Users should be able to opt in or out of StackUp.

I’m sure I’m not unique in the TP community in that I’m training intentionally (and using a coach) because I want to make improvements in my life. I’m a heavier athlete and already have a complicated set of feelings when I show up on race day in a tri suit with all of my competition then cross the finish line close to the back of the pack. I need to remind myself that we’re all on a journey. I made the mistake of opening up the StackUp beta when it was released and immediately regretted it. How demoralizing to see that my W/kg put me in the 8th percentile for such and such. I decided it was best if I never toggled over into that screen again. With the new update, I’m now forced to see it. I finished a run today and was happy to see that I had 6 little medals marking improvement. Yay! This feeling of personal pride and accomplishment went away immediately when I saw my StackUp score right next to my own PB medal.

I think this is not just useless, but actually harmful. Why is it useless? It doesn’t really matter how my 400 time stacks up with other TP users, does it? I have literally never in my life done a 400 meter sprint. There is no context to these metrics. While I “know” the data is useless, it doesn’t keep it from stinging when I’m forced to see this now on every workout.

Now why is it harmful? Because I know I’m not alone that my feeling of disappointment/shame is not rare amongst users of Training Peaks. Instead of being proud of the fact that I got my *** out on a run today, that I finished the workout my coach prescribed, and that there were a few intervals in that run that were some of my best, I’ve spent all afternoon thinking about the fact that I’m still slower than 92% of the other users of TrainingPeaks.