What it does
TrainingPeaks is a powerful fitness platform designed for serious endurance athletes and their coaches. The app provides robust tools to plan future workouts, log completed activities with granular detail, and analyze performance over time. It aggregates data from various devices to offer insights into metrics like fitness, fatigue, and form, helping athletes optimize their training and prepare for events.
Where it shines
TrainingPeaks excels at making complex data accessible and actionable. The main dashboard (01:13) features a brilliant, swipeable carousel that summarizes fitness, fatigue, and form into simple, glanceable scores. This design choice prevents users from being overwhelmed. The app's calendar is another highlight, with a split view (08:13) that shows a monthly overview grid and a detailed daily list simultaneously. This allows for both macro-level planning and micro-level adjustments without switching contexts.
UX highlights
- Interactive Performance Metrics: The dashboard carousel (01:14) is not just for display; tapping any metric card opens a detailed historical chart, promoting progressive disclosure.
- Dual-Entry Workout Logging: The manual workout logger (01:44) provides separate columns for "Planned" and "Completed" data, which is perfect for analyzing training adherence.
- Customizable Dashboard: Users can easily reorder the modules on their home screen by entering an edit mode (01:29), allowing them to prioritize the data they care about most.
- Smart Data Calculation: When logging a workout, the app automatically calculates average pace (02:31) after the user enters time and distance, saving a manual step.
- Contextual Actions via Swipe: Swiping on calendar entries reveals quick actions like Comment, Edit, and Delete (04:40), an efficient and common mobile pattern.
- Clear Compliance Visuals: The weekly snapshot uses a simple green circle (05:44) to indicate workout compliance, giving immediate positive feedback.
Monetization & growth
The app uses a freemium model with a clear distinction for its Premium features. A paywall is encountered when the user tries to access premium functionality, such as tapping the "Upgrade" button on the dashboard (06:00). The paywall screen presents two options, Annual and Monthly, highlighting the Annual plan as "Most Popular" and showing a price breakdown. The benefits of the premium subscription are clearly listed with icons. The trial period is also mentioned as ending soon, creating a soft sense of urgency.
Who it’s for
This app is clearly built for data-driven endurance athletes, such as runners, cyclists, and triathletes, who follow structured training plans. The detailed metrics, focus on planning, and specific terminology (like TSS) indicate a user base that is more advanced than casual fitness enthusiasts. It's also designed for athletes who work with coaches, as implied by the initial onboarding question (00:59).
Notes & opportunities
While powerful, the app has moments of friction. The initial sign-up form (00:16) is quite long and could be a barrier for less motivated users. It could be broken down into a multi-step flow. Additionally, some pop-ups have overlapping UI elements, like the calendar picker appearing over the "Move Workout" modal at 01:50. The sheer number of options in menus, such as the chart customization screen (06:41), could benefit from better information architecture to guide users to the most relevant views.