Power Agent vs WKO+
Got my Power Tap this weekend and currently working my way thru the Hunter Allen book. I figured I'd use WKO+ until I found out that my non-Intel Macintosh can't support the necessary PC Emulator programs to run WKO (spoke to both Apple and Training Peaks, both of whom would not guarantee that any workarounds would be successful).
So....I'm wondering what disadvantages I might encounter using Power Agent instead of WKO+. Will I still be able to evaluate all the necessary data (Normalized Power, TSS, etc) that Hunter discusses in his book or that is relevant to EN training? Any pertinent features I'll be missing?
Thanks!
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PowerAgent has NP, TSS, and IF among other things. I'm not sure if it has quadrant analysis and some of the other long-term features that WKO has. So far I've just used it for my test days and the rest of my data is in Garmin software, but I will start bringing it over when TSS is more important later in the year.
A lot of those other things can be done on (the free) Golden Cheetah, but there are some small differences between its TSS calculation equivalent and WKO's. Also, it's bike only.
My advice - if you are a Windows user - is just suck it up and get the WKO. No hassles andyou're on the same standard as everyone. If you're a Mac person, it's more ambiguous.
WKO is going to give you a lot more ways to analyze a particular ride or a season of training. The "down" side to WKO is that it does take some time to get familiar with it (there's stuff in there I don't even think Hunter Allen knows what the heck to do with!). You might be OK working with Power Agent for the OS, but I would highly recommend you get WKO so you can get familiar with it now during the OS and then make the most of it when your race prep begins.
I have a PC at home, where my WKO+ is located, but I'm going to get a simple and cheap netbook for WKO and to browse wifi while I'm out and about traveling and riding.
Power Agent will also give you TSS, IF NP, FTP based training ranges, etc., as stated above. And being a committed Apple fan I don't have a PC to use WKO with, so I am going to stick with Power Agent. Not sure I have enough SAUs to also tell my wife I now need a windows PC based lap top to use my new power toy.
Mac's (the OP) problem is he can't use his Mac to run WKO+. I presume (a) he'll stick with Mac for his next computer purchase and (b) he doesn't want to spend $2-700 to get a Windows based PC just to run WKO+, to say nothing of the difficulty of switching between computers, managing two sysems, etc.
For $10/month, you can use the web-based premium version of TrainingPeaks.com, which allows interval analysis, uploads from the PowerTap devices, etc. Might be a good stop-gap until that new MacBook appears in Mac's house. At which time, Parallels and WKO+ should be the long-term solution, one many of us use daily with no hassles.
FYI, with PowerAgent you can select any portion of the ride you want (20, 2, 20 section of a test for example) to analyze. PA will ask you if you want to create a new interval with the selected portion, then you can analyze as you wish.
I recently inherited a netbook that I could put WKO on and use it exclusively for that, but so far I haven't been able to see what I'm missing by not having it. I know it's what everyone here uses, and it's the EN "language", so I probably should use it.
As always, Al is right! Without buying a new computer, I can't run WKO+ for the time being (kinda ridiculous because my Apple is only 5 years old!). Nevertheless, it is reassuring to hear that others are using Power Agent successfully. Eventually, I'd like to "graduate" to WKO+ since that is the exclusive language in the Hunter Allen book I'm reading. Possibly by the next OS I'll have something to run it on. I'll also look into the Training Peaks monthly plan that Al mentioned.
If there are any other pros / cons about using Power Agent in EN, please feel free to let me know. Thanks!
Right now, on a new Mac = don't want to polute it with Windows, I'm just using Poweragent to download all of my files. I'm not doing anything with them, however. When I get more serious I'll install WKO+ on Joanne's old Windows laptop (she's on my old Mac) and use that to process my stuff.
Thanks for the update on that piece.
For the Mac user (like me), who wants full WKO functionality without polluting yourself with Windows, this is the recipe I have worked out:
- Power Agent gives you TSS, NP, etc for arbitrary intervals. (Free)
- Golden Cheetah gives you all the other graphing features you could want. Its main "drawback" is that it uses xPower, BikeScore, etc instead of NP, TSS, etc, and the numbers are a little different. It, however, is BIKE ONLY. But it's also free. It does QA, all the bar graphs, etc that you would want and has an excellent "critical power" chart (mean max, or whatever you want to call it... max power vs time of interval). You can choose arbitrary intervals or search for fastest intervals, etc etc.
- If you want to track TSB, and rTSS, you can also get the rTSS and the TSS numbers from a FREE Training Peaks account. TSB, CTL, ATL is a simple excel sheet.
