Golden Cheetah

Lisa

 Hi - I recently downloaded golden cheetah on my mac but really feel inadequate in how to use it.  I have the power tap and the garmin 910.  I have gotten as far as being able to get my ride data into golden cheetah but from there I have no idea really what to be looking for.  I look at the data and see if I did my ride in the power zones I was supposed to and I move on.  However, I get the feeling there is more I'm supposed to be looking at - someone told me I should be finding my pnorm value or IF value or something along those lines.  Is there some sort of cheat sheet for power users using golden cheetah on what to look for which would not require tons of reading to figure out?  Thanks for any and all help!  I'm clearly a novice at actually analyzing data.

Thanks, Lisa

Tom Glynn

Lisa,

I'm happy to help out. I'd start with the wiki here http://bugs.goldencheetah.org/projects/goldencheetah/wiki

Once you are set up and have input rider info, just collect data for a while. Important to figure out CP - critcal power (Called Threshold Power in WKO and other software packages). You should also know how to look at a ride in detail, especially if you are doing intervals and then a big picture look at the ride.

I can send screen shots and give ideas of waht to look at.

If you are really motivated, pick up the book Training and Racing with a Power Meter - boring but important

Go through the wiki and then I can help with any questions.

tom

William Jenks

On the CP plot, you want to make sure you feed it data from bikes where you were "trying hard" for different lengths of time or it will come up with a pretty screwy numbers. You want to be sure to have at least a VO2 day (2-3 minute intervals, at least one as hard as you can) and at least one ~20 minute interval day.

Brenda Ross

Just did my FTP test outside. I used to use poweragent, but my LYC computer was just not working, so hubby bought me a Garmin 500, so now I am using golden cheetah. For the ride that I did today should I be using CP as my new FTP?

Tom Glynn

Yes, so long as it is reasonable. If you are +/- 50 watts from another test or data point, you may want to reconsider. Otherwise, hope the number was a positive bump up and training is going well!

Brenda Ross

Thanks Tom. No it is not that at all. My zones ended up being the same inside as outside, if I use the CP from Golden Cheetah, which I am super happy with, as last year I came in 20 watts below my indoor numbers when I tested outside.

imc1792

@Brenda, fyi, edge 500 works fine with poweragent. I continue to use on my windows device but a new mac air has arrived in our household and I may look at golden cheetah.

morpheus

Is GC hard to set up on the Mac?



I have been getting some bugs between my WKO+ and my Joule. And I'm thinking about trying GC. I just read the intro and it gave me the impression that I'll be doing some 'computer writing' to set it up. I promise you that if I try that, I'll break something.



Another thing, nowhere on the intro page says anything about compatibility with a Quarq.  But, then again, I'm not importing directly from the Quarq.  I'm importing from the Joule 2.0, right?

 

Yay or Nay?

Tom Glynn

it's easy on the mac. Download and install is painless. If you've used WKO, GC is very similar. As long as you can pull a file from your device it shouldn't matter if it's a Joule, Garmin or whatever.

Make sure you scan their wiki, which is noted above. That's probably all the help you are going to need.

William Jenks

It's worth noting that the CP that you get from their fit of data is really only valid if you've done some short (1-5 minute) intervals more or less as hard as you can in addition to the 20-40 minute stuff. My experience is that the CP once I've got data for a few different length intervals is literally a handful of W lower than the FTP that I test in a normal 42 min EN test. Most recently 244 vs 247. This is very handy in that if your FTP is drifting up, it will usually show up in the CP plot before you formally test, and you pretty much know what's going on.

Pina

Hi everyone,
I purchased WKO+ from Rich today only to learn that it's not compatible with my mac. So I'm looking for the mac alternative. Rich suggested golden cheetah or physfarm. Training with power and reading its analysis is brand new for me, so I'll take all of your expert advise on this one. Will these platforms give us TSS, NP, IF, VI, CTL, ATL, TSB? Thanks Team!

William Jenks

Sukhi - this is still valid. http://members.endurancenation.us/Resources/Wiki/tabid/108/Default.aspx?topic=WKO++options+for+Mac+Users

Golden Cheetah 3 will have TSS/NP etc in addition to Bikescore/xPower etc (its equivalent but not quite exact analogs to the parameters you asked about).

To get the closest thing possible to WKO, the paid TP account is probably it...but read the wiki entry.

scott dinhofer

Laptop just gave me a replace battery message, thinking of going Mac. Can I import my 1.5 years of files from wko to cheetah?

William Jenks

Never done it, but GC says you can. Manual is on line...take a look. goldencheetah.org

Tom Glynn

@Scott. I've done it. No problems. WKO is much more multi sport orientated though. I dropped all workouts into GC including s/b/r but it's really a cycling analysis program. I haven't used it in a while, but IIRC the newer beta version is a little kinder to multi sport.

[Deleted User]

@Chris, I use the Joule with the WOK+ and have had no problem and I just switched from using the Little Yellow Computer. The program finds the file on your computer to upload to WKO+.

morpheus

Hey Sue, righto. But, it's a recent bug that has WKO+ ''not recognizing device in USB port (?)" that is preventing me from moving my ride data on the Joule into WKO+.



I may try uninstalling/reinstalling WKO+ (it's on a windows based laptop). But, if I can't get it to work, I may try GC on my macbook.

morpheus

got my Joule/WKO+ communication back up and running. needed a new usb cable. all is good now. will continue to use WKO+ on this windows based laptop, but may put GC on the mac to compare how they play out from here until Nov 3rd.

morpheus

Went to download GC on my MacBook and its telling me that I need a FTDI driver. Crap, I hope I can smooth this startup process out. How do I know that I'm downloading the right driver?