Sports Tracks in depth – ten little tidbits 24

Most of you folks know I love Sports Tracks – I think it’s hands down the best and most comprehensive sports activity management application out there today. 

(The above uses the Power Analysis Plug-in)

Of course, making it better is that it’s free and has a vibrant community of folks creating all sorts of cool (and occasionally whacky) add-ins.  Over the past few months I’ve had a few folks ask me to do a write-up on Sports Tracks.  While I could do a typical ‘review’, I decided it’d be more fun to simply pick my top features and go from there.

Oh – and here’s the kicker.  EVERYTHING I show you below is free…100% completely and totally free, so – let’s get on with it…

1) Support for more than just Garmin’s.

I think there’s a perception out there that you need a Garmin device to use Sports Tracks – perhaps because looking at the data import screen above, you’d think it only supports Garmin’s.  Not so.  In fact, it works just as well with just about anything you can image.  I use Sports Tracks with an old school Polar Watch that’s downloadable, as well as importing in text files from a CompuTrainer.  You can download directly from some Polar’s via a plug-in, and others you can import the files in.  Also, the Timex downloadable watches are support as well via a plug-in.  Same goes for the PowerTap and SRM files.  And of course, you can always simply manually enter in times, splits and anything else you want.  That’s how I add my swim workouts, like below – including adding stuff like notes:

2) Tracking Equipment

If you run a lot, you probably go through a lot of shoes.  But one of the tricks is tracking how many miles your shoes have on them.  I used to use a simply Excel log, but since switching to Sports Tracks it pretty much takes care of it for me.  It auto-selects my shoe when I run and then simply totals the mileage.

It also tracks mileages for other pieces of equipment as well.  I could easily create a bunch of ancillary pieces like tires, chains, etc… if I wanted to – though that might get a bit cluttered.  I just track the biggies (Bikes/Shoes).  I can also note that an item is no longer in use as well.  I generally don’t track wandering around town mileage (just on a simple non-tri bike) though since I’m lazy. :)

3) Elevation Correction Plug-in

For as long as this plug-in as been around, I’ve been raving about it.  Something so simple, yet so important.  See, most GPS devices in the sports market use GPS-based altimeters instead of barometric altimeters (as a random aside, the Edge 705 uses a barometric altimeter).  And for this particular GPS segment, the accuracy of GPS based altimeters is highly unreliable (in other segments such as military and aviation the quality can and is higher).  For example, let’s look at an uncorrected run this past weekend (a multi-loop course with an initial/end out/back section) :

Given it’s a loop course, you’d expect to see some similarities. But there aren’t.  Now let’s look at it auto-corrected using the Elevation Correction plug-in.  You can see below how the sections much more closely mirror each other.

The elevation correction plug-in uses SRTM data from NASA that has the known elevation of any given set of GPS coordinates.  Thus…real elevation.  You can download it (free) here.

4) Activity Reports:

One thing that’s kinda cool is this built in function within Sports Tracks to show you all the places you’ve done activities.  It then overlays it onto a map.

Further, on the left hand side it allows you to create charts and totals by week/activity, etc… A great way to see which months you may have slacked off, or to simply sort by week and see the various build phases of your program.

On a side note, a related free plug-in with displays all of the workouts in a calendar-esque format is available here.

5) Training Load Plug-in (TSS Plug-in)

One way many folks train is by utilizing TSS.  TSS is a methodology to help you define your training scheduled based on feedback from devices that in turn determine how taxed your body is.  You can read all about it here – and more detailed explanation here.

The TSS plug-in allows you to target a given race and then determine things like the best taper period, recovery, etc…  It’s also a useful tool to see when you’re potentially at your peak…or simply too fatigued.

6) Creating Custom Sport Categories

One thing I do is track virtually everything.  Want to know how many times I rode my tri bike?  How about my mountain bike?  Perhaps how many times I’ve been in the weight room – or just working on  core strength?

Well, by default Sports Tracks has a few basic categories.  But you can actually modify those and create all new ones – either based on an existing category (like cycling) or something completely different (like Kayaking).

