i use WKO+ and its great. i also use training peaks to upload my workouts so my coach can view. he can also post my workouts on there for the day. very nice and smooth back and forth. its great.

wko 3.0 with TrainingPeaks online account as my backup. that way i can share and view the date via the internet. i like.

PowerTap and Garmin 705. I use GC for analysis and Strava for sharing.
http://www.strava.com/athletes/6527

Golden Cheetah development builds are amazing. If you've only tried version 1.3 or before, you will be blown away. The developers have put a crazy amount of work into this software and it's free. Can't ask for much more then that.

http://goldencheetah.stand2surf.net/

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2013 Wilier Cento1 SR || 2009 Ridley Crossbow || 2011 Yeti AS-R 5 Carbon

Quick question:- Golden Cheetah looks like it only reads SRM / Powertap data. How do I get it to read my Garmin Edge 500 data?

I may be wrong, but I do not believe GC works with Garmin 500 data yet. It works with Garmin 705 data, but the 500 uses a different file format (.fit instead of .tcx used by the 705) and the GC developers are yet to implement compatibility with the .fit files).

It is not ideal but you can't really demand too much from a freeware program...

There may be a solution out there that changes .fit to .tcx but I'm not sure.

Otherwise, I'd say WKO+ is your best bet.

Looks like the GC dev builds have been working with FIT files (Garmin 500, etc) for a while now. Don't have one to confirm with though.

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2013 Wilier Cento1 SR || 2009 Ridley Crossbow || 2011 Yeti AS-R 5 Carbon

It is pretty straightforward to use GC with your Edge 500.

I am not sure I have the most direct method, but I simply open Garmin Training Centre and use this to download from the Edge 500 and then export each workout file to my desktop in the tcx format. GC then allows a group import of tcx files from the desktop.

To use Garmin 500 files with GC, all you have to do is explore the Activites folder on your Garmin 500 and drag and drop the fit file onto the GC window.
At least that's how the current dev builds work.

Does GC give TSS and such?

Or is that only with WKO+? As I too will have a PM on its way soon and am checking this stuff out....

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Baum Ristretto, Baum Mondrian Corretto & the '89 Merckx! | "If you could eat it in one sitting, hold your line." | twitter.com/Tinea_Pedis

Alright TP! Whose did you buy? What's the build?

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2011 Cannondale SuperSix HiMod: 6.19 kg. / 13.65 lbs.
2005 Fuji Team Issue: 6.6 kg. / 14.5 lbs.

GC has a performance manager which shows the same info as the WKO pmc.

It gives scores but they are different then the ones in WKO+. I assume the algorithm WKO+ uses is copyrighted or something. The scores GG gives seem to be valid for training, in my opinion, but they aren't much good if you want to compare with someone using WKO+.

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2013 Wilier Cento1 SR || 2009 Ridley Crossbow || 2011 Yeti AS-R 5 Carbon

The scores are calculated differently in a couple of ways but essentially TSS and Bikescore end up very very similar.

Over almost 12 months of powermeter data entered in both programs, the PMC numbers I have vary by only a couple of points.

The biggest different you will find between the two is Normalized power vs xPower. Over a course where there is no stopping (like a race) the figures will be very similar, but on a course where you stop for lights etc, then they vary a fair bit. GC will give you a lower xPower figure than Normalized Power in WKO. I'm no expert on the code but I believe it's because GC considers stopped time as the same as coasting whereas WKO does not consider stopped time.

Example: A regular course where there a lots of traffic lights I have Normalized (wko) 300w for an hour. Golden Cheetah however gave me a xPower figure of 275w, which is what I averaged.

To mine that would make GC more realistic, would it not?

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Baum Ristretto, Baum Mondrian Corretto & the '89 Merckx! | "If you could eat it in one sitting, hold your line." | twitter.com/Tinea_Pedis

Purely my opinion but I think WKO is the superior program for managing training. That being said GC kicks some big goals, namely being able to run in a native Mac environment (and hence pairs well with the Powertap) and it's FREE!

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"Physiology is all just propaganda and lies... all waiting to be disproven by the next study."
"I'm not a real doctor; But I am a real worm; I am an actual worm." - TMBG