Quite a few. Sportstracks works quite well as it has many of the same 3rd Party integrations in place.

TrainingPeaks is great. Especially for coaches. If you do not need the many coach functions, there are many alternatives. One is, for example, my software Velo Hero https://www.velohero.com/. Velo Hero is not optimized for coaches but can help you. You can see the units of your athletes and comment.


I have written this together for you. Hope that helps: https://sites.google.com/...ons-share-and-follow

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Velo Hero - vendor independent training log and performance analysis software

I've been using TrainingPeaks for 10 years. I've tried to use other products but was never impressed to make the switch. I believe that TrainingPeaks provides the best service for the coach and athlete. Yes it costs the most, but i would pay more and use the best, IMO. But again, TP is where i started and maybe if i started with a different product i would be singing a different tune.

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Inside The Big Ring: Podcast & Coaching

I don't see what training peaks provides that a google spreadsheet doesn't, except for a lot of "features" that have dubious value.

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https://markmcdermott.substack.com

If you don;t care at all about the Performance Management chart, and the analytical features where you can look at segments from workouts and trend them over time. Plus the athletes workouts automatically upload. They get visual feedback and charts they can see as well that show their progress. Also have your own workout libraries. if you coach with a group, or have coaches you manage, you can share athletes, workout libraries, etc.

Yes, can you use a basic spreadsheet? Sure. I could scribble workouts on paper, take a picture with my phone and send them too.

If you don't see any value, well, that's fine, good for you.

Same questions can be asked about accounting software, tax software, etc. It saves time, has more features and functionality. IF you don;t use those, then good for you. Some coaches do and market them effectively for a comparative advantage.

I know I'm not terribly impressed by a coach still using a basic spreadsheet. Can you modify a workout using your phone from anywhere you have cell service or internet? Probably not.

When you get a email that you athlete is injured and you want to know why that might have occurred, can you go check their workout history, training load, peak pace for 10 minutes in a workout 10 days ago when they started having symptoms? Can you track their ratio of HR ot pace or cadence, power, etc?


Let me summarize this. Making a training schedule, is the easy part of coaching. Being able to analyze their workouts and progress and create detailed workout customized to that athlete is an efficient manner, that takes more. The 3rd step is the art form, and has nothing to do with a schedule or spreadsheet or analytics. That's knowledge and experience, and intuition.

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TrainingBible Coaching
http://www.trainingbible.com

golden cheetah is free

The only thing I've found useful outside of Training Peaks is the power curve graph in Strava Pro. That thing is Awesome A++. With an extremely friendly user interface, you can get FTP and average watts for rides from any point in time. It's by far the best thing I've seen to figure out what watts to ride your next race at.

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Zen and the Art of Triathlon. Strava Workout Log
Interviews with Chris McCormack, Helle Frederikson, Angela Naeth, and many more.
http://www.zentriathlon.com

For all the "features" cited, how much improvement comes because of them. Demonstrable improvement please not anecdotal stories.

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https://markmcdermott.substack.com

I am using the cheapest version right now.
An Excel sheet, mostly self build: it can calculate TSS, TSB, ATL, CTL and functions as training log obv. With Excel you can do whatever you want to graphically work with the data, but it is quiet simple to f*#% things up.
For the next season I will definitely use TP, just because of the comfort it gives you and the possibility to plan things easy.
TP for the win!

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sent from my iPhone

I used to track my training with a spreadsheet. Here are the features that make a dedicated training log/analysis software much better than a spreadsheet:

• Automatic uploads of workout data (huge time saver)
• The easy ability to look at an analyze parts of workouts or races (e.g. individual intervals or sets, key race moments, etc). (Skilled computer geeks may be able to do this themselves but your average Joe certainly can't get their PC to parse a tcx file).
• The easy ability to integrate a map with your workout data.
• Pre-designed graphs and charts for data (again, skilled computer geeks can easily do sophisticated graphing in Excel but not everyone has that skill).
• A much much slicker, easy to use interface. Let's face it, unless you use Excel everyday at work, you are just going to end up with endless rows and columns of data that are really hard to do anthing with other than maybe come up with averages and totals which, for running a training plan, are very crude tools.
• TrainingPeaks has a tool to create an Annual Training Plan
• TrainingPeaks has tools for communication between coach and athlete. Even if you don't care for it, if you have a coach, you are going to have to use it ;-)

There are more cool things about TP but those are the basics that make it better than Excel.

Okay, I know this is a bit off-topic, but here's a question. How do you all use Training Peaks with HIIT, high intensity intervals, for running. I feel that the TSS calculated by the program should higher, as HIIT can be so demanding, and because HIIT supposedly increases one's fitness more, minute for minute, than steady state exercise.

I think training peaks is great and since my garmin data syncs automatically with it, it makes it super easy to work and communicate with my coach. For just a regular athlete it's also a learning experience looking at some of the analytics data and starting to better understand that. But it also makes it very easy for my coach to add workouts and detailed instructions. We often communicate in the workout comments about particular workouts.

The same argument could be made for a Fiat 500 v a Ferrari.
Each has 4 wheels and gets you from a to b.

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My foray into time trialling at the age of 60
https://sixtyplustimetrialling.wordpress.com/