For example, below you can see I created a Downhill Skiing category to capture those activities, as well as one for ART – to capture how often the ART dude works his magic on my lack of flexibility.

At the same time – you can also go in here and define custom Heart Rates.  After you’ve gone out and figured out your heart rate zones and training program, simply create as many different HR zones as you’d like and add them here.  Then they get automatically overlaid onto all the HR graphs in Sports Tracks.

Note the above yellow highlighted section for the zone information.

7) Garmin Fitness Plug-in

Quickly becoming one of the most popular plug-ins, the Garmin Fitness Plug-in attempts to replace all of the functionality that’s located within Garmin Training Center (GTC).  If you’ve read any of my Garmin device reviews (305/405/310XT/705), you’d know that I think GTC is a piece of garbage – and I’m pretty sure Garmin would actually agree with me given they haven’t improved it functionally since earlier this decade.  But…it’s required for basic operations like sending advanced workouts to your Garmin.

Behold though – the Garmin Fitness Plug-in – this allows you to create workouts, courses and anything else that floats your boat and send it to your Garmin device, all without GTC.

You can see above how you can create all of the workout steps just like in GTC – but instead, in Sports Tracks.  Then below you can see how you export it to your device.

Oh, and if you’re not sure what I’m talking about when I’m talking about creating workouts in GTC – check out this post I did earlier for how to do it (as it’s basically the same steps here as well).

Three Completely Whacky (but fun) plug-ins:

As a bonus cherry on top and just for fun, here’s three plug-ins that I’ve downloaded at one point, but don’t use very often.  That said, they are fun and entertaining in their own special snowflake kinda way:

8) Dobrou extensions

This one’s pretty off the wall…but off the hook cool.  It allows you to do all sorts of crazy overlays based on your activities.  Those colors can be shaded based on HR, altitude, etc… you name it.  Below my ride on Skyline Drive is shaded on speed, which you can see varies based on the topography.  Fun stuff.  There’s a TON more fun things you can do here, I highly recommend you click over to the plug-in’s main page to check it out.

9) Gear Indicator Plug-in

A plug-in currently under development is one that determines exactly which gears your using on your bike based on cadence and speed information.  This is based on the concept that there are ideal gear ratio’s and therefore you can actually calculate exactly what gear you were likely using.  For example, this site shows you how to select gear ratio’s.

Now – the plug-in still needs some work, but it’s a really cool glimpse into what’s possible when a bunch of smart people with a lot of spare time on their hands get together.

Check out more about it here – the download is on the 2nd page, here.

Oh – and now some of those same peeps are looking to use GPS-watches to determine your exact stride length at any point in time using simple run cadence and distance.  Pretty cool.

10) Performance Predictor

This is crazy cool.  The primary purpose of this plug-in is trying to predict other distance races based on past race performance (such as using a 10K time to predict a 5K time).  But it also does some really fun other stuff – like seeing the impact of weight changes on performance.

For example, below is my Philly 2008 Marathon where I went 2:54, and my weight at the time is listed there (unfortunately in Kilo’s, but that’s easy to convert) – so basically 166 pounds.  Now, if you go up or down the rows you can see what it would be based on changes to my weight.  This is based on the well accepted 2 seconds per mile per pound standard. 

Hmm…now that Thanksgiving is over…the above little chart will be useful. ;)

It can also do the same thing with temperature.  But because my race was at 32*F – it wouldn’t really matter if it got cooler, but getting hotter it certainly would:

You can go download it here.

Wrap-up

Ok…that’s all I’ve got. :)  Have fun!

Sports Tracks in depth – ten little tidbits 1

Most of you folks know I love Sports Tracks – I think it’s hands down the best and most comprehensive sports activity management application out there today. 

(The above uses the Power Analysis Plug-in)

Of course, making it better is that it’s free and has a vibrant community of folks creating all sorts of cool (and occasionally whacky) add-ins.  Over the past few months I’ve had a few folks ask me to do a write-up on Sports Tracks.  While I could do a typical ‘review’, I decided it’d be more fun to simply pick my top features and go from there.

