indieVelo, indieVelo-NEWS & Features

TrainingPeaks Virtual Update Version v0.4.5 Released December 2, 2024

The latest TrainingPeaks Virtual update, v0.4.5, released December 2nd, 2024, focuses on seamless coach-athlete interaction.

Editor’s note: Since early June 2023, we’ve highlighted the rapid evolution of indieVelo with weekly update posts. Not everyone receives the emails or is a member of the various social media groups, and the more searchable mentions available, the better to promote the indieVelo, err, Training Peaks Virtual vision. The name is different, and the once-a-week cadence might change, but the commitment to promoting the platform hasn’t wavered.

A Note From the George Gilbert, TrainingPeaks Virtual Founder:

This week’s release of TrainingPeaks Virtual (see below for full details) continues to deliver the new experiences, improvements and fixes that you’ve requested. The main focus for this release is to reduce the friction athletes and coaches have traditionally experienced with online cycling, by making workouts as easy and seamless as possible to use.

Headlines include:

TrainingPeaks Virtual will now automatically select any scheduled workouts you have in your TrainingPeaks calendar for the day. After just a single-click to login, today’s workout will now be immediately shown to you and pre-selected so you’ll be ready to go and ride it straight away.
TrainingPeaks Virtual now enables you to refresh your list of workouts without exiting the application. If you need to tweak your workouts in your calendar, just make any changes you need in TrainingPeaks and hit the refresh button to immediately see and be able to ride the updated workout.
TrainingPeaks Virtual now gives event organizers the choice of allowing spectators to chat with participants while they ride. This feature is perfect for coaches who may want to organize a group workout for their athletes but not ride it themselves and still be able to coach their athletes live.

In Episode 58 of the Virtual Velo Podcast, Chris and Emma welcome Dirk Friel, co-founder and Chief Evangelist of Training Peaks, and Dr. George Gilbert, the creator of indieVelo, to discuss their newly formed partnership and the launch of Training Peaks Virtual.

The release also contains a number of other highly requested additions, improvements and fixes. These include enhancements to FIT files, better integration of uploads to the TrainingPeaks calendar when there are multiple workouts in a single day, various improvements and fixes to pairing over Bluetooth, and many more smaller tweaks to the UI to keep everything intuitive and simple for everyone to use.

The start of December also brings new monthly challenges to TrainingPeaks Virtual – these include a new event format; a fixed 8 minute ride up the perilous switchbacks of ice-mountain. Try it as many times as you like, with your furthest distance up counting towards the monthly leaderboards where you can compare your results against others.

Also Read: Training Peaks Virtual Update Version v0.4.4 Released November 25, 2024

TrainingPeaks Virtual will just self-update the next time you open the app. If you find any problems, please follow instructions on how to manually update here.

The full patch notes are below!

Do you want to steepen your indieVelo learning curve? Check out our How-to-Guides page for details!

“Your continued support and feedback is hugely appreciated. Please keep your thoughts and ideas coming into the dedicated TrainingPeaks Virtual UserVoice forum, where your suggestions can be shared, discussed and voted on. We look forward to being able to help you further as we continually improve TrainingPeaks Virtual with each and every release.”

– George Gilbert, and the TrainingPeaks team

Also Read: Training Peaks Virtual Update Version v0.4.3 Released November 18, 2024

Release Notes – v0.4.5

TrainingPeaks Virtual will just self-update the next time you open the app. If you find any problems, please follow instructions on how to manually update here.

Added auto-select of scheduled workouts after logging in.
Added ability to refresh scheduled workouts without restarting app.
Added option to enable event spectators to send chat messages.
Added ability for spectators to view global chat messages.
Added grace period before audio cues when not hitting a workout target.
Added new monthly challenges for December.
Added lots more custom team kits, event banners and event jerseys.
Improved FIT files to not include any time before first pedal turn.
Improved behavior when there are multiple workouts in TrainingPeaks in a single day.
Improved reliability of BLE transmission on mobile devices.
Improved default branding used in copied events.
Improved zone usage in various built-in workouts.
Improved legibility of lists against backgrounds.
Improved disallowed word filter.
Improved various icons.
Improved performance.
Improved API infrastructure.
Improved analytics infrastructure.
Improved logging of various key settings.
Improved diagnostics for synchronization of workouts.
Fixed bug with resistance on Tacx Neo trainers with iOS / AppleTV.
Fixed bug with displaying non-standard numbers of training zones.
Fixed bug with workout zone coloring at very high power values.
Fixed bug with default height / weight in some synchronization scenarios.
Fixed bug with time gaps on Team Manager chat messages during events.
Fixed bug with a very small number of riders having invalid weights.
Fixed bug with password reset for some rare usernames.
Fixed bug with display of start times of some events.
Fixed bug with leaving world before route map fully drawn.

Chris Schwenker

Semi-retired after more than 20 years as the owner and director of a private Orthopedic Physical Therapy practice, Chris now enjoys the freedom to dedicate himself to his passions—virtual cycling and writing.

Driven to give back to the sport that has enriched his life with countless experiences and relationships, he founded a non-profit organization, TheDIRTDadFund. In the summer of 2022, he rode 3,900 miles from San Francisco to his “Gain Cave” on Long Island, New York, raising support for his charity.

His passion for cycling shines through in his writing, which has been featured in prominent publications like Cycling Weekly, Cycling News, road.cc, Zwift Insider, Endurance.biz, and Bicycling. In 2024, he was on-site in Abu Dhabi, covering the first live, in-person UCI Cycling Esports World Championship.

His contributions to cycling esports have not gone unnoticed, with his work cited in multiple research papers exploring this evolving discipline. He sits alongside esteemed esports scientists as a member of the Virtual Sports Research Network and contributes to groundbreaking research exploring the new frontier of virtual physical sport. Chris co-hosts The Virtual Velo Podcast, too.