It’s all about the details – and with power meters, GPS, HRMs, altimeters, weather conditions, workout  PE, dietary issues,  non-training related stress (and many others) there are a lot of them!

Coaching is an iterative process.  As your coach, we need to know how you are doing on a daily basis.  An athletes response to training stress can be generalized, but everyone is different.  The iterations go like this:  we plan a training block -> you give us the details that help us understand how you responded to that training -> we plan another block of training, modified based on your feedback -> repeat.  After several iterations we start to get it all dialed in for YOU.

Seeing power files is a big part of the process.  But there’s another part that is equally (at least) important that we can’t always infer from the files.  How did it feel – what was your PE?

Develop good habits for sharing your data with us so that you will reap the most benefits and be more assured of reaching your goals.

Always use your power meter (or GPS/HRM downloadable device) so that you have a record of the days work.  Even recovery rides should be recorded.  From our perspective, if there is no file it didn’t happen.

Get the downloaded data into WKO+.  In the WKO+ file,

– enter notes.  Did you achieve the days workout goals?  How did your legs feel?  What was the nature of your route (dirt, single-track, climbing, flat, pavement)?  Describe anything out of the ordinary like riding in a typhoon or sprinting a rabid dog.

– make sure the date is correct.  If it isn’t, click it to change it to today’s date, and then update the date in your device so future downloads will show the correct date.

– specify the sport type.  We use “strength” as SS rides, other common options are MTB and Bike (for road bike).

Now  your file is ready to be uploaded to TrainingPeaks.com, our online data analysis tool of choice.

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Here’s a snapshot of the daily log at TrainingPeaks.  Copy the comments you just typed in your WKO+ file to the clipboard and past into the “Athlete Comments” section.  Then click “upload data” so upload your WKO file.

If you are unable to produce a WKO file (power meter is in for service…) you can manually enter the ride distance and total time.  You don’t need to do this if you have a WKO file, it’s done automatically.

Finally, the daily metrics section can be invaluable in the long-term, but only if you enter them daily!

Dave uses a 1-10 rating scale, 1 being great and 10 being horrible.  “Hrs sleep” is hours of sleep; “pulse” is morning resting heart rate; “Weight” is body weight (morning after elimination), and “Sleep Alt” is sleep altitude which is an important metric if you are preparing for an event at elevation, or are training at elevation.  Dave only is interested in the values highlighted in yellow below.

That’s it!  Seems like a lot at first, but once  you get into the swing of it you’ll have it done in minutes.