Oh – and here’s the kicker.  EVERYTHING I show you below is free…100% completely and totally free, so – let’s get on with it…

1) Support for more than just Garmin’s.

I think there’s a perception out there that you need a Garmin device to use Sports Tracks – perhaps because looking at the data import screen above, you’d think it only supports Garmin’s.  Not so.  In fact, it works just as well with just about anything you can image.  I use Sports Tracks with an old school Polar Watch that’s downloadable, as well as importing in text files from a CompuTrainer.  You can download directly from some Polar’s via a plug-in, and others you can import the files in.  Also, the Timex downloadable watches are support as well via a plug-in.  Same goes for the PowerTap and SRM files.  And of course, you can always simply manually enter in times, splits and anything else you want.  That’s how I add my swim workouts, like below – including adding stuff like notes:

2) Tracking Equipment

If you run a lot, you probably go through a lot of shoes.  But one of the tricks is tracking how many miles your shoes have on them.  I used to use a simply Excel log, but since switching to Sports Tracks it pretty much takes care of it for me.  It auto-selects my shoe when I run and then simply totals the mileage.

It also tracks mileages for other pieces of equipment as well.  I could easily create a bunch of ancillary pieces like tires, chains, etc… if I wanted to – though that might get a bit cluttered.  I just track the biggies (Bikes/Shoes).  I can also note that an item is no longer in use as well.  I generally don’t track wandering around town mileage (just on a simple non-tri bike) though since I’m lazy. :)

3) Elevation Correction Plug-in

For as long as this plug-in as been around, I’ve been raving about it.  Something so simple, yet so important.  See, most GPS devices in the sports market use GPS-based altimeters instead of barometric altimeters (as a random aside, the Edge 705 uses a barometric altimeter).  And for this particular GPS segment, the accuracy of GPS based altimeters is highly unreliable (in other segments such as military and aviation the quality can and is higher).  For example, let’s look at an uncorrected run this past weekend (a multi-loop course with an initial/end out/back section) :

Given it’s a loop course, you’d expect to see some similarities. But there aren’t.  Now let’s look at it auto-corrected using the Elevation Correction plug-in.  You can see below how the sections much more closely mirror each other.

The elevation correction plug-in uses SRTM data from NASA that has the known elevation of any given set of GPS coordinates.  Thus…real elevation.  You can download it (free) here.

4) Activity Reports:

One thing that’s kinda cool is this built in function within Sports Tracks to show you all the places you’ve done activities.  It then overlays it onto a map.

Further, on the left hand side it allows you to create charts and totals by week/activity, etc… A great way to see which months you may have slacked off, or to simply sort by week and see the various build phases of your program.

On a side note, a related free plug-in with displays all of the workouts in a calendar-esque format is available here.

5) Training Load Plug-in (TSS Plug-in)

One way many folks train is by utilizing TSS.  TSS is a methodology to help you define your training scheduled based on feedback from devices that in turn determine how taxed your body is.  You can read all about it here – and more detailed explanation here.

The TSS plug-in allows you to target a given race and then determine things like the best taper period, recovery, etc…  It’s also a useful tool to see when you’re potentially at your peak…or simply too fatigued.

6) Creating Custom Sport Categories

One thing I do is track virtually everything.  Want to know how many times I rode my tri bike?  How about my mountain bike?  Perhaps how many times I’ve been in the weight room – or just working on  core strength?

Well, by default Sports Tracks has a few basic categories.  But you can actually modify those and create all new ones – either based on an existing category (like cycling) or something completely different (like Kayaking).

For example, below you can see I created a Downhill Skiing category to capture those activities, as well as one for ART – to capture how often the ART dude works his magic on my lack of flexibility.

At the same time – you can also go in here and define custom Heart Rates.  After you’ve gone out and figured out your heart rate zones and training program, simply create as many different HR zones as you’d like and add them here.  Then they get automatically overlaid onto all the HR graphs in Sports Tracks.

Note the above yellow highlighted section for the zone information.

