Hi everyone. David McQuillen, Founder of The Sufferfest here.

Almost exactly a year ago, I stopped responding to Andy Coggan due to this thread: https://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=6456277
We weren’t alone in our views of his behaviour there. Here is how TrainingPeaks felt about him at the time: https://www.trainingpeaks.com/...dologies-road-ahead/

I’m baffled that he - and behaviour like his - is allowed to remain part of the SlowTwitch community. Some of his posts have been deleted from this thread already, but I see absolutely no value at all in having such personalities remain part of what should be open, lively and positive discussions about topics. Arguments and heated discussions are fine — abuse and bullying is not, no matter how many letters you have after your name. I’ve chosen, thus far, to just ignore him.

And I’ll continue to do so. I wanted, however, to make sure that those of you who are exposed to posts about us are aware of how I think about this. You might not agree with my position, but at least you’ll know what it is.

The academic world has a rich history of attribution. Anyone who wants to build a credible research career there needs to make sure they have all their attributions in order. Andy - although he’s had some involvement with businesses - is part of this world.

The commercial world does not have a tradition of attribution. Rather, ideas are brought to market, improved by competitors and the most effective companies thrive.

For truly unique ideas, protection exists in the form of rights, trademarks and patents. If a company is able to take an idea and get a trademark for the name, great — if they can get a patent for the concept, even better. If they can’t, then the idea is not something that deserves legal protection. In those cases, you protect your idea by building the best product, service and marketing around it.

In this commercial environment, companies do not thank each other for bringing ideas to market. Apple didn’t thank Nokia for their pioneering work on mobile phones. Google didn’t thank Yahoo. We didn’t thank Spinervals for coming up with the idea to produce cycling training videos.

When Chris Carmichael at Carmichael Training Systems and the team at PainCave.com copied The Sufferfest concept of using race footage in cycling training videos and put their own spin on it, neither of them thanked me for coming up with the idea. And I didn’t expect them to. I accepted that as the nature of a commercial market. Bring it on. May the best concept win.

Since that time, the market has grown and new competitors have entered. Indoor training is completely different than it was when I started The Sufferfest. It’s exciting and I’m thrilled and energised by it — we’re working hard to keep reinventing ourselves and be the best training platform possible.

4DP-based training was - and continues to be - a major advantage for our customers. Does it have some basis on science that came before? Absolutely. Like all innovation, we’ve built on the work that came before us. We never claimed to have invented power profiling.

Is it simply a repackaging of something else? Hardly. We have examined the ideas in the market, saw how we could do better and created new, effective, practical concepts. Working with Coach Neal Henderson of APEX Coaching, we’ve made power profiling something that individuals can test in their own home in a single session, without a coach, and subsequently receive dynamically-created and personalised workouts that are tailored to their exact profile and rider type. Those workouts will control your smart trainer and provide a level of engagement that helps you get the best out of yourself. We use your 4DP results to create training plans that offer a degree of precision which off-the-shelf plans have never been able to offer before.

Unlike Andy, I don’t think you are too ‘dense’ to understand and apply the pre-existing science and we’re certainly not going to insult you for not doing so. Rather, I believe you have neither the time, interest nor energy to figure it all out. You want something that’s easy to understand, simple to use and which gives you the maximum return for your investment on that time and energy. This is why 4DP exists.

Andy seems to think that we’re just trying to ‘make a fast buck’ and ‘rip people off.’ Well, I can assure you of two things.

• Firstly, there are no fast bucks being made when it comes to app development. These are very much slow, hard bucks. 4DP took nearly 18 months of - and a significant financial investment - to bring to market. That doesn't even include the years and thousands of tests that Coach Neal spent refining his methodology. Ah -- and with a monthly subscription of $13 USD (as of 1 Nov) we’re hardly ripping people off — I feel very confident that we’re delivering far more value than the two-and-a-half cups of coffee you could buy with that money.
• Secondly, we’re a business. We’re not a public university or a charity. We try to create a product you’re willing to pay for and provide a level of service that keeps you around. In doing so, we’re trying to earn enough money to pay our hard-working employees, grow our business and give something back to a few causes that we believe in. If we can make a profit, then that’s a good thing.

Although some might prefer it were different, this is not an academic environment — a lengthy list of attributions at the end of every advertisement or product piece is not necessary. One might argue, however, that the cycling industry is a small one, and one in which it’s simply polite to thank those who came before and upon who’s ideas the latest product is based. I’d agree with that in principle, but how would you execute on that — where, how often, for how long and in what circumstances should such thanks or attribution be given? Do customers really want to see such things?

Such attribution is hardly practical and largely down to the personal discretion of a company’s management team. But sometimes there is someone who has made a contribution so significant, and who has conducted themselves so well, that you feel you need to thank them. So, to close, I’d like make a long-overdue expression of gratitude: Thank you Coach Troy Jacobson at Spinervals for creating the indoor cycling entertainment industry. Without you, we wouldn’t exist. You don’t get nearly the attention you deserve for your vision in this space.

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David McQuillen
Founder & CEO of The Sufferfest