TrainingPeaks: Plan Train Lift

I have bounced around checking out various options for training programs and apps that would help me track my workouts and progress. I had read some of Joe Friel’s blogs and writings about aging and training as well as a few others such as Lindsey Parry, Hal Higdon, and Jeff Galloway. All have great ideas and useful programs that have helped me as runner in my late 60s. In the end, I realized that I have been looking for a site that helps me organize all of these concepts where I can track data and make reasonable decisions about my training. I am still figuring the terminology and options but boy do I like what I see here. I’m no world or even regional class masters athlete, so I am not going to be seeking out direct coaching. Yet within this framework you can be a relative plodder like me or a high level athlete with a coach and find Training Peaks to be quite useful. Things even improved when I coupled this with the Health Fit app in the Apple environment. Highly recommended should you want a comprehensive training app with the understanding that it is designed around tracking and not building specific plans for training.

Update after 3 months (downgrading rating): The inability to create structured workouts from the mobile app has become a large issue for me. When doing workouts with my club, the plan is often flexible and finalized day-of in response to athletes’ training progress and fitness. Being unable to add or modify the workout structure and lap targets prevents me from using the structured workouts on my training device. Despite somewhat frequent updates to the app, core features appear to be added to TrainingPeaks infrequently, and the version history has no indication of the team’s progress on improving the experience of the platform. Initial review (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️): The Training Peaks app provides a frictionless interface for analyzing my triathlon workouts, but almost no way to plan my workouts if they were not created via the web app. I appreciate being able to set my RPE and perceived strength for each workout, view metrics and graphs, and see my workout adherence right from my phone. These features all work great when I am following planned workouts set either by a paid training plan or created online in the Training Peaks web app. However, the iOS app doesn’t have a good way to plan workouts from my phone. This is a feature I frequently need when doing a recovery workout that I still want to see from my Wahoo devices. I’d like to be able to set some intervals and targets from the phone, but have no way to do so. If planning a workout from my phone, the only options are to set a planned total time or distance, or average heart rate or power.

I am an IRONMAN because of Training Peaks. Training Peaks was my guide during my first season as an age-group triathlete in which I competed in 5 triathlons—an Olympic distance, a half-IRONMAN, a full IRONMAN, and 2 sprints. Training Peaks has so many training plans available for any level of athlete, and the flexibility you get with the Premium edition to move sessions around as needed to fit your schedule worked so well for me. My “A” race in my first season was the Lake Placid IM. Three days before the race, I noticed my fatigue score was higher than it should be, so I took those days completely off. I was really nervous about doing so, wanting to get those last couple of taper-week sessions in, but I trusted the numbers and my training. On race day, according to my fitness score I was in perfect form. Turns out I was. I finished about 1.5 hours faster than I projected, and I felt really great at the finish. A few weeks later, I took 3rd in my age group in a sprint distance tri. A great way to finish my first season. Training Peaks provided me the detailed plan I needed as well as the flexibility to work sessions into a demanding work and life schedule. I just had to bring the discipline, dedication and faith that the plan would help me achieve success. And it did. As I begin my second season, I can’t even imagine being without Training Peaks. It is my daily guide to what I believe will be another successful season.