.

Few other AR climbs from the UK I’ve also enjoyed on there in the past, like Harlech’s Ffordd Pen Llech; Cheddar Gorge; Penbarra; Horseshoe Pass; Bwlch Y Groes etc.

Rouvy certainly sounds interesting, I may have to sign up for a trial.

Is there any way of converting a gpx file from a previous ride into a session on a Wahoo Kickr? It would be great if I could use some of my own rides to simulate the elevation changes etc on the Kickr.

Rouvy – When I started with it, was great. Preferred it to Zwift.

But they seemed to rush out a load of updates that basically broke it (at least for me, and I think others)

This was backend of last winter, I’m tempted to give it another go for the coming winter, see if it’s improved.

If you can get a trial, give it a go.

Ive been using Rouvy (in the winter) for the last couple of years. More though just to ride my bikes as opposed to structured training programmes.

I use it on my iphone through TV and fined the menus a bit frustrating.

I like real world ride videos much better than Zwift, and the quality of vids on the whole is great, its just a shame there are not more UK vids.

Davy90 pointed out that they now have proper training programmes which is an improvement. (wasnt there prior) . Races are good on ‘real’ roads, again much prefer this to Zwift, the only thing I dont like is that they all tend to be alpine climbs or fast flats, nothing UK riding wise, and the numbers attending races dropped last year compared to the year before.

Overall though I like it, its the one I keep coming back to

crossed

Is there any way of converting a gpx file from a previous ride into a session on a Wahoo Kickr?

@crossed – One of the indoor trainer apps lets you upload a ride, which it then converts into a ‘virtual’ ride which you can then ride at any time.
I can’t remember which one though….just searched – it’s the Magic Road feature on RGT.

https://support.wahoofitness.com/hc/en-us/articles/4855667100434-Magic-Roads

I use Xert, coupled with Zwift for visuals.
Xert takes a little time to get used to , but if you persist with it & keep feeding it data it works well.
I used it when training for the Dirty Reiver this year & it really helped. I performed much better than i expected to.

@stumpy01

Thanks for that. I’ll have a look at it and maybe give it a go.

RGT was my fav, very realistic,  great mountain climbs….was paying £6.99 a month then wahoo took over and its like about £14.

Zwift too was great when it was £8 a month….then they too got greedy and jumped the price to £13..

Now I  might use it for 1/2months a year…but it’s very gamey and power and speed are a bit faster so everyone thinks they are a cycling god…lol

I’ve been trying out Mywhoosh and it’s not bad, definitely change the camera to 1st person..I did a mountain climb and my avatar kept looking at me and wouldn’t sit down….1hr watching his butt bobbing up and down…..and the scenery is a bit colourful….but hey its free..

One of the indoor trainer apps lets you upload a ride, which it then converts into a ‘virtual’ ride which you can then ride at any time.

Rouvy allows you to do this, as does Ful Gaz. However IMO its pretty pointless unless you have a Go Pro and can go out and record the ride too. Doing a local ride without being able to see it would be pointless for me.

@crossed – if you don’t need the graphics then some of the Garmin Edge units will happily control resistance of a trainer to match a GPX file. I’ve used my Edge 530 like this. You can use a track you’ve already ridden or just create one using Connect etc.

Having used Zwift for a fairly long time (before getting pissed off with it for a variety of reasons), then I had free trails for most of the apps mentioned above, then paid for Wahoo SYSTM for a few months and followed one of their structured plans (with pretty good results), I’m now using the free version of Garmin/TACX cycling app.

Frankly, I can’t be arsed with long turbo training sessions so now I just do occasional HIIT sessions where I’m done in sub-20 minutes. I’ll ramp up the number of HIIT sessions I do per week as the summer/autumn tapers down and do less intense rides outside (I have no shortage of local big hills to ride up slowly) but I no longer feel I need to be spending $$ on apps.

When I was trailing apps like RGT and Rouvy I sometimes found I was the only human in their scheduled races – all the opponents were bots so the racing wasn’t anywhere near as engaging as Zwift. But that was a couple of years ago…

Haven’t seen this posted anywhere else, seems as good a place as any…

https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2023/10/wahoo-fitness-to-shut-down-rgt-virtual-cycling-app.html

No surprise really, was there ever going to be enough room for both RGT & SYSTM?

I like RGT for the magic roads.  I hope that is carried over when they close it.  They are giving members free zwift subs though.  3months for monthly users 1 year for the yearly subscribers.  Not going to use it though as I don’t like zwift.

@FunkyDunc I don’t think Rouvy allows you to upload a ride converted into “virtual” ride anymore but I read some threads they plan to come back with this feature in 2024, also in part of a response to RGT shutdown.
Im sporadic cyclist indoors but if I do, I use Rouvy, it is nice simulation of real world routes and never had issues with the app.