Garmin Training Center - any alternatives

I recently bought a Garmin 205 Forerunner and whilst i am extremely pleased with all its functions, i am disappointed with the dated feel of the Garmin Centre (or Center as the Yanks call it) software. Is there any alternatives to this and if so what would you recommend? Thanks.   

Comments

  • Load the data onto fetcheveryone. Best website for this in my opinion...
  • GertieGertie ✭✭✭
    Try Garminconnect.com
  • The first decision is whether you want to retain all your data or trust it to an external provider. Fetcheveryone, mapmyrun, Garmin Cobnnect all involve uploading your data. Who knows if they will still be around in 5 years when you want to query old data, or still allow certain functions that they have now?

    No prizes for guessing that I prefer my data on my pc. For this I use Sporttracks from Zonefivesoftware

    It's a free download and has a number of really good plug-ins available from other developers. It's just way better. Not for Macs as a pre-requisite is having Microsoft .NET framework installed  (free download from Microsoft)

    image

  • I vote for Sporttracks too.  They standard version is free, but they've just started offering a premium version for £18-or so.  The standard version's more than good enough, but I gave them my £18 ... which if you knew what a mean fisted little sod I am then you'd realise I must really love the program.
  • I use sporttracks as well it's the best of the bunch as far as I'm concerned. 

    Catsfather, I assume you paid for version3, is it better than V2 and worth the money? 

  • Sport tracks, for sure.

    As for V3 vs V2, and worth the money, personally, if you haven't supported sport tracks by donating yet, paying for the V3 upgrade is worth doing.

  • I can't find a paid for version of Sportstracks on their website?
  • Another vote for SportTracks from me.

    Although, I'd like it if I could sort the charts/reports into activities, i.e. miles cycled, miles run, etc. Or am I being thick and I can already do this?

  • Thanks for the advice. I have looked at all the options suggested and i am leaning towards Sporttracks (being a Scotsman, obviously the free version with suffice)!!!!! Thanks again.image
  • cathyw wrote (see)

    Another vote for SportTracks from me.

    Although, I'd like it if I could sort the charts/reports into activities, i.e. miles cycled, miles run, etc. Or am I being thick and I can already do this?

    Yes, you can....(this is for V3)

    in the "activities report" screen, first choose a catagory (e.g. cycling) from the catagory drop down at the top, then next to that is a "search by" drop down, in that pick distance, then you get an "is about" box, type in your distance, for example 10, this will show you all your cycles, that are around 10miles, you can then narrow it down even further with multiple "search by" functions, so you could narrow it down by bike, or shoe, location, time of day, yadda, yadda, very powerfull function.

  • I was also disappointed with the Gramin centre instead I use Endomondo see  http://www.endomondo.com/login.

  • >Catsfather, I assume you paid for version3, is it better than V2 and worth the money? 

    V2, or the free version of V3 is all you really need.  Is the premium V3 worth the extra money?  Well ... no, but only because the free version is easily worth the $35 they're asking for the premium.

    One thing to watch if you're considering upgrading from V2 to the free V3: the free V3 only allows one custom data field.  The Training Load plugin seems to use two.  I wonder if it (and some other plugins) would work with the free version.  Luckily, V3 creates a new data file from your data in V2, so you could install the free V3 and install your plugins to test before dumping V2.

  • Wow! I've been grumbling for a while about what carp the Garmin Training Centre software is, but hadn't been motivated to switch until this thread.

    Just installed SportTracks, and it's amazing. (It makes me stronger than a rubber band with a hologram!)

    Seriously, though, thanks to everyone for sharing. I'll look back and wonder why I didn't switch long ago.

    Rennur

  • Just RunJust Run ✭✭✭
    just downloaded sportTracks, super stuff!
  • @Catsfather, thanks for that.  as V2 does everything that I want I can't see the point in changing so will stay put.  If it used my Anquet maps then that would be nice.
  • Another very good alternative to Garmin Training Center is MyTourBook (http://mytourbook.sourceforge.net/mytourbook/).  It's open-source and written in Java so it's supported by Windows, Linux, and Mac OS.   Besides having really good data analysis features and the type of GIS integration that we're coming to expect from this genre of software, this program surpasses the alternatives (at least, the ones I've tried) with its ability to import and export data.  The import function was particularly important to me because I had collected about 200 records of training over the past 18 months or so in an OpenOffice spreadsheet  and I did not find the thought of manually entering that data into a new database particularly inviting.

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