Polar Personal Trainer

Crapaud

When I started cycling I found that seeing the average / max speed on a bog-standard computer going up was very motivating. As I don't race there was no training schedule; if I felt good I'd push it, if I didn't, I'd tootle. This was good enough for getting a bit fitter and achieving my modest goals at the time.

I've been of the bike for a while and am planning to do a bit of audaxing this year (see my post in 2008 Ambitions?), so a training plan, to get back up to speed, seems like a good idea.

With this in mind I bought a Polar CS200 HRM...



...a while back.

I've tried to put together a training plan from all the bits of info on this forum, Bikeradar and C+ articles and elsewhere, but it's all a bit scattered and I'm concerned that I don't really know what I'm doing. So, I've registered with Polar Personal Trainer and it's put together a 6 week plan for between 20 - 200km (touring).

So far, so good - it looks the biz! But are these computer generated plans any good? Has anyone used them before - how did you get on?

daowned

Since I don't plan to race or do any TT next year just do mainly Audax and Sportives like yourself, I didn't find the Polar Personal Trainer plans of any benefit mainly because of the time schedules I was asked to keep, the information you find in books like the Cycling Bible are great if you can fit it into your own lifestyle.

The Polar CS200 is a great bit of kit Crapaud I wouldn't ride without it and good for keeping all your stats.

http://etapedutour2008.blogspot.com/200 ... -logs.html

Brawlyrox

I use that, and put together a plan from the Chris Carmichal book. I can do the training suggested to and from work and its not too time intensive. I think through the week you only need 1.5 hours a day at most.

I have a problem uploading data to PC with the microfone doofer though so I ended up making my own spreadsheets and put the data in manually.

Nick

Crapaud

Yeah, the schedule's a bit naff - it's scheduled my long rides (longest 4.5 hrs) on a Saturday which doesn't fit in well as I work the weekends.

How do you input the data? I've had a closer look at the plan and the only field that I can fill in is the distance field. It looks like it makes the assumtion that you've stuck religiously to the suggestions and calculates everything from there. Would one of the infrared web-link thingies upload all of the HR / cadence etc info for a more accurate picture? I'd prefer not to have to make up a spreadsheet like Brawlyrox.

Good blog BTW, I'll have a closer look later.

The Cycling Bible may just be a crimbo book voucher purchase.

Ste_S

Crapaud wrote:

Yeah, the schedule's a bit naff - it's scheduled my long rides (longest 4.5 hrs) on a Saturday which doesn't fit in well as I work the weekends.

You know you can drag and drop planned activities into other days, right ?

You can also create your own plan instead of using one of the computer generated ones.

daowned

You don't have to stick to the scheduled training plan that Polar generates as it may not fit in with your free time as the case is, so it would be better to make a plan that does fit in with your free time on a log book.

For the training plans it would be better to get good advice on what would be best for you, with the CS200 you have something called soniclink that will upload the data to the Polar Personal Trainer website then you can login and fill in some extra blanks like date and ride location or anything else important.

To upload the data you will need a microphone going in to the PC to pick up the sound coming out the Polar unit and the Polar web link software.

http://support.polar.fi/downloads/webli ... _2_4_3.exe

You don't need the infrared unit for the CS200 I am sure it does the same job and is only for models not fitted with sonic link.

Crapaud

Ste_S wrote:

You know you can drag and drop planned activities into other days, right ?

Yeah, I worked that out just after my last post.

Ste_S wrote:

You can also create your own plan instead of using one of the computer generated ones.

I'm not sure how to go about that. More fiddling around with the site's in order, I guess. It's not the most intuitive of sites.

The whole point was to save the hassle of creating my own plan though. I bought The Cyclists Training Bible this afternoon, so it's only a matter of time 'till I'll be doing it anyway. I'll stick with the Polar generated one for the moment and see how it goes.

daowned wrote:

To upload the data you will need a microphone going in to the PC to pick up the sound coming out the Polar unit and the Polar web link software.

Damn! More expense!

Cunobelin

Crapaud wrote:

Yeah, the schedule's a bit naff - it's scheduled my long rides (longest 4.5 hrs) on a Saturday which doesn't fit in well as I work the weekends.

How do you input the data? I've had a closer look at the plan and the only field that I can fill in is the distance field. It looks like it makes the assumtion that you've stuck religiously to the suggestions and calculates everything from there. Would one of the infrared web-link thingies upload all of the HR / cadence etc info for a more accurate picture? I'd prefer not to have to make up a spreadsheet like Brawlyrox.

Good blog BTW, I'll have a closer look later.

The Cycling Bible may just be a crimbo book voucher purchase.

Does this model have a small speaker?

Select "send" from the watch menu and you should hear a long series of bleps and whines. If this is the case......

On the Polarwebsite is a small programme called "Polar Weblink" download. Obtain a microphone if you do not have one built in (dies nit need to be expensive).

Now open Weblink and when it says "Listen" select "send" on the Watch, and this will download ALL the data.