You need the premium for your coach to be able to upload the workouts.

My first coach had it as part of the fees I paid him, my second it's on me to maintain the premium subs.

Ah okay. I didn’t realize that was required. Guess I’m keeping it. It’s not all that expensive anyway.

 
Actually, I may have been wrong, but as all coaches would use libraries of workouts to drag / drop and schedule and also use the data from teh premium to inform their programming it's a bit of a semantical argument.

Some coaches bundle premium TP for their athletes but you as an athlete don’t need premium for your coach to load workouts. Assuming you’ve given them access (ie as your coach) then they can load and move workouts to their hearts content. As a standard user you miss out on the performance charts and peak metrics. Got to weigh up whether that is worth it or not.

Definitely do not need premium if you are just adding comments for your coach to see. In basic you can comment on your workouts and you can add events. Thats about it, and likely all you need unless you want to dive into the charts that your coach may be analysing.

Further question to the original: If your coach loads all your workouts into TP, then you cease working with that coach, does your workout history and personal metrics remain on your profile?

Yes. My coach has access and load all the workouts. I don’t ever look at any of performance chart stuff. So I might be okay with basic edition.

Pretty sure with a USAT or USAC license you get 20% off as well.

I just paid up for my first time, even though I tracked data in a complicated Excel for a year...........the data was still eye opening in TP for me. I can now see my road map and be more accountable.

Yup, you don't need premium. I have the basic and my coach uploads all my workouts, etc, and the bike workouts sync with TrainerRoad. When I went from premium down to basic, I didn't lose any of the interface between my coach and me, just the ability to pull up the analysis graphs. For that, I can go into my Garmin Connect account and analyze my day good enough.

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Cheers, Ray

Not sure specifically what metrics may be retained but you won't lose your workouts that the coach populated your training plan with.

If your a data geek you need it. My coach pays for it but I did to for the fist time and I can see what he sees. That allows me to talk the same language.......

I may feel decoupled but now I can see it in the data and me and my coach can talk about without me asking "what the hell is decoupled"?????

General question – why not get WKO5 instead of TP Premium? It's a one-time cost versus annual subscription, and from what I understand WKO allows lots more analysis and customization.

I realize you loose the web interface and phone app, but won't workouts still be uploaded to both WKO5 and TP? As in, I'll still be able to see simple information from a basic (free) TP account from anywhere and then dive into much greater detail whenever I'm back at the computer that has WKO5. Seems like a win-win. Am I missing something?

Yes. Based on what happened with my previous coach back in 2013. (I quit tri to focus on trail running.)

Good to know. I rarely look at the analysis graph. I just follow my coach’s plan and let her dig in the details.

Personally I have no idea why anyone still uses training peaks. I use Google Sheets and make whatever graphics I want for free. And if a coach can't send you your workouts any other way, then that's a whole other issue. I get that it's more about ease of access to workouts and data, but it seems wayyyy overpriced to me.

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Today I do what others won't, so tomorrow I can do what others can't.

It’s $10/month. I’m the grand scheme of what it costs for entry fees, equipment, etc it’s a rounding error.

You’re absolutely right that there are other methods for free. But the trade off in convenience is way more than worth it. At least for me.

I think it’s under $100 after the USAT discount. My coach can certainly send me workouts other ways but since most of her athletes use training peaks it’s the only place she needs to go to review and add workouts. A couple additional benefits for me. It ties into my daily calendar and also sends me a daily reminder. For cycling workouts, my coach creates the workout within trainingpeaks and it syncs automatically to TrainerRoad for me. And then after a workout I add any comments I have about the workout. So for me, I feel it’s worth it. If I can use the Basic version And get these benefits I’ll be glad to save that money.