7) Feature XYZ – Garmin Fitness Plug-in

Quickly becoming one of the most popular plug-ins, the Garmin Fitness Plug-in attempts to replace all of the functionality that’s located within Garmin Training Center (GTC).  If you’ve read any of my Garmin device reviews (305/405/310XT/705), you’d know that I think GTC is a piece of garbage – and I’m pretty sure Garmin would actually agree with me given they haven’t improved it functionally since earlier this decade.  But…it’s required for basic operations like sending advanced workouts to your Garmin.

Behold though – the Garmin Fitness Plug-in – this allows you to create workouts, courses and anything else that floats your boat and send it to your Garmin device, all without GTC.

You can see above how you can create all of the workout steps just like in GTC – but instead, in Sports Tracks.  Then below you can see how you export it to your device.

Oh, and if you’re not sure what I’m talking about when I’m talking about creating workouts in GTC – check out this post I did earlier for how to do it (as it’s basically the same steps here as well).

Three Completely Whacky (but fun) plug-ins:

As a bonus cherry on top and just for fun, here’s three plug-ins that I’ve downloaded at one point, but don’t use very often.  That said, they are fun and entertaining in their own special snowflake kinda way:

8) Dobrou extensions

This one’s pretty off the wall…but off the hook cool.  It allows you to do all sorts of crazy overlays based on your activities.  Those colors can be shaded based on HR, altitude, etc… you name it.  Below my ride on Skyline Drive is shaded on speed, which you can see varies based on the topography.  Fun stuff.  There’s a TON more fun things you can do here, I highly recommend you click over to the plug-in’s main page to check it out.

9) Gear Indicator Plug-in

A plug-in currently under development is one that determines exactly which gears your using on your bike based on cadence and speed information.  This is based on the concept that there are ideal gear ratio’s and therefore you can actually calculate exactly what gear you were likely using.  For example, this site shows you how to select gear ratio’s.

Now – the plug-in still needs some work, but it’s a really cool glimpse into what’s possible when a bunch of smart people with a lot of spare time on their hands get together.

Check out more about it here – the download is on the 2nd page, here.

Oh – and now some of those same peeps are looking to use GPS-watches to determine your exact stride length at any point in time using simple run cadence and distance.  Pretty cool.

10) Performance Predictor

This is crazy cool.  The primary purpose of this plug-in is trying to predict other distance races based on past race performance (such as using a 10K time to predict a 5K time).  But it also does some really fun other stuff – like seeing the impact of weight changes on performance.

For example, below is my Philly 2008 Marathon where I went 2:54, and my weight at the time is listed there (unfortunately in Kilo’s, but that’s easy to convert) – so basically 166 pounds.  Now, if you go up or down the rows you can see what it would be based on changes to my weight.  This is based on the well accepted 2 seconds per mile per pound standard. 

Hmm…now that Thanksgiving is over…the above little chart will be useful. ;)

It can also do the same thing with temperature.  But because my race was at 32*F – it wouldn’t really matter if it got cooler, but getting hotter it certainly would:

You can go download it here.

Wrap-up

Ok…that’s all I’ve got. :)  Have fun!

Running around 11

I’m starting (though semi-resisting) to get back into a rhythm.  Albeit at the moment that may or may not include much time getting wet in the pool.  But I do drive by it occasionally – that counts, right?

Saturday morning I woke up earlier than one should on a long weekend and hit up the area near Wakefield Park with the Pacer Fun Run folks to run in circles around Lake Accotink, which is nearby. 

It was a nice easy run, though my longest to date since IMFL even at a touch over 10 miles.  So while the pace was easy, my feet/legs were a bit uneasy about the whole situation.

Oh, I almost forgot – Friday night the Girl and I went just a short hop away to a place in Old Town that allows you to paint own pottery.  Of course, my artistic skills are highly limited, so I choose an airplane and then stuck a pig stamp on top of it (it’s a piggy bank).  But the Girl made a really nice little platter for her cupcake creations.

The blue-ish color will actually ‘burn’ a shiny white once it goes into the kiln.

