Alternatives in Power Training Software



886014

New Member
Mar 3, 2005
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Hi, I've been plodding away with WKO+, version 2.2 as I use Macs under an emulation program and didn't have the resources on my Windows side to run 3.0. I only use Windows for this and a very old Ride Logging application I've been using seemingly forever. Overall I have been happy with the WKO software, it does some funky stuff not displaying charts until expanded, but hey it's an "old" program now so I can live with it. The issue is every time I change to a new laptop WKO needs to be revalidated, and this time it's not going at all well. Last time I bought a new machine their "support" all but accused me of software pirating, but as a special "favor" said they would revalidate it. I was NOT impressed as I was using the program according to the licence I purchased, however the program ran and I went about life so haven't pursued alternatives any further.

I was wondering what options are now available. Given my last experience I'm not looking forward to dealing with Peaksware "support" again. I'm thinking of trying Golden Cheetah and pretty much ditching Windows forever, but thought I'd ask here about other options I'm not aware of, also how people find they compare? My licence for WKO is only for the one machine, so I use it on a laptop. An advantage of changing to, say, GC would be I could then run it on all my machines. Much handier than squinting at weeny laptop charts.

Thanks for the help and wishing everyone a SAFE and happy 2012.

88
 
@88 - Sorry to hear about your negative experience. We followed up on this and found your ticket in our support system. You should have just received a follow-up email from our support team with some solutions that I hope will be helpful. Let me know if you don't receive it (our support emails sometimes get caught in the Spam folder).

Thanks,
Gloria - TrainingPeaks / Peaksware
 
Thanks Gloria, yes I received an email from support, and then another ... and then another. The app became caught up in its own brilliantly designed registration process. After much head scratching by both myself and support, the program was finally bought back to life. This was all very fortunate for me, as I had otherwise been wondering what I should do with those 4 hours of my life. Given that I had gone through an almost identical process last time I made a change to my Windows machine, I'm considering adding "WKO+ reinstallation specialist" to my CV, another string to my bow. I'm now trialling 3.0 and if history is any guide, look forward to inserting another page to my resume should I go ahead with that.

In summary:
WKO+; "ok", not brilliant, but pretty darn good just the same. I see a few things have been tidied up in 3.0, however hardly an "upgrade" to the end user.
Peaksware support; very good, excellent in fact, as I've always found it. Which is a good thing, given how often I've needed to find it!
The WKO registration process, designed to "stop" piracy; a horse's clacker!

In the meanwhile, to answer my own question to those who may be interested in the thread title, I have also downloaded and am trialling Golden Cheetah and have so far been very impressed. It's early days and it will take a while to learn the different terminology and find my way around the program. In contrast compared to 2.2, WKO+ 3.0 is simply "more of the same", or as they're so fond of saying in Thailand, Same Same ... but different. GC seems to be much more powerful in terms of functions available but just seems to lack the ... "sophistication" in the GUI that one would expect from a commercial package, but for open source it's nothing short of amazing, well done the people behind it! The only real criticism I can find so far is the date system, which seems to be American format with no way of changing it from the GUI that I have seen. Being open source it's possible to get in and change it, but I'd expect I'm not the first to come across this so think there will be an easier way.

For members considering going down this path I would definitely suggest having a very good look at Golden Cheetah. Sometimes this type of thing comes across as a bit amateurish, but not so GC, it very much gives WKO a run for the money and I absolutely tip my hat to those behind it. From what I've read, GC was first developed in 2006, about the same time as WKO 2.0. Since then WKO seems to have pretty much done zilch, a few minor changes as far as the end user is concerned, yet GC has really morphed into a very useable package in itself, that doesn't require coke bottle glasses and a propellor on your head to run it.

Conversely however WKO has the mass behind it. It was the first program like this to bring all this data together in a way that made it easily accessible to "Joe Athlete", whoever the heck he is, and introduced very sophisticated training and analysis tools to the general public. If you have Allen and Coggan's book and want the software to go with it, simply buy WKO and there it is, especially 3.0 as that contains a couple of functions missing from the previous version, but mentioned in the book. Compared to WKO, I've used other power analysis software from several different hardware manufacturers and in comparison I've found they simply don't tie all this data together in one "dumbed down" set of graphs and tables as WKO/GC do. However that revolution was a long time ago (in IT terms) and WKO+ is slipping behind (arguable is behind already). CG ties in even more data (such as maps) that currently requires me to go to another (Garmin) piece of software to recall in my own mind the ride, where I went, and anything notable about it. That Peaksware may make that available in an online solution is immaterial, these comments are comparing apples with apples. Stand alone with stand alone. I often don't have internet available when I'm overseas (as I am a great deal of the time) so have no interest in "cloud" based solutions.

Which is the "better" program, too early for me to tell. I'm used to the WKO format and have it set up with information relevant to myself. In fairness I use it under a VM and that may cause problems when migrating as the registration gets screwed up in the transfer. Having said that, the last time I went through this process had absolutely nothing to do with any VM, it was an OS upgrade. Other users with Macs who are considering the 2 alternatives may want to take that into consideration; WKO itself works perfectly once it's (finally) running however. The amount for 3.0 is a token fee, and now I have 2.0 up and running again will very likely also buy the "upgrade" and run WKO+ in parallel. If GC works out as well as it looks so far, next time WKO dies, as it invariably will, I'll simply ditch it.

Hopefully that's of some use to members here considering which way they may go. Given the accusations that have been directed toward me in the past, I need to make it quite clear that I am NOT some competitor to Peaksware, nor do I have any axe to grind. I have absolutely no interest in this other than not liking to see my time wasted and hope to save others from the same. Sometimes organisations deserve a kick up the backside when they rest on their laurels. We all do, so with that, I'm off for a ride.

88
 
Try THB-cyclist, in beta testing still but runs natively on Mac and PC. Developed by a software engineer cyclist to overcome some of the shortcomings of other products.

www.thehurtbox.com

(Shameless plug for our own product)
 
Following the example of Hurt Box, I would like to offer another option, one that is completely free: www.strivemax.com. We just launched the beta version and are looking for early adapter who are willing to share some constructive criticism. We are trying to stream line the process of power file analysis. All feedback is welcome. Thanks, Rich
 
Xert is bloody interesting. It gives insights that even Golden Cheetah can't provide.