I’ve been using my Timex Global Trainer for about two weeks now, and have been very satisfied, with a few minor exceptions. My biggest disappointment was with TrainingPeaks. I’m on a limited budget, and the cost of TP is prohibitive (quickly exceeds the cost of the watch). The free version of TP has just enough features to make the information usable, and I wanted a lot more. Enter SportTracks.
SportTracks is a downloadable program that costs just $35 one time for the full license (there are additional costs for some of the 3rd party plugins). You can use it for free as well, with some functions disabled. It has plenty of functionality, maybe more than TP, but that’s outside the scope of this post. I want to share how to get the data from the TGT to ST, since it’s not simple the first time.
First, connect the watch, open the Device Agent, “Download”, and “Save” the workout, just as you would for TrainingPeaks. The Device Agent saves a .pwx file of the workout to your computer whenever you do this, and you need to find the folder where these are saved. It should be in My Documents\TrainingPeaks\Device Agent\saved\username, but you can do a *.pwx file search if you can’t find it. Now open SportTracks, click on “Import” in the lower left corner, navigate to the folder you just found, and select the workout file(s) to import. SportTracks lets you choose several options and input information at import that can also be done later. Now you can view your workout.
I especially like the plugins that automatically correct elevation based on USGS topo maps, and the one that automatically finds the weather conditions for each workout. I highly recommend giving it a try.