Training Peaks WKO+ Has a New Version

Okay all you scientific athletes, read on...

Training Peaks has just released Version 3.0 of their WKO+ software. I am excited to dig into the new version, both for myself and for the athletes I coach.

My biggest issue has been that I and several triathletes I coach use the Garmin 310XT, a device not fully supported by the previous version of WKO+. You could import the Garmin files, but there was a discrepancy in the distance of the workout and hence a discrepancy in the pace. This seems to be a problem of how the raw data is parsed, but I digress.

WKO+ Version 3.0 is now compatible with the 310XT, so I will be blogging on the experience here.

INITIAL OBSERVATIONS:

I am able to run Version 2.2 and 3.0 concurrently which is nice when comparing the two interfaces.

There is a nag screen in the trial version of 3.0, so I will soon need to upgrade to get rid of that. (edit Dec 18, 2009 - Thanks to the helpful support people at Training Peaks, I purchased the upgrade) Great that users will have the ability to try before they buy though.

There is an included utility for migrating your existing data. Note that any Garmin 310XT files that migrate over will still show the incorrect distance and pace, but read on.

Upon importing Garmin 310XT data directly, the distance and pace (and everything related to it) is correct. This is good news!

Case in point:

My hilly run on December 13th was 12.6km in a time of 1:12:05. WKO+ 2.2 reports this as 5:55 min/km, but the run is actually a 5:41 min/km. WKO+ 3.0 reports the pace correctly as 5:41 min/km. More importantly, if you train using Normalized Graded Pace (NGP) and Run Training Stress Score (rTSS) and Intensity Factor (IF) those numbers will be correct and therefore more relevant.

I used this hilly run to show how using NGP with the new software version can help in getting the actual intensity of a workout. Version 2.2 showed NGP=5:31 while Version 3.0 showed NGP=5:27. This difference is significant and on certain workouts is even more pronounced.

So far, so good.

On to PART TWO