Bom
RPE for runs is way off
What is this?
I have the plan, did my first two workouts. Workout 1 as scheduled and required. But no clue how Join assesses that workout. I have some numbers. Nothing else.
Workout 2, I needed to shorten. No way to change the workout prior. No clue or clear view on if that negatively affected the training from Joins perspective?
Workout 3: I would need to reschedule as i am traveling.
THERE IS NO WAY TO RESCHEDULE BY DESIGN WITH JOIN.
How can you look at that and think to yourself: „Yep, that looks about right!“?
17€ down the drain for this rubbish.
I think everybody is better advised with TrainerRoad or TrainingPeak. Heck, make your own training plan and you are better off.
Man. I seldomly write something about Apps. But Join really stirred the pot here.
Response from developer
Hi Feldrin Thank you for the honest feedback, we are sorry JOIN has not lived up to expectations so far. A few quick clarifications that may help: On workout assessment, submitting your RPE after each session is how JOIN evaluates your effort and adapts your plan going forward. The more feedback you give it the smarter it gets. On shortening a workout, simply edit your availability for that day to reflect the time you have available and JOIN will automatically shorten the session to fit. On rescheduling, the shuffle button on any planned session lets you swap it for a different workout that fits your day better. It is not drag and drop but it does give you flexibility within the plan. We are sorry the sign up process was not clear enough regarding our trial period. We would like to offer you subscription extension so you can experience JOIN properly without any pressure. Please reach out to us directly at support@join.cc and we will get that set up for you right away. Kind regards, JOIN Support
Gutes Konzept mit Potenzial in der Umsetzung
Auch die Ansteuerung des Rollentrainers ist hier integriert, sehr schön und simpel zu bedienen.
Auf der Straße ist die Leistungsvorgabe allerdings mit +/-10 Watt doch sehr eng, da wird scheinbar auch nichts geglättet oder so. Im Ergebnis interpretiert JOIN dann die Einheiten nur mit mäßiger Umsetzung und sucht scheinbar leichtere Sessions aus, obwohl es nicht nötig ist.
Dass einige elementare Funktionen nicht aufrufbar sind, ist auch etwas irritierend:
Die in der App immer wieder beworbene Feedback-Funktion zum aktuellen körperlichen Befinden lässt sich nicht aufrufen.
Auch fehlt bei Lauftrainingseinheiten der Button „Training starten“. Man kann sich zwar nach dem Programm orientieren, aber die App trackt die Session natürlich dann nicht mit.
Insgesamt ist mir die Umsetzung zu unausgereift für den Preis, da bezahle ich lieber etwas mehr Geld für eine besser funktionierende Lösung.
Response from developer
Hi Dimö Thank you for the detailed feedback, we really appreciate it! Great to hear you are enjoying the adaptive approach and the trainer control integration. On outdoor power targets, the narrow tolerance is indeed harder to hit outdoors where wind, terrain and traffic naturally cause power to fluctuate. JOIN will look at the average power and the zone, it will not be strict if a zone is slightly missed but will adapt where needed. On the Readiness feature, this has been resolved in a recent update and should now be accessible regardless of pending workout feedback. On the missing start button for running sessions, JOIN currently only has a workout player for cycling. For running sessions you can follow the plan as a guide and log the session manually afterwards with your time and RPE. If you have any further questions please reach out to us at support@join.cc and we will be happy to help. Kind regards, JOIN Support
Good Value
Great app
It’s not for everyone
You have a huge selection of workouts that are easy to upload to your head unit, wahoo and training peaks both integrate well too.
There’s a huge range of goals including well known events/races and it gives you quite a clear training progress track towards your goal.
There’s a ‘level’ system which comes from where they think you need to be to achieve your cycling goal which makes things easy to see your progress.
What I don’t like:
There is such a limited amount of information, running Join and Training Peaks side by side gives me what I need but that’s an expensive way to do it. Seeing a bit of power/cadence/HR data for sessions and a few basic graphs would be much better than almost nothing.
Join’s AI is super conservative, having been coached by humans for a few years and understanding the load that is required to get the performance I’m after, Join suggests I’m overtraining or critically overtraining and tapers my week without asking me. If it would give you a heads up like ‘hey we think you’re doing a bit much, is it ok if we cut your workouts back a bit for the rest of the week Y/N?’ you’d be able to have a bit more control of the workload vs availability but doing a hard ride and feeling fine on a Tuesday and seeing it scrap the week before your eyes is pretty brutal.
It pretty heavily underutilises my availability and can’t seem to plan a workout with some sort of interval set in it.
I’ve achieved a level that was the ceiling for my training plan in the first three weeks (by consciously ‘overtraining’) and now it’s throttling me back to a maintenance schedule for the remaining 9 weeks, I’ve got an accurate FTP and set it to
advanced but it’s not encouraging me to go to a higher level again.
If it had a little more data it would be a one stop shop for self guided training I reckon. The workouts are great, the interface is nice and the price is right. I’ve gone from letting it tell me how to train when first starting (and being worried about the lack of work it wanted me to do) to programming my own weeks in using the workouts and knowledge of past programs, it means having Join suggest I’m overtrained constantly but feeling fine and seeing noticeable improvements on the bike as I move towards my goal. It works really well with the Wahoo Elemnt too which I haven’t always found with other systems.
Response from developer
Thank you for such a detailed and balanced review, we really appreciate the time you have put into this! It is great to hear the workout selection, integrations, and Wahoo compatibility are working well for you. We are sorry to hear the experience has not fully met your expectations, particularly around the conservative load management and lack of detailed data. We would love to look into your specific settings and see if we can get things better calibrated for your fitness level and goals. Please do reach out to us directly at support@join.cc and we will dig into it with you. In the meantime, have you had a chance to check out https://plan.join.cc/login? We released this a while back and it provides a lot more detail around your training data and progression, which may help address some of the visibility concerns you mentioned. Thanks again for the thoughtful feedback, it genuinely helps us improve!
No Apple Health integration
Also, the team behind it makes Relive which reads Apple workouts so not sure why they can’t here. It’s feels like the developers are doing the bare minimum to keep it ticking over.
Wahoo Export funktioniert nicht
Response from developer
Vielen Dank für dein Feedback. Tut uns leid, dass du Probleme mit dem Wahoo Export hast. Bitte versuche, die Wahoo Verbindung in den JOIN Einstellungen zu trennen und anschließend neu zu verbinden. Dies löst in den meisten Fällen das Problem. Falls es weiterhin Schwierigkeiten gibt, kontaktiere uns bitte direkt und wir helfen gerne weiter!
Happy with product
Support is really helpful and responsive, Rohan did an amazing job assisting me with my support inquiry. There’s heaps of room for improvement for the app and UI which they seem to be listening to their users.
The changing landscape is what you get with JOIN compared to other apps where your plan is always moving with your lifestyle. Knowing when you’re doing too much, when to rest, etc is helpful. There is lots of info on their support page on how it all works too.
Highly recommend if you want your cycling to go to the next level, without breaking the bank!
Flexibles Wintertraining
Great for training
Simply the Best
Zones cibles très ( trop précises)
No Apple Health integration
I’m forced to load my workouts into Strava for it to read. It’s a step I don’t want and shouldn’t have to take. I don’t use Strava but this app forces me to.
Also, the team behind it makes Relive which reads Apple workouts so not sure why they can’t here. It’s feels like the developers are doing the bare minimum to keep it ticking over.
