S’up.
Like many folks I’ve been waiting eagerly for those nice Trainerroad chaps to put their stuff onto the iphone/ipad (other mobile devices may be available). For me the reason is that I don’t have a laptop stand in front of my trainer. I’ve got my laptop hooked up to a wallmount TV which is great but there are plenty times I just want to get my head down and it would be awesome if I could have Trainerroad running on my iphone. So I looked into ways of doing it. This way uses cool software called Splashtop, there are other similar doodahs out there but this is the one I used.
Note - this doesn’t let you run it on your iphone away from home, there has to be a computer involved. But it lets you use the iphone to display and control Trainerroad, so if that appeals read on.
So in my pain cave I have my laptop running Windows 7 which I connect into a docking station that I leave connected to my (tiny) TV and amp/loudspeakers. My wi-fi network extends into this room. My laptop is fairly decent spec, probably quad core or something. Without a laptop stand I’d have to keep getting up and down and also the display as you can see is only really any good if I’m sitting up on the pursuit bars.
I installed Splashtop Streamer, free download from t’interwebs. Create an account with whatever email.
Here it running in the background.
So then I installed the app on my iphone from the app store, the one you want is Splashtop 2. There is some setup dialogue where you log in to the account you just created in the Streamer application. Launch from iphone.
You can then select a device to connect to, and clicking on the little icon to the right lets you choose a resolution profile. I had pretty good luck selecting the laptop’s native display.
You should then see your laptop/PC desktop displayed on the iphone, and you can control it from the mobile screen. Which is pretty cool all by itself. There is a touch screen mode or you can use the mouse as a track pad, there are gestures to switch between the two but I tend to prefer the track pad option. There is also a popup keyboard. Anyway, you’ll figure it out.
Double click the Trainerroad icon on your desktop to open it up (or run it from Start button). And bingo, there it is.
You get the gist. You can type in the workout name you want by clicking in the text box and using the popup keyboard.
Open it up, the window is a bit big but you can resize and move it around to suit your screen easy enough. Then click go and enjoy.
Find somewhere to stick it on your bike and enjoy trainerroad right under your sweating snotty nose!! Awesomeness.
I find it to work flawlessly, and yes I HAVE tried it with Sufferfest videos in Trainerroad and it works well. I have a robust wi-fi LAN and my laptop is a decent spec, so YMMV. It streams sound to your iphone too, so you can listen that way with your headphones for example, I have my laptop connected to my hifi amp so mute it on the phone.
The best bit for me is that I can control it easily from on the bike, I just need a better mount for my iphone now. I hope somebody else finds this useful. Similar solutions exist with other server/client software like idisplay which lets you extend the desktop onto your iphone, which is great if you want to watch Netflix on the telly and have trainerroad running under your nose. I can’t be arsed to take photos of how I did that, it is easy as peas anyway. Air Display does something similar and also has remote control, I haven’t tried that yet.
Enjoy.
Cheers,
Rich.
