With summer rolling in for most of us north-of-the-equator, we know many riders are splitting time between the open road and the smart-trainer cave.
Our $5/mo Velocity integration was built to make those indoor sessions more social and perfectly synced with your Athletica plan – yet take-up is still lower than we’d hoped, especially when we see so many of you on Zwift and other platforms.
To make Velocity genuinely worth your time, we need to understand what’s stopping you and what would convince you to jump in. Please take 30 seconds to vote (pick up to three answers in each poll) – and add any extra thoughts in the replies!
1. What are the BIGGEST reasons you’re not using Velocity right now? (Select up to 3)
I’m already invested in Zwift / another platform
I wasn’t aware Athletica workouts sync to Velocity
Technical/setup issues (pairing, drop-outs, bugs)
My main device isn’t well supported (e.g. iPhone/Apple TV)
Live-session times don’t fit my time zone/schedule
Price/value – even $5/month feels unnecessary
I prefer to ride outdoors during summer
I’m missing social features / bigger community
Other (please explain in a comment)
0voters
2. What would make you more likely to ride on Velocity? (Select up to 3)
More live sessions in EU/Asia-Pacific time zones
Better phone/Apple TV experience
A longer free-trial or free on-demand replay library
In-app challenges, leagues or leaderboards
Outdoor-route simulations / video courses
Integration or dual-recording with Zwift
Clearer onboarding/tutorials highlighting existing features
Nothing – I’m happy with my current setup
Other (comment below)
0voters
Thanks a ton for helping us steer the platform – your feedback directly shapes where we focus next.
I’m currently using MyWhoosh for indoor rides—mostly for aerobic conditioning—and I also do structured workouts from Athletica using my Wahoo Bolt head unit.
Personally, I don’t want to spend any more money on indoor cycling platforms, which is why I’ve settled on MyWhoosh. Ideally, Athletica being able to push structured workouts directly to MyWhoosh would be the perfect setup for me.
Until that’s possible, I’m just using the Wahoo head unit for things like 30/30 HIIT sessions—though that means I’m riding without any video or virtual environment during those efforts.
Thanks @Matthias for your feedback/thoughts. You can always use Velocity as a big screen data dashboard (including Workout Reserve) for free with your Athletica account if you’re looking for more info while you ride.
I’d give Velocity a try if I could join the live sessions. I’m invested in Zwift and continue to use it because of the community and social aspects. I could probably get the same from live sessions, the posts on them and commentary on them in the podcasts sound great, but they aren’t offered at a time that works for me. So if the choice is between Velocity with recorded sessions / on my own or Zwift I’ll stick with Zwift.
@jhbuchholz what timezone are you in and what would be a convenient time? Even if you can’t join the live coach-led sessions, if we can get enough folks joining a scheduled recorded session at the same time, you still get the benefit of real participants, even if the coach is recorded. Most of the fun is commiserating with others on the hard sessions and sharing stories on the easy sessions.
I am simply someone who likes to ride and push himself so it is just hard to justify paying for another program. Zwift, Strava and Athletica.ai are more than I really need to be paying for. Not that I would not like to try it out for a bit because I would and if I do drop the paid Strava, I will be giving it a try!
The other issue is most of my riding is at 6 AM eastern and bibboards.com riding them to join.
I’m on the east coast of the US. I do my rides in the morning and need to finish up around 7am eastern on weekdays and 8am eastern on weekends. During summer months (now) I typically do only one midweek ride as a HIIT session. I could move this ride to any weekday. I prefer to get outside on the weekends when it’s nice for my long runs. In the winter I do 3 or 4 rides each week, including at least one on the weekend. I try to get outside 2-3 times a week for a run (I train primarily for general fitness and an occasional 5k or 10k running race) but weather dictates which and how many days each week. Hope that’s a complete enough answer for “what would be a convenient time”
I’d join any session that has live people in it. That’s what I like about Zwift. The sessions don’t have to be coached (my Zwift rides aren’t).
Thanks for the helpful feedback @jhbuchholz. We do have recorded sessions on most weekdays at 7am EST. The challenge is that we don’t have a critical mass of users who also want to ride at that time.
We usually have a few people turn out for the live HIIT session on Thursdays at 9:30am EST and it is lots of fun an motivating. We also have a number of users who do solo workouts at 8:30am EST, but unfortunately none yet doing it at 7am.
If there is anyone interested in doing 7am indoor rides, feel free to DM @jhbuchholz directly.
I use Rouvy which works great for me. I can export workouts as .erg files or pick an AR Road route and use my garmin head unit for the workout. Also for longer L2 rides in winter or crappy weather outdoor I can ride on the trainer for a couple of hours and it feels pretty close to riding on a road route which helps to pass the time.
I’m in the UK so time zone GMT
Based on the responses so far, I’m feeling its almost like we need to support Athletica coaches who are willing to lead live sessions at appropriate time slots across the globe… just thinking out loud…
I’m a long time Rouvy user and GMT but my main reason for not signing up to use Velocity is that I prefer to train alone in real life and online. The shared training aspect seems to be it’s main selling point which holds zero appeal for me.
