When starting with regular training mid 2010, I was looking for the most suitable way to plan and document my sessions. As I like “playing” with Excel, I started with a custom-handmade Excel – but soon was looking for something more “web 2.0-ish”. As some of you might be aware I am a addicted Apple Mac user, which narrows down the options a bit (yes, I know that I could run either a emulation of Windows or a complete 2nd Windows system on my Intel MacBook – but I did not buy a Mac because I wanted to have running Win on it!). I finally ended up with trainingstagebuch.org in combination with gpsies.com for GPS data and mapping, but here´s what I experienced on my way there:
- trainingpeaks WKO+: high end professional software with tons of features. Software runs locally, but – how could it not be – “WKO+ is not natively Mac OS compatible at this time.”
- Trailrunner: Natively Mac OSX, Software runs locally. Nice OSX feel and GPS-Data / Map integration. Lacks some features when it comes to planning an statistical analysis of training data
- trainingstagebuch.org: Browser based online tool – which means I can logon an edit from almost everywhere (having a Computer, mobile device and/or wifi connection). Lots of web 2.0 features (Sharing on facbook, twitter etc., connection other athletes, huge GPS track route community collections, planning features like target definition, Plan-Act comparison and much more, statistical analysis, seamless integration of gpsies.com and newly added upload feature directly from daum´s Ergoplanet2011)
I am using trainingstagebuch.org since July and am completely satisfied how it fulfills my needs. For more professional purposes, trainingpeaks seems to be the tool of choice.
So far – going to watch “The Flight of the Phoenix” (Original from 1965) – STEVE