I should write a little article for this, because I find myself writing it over and over. :-)
What are TSB, rTSS, CTL, and ATL and what is their importance?
rTSS = TSS approximated for running
CTL and ATL are Chronic and Acute (I think) Trainig Load. They are an exponentially weighted "average" of how much work (measured in TSS) you are doing. They are represented in TSS/day units. The default time constants are 42 and 7 days, respectively
TSB = Training Stress balance = CTL-ATL. If you've been working harder the last week or so than the last month or so, you are supposedly "fatigued" and will have a negative TSB. As you taper, your ATL drops a lot faster than your CTL and you have a positive TSB.
You don't NEED the CTL/ATL/TSB, but they are more data for self-analysis. A lot of people like to keep an eye on them and note how they feel with various values of each. What kind of ATL can you handle for a week? How high is your CTL when you're at your limit? What TSB do you have when you race really well? The latter can help you adjust tapering, for example.
Cheers,
Wm
@ Chris - Go ahead, put it in the wiki! Something like "Performance management charting on a budget and a Mac."
As to the acronyms: I value ATL to confirm that I am indeed about to push myself off the cliff of over-reaching in training: if I feel tired and miserable, and my ATL is at its lowest point in the season so far, then, yeah, maybe I do need a day off. The CTL is a lagging indicator here, but can help confirm a deep fatigue pit which usually appears 8-3 weeks out from an IM.
I value the TSB to confirm that I am making a gradual climb up the improvement hill during the course of a season, and that I have indeed started my peak at the right time and am "dropping" into the race properly - I want to see it plateau at 3 weeks out, and then start to drop about 10 days out.
The TSS and rTSS, to me, are just the raw data to create ATL, CTL, and TSB. I don't really pay attention to the TSS of any given workout. Things like wattage or pace of my intervals, IF for a 2-4 hour ride, and VI on a long, steady ride are the stuff I ponder for single workouts.
One other thing about testing: Power Agent references a test of 4 minutes and 30 minutes, while EN says to do the 20-2-20 (42 min) test. I figured I'd do the EN-preferred test to figure out my FTP, etc. But should I do the Power Agent test too? Would they be the same? Do I need to do both?
@William - thanks for the workaround suggestions. I read about Golden Cheetah in the Hunter Allen book. I'm still trying to get my head wrapped around NP and TSS, much less quadrant analysis. In a few months I'll check out GC when my brain needs more stimuli!
There are several protocols designed to estimate FTP. If you read other places like Wattage, you'll see the Seven Deadly Sins referenced. In the EN Wiki, there's an entry on Alternative FTP estimation methods. In a perfect world, you'd get the same result from all of them, though of course this isn't quite true. Certainly no need to explicitly test in two different ways in close proximity!
There are a couple of reasons to do the EN method (2 x 20). One is that Training is Testing, and Testing is Training. Thus, this is a really hard workout. :-) Another is just that the EN workouts are calibrated to the results people tend to get from the EN method, and it's part of what you'll do during the race-specific part of your training during the year.
Don't sweat it!
@William Thanks for the explanation. I don't know if any of that is available in PA but I can look into it.
@Mac The ideal way to test would be one hour all out, but this is too hard an effort to be done in the midst of the other training we're doing. That said, I think the longer tests are more accurate. As William said, the 42 minutes is really hard, and it will prepare you well for some of the other EN workouts in your future.
@Al I don't know enough about PA to be any kind of authority, and 99% of the folks here are using WKO. I am just trying to determine what I'm missing, and you guys are helping with that. Also, anyone can just add something to the Wiki? I didn't know that.
I'm also in the "No windows" camp -- Mac desktop / Linux laptop, so I'm going the TrianingPeaks paid + GoldenCheetah route. I'd love to help writing up what I'm doing, it'd be good to ave a Rosetta stone document of sorts.
Re: adding content to the Wiki - Just go to the main wiki page and check out detail under "Adding content to the wiki".
The biggest issue with not having wko plus is that EN is a wko plus zone. Take a look at the crucible threads. Among other things without wko plus you will not have one of those before the big day. Espescially if you are new to racing with power, you want one of those examinations of your RR file.
In all honesty, for those purposes, Golden Cheetah is a perfectly good alternative for the EN member.
Again, I think the best reason for WKO (if you are a Mac user) is just what you said in the first sentence...it's what everyone else has and we use that lingo. But there's no threat to not being able to get a crucible analysis.
If you wanted to buy a cheap for windows computer for wko+, signup at m-wave.com for their mwave newsletter, they almost always have refurbed or new netbooks for for $100 dollars. I bought one for work, it does its thing just fine.