I’ve used almost all indoor cycling training apps and wanted to try out the ‘new kid’ on the block. This post is my MyWhoosh review.
To give some background, I’m a current subscriber to both Zwift and Rouvy. I have previously subscribed to Sufferfest (which is now Wahoo SYSTM) and TrainerRoad. I have also had free trials of BKOOL and Wahoo X (RGT Cycling and Wahoo SYSTM) in the past. All of these services are paid for, subscription services. I’ve also used the free and open source GoldenCheetah. I’ve used them pretty consistently for a number of years.
My main usage of these platforms has been during the winter/spring months as I tend to reduce the amount of outdoor cycling over that period of the calendar. I also use different apps for different things:
Zwift: for social/group rides and also the fact that it is the one I’ve been using the longest.
TrainerRoad: for structured training and getting ready for the outdoor season.
I’ve yet to find a single, unified app that satisfies my wants. To that end, I thought I would try out MyWhoosh. There were two main draws for me – the fact that it is free, and secondly the training programs are pretty good and have pedigree behind them by virtue of Kevin Poulton.
You may be aware of the ultimate control/ownership of the company (Emirati royalty of the UAE) which brings up the spectre of sportswashing. I’m not going to go in to detail on that topic, as we can all make our minds up around our personal morals and ethics.
From a technical perspective, the setup I use at home is a relatively modern Windows PC and a smart trainer, namely a Tacx Flux S direct drive. The PC has a AMD Ryzen 5 4500 6 core processor, 16GB RAM and an NVIDIA 1060 GTX 6GB GPU. I use a separate cadence sensor on my crank and a Garmin HRM Pro for heart rate. I use an ANT+ dongle to pair to all of the devices (personal preference over Bluetooth).
So how did I get on with MyWhoosh? To begin with, not great. I created an account on the MyWhoosh website and downloaded the application on my PC (a Windows App store app). The app installed fine but would not run:
After a bit of searching (not the MyWhoosh support site I might add) I realised it was a DirectX issue. Not with the runtime, which was DirectX 12, but the fact that one of the compiler DLLs was needed from the SDK. A very old, deprecated SDK. I reached out to MyWhoosh support and they asked my to install these files:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35 and https://aka.ms/vs/17/release/vc_redist.x64.exe
I was pretty dismayed as it meant installing pretty legacy components on my system. It is something I’ve never had to do with any of the other training apps I’ve used. After reluctantly installing them – success – MyWhoosh started. The next step was to log in to my account, which brought with it the next issue. I had created my account on the website, which allowed my to create a password with suitable complexity and length (I use a password manager to generate and store such passwords). I tried logging in to the app with my username and password but kept getting an error message telling me that my password needed to be more than 5 characters (spoiler, it was). After a bit of trial and error, I discovered that the app has a password limit of 20 characters and my original password had more than that. A password regeneration later, I was able to log in.
The next thing was to start pairing my devices i.e. my smart trainer, HRM and cadence sensor. All seemed to be going well via ANT+, it detected the smart trainer and I tried a number of time to get it to connect, but alas it just wouldn’t do it. Again, I looked up the MyWhoosh website, which provided some important information. Currently (Jan 2023), ANT+ is not supported however it is on the roadmap. No problem, I have a Bluetooth dongle, and voilà, the trainer paired. It then allowed my to pair the HRM but not the cadence sensor. The cadence sensor is a Garmin one, so ANT+ only. For cadence I used the smart trainer as the sensor, although I don’t find it as accurate as the crank mounted sensor.
After all of these niggles, I was then able to actually use the app. First impressions were good. It has a pretty clean, simple interface and is relatively intuitive. I delved straight in to a ride and visually, it was pretty good:
I liked the graphical experience (which is driven by the Unreal 4 engine, albeit an aging platform), particularly the detail on the riders. I rode the Colombia course and the street mural art looked amazing. Every app has its own way of displaying data and information to users, and personally, there was a lot to like.
On a technical front, I came across a couple of issues. The first is something that all platforms struggle with – the translated speed based on power and w/kg. Although the course I rode was mainly flat, it seemed to be over reporting my speed – as much as my ego disagrees, I’m not that fast! The bigger issue I encountered was when things went uphill. My trainer is not on the MyWhoosh recommended list, although it is identified correctly and ERG mode appeared to be working fine. When I went uphill and hit gradients of higher than 3%, I found that there was a sort of ‘clutch slippage’. Every so often (about 20% of my pedal stroke), I felt the resistance weaken and then recover to what it should be. This led to a fairly big variation in power, somewhere in the region of +/- 150W. This may be down to my particular set-up, trainer and also the fact I was running gradient feel at 100%. Who knows, but regardless, it is a show-stopper for me.
Besides the issues, the platform has a lot to offer. First off is the training. There are a large number of options:
On subscribing to a training plan, it populates a calendar and you are good to go.
Secondly, there are a variety of routes. Initially, due to the Middle East lineage of the platform, the routes were all based there. Now, there are Colombia and Australia courses to choose from:
In summary, there is a lot to like about MyWhoosh. It is free, which is likely to be the main draw. The training options look good too. There are clearly some technical issues that need to be ironed out. For me, I’m going to pass on it for now, but will watch with interest to see if the issues I encountered are addressed. Ultimately the market and user take-up will decide whether it is a successful platform over time.
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