Golden Cheetah, Training Peaks or ??

I put down Power Agent for my "everyday" download / logging of workouts, just because I prefer its interface.

I don't like Golden Cheetah's design as much, but its aerolab feature is useful for analyzing your position on the bike.

Both of those are free downloads, btw.

I wish! No, I had to use my hard-earned $$ for it. That would be awesome!

Golden Cheetah?  Interesting name, do they have a drink minimum?

I've been using it for two years.  The interface isn't great, but I'm obviously still using it!

OP:  You live in Sedona!  Why would you ever need a PM?  That would require periodically glancing away from the beautiful scenery...

I've used Training Peaks since '06. I tried Race Day and disliked many aspects of it...graphs stink, dropped my intervals marked on my Garmin or LYC, graph size was small, and more.

I think there is some cool aspects to Race Day that are very (good tapering and the like) but the day to day analysis of my power I didn't like.

I think I was used the higher quality graphics of Training Peaks, and the way TP works. I upgraded to the newer version of TP last year and like it even more.

You can try both Race Day and Training Peaks for free for a limited time. If you have a couple weeks or more power data you can import the data and better than having no data and then use your trial version.

I don't like Power Agent as it didn't have NP for a long time, or TSS.

I like the Allen/Coggan ideas, terms and calculations of training with power and Training Peaks well I call it wko+ lines up with that. Skibas ideas are very solid and I like his ideas about training better, but program trial I used I didn't find it easy to use or meeting my needs.

What's sad is I've recently moved much of my bike training indoors! The hills here make it difficult to work a structured training plan for the bike. I still do my long ride outside but the short interval rides are on the trainer...

I didn't get any software with my wheels. Wonder if something was missed? Maybe I can DL it from PowerTap.

Thanks for all of the input everyone! I'll have to download a few of the programs and see which fits me best. I don't have any power data yet, I just put the wheels together yesterday. I still need to adjust my brakes since the rims are wider than my old ones. I'll get on the bike in a day or two. May have a TT coming up, which would be a great time to establish my 20 min power.

I use raceday and GC.

I use GC for the ride analysis. It maintains my CP curve, shows good metrics over time, and I can look at a specific ride. For ride analysis it does everything I need, plus the aerolab stuff is cool

Raceday is extremely good for measuring training load for all 3 sports. I find it less useful for individual ride analysis. GC does a fine job with that. I think intensity is an important factor in training load and Raceday does a good job of bringing that in the equation for all 3 sports.

If you want to spend 0 go with GC.  If you are willing to spend a little, GC + Raceday together provide more than TP IMHO. Use GC for ride analysis, Raceday to manage your load and do analysis across all 3 sports.

I haven't used the others so I am biased but I really like Golden Cheetah. I would be surprised if there  was anything better for the same price (free). I use it on an old Linux box (Ubuntu) and it has been flawless. I still have a lot to learn about "power " but my initial $ investment has been minimal but rewarding.

FWIW There is nothing sad about training indoors. I hated it at first but with my powermeter and a plan, I have found it to be much more enjoyable and the results are noticeable.

initially when i started with a PM i used power agent, then used training peaks for 6 months, and now golden cheetah.

training peaks is great.  at first I HATED gc but after about 3 months of using it, love it more then TP.  i love the fact that you can make your own reports there, aerolab is cool and the cp curve is really neat for analyzing data since last test.....

Power Agent

Golden Cheetah

There's also Sport Tracks.

http://www.zonefivesoftware.com/sporttracks/

I haven't read the book yet, need to finish my current one first (The Runner's Body). Should be done in a day or two. I skimmed it really quickly and remember seeing the software mentioned but it was several weeks ago.

I DL'd Raceday last night and installed it. Looking over it now.

Thanks!