I would strongly advise against Powertap P1’s (or P2’s for that matter). Unfortunately (for whatever reason) Quarq have decided that they are providing no customer support whatsoever for Powertap pedals that are out of warranty (aside from bearing replacement). If ever the P1’s develop a fault they are going in the bin.
I should add that I was a big fan of the pedals until it became clear there was no out of warranty customer support.
We’re forgetting that this is a triathlon forum and not a bike only forum.
A very very limited % of people own “running power” meters. There is no such thing for swimming. Both can use time, distance, and HR as metrics on both websites.
So yes, it is entirely relevant outside of the bike-centric world to track distance, time, and HR. There are three sports to triathlon and both sites and provide meaningful data for running and swimming without power meters.
Given that…I think it’s a current lifestyle decision on platform. If you have a key event like 1/2 or full IM, I’d choose to pay for TP hands down. If I didn’t have a key event for a long while, I would go the Strava route.
I used to be a big Sport Tracks user but migrated away when it became cloud based. That said however now that nearly everything is cloud based I would consider it certainly in light of the parameters you track and the annual cost seems quite reasonable. it does some sort of climb analysis and that may be similar to Strava I don’t know. The good part is they offer a 45 day trial so at least you can try it and decide. just search for zonefivesoftware.com.
If you had to pick only one, and don’t use a PM, which would you pick and why? Assume that the monthly cost difference is a factor.
If I wasn’t training for anything specific I’d choose Strava over TP. Strava is more fun, all my friends use it, and it gives me some interesting data/metrics (although I don’t put much stock in their power estimates). If I was trying to manage structured training it would be TP - Strava is essentially useless for that. Another way to view it is that TP is proactive - plan, organize, and track your training. Strava is reactive in that it just documents whatever you tell it to.
If we’re talking outdoor riding, I’m right there with you. I’d pick TP because I have no desire to do any of the social stuff that Strava has built in. If indoors, I’d need something more concrete than just riding my bike.
You could also use 2PEAK as an alternative to either.
You can try it for 21 days free at 2PEAK.com
If I didn’t use a PM I wouldn’t use either one and stick with Garmin Connects.
IMO Strava is trash for anything but cycling. (note, I have never paid for Strava and I don’t know the cost difference) It has no clue how to really handle swimming or strength workouts.
Training Peaks gives you the ability to enter TSS manually for any workout, as well as different ways to auto-calculate those values (power, HR, pace). I find the TSS charts the best way to plan out a week especially when it comes to tapering (or just race prep in general), since you can manually enter predicted TSS and see what your TSB value will be on race day, then adjust accordingly. Even if you’re not tracking swimming workouts in detail, you can enter an estimated TSS value based on how hard it was and I think it works pretty well, given that you’re pretty in tune with swimming. While I don’t know the kind of charts and metrics you can track with a Strava membership, I don’t think it’s anywhere close to what TP has to offer.
I use a combo of TP & Garmin Connect. I like sending workouts to my Fenix from Connect and I like the dashboard in Connect good enough. I actually review my workouts in Connect more than TP. But I do all my planning, goal setting, race tracking, and keep my calendar in TP. I’ve been on TP premium since 2006 and it is, like we all know, stagnant. But I tried Strava premium and quickly untried it. I just have too many activity types and Strava just isn’t great at that. For swim, Connect is the best for looking back at workouts. I also send my swim sets to my watch and it keeps me disciplined in the pool (which hasn’t existed for me since March). I’m thumbs down on Strava Premium at this point.
Thing is, I think ultimately my decision is going to be influenced by whatever bike computer I get.
One of the big downsides to strava (and wahoo) is that I can’t create workouts with them, which means having to pay $25/mo to do something that I feel should really be free. Garmin connect has a fairly decent workout builder /scheduler, plus they do support segments (maybe not as widely used as strava, but that’s ok. I’m really just interested in tracking performance on certain climbs or other segments). So maybe I will be stuck in the Garmin ecosystem.
Then the decision becomes whether I should get the 530 (or equivalent) is the 130 good enough.
I’m confused about what you need that you have to pay for? I use free Strava plus the free Slowtwitch training log which links to Strava. Garmin connect works totally fine within this free ecosystem as it just pushes data to Strava.
I have Garmin watch which leverages Garmin Connect but I have a Lezyne bike computer (which has its own software) and segments on Garmin connect are absolute garbage. The Leyzne software is awful but it lets me sent routes to the head unit. I think I could also get Garmin connect to export a workout in a format that could then be imported on the lezyne but i suspect it would be a real pain. Personally if creating workouts is a big deal I would just stick with Garmin for that function but still use Strava for segements and Slowtwitch as the training overview.
The thing to remember is that modern units kick the data around automatically. As soon as I end a ride, run or swim it is sent automatically to my phone and ends up on free Strava because I have all my various software packages linked to Strava. Then when I want to look at training log info I come on ST and hit the ‘update for Strava’ button and within a minute everything is there. You don’t need to commit to one company or another.
The only reason you would want TP or paid Strava is if you are ALWAYS collecting heart rate and/or power data to accumulate a stress score.
