Training peaks alternative- Sporttracks vs. Goldencheetah

Golden Cheetah is a great piece of S/W. I now does a very good job on S, B & R.

TP is extremely convenient in terms easily getting data in (autosync with Garmin), some planning, adding comments, dashboard creation and many other things. A yearly subscription it's $10 per month and works really well side by side with Golden Cheetah.

Can someone explain what exactly is the purpose of TrainingPeaks?

What advantages does it have over simply dumping your workouts into Strava or whatever?

I've used several different methods of logging and analyzing training. If it were just for my personal use, I would go with Golden Cheetah and call it a day. It does a great job and hits pretty much everything others do along with a few added features.

Shane

To log and analyze workouts and overall training. It is also fairly easy for coaches to use as a training plan development and communication tool with athletes.



Depends on what you want to do with the data - if you are simply logging and don't really analyze the big picture, pretty much anything will do. If you are trying to tease apart the nitty gritty of a session, week, block or season, you need something better than Strava and similar logs (IMO).

Shane

Yeah, with TP, you could do the Annual Subscription and get 20% off with the USAT annual Membership, so that makes it $7 and change a month. not a bad deal.

My main complaint with Goldencheetah and Sporttracks is that I can't get the PMC to graph right. in Golden Cheetah I have to use TRIMPS instead of TSS if I want to included all workouts, and with Sporttracks using the free version I can't set my FTP for the two sports, and I believe it uses TRIMPS as well.

I guess I'm just struck in the steep learning curve for both of those, and I've used TP the last few years, albeit the free version with some premium trials here and there, so I understand it more. I think It is also a bit of a better layout and UI. I just don't like spending money lol

Regarding the PMC

SportTracks uses a different performance model than Training Peaks / Golden Cheetah. So you won't see the *same* chart - it's graphing different metrics, apples and oranges.

SportTracks (like Strava, and a few others) uses the Banister model. TP/GC use the TSB model. The underlying theories are similar, but the "output" if you will is different. One of the best and easiest to digest sources for these models is the summary here:

http://fellrnr.com/wiki/Modeling_Human_Performance

The "limitations" section is particularly interesting.

Regarding training load graphs

For the most complete coverage of multisport you'll want to set your heartrate and power thresholds (FTP + Rest/Max HR) and also your sport-specific zones in both speed and heart rate. This will handle all the various cases where you use a power meter or don't, or where you use an HRM or don't (GPS only), and manually logged workouts. In SportTracks that is located under the "My Account > Training" tab.

The above refers to the online SportTracks app, not the older PC product.

Cheers!

Thanks! Seems like a bit of overkill for me to bother with at this point.

Appreciate the response.

Great question. I've been researching options also. although I didn't even know about sportracks and golden cheetah I'm going to check them out.

The thing for me is that I don't always use a garmin. So I don't want anything tied soley to the watch (ie garmin connect) and I want to plan ahead but like you I think just for that training peaks is not worth the price.

Do check out TrainerPlan (http://www.trainerplan.co). It's must simpler and less expensive approach to coaching.

Edited by TrainerPlan 2017-10-04 3:53 AM

Main reason I use TP is because of TSS based training. It's an amazing way to gauge fitness and form IFF you understand it and enter data (manually or automatically). The paid version of TP allows you to plan TSS ahead, which is crucial as you build toward races to taper properly.

fyi, golden cheetah does this for free

Does Golden cheetah support run and swim the same way TP does as well? It's home site seems to be bike centric. Also does it have a mobile app could not find one in the mobile app store. (Android)

Edited by FranzZemen 2017-10-06 5:22 AM

yes to doing swim and run

no to the app

it also has a training tab a la TrainerRoad. It does a ton more than TP but it is a big techie

I looked into TP with my friends account and looked into Golden Cheetah.

GC is free, once you understand more, it has the same detail analysis as TP and maybe more. There are some good instructional youtube videos for GC..

The only thing as mentioned, there is no Andriod app which is a pain if you want to view your analysis quickly for example 2 weeks before an event or as a reminder before training away from home or over at your local cafe with a macchiato!

If you have a coach, you can easily share GC with Google drive or Facebook or even upload to TP.

I suppose the crux...........TP is more convenient. I'm using GC @moment not TP, I've really found some usual data. Let's see how things progress.

I just see if your a British Cycling member which I am....you get a monthly 40% discount with TP, that's enticing me toward TP......



Edited by mortirolo 2017-10-08 10:55 AM