Upgrade from wko3 to wko4?

Dave Campbell

For those that have done this, is it worth it?  I'm running wko3 on my PC and it cost me no monthly fee.  Is wko4 that much better to justify spending about $125 to upgrade?

Thanks for your thoughts, experience.

Tom Glynn

Dave,

I upgraded to WKO 4 a while ago. The main reason I did the upgrade was to get the mac version so I could put another nail in my PC coffin.

The good news:
WKO 4 is a major upgrade from 3.0 with the biggest thing being you are now able to do your own massive data analysis. They have a whole web page on writing expressions so you can do your own research on whatever you think may be important. The coolest part is that you can create a chart and then share it with the world on their site. There are lots of charts that you can use and more created all the time.

They now estimate your FT (called mFTP) on a moving 90-day basis which is cool (and depressing!) as your fitness changes, so does the number.

The bad news:
It's more complicated than 3.0. There is a lot of background science exploration going on with the charts, but no one really knows how to apply it to the real world yet. Lots more jargon.

It syncs with TraininPeaks which is very cool so that you could have WKO on a desktop and laptop and it syncs through TP. The bad news is that practically every week I have a reconciliation error and the two don't match. (I'm an accountant and this drives me crazy!)

Also, the raw data may be the same, but all your settings are different, so you could have, for example, different zones in TP and WKO. Not sure why they don't default to be the same and allow you to override it. This results in different analysis in TP and WKO if you're not paying attention, especially to things like TSS.

It's really hard to find data errors, so if your power meter kicks out a record with 10,000 watts, it's a real pain to find the record. You have to find it because it will skew your data if you don't fix it.

It's still cycling-centric but getting better for triathletes.

I've listened to most of their YouTube videos and done a couple of the webinars. All very helpful.

I've had it since it first came out and I don't use it that much anymore.

I have a paid subscription to TP and that gives me almost all the information I need to train and execute. I realize that TP is an annual cost and WKO is a one time cost, but it's worth it to me. I've probably got 10+ years of data in TP.

My suggestion would be to test it for 30 days (I'm pretty sure they still allow a free, time-limited download) to test it. They have an import tool that makes converting really easy, either from WKO 3.0 or TP. Watch the YouTube videos on their channel.

Happy to answer any specific questions you may have.

Al Truscott

Like Tom, I moved from WKO+ 3 on a PC to WKO+ 4 on my Mac about year ago. To answer your question, "was it worth it?" for me, it's "Yes", but only because it allowed me to ditch the PC from my life, as that was all I was using it for, once I converted from CompuTrainer to KICKR.

Observations:

• It's a very powerful program, with opportunities for endless customization. But little help is provided for those who want to set up specific reports. I did not want to sit through videos to hear the kernel of information needed; I work much better with an explanatory manual, but I fear in our post literate age, those are becoming far too simplistic.
• I do not have the premium TP. I do have data going back to 2006/7, which I can troll through on WKO+
• I use WKO primarily for two things: reviewing weekly/monthly/seasonal/yearly summary data in each of the three sports; and following ATL, CTL, and TSB on the Performance Management Chart. Both of those tasks required me to set up my own custom "charts" so I could get the reports I wanted, unlike the earlier version, which had them all available with the click of a button.
• For reviewing individual efforts, I find that Power Agent (for my Joule), and Garmin Connect/Strava (for my Garmin Fenix) serve me better. I spend no $ on any of those, apart from the cost of the device itself.

Dave Campbell

Thanks for the feedback guys! As usual, very helpful and thought out answers. Sounds like I should try the free trial and see what's there. One thing I would not want to do is spend a lot of time learning a new system just to get what u already have years experience with. I've been using Wko since 2004 and know how it works. Was kinda hoping the Wko4 might have some useful tools for data coming off my P1 pedals. I'm still trying to understand what all the right/left leg metrics mean and if I should even worry about them. I semi retired from tri's right now and just track rides these days. Thanks again!

Scott Alexander

I asked this exact question a few weeks ago and got crickets! Grrr.

I'll ask my friend Ryan (founder of Best Bike Split, now owned by TP) if he can hook me up on WKO4! haha

Tom Glynn

Just following back up on this post. WKO education / training has come a long way. They now have a power users group on Facebook. Lots of users are creating data charts and making them available to everyone else. They have put out two really good webinars in the last month; one as a general overview of the product and one that talks about advanced chart building. Once you get the hang of it, it's very cool. A little steep learning curve, but I'm loving the product now

Scott Alexander

I bought WKO4 (PC) but haven't upgraded from WKO3 yet, hopefully this weekend (my to-do list is so big right now!). I too have almost a decade of info stored in WKO.

I like using the computer-based version, at least in my WKO3 experience, as my source of record. If it gets to my TP account, that's great. If it doesn't, I still have it locally.

Scott Alexander

Finally did the upgrade and I'm a little overwhelmed. It's a completely different looking interface, for one, which is ok, but there's a LOT of information!

I have searched the help from WKO4, which takes you to the website, not an internal help file, and I'm having some difficulty tracking down some stuff that I found rather easily in v3.

Oh well, time to get to learning!

Tim Dunnahoo

I bought WKO4 about a year ago and regret it. I found WKO3 easy to use and helpful. The first mistake was getting confused in the data download, which resulted in doubling the workout history which skewed my year-to-year chart comparisons. I was sick a few days and spent that time cleaning out my calendar. I simply do not have the time to invest in the learning curve. I recently listened to a podcast (maybe it was a Joe Friel interview?) where I learned WKO is really considered the testing ground for advanced data analysis that eventually makes its way into TP. I'm not blaming anyone but myself. 

Tom Glynn

@Scott Alexander, join the WKO Facebook group  https://www.facebook.com/groups/WKO4powerusers/

It's a closed group so you need to ask to get in, but it's super helpful.  The learning curve is steep for sure.  I bought it, dropped it for almost a year and now I'm getting a whole lot better - not a power user yet, but I'm really comfortable with it.  I can write my own expressions, modify chart templates etc. There are 3 or 4 great webinars and a bunch of YouTube videos to get you started

Scott Alexander

Tom Glynn said:

@Scott Alexander, join the WKO Facebook group  https://www.facebook.com/groups/WKO4powerusers/

It's a closed group so you need to ask to get in, but it's super helpful.  The learning curve is steep for sure.  I bought it, dropped it for almost a year and now I'm getting a whole lot better - not a power user yet, but I'm really comfortable with it.  I can write my own expressions, modify chart templates etc. There are 3 or 4 great webinars and a bunch of YouTube videos to get you started

Awesome, Tom! Thanks.

I have some ideas on how to "big data" some learning and new charts, so I'm looking forward to trying them out!

Dave Campbell

I made the move a couple months ago now, and with a lot of time spent listening to youtube videos, reading articles, etc can now navigate around fairly well.  Seeing some holes in my training plan with some of the charts.  Not developing any charts yet, but that is interesting.  If I was a busy triathlete, I'd not have time to learn all the new functionality and would probably just stick with the old WKO3 or perhaps TP.