Recording Workouts
I use my trusty Garmin 520 to record all my workouts year round, Indoors and out. My indoor configuration has TrainerDay running the workout on an iPad. It communicates to my Stages Smart Bike via Bluetooth. At the same time I run the bike’s Stages Link app on a second iPad to control my bike’s gears and show additional metrics like L:R pedal balance and power with 10 second smoothing. It also connects via Bluetooth.
I use my Garmin computer to record all workouts. It shows additional metrics like normalized and peak power. The Garmin communicates with my bike via Ant+.
All workouts are saved for free on connect.garmin.com. If I forget to turn on my Garmin computer, I just download the TCX file from TrainerDay and upload it to the Garmin web site. This happened a couple of times last year. TrainerDay essentially provides a workout backup in this scenario .
Analyzing Workouts
This real fun starts after the workout is complete. I analyze and plan my next workout with GoldenCheetah.org.
I can monitor stress metrics like TSS (both aerobic and anaerobic), IF and w-balance to select my next workout from various Tempo, Threshold, V02 Max and HIIT L7 workouts I have built in TrainerDay .
(I only wish I could set my FTP correctly in TrainerDay. Unfortunately, it does not show L7 workouts properly unless I inflate my FTP. Let’s leave that story for another time ).