SportTracks Running Software

Just wanted to share my new running software with you.  It's called SportTracks.  I found it via Runblogger's site--Pete uses it regularly with his Garmin watch and wrote a nice review of the software.  I've been going back and forth between Garmin's own "Training Center" (which resides on your PC), Garmin Connect (which is their web-based program), and Dailymile. They all have their pros and cons, but SportTracks easily beats them all for downloading data, syncing with other data, and supporting a variety of analysis and reporting tools--including third party plugins.  The only place SportTracks falls behind in is the social aspect...and there is a "dailymile plugin" that grabs your data and exports to DM with just a couple of clicks. Could this be my perfect solution to logging my runs? Well, I liked the free version of the program so much, I upgraded to the full version ($35) within 12 hours!  I also grabbed a few plugins (many plugins are free, others are limited use without a fee, and some require a small one-time fee--usually around $5).  The weather application is awesome!  A few features that I REALLY enjoy...

Let's start with one of three automatically supplied run-mapping options (this is "satellite" option):

My 5-mile trail route

Quick analysis of my heart rate over the course of the run, divided by my custom-made Maffetone zones...

Heart Rate Maffetone Zones

And I can look at my pace over the full run and divide that by walk-jog-run zones:

Pace "Zones" (Walk-Jog-Run) 

All of the settings can be automated by entering your age, gender, resting HR, and maximum heart rate. Then you can create your own zones (based on pace or heart rate) and there are tons of extra ways to slice your data.  In addition to the fine graphs, there are tables summarizing all of this data too--how many miles, time, and proportion of the run are in each zone?  How often were you gaining elevation? Losing elevation?  Running on the "flats"?  And you can click and transfer the zones to the map and usually see where you are running faster/slower, where you are going up/down, where your pace is fast/slow, heart rate high/low, etc. Pretty cool, eh?

This may be just another techno gadget for running...but it's got me motivated for a while.  Maybe in a few weeks or months I'll toss it aside...maybe not.  Coach Jeff should get a Garmin watch and this software...I wouldn't see him for days as he looks at all of his running ("jogging") data! 

PS: Another neat thing about the Garmin watch is that it stores 1000 data tracks.  So I can download all of my old data to this new software in one minute.  No entering old information manually.  And if I want to go back to Garmin's own software, I can download all the newer missing data with no problem--unless I go for more than 1000 runs before I change my mind.  Gotta love technology!