Did my first Trainer Road sessions on my new Kickr Core on Saturday (including a ramp test), having been using a dumb wheel on trainer over the past 3 years. To say I'm impressed is an understatement - what made me take the plunge into the smart trainer world was a culmination of things. Firstly when I started, I wasn't sure how much use I'd get out of a turbo so didn't want to spend loads, but using Trainer Road and seeing my fitness increase over that time (translated into making Audaxing less painful in the real world) has led to it getting plenty of use. Secondly, I managed to have a series of punctures with the wheel on trainer (suspect it was dodgy rim tape, but never managed to pinpoint the issue), which frustratingly led to sessions being ended early, and a lot of wasted time and effort. Thirdly, I've read lots of positive things about erg mode on here, specifically that you don't have to match power targets yourself, you just pedal and the trainer does it for you. Lastly, being a bit of a stats geek, I like the idea of getting a more accurate idea of my true power output (albeit with some error margin), rather than relying on the Trainer Road power curve for my dumb trainer, which is impacted to at least some extent by a host of outside factors.
What I noticed immediately was how good the trainer felt to use - from the weight of the thing, it's clearly got a substantial flywheel, but it really did feel nice to ride once I'd got it up to speed. The ramp test was a revelation - on the dumb trainer I found these really challenging, as every step up meant I had to find a bit of extra power, and adjust cadence accordingly - it's hard to look at a screen and make minor tweaks at the right times when you're working up to max effort. Every time I did one, I was convinced that I was under-testing, to the point where I reverted to doing FTP tests using the 20 minute steady effort test as it was returning better results. The ramp test on the Core was really just as easy as maintaining my chosen cadence, and not even needing to look at the screen - things get harder, you keep the pedals turning and then you hit a point where you fall off a cliff and you stop. I genuinely don't think I could have gone on for any longer, and am happy that the FTP that Trainer Road spat out was fair.
I did an 30 minute session after I'd recovered a bit (Taku), and again appreciated not having to focus on hitting the target power - I can see that the longer, less intense sessions will now give an opportunity to watch TV, or focus on some other distraction. My winter training begins in earnest this Thursday, with sweetspot base low volume (as usual), so it'll be interesting to compare this with how the efforts felt on the wheel on trainer, and how any fitness improvements compare between the two.
So far a very happy user - I know I don't post often on this thread, but have appreciated the thoughts and input of various contributors over the years, so thought I'd share my experiences too.