The only reason you would want TP or paid Strava is if you are ALWAYS collecting heart rate and/or power data to accumulate a stress score.
Very valid point. I like the TSS in TP, but it isn’t prescriptive for me. It is just a graph that I try to get to go up and to the right. I haven’t figured out how to manage myself to that metric.
I learned long ago that I need a planned out calendar with workouts that turn red, yellow and green in order to stay disciplined. TP has that. Plus it has mediocre race results tracking. I don’t trust other race results platforms (i.e., Athlinks), so I collect those in TP. Though, as I get older my ego wishes I didn’t remember my old results…
I’m confused about what you need that you have to pay for? I use free Strava plus the free Slowtwitch training log which links to Strava. Garmin connect works totally fine within this free ecosystem as it just pushes data to Strava.
I have Garmin watch which leverages Garmin Connect but I have a Lezyne bike computer (which has its own software) and segments on Garmin connect are absolute garbage. The Leyzne software is awful but it lets me sent routes to the head unit. I think I could also get Garmin connect to export a workout in a format that could then be imported on the lezyne but i suspect it would be a real pain. Personally if creating workouts is a big deal I would just stick with Garmin for that function but still use Strava for segements and Slowtwitch as the training overview.
The thing to remember is that modern units kick the data around automatically. As soon as I end a ride, run or swim it is sent automatically to my phone and ends up on free Strava because I have all my various software packages linked to Strava. Then when I want to look at training log info I come on ST and hit the ‘update for Strava’ button and within a minute everything is there. You don’t need to commit to one company or another.
The only reason you would want TP or paid Strava is if you are ALWAYS collecting heart rate and/or power data to accumulate a stress score.
shit, I completely forgot about the slowtwitch log. I’ll have to revisit that one.
I use a combo of TP & Garmin Connect. I like sending workouts to my Fenix from Connect and I like the dashboard in Connect good enough. I actually review my workouts in Connect more than TP. But I do all my planning, goal setting, race tracking, and keep my calendar in TP. I’ve been on TP premium since 2006 and it is, like we all know, stagnant. But I tried Strava premium and quickly untried it. I just have too many activity types and Strava just isn’t great at that. For swim, Connect is the best for looking back at workouts. I also send my swim sets to my watch and it keeps me disciplined in the pool (which hasn’t existed for me since March). I’m thumbs down on Strava Premium at this point.
Same here, and like Optimal Adrian said “IMO Strava is trash”.
I think I’ve reached the conclusion that I’ll stick within the Garmin universe, mostly because of the ability to create workouts and training plans in Garmin Connect. I’m between training plans at the moment, so I decided to try out building one with GC and it seems to be fairly reasonable. it also publishes to my google calendar, which will make life pretty easy.
New approach, since everything was too pricey or limited.
I built a new template in Google Sheets (cloud accessible, and free) based on the templates in the Cyclists Training Bible. I have it set up so that I can plan out a training block or season, by week, based on hours and TSS and it will calculate current and projected CTL/ATL/TSB (which free trainingpeaks doesn’t do). Obviously it doesn’t have a workout creator, but most of the time I don’t actually need that. As long as I know what the workout is supposed to be, I can do it.
I’ll add in fancy charts and graphs later. I can also add in power data fields once I do finally get a PM, which I’ve been tinking about for years.
Put the link in my sig line. Obviously still a work in progress, and I’m figuring out the functionality of Google Sheets as I go. It “should” be read-only for any of you clowns. If it’s not, please let me know.
New approach, since everything was too pricey or limited.
I built a new template in Google Sheets (cloud accessible, and free) based on the templates in the Cyclists Training Bible. …
Put the link in my sig line. Obviously still a work in progress, and I’m figuring out the functionality of Google Sheets as I go. It “should” be read-only for any of you clowns. If it’s not, please let me know.
How should we let you know? Secretly make a note in some obscure cell…and wait for you to find it?
Ha! Boy that looks familiar, I made one of those back in 2002. But, mine had fancy colors.
I did something like that before too, but I never had it on the cloud so it was always tied to a specific machine. It’s long gone. With google sheets, I can get to it from any device, even my phone. So now there’s actually a chance that I’ll use it regularly.
and, of course, I haven’t been updating the spreadsheet.
now that I finally have a PM I’ve put Golden Cheetah on my laptop, I just need to get it linked to Strava so I don’t have to deal with downloading and uploading .fit files.
New approach, which is just to pull from various apps what I’m wanting to analyse.
workouts are from “wherever”. I’m back on Zwift for the time being, but will probably switch over to Trainerroad in the new year as I think their plans are better. Strava is a conduit to golden cheetah for analysis and figuring out what areas to focus on (mostly looking at the fitness/form/fatigue and the power-duration curve. Garmin Connect for basic metrics (hours / cals) and writing any workouts that I want to do outside.
For me, swimming (when it starts again) is pretty much a fixed entity (3 swims per week, more or less) at masters, so I don’t design the practices. Ive also pretty much given up on triathlon **(running is awful for me) **so I think I’m gonna be doing a split swim / bike year (swim over the winter, bike races in the spring / summer).
Hah - the bolded part just describes me in swimming - but I have no choice or excuse to drop it!