WKO+ vs Poweragent 7.5
Just got my Powertap wheel have been reading through the forum about WKO+. Iam a Mac user and would prefer to avoid rebooting in Windoze mode to use WKO+. I notice that the Power agent 7.5 had NP but don't know enough yet to understand what the differences are in both software as it relate to the training in EN.
My Question do i really need WK0+ or will Power agent suffice?
Thanks
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Comments
Great question Grant. I am not as well versed in power as most here, but my 2 cents would be to get it. If you've gone far enough to get the PM, go the extra mile and get wko. Its athlete homepage, which shows your stats from the last 28 days or so, is worth it in itself. I see that power agent has tried to add some new features, but it will always be lacking in others and on the forums here, coaches and members will ask you to give them stats that power agent may not be able to answer. Wko makes your PM more than another bike computer, it really is an end all PM analysis program that will give you everything you need to know to improve your biking. Can you live without it, sure. But the sooner you get familiar with it, it sheds a whole new light on what you are actually doing physiologically on the bike, or the run for that matter. I know this stuff is expensive, but it truly worth it if you have the money. Others will certainly chime in on this one with a better answer with more specifics, but I hope this helps some.
Dan
I haven't used PowerAgent to compare so I can't answer that part of the question, however I can provide you a few altenatives.
- Use Parallels to run windows apps like WKO in a virtual machine without the need to reboot
- Use RaceDay instead of WKO, runs natively on the Mac (http://www.physfarm.com/inside/raceday.html)
- Use GoldenCheetah instead of either, it's open source, MacOS and FREE (http://goldencheetah.org/)
I'm an OSX user and all that being said, I use WKO in Parallels mostly because I was new to power at the time and there is a learning curve associated with any performance management software, I have more resources available to me in terms of both people and documentation with WKO+ to help me learn what data I should be focusing on and how I could meaningfully interpret it.
@Trevor, yes, Raceday is another program that is terrific. I happen to have both wko and Raceday, although wko is more indepth, Raceday has some unique features to it that I do like. Also, it is a touch more user friendly as you understand what the graphs are telling you right away, as with my thick skull, it took me some time to learn how to interpret some of wko's data.
Dan -
What are the stats that i'm likely to be asked for? I read Normalized power a lot (this was a major short coming of earlier Power agent versions)
Anybody who knows by experience -
Is Race day or Golden Cheetah a better option than Power Agent v7.5?
G
Well, its funny you should ask that because after I posted, I actually looked in poweragent and saw that they do now have much of the same stats as wko now! But, that being said, you have to click on multiple tabs to get all you need where as wko everything is neatly in front of you when you download your ride. I typically look at normalized power, intensity factor, and variability index (to see if I was pedaling smoothly and consistently). But, wko will have a chart for your mean max power curve, power distribution, power profile, and performance management chart which in time you find very useful throughout the season. Your athlete homepage has your updated data for the season so that you can see how you are progressing as soon as you open the program, and charts showing your progress in TSS scores, intensity factors, distance and time. It really is more in depth and right at your fingertips. Poweragent will have the basics, but wko shows progress in a better way.
Raceday on the other hand will give you most of the same results as wko, not as detailed, but offers you predictions on your performance that seem pretty close. It has most of the same graphs as wko but not as easy to read, but the major graphs that raceday works off of are very easy to read and understand. It pretty much tells you what you have in the tank on any given day, and can help you to formulate when you should start your taper, and their GOVSS scoring for running if you have a gps or runscore if you don't, is a bit more accurate than wko's (probably not that noticeable). Also, you try out raceday for free for 2 weeks. Coach Phil will give you an access code for you to try it to see if you like it, and he personally handles customer service which is second to none. They are 2 different programs in a way, but for mac users it may be a touch more user friendly to use Raceday. But here at EN, everyone speaks in wko lingo so it may benefit you to get it for forum discussions. Confusing enough??? Anyway, it has taken me over a year to understand everything (basics) in wko but I'm not that smart anyway and I don't have the time to sit down and analyze for extended amounts of time either. Good luck with your choice, you really can't go wrong with any of them.
Dan
I'm use Raceday now so I'm bilingual
. For whatever reason, I could never get WKO+ to correct my garmin runs and my Normalized pace was so far off I was getting useless data. I run in Chicago and I was getting 2000+ changes in evulation. Raceday lets me hand key in my splits very easily - same with Swimming. I like Raceday.
I use WKO+ for the analysis though. I load up a file and take a look at the ride.
The other programs may or may not be awesome...however...here in EN land we are WKO plus folks. Even if just so that you are speaking the same language as everyone else, and can get feedback from R and P it is worth it. Did you ever look at any of the Crucible threads? If not do so. You are never going to get more valuable feedback than that type of analysis after a RR.
many thanks again. Lot for me to learn, i now know what normalised power means but wouldn't be able to explain it to anyone just yet. I will take a look at the crucible thread - whatever that means. One thing does make sense and that is if everyone is speaking WKO+ here then it would make that learning curve a little easier.
I haven't seen it, but this is what I found, I think this may be it.... http://endurancenation.us.dnnmax.co...fault.aspx
Buy Allen's and Coggan's book also..http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_s...aining+and
very comprehensive explanations of everything you want to know! Good luck man.
Dan
http://endurancenation.us.dnnmax.com/Community/Forums/tabid/101/aff/62/aft/1473/afv/topic/Default.aspx vid's by Coach P there are interesting also.
I've decided that when i realise that i can't live with out analising a scatter graph of my speed versus cadence i will buy WKO+ (this might be very soon) and until then i will stick with the ease of using poweragent on my Mac. Power agent tells me my FT, NP, TSS, IF, in different format which for me means WKO+ isn't a critical purchase right now.
Found this useful to http://www.endurancecorner.com/wko_definitions
G
thanks
I have Mac OSX too, and WKO+ 2.0 (not 3.0), which I run on fusion. One annoyance is that all the fusion files appear to my backup system as a single file, so I end up with an incremental backup of all my WKO data almost every day, which means recycling my backup disk more frequently than I'd like. I also have to load my Forerunner data indirectly, but that's not a big deal.
There are virtual synonyms in Race Day compared to WKO. You just have to know what they are, and they are pointed out. I believe some of the terms (e.g., TSS) are actually copyrighted or trademarked or whatever, which may be part of the reason the words are different. There are also minor variations in how they are calculated though the intent is the same.
I tried the old version of Race Day after my frustrations with running anything Windows, and I was less than thrilled. But if I get to the point that I want to buy WKO+ 3 (which seems to have quandrant analysis as its major selling point), I'll be checking out race day again. No significant price break for WKO upgraders as I recall, and the price of both packages is similar.
The posters above are right that one of Race Day's supposed strengths is the ability to predict your taper. In theory you do this by doing a lot of testing and getting a best fit for your pulse-response. I found that, after I plugged in a couple of months' data, the fits were meaningless, but this was in part because I did not do the regular ftp stand-in test they do (I think 3 min hard as you can?). The data fit is supposed to figure out both the rise time of your added strength from a workout and the decay time of its effect. Hence, in theory, it is able to model the perfect taper for you. but the input has to be great to get great output along those lines.