Fitness & Training Software - SportTracks?

Avezius

I'm in my second year of cycling regularly & I'm also a bit of a technology geek (my trade is IT development) so it was only a matter of time before I went GPS to record rides! I opted for a Forerunner305 for it's nice sweet spot between functionality & cost.

Anyway, for the last month Ive been trying out different software for reviewing & analysing the data, for the purposes of monitoring my fitness through the year & just generally because I can. I'm starting this year from quite a low fitness base after a crash last October so particularly interested in measure of fitness over time.

I really wanted a web based solution (accessible anywhere on any device, location) but didnt want to compromise on cool analysis graphs.

In my opinion, the basic Garmin client software is rubbish. The web offering (GarminConnect) is good but doesn't have many graphical or analysis tools other than the basics - A few more & it would probably be my favourite.

SportTracks is great - once you get the hand of the quirky interface & I like the idea that it's expandable with plugins (plus I like the idea that I could build something myself too - not that I have the time or ideas, but thats not the point!). I don't like the way it's fat client & I have to maintain data on multiple systems.

I'm seriously considering buying the full version of SportTracks3, but will probably also maintain garminconnect (and the simple mycyclinglog.com) for visibility.

So - What does everyone else use AND of you use SportTracks - what are the features you really like?

Thanks

danowat

I use Sport tracks, I find it does everything I need, and more, but I guess the training load plugin I find most usefull.

kettrinboy

Ive got the full paid version so that you can then get all the data fields, the free version only lets you keep some data for 90 days, the way you can edit most data fields and the map page is handy as the Edge 800 and 500 can get bad waypoints on some rides,the athlete pane is good for tracking your weight, resting HR,blood pressure, body fat etc, i like the splits function, you can go down to every quarter mile if you want to see where you gained and lost speed on a ride,ive found though, that you need to get the smoothing right in the settings pane or the values ie speeds,grade and climb/descent can vary by quite a bit, fwiw if you have the smoothing set to near minimum, that seems to give pretty accurate readings,i,m well pleased with it at only 22 quid, well worth having.

twotyred

I use Garmin Connect to share data with my coach but I also use the paid version of SportTracks. The analysis available in SportTracks is a lot more powerful than Garmin Connect especially if you add a few plug-ins. You can also edit your splits which you can't do in Garmin Connect. I use the Training load, Overlay and Accumulated Summary plug-ins.

paggnr

I use Garmin Connect to share data with my coach but I also use the paid version of SportTracks.

This is exactly what I do as well.

Avezius

Great - thanks.
I think I will go for it.

note - I know it's mostly eye candy rather than deep analysis but I have seen some cool chart overlays on top of maps for ST2 - looking forward to that being ported to ST3.

Velonutter

I use the Garmin Training Centre for my main results but use the SportTracks 3.0 for a backup.

SportTracks has some quirks like if you want it to ignore your Cake Stop time you have to change a few settings but then I found it buggered up my Altitude figures. I do however find the most useful thing is when analysing a route and you can see just how slow or how fast you have been in a particular section and what your stats are.

newtri

Get SportTracks if you are a tech geek. If you need to run it on more than one PC, just get a free dropbox account to store your workout log on the cloud. Works like a charm, and you also have an offisite backup.

Yes to what others said about training load. Just do it.

For training *planning* there are a couple new plugins which are getting a lot of buzz over on the ST forums. I only mention this since you are coming off your crash and might want to look at a more structured plan.

Reach your goal, about 4 weeks old here: http://www.zonefivesoftware.com/sporttr ... -your-goal

Fit Plan, only 3 days old, and still in beta, you can get an idea of it here:
http://www.zonefivesoftware.com/sporttr ... .php?f=105

For sharing, I'm really starting to like dailymile.com. Garmin Connect is just overkill and the constant server downtime is annoying. For me, I don't need ALL the gory details up on the web. dailymile has a nice simple website, a mobile version which works great on the ipad, an app for Android and even a Sporttracks plugin to push data up from your garmin workouts. And I'll admit, I also like the social features while I know thats not for everyone. It's a bit "cutsie", such as being able to see # of donuts burned per week - but hey, worth a look.

I was wondering if anyone else is on dailymile? I know their target isn't exactly high-performance types...

Good luck!

BillyMansell

Another one here who uses Sportracks 3.0 as I like to analyse the data, and as has been suggested use Dropbox to keep data up-to-date on all machines

For sharing I use GarminConnect for data and RidewithGPS for the Google Earth flyover view as it appeals to my young nephews.