Speaking of things I forgot, I spent a fair bit of time over the weekend working on Home Automation stuff.  As I think I’ve mentioned in the past, all of the light switches in my house are connected via computer.  So I can turn them all on/off from anywhere in the world, as well as setup routines to pretend I’m home, and just simply save a bundle on electricity.  Well, when I started doing Ironman training stuffs two years ago the system kinda fell into disarray and really wasn’t working well.  Sure you can always just hit the light switch to turn it on/off – but otherwise the computer piece of it wasn’t really working.  So I spent the weekend swapping out some of the older X10 technology pieces with newer faster Insteon stuff.   Night and day difference and with much less upkeep compared to X10.

Above – the bane of my existence.  Swapping out multi-gang boxes. I hate them. So much stuff crammed into one little area.  Plus, mine all have multi-light switch setups (two switches controlling one light), which adds to the complexity.

For example, below this keypad lights up Red when the Garage door is open (and there are three of these), so I’ll know if that accidentally happens.

Anyways…speaking of other little projects, I got this thing hooked up as well, got it from Best Buy during some of the Turkey Day sales – amazing deal.  It’s actually a photo frame, but also shows the weather, web photos, etc… And it looks pretty…cause that’s what matters.

Sunday the Girl and I went out biking.  We were going to head down south towards Prince William Forest Park – but we got on the highway and this is what we saw:

So we diverted to simply riding the W&OD trail.  I’ve often said that for long rides these type of bike path trails simply don’t allow you to get in a really good uninterrupted ride – and that was certainly true today. But instead I played around and did all sorts of Farklet type stuff and random intervals.  Just simply had fun.

Speaking of having fun – check out this dude – aero helmet and all.  See, while I was hanging out at the turnaround for The Girl, a guy came by on a tri bike with an aero helmet – and a full tri kit:

So I gave him a few mile head start and made it my mission to catch him on the way back.  I eventually did, though, it was because he stopped to pick up water.

Now, interestingly – he said that he had qualified for Kona for next year – 2010 - (he was chatting with some lady).  So, curiously I asked him where he qualified (just because looking at him, he didn’t strike me as having the body type to realistically top his AG).  He responded with “Ironman Chile…”, followed by “…back in October…I mean September.” 

So I thought to myself “Hmm, OK, the off the beaten path international events are indeed easier to qualify, so perhaps that makes sense”.  But, I noticed he was wearing a RoadID, so I asked some random question about his bike so I could get a closer look at his name to lookup later (Hey I’m curious, what can I say!).  It looked like ‘Lester’ – or something similar.  I figured plenty easy to find someone from Ashburn, VA (where he said he started) with that bit of info.

Fast forward to home…

I lookup Ironman Chile – which is actually Ironman Pucon 70.3 – and it’s in January – not September.  So that has me really confused (wrong time of year, and a Half event, not full).  I know that some 70.3 events do give out Kona slots, but I don’t think Pucon is on that list (here’s the older 2008 list).

I looked at the results, I looked through Athlinks, I looked through ASI photos to match him up…nuttin matches anywhere.  One guy named Daniel from the area who’s the real deal – but his photos don’t match at all (unless he’s gained 75 pounds and changed ethnicities).

So…what say you?  Is he a poser, or did I miss something?  I really want to believe he qualified – as that’s the kinda person I am, as it would be disappointing that folks go around saying they achieved something they didn’t.

Of course, I always want to end the day with a good meal, so the Girl and I made a Turkey Pot Pie tonight from some of the Turkey Leftovers.  Got the recipe here. Super quick and easy – though we added some Cumin, as well as a crapton of Salt and Pepper to made it taste much better.

So with that…have a good Monday!

Oh – and congrats to all of those who did IM Cozumel today, including Liz – who just finished a few minutes ago.

Oh part 2 – For those that have asked about the Garmin Edge 500 (coming out here shortly) – I don’t have a unit quite yet, but Garmin’s let me know they’re sending me out a trial unit to review here in the next week or so.  So I’ll let ya know when that happens.