My thoughts on Systm after a week and a bit

[jfc]

(Warning: Long post)

@NickyLeary I also have some thoughts on Systm after a week and a bit, so I hope you don’t mind if I add my own opinions onto yours…

@NickyLeary

I’ve used Systm for a bit over a week and I have some thoughts. Initially, I’ve got to admit I didn’t like Systm but I think it was primarily due to how it was revealed. I thought I was getting a new, improved Sufferfest platform with Android support but then this Systm thing turns up and, well, I felt cheated as it wasn’t what I’d been promised.

I hear you, although if I was to describe my own perspective on this, it would be more along the lines of, “so many features have been promised and discussed in the last year or two, and at first glance, many of them didn’t seem to be there at launch, with the exception of Android and a re-skinning of The Sufferfest apps”.

For example, I’m not an Android user but after waiting so long and hearing all the Beta testers talk it up, I was sad for those who had waited so long that Downloading wasn’t included. Particularly with the streaming difficulties that came up on the first week or so, that must have been frustrating.

But there was a lot more, just either subtle and minor/incremental improvements (e.g., calendar is better, but still needs some love) or new stuff that didn’t seem to be missing, but that I and others really like and/or want more of (e.g., dark mode, ProRides and A Week With … (Suggestion Box / Wish List)). Like every single startup I’ve ever worked for, communication (quantity and quality, internally and externally) is always the biggest challenge. Wahoo Fitness has something like 250 employees or so, so while they’re not very small, they cover a lot of ground and arguably would benefit from some help on the comms side of things. If they were great at it, the announcement forum post wouldn’t have had hundreds of frustrations expressed, in my opinion. That being said, they’re far from being alone in this regard!

@NickyLeary

There’s no ride/run plan which is a big issue for me as I’d kind of thought that was a no brainer?

I know you added on a comment on this post, but Duathlon plans have been confirmed: Add a plan for Dualthon - #7 by Coach.Mac.C

… that being said, I wish there were also going to be a way to add a training plan that targeted simultaneous improvements in both Cycling and Running, but not necessarily in a Duathlon format. But hey, now I’m just being picky.

@NickyLeary

The calendar is better but not as great as I was expecting, plans/workouts still won’t push to my Outlook calendar and there’s no drag and drop. I also can’t add other workouts to the Systm calendar so I always have to use 2 calendars to plan my training which is just irritating.

This was perhaps my biggest frustration and disappointment at Systm’s launch, but then I read this comment thread with important news from @David.McQuillen.KoS on the DC Rainmaker post about Systm: Hands-On With Wahoo’s New SYSTM Training Platform | DC Rainmaker

This is such great news (assuming the date commitments are met ), I have a Wahoo Elemnt Rival arriving next week to celebrate!

@NickyLeary

I can’t push running workouts to my Garmin watch. Write them down? In 2021? Erm, let me think. No.

This bugs me, too and I hope it becomes an area of focus for the near-term roadmap. From what I can tell in the Systm app, the Cycling No-Vid workouts are supposed to make their way to Elemnt devices (does this include the Rival?), but the same wording doesn’t show up on Running or Swimming workouts (both of which would work find on the Elemnt Rival, a Garmin Connect Calendar sync, or worst case simply as a FIT workout file download for Garmin users).

@NickyLeary

The plans aren’t adaptive (as far as I know) and can’t account for training load from other activities

The plans aren’t adaptive in the TrainerRoad sense, but they ARE adaptive to your 4DP profile … Not just the power targets in the workouts, but also in the selection of workouts that go onto the calendar, primarily to address your strengths and weaknesses.

@NickyLeary

watching YouTube on a Nokia in 2002

Even funnier is that YouTube was founded in 2005. heh heh but seriously, point taken. It was rough without a local copy of a video in the first week or so.

@NickyLeary

The woman with her screamy face on the main screen and the people on the new intro doing their “I’m strong and inspiring” faces makes me want to commit murder.

That’s Sarah Sturm and she seems like a really cool person. Having listened to and watched a few interviews with her, I really like this photo of her. She’s a badass and I like to workout alongside other badasses.

@NickyLeary

I still can’t see the power targets on the workout graph without entering the workout and dragging the playhead (this also annoyed me in SF)

After the calendar and running improvements, this is perhaps my biggest annoyance… I start so many videos just to see what my current 4DP profile will put me at in a given workout. It helps me decide whether I’ve got what it takes on the day to jump into a workout or not. None of that would be necessary if I could just hover my mouse over the power profile and get an indication of the wattages that I’m going to have to put out.

@NickyLeary

they changed the branding

I’m going to avoid that subject at all costs (even if you’re obviously not alone), other than to say I really, really, really don’t feel the same way.

Suffering hasn’t gone anywhere with the launch of Systm. Sure, there’s less of the original mood-setting but if anything, there are more ways to suffer now than there have ever been (more videos, no-vids, running workouts, swimming workouts), and more ways to stay fit to be able to suffer more and longer (Yoga, Strength, etc.).

IWBMATTKYT
.

PS: Hey @gpsjared … You seem to have been responding a lot and collecting feedback since the launch. Lots of good feedback here.