I've just finished planning out my 2008 season. Overall I found the program easy to use and pretty painless to set-up about 40 weeks of training using the stock plans. below are some questions about features I cant seem to get to work or figure out and then some observations.

- After I completed a race today (one that was scheduled) I can enter the actuals from the race in the program day view - however, from the main view the race doesn't show up until you re-start

- I can't for the life of me add a week to the START of a program - easy enough to do at the end, but impossible at the start. I had a race this AM and only decided after doing it to add it and the week it was in to the program

- When copying workouts OR races from one program to another (painful to do) they don't show up in the same manner as when you add them from the program start - they just have a generic tag of whatever the race week number was from the old program. This makes that process not worth the effort (the countdown in the weekly listing is now not there)

OBSERVATIONS:
- it would be nice if the program calculated you power zones based off FTP or CP30 or 60

- when race planning why make the user constantly enter mundane details ? just have a race template to pick (like Triathlon - IM or Full Marathon) the whole picking the segments and selecting distances would be a simple pick list no?

- the ability to import workouts

- the ability to import race details from one program to another (this would make season on season planning a simple process)

- the ability to import training plans in some pre-defined format - it was easy to set up a season using the pre-built ones in the program, but there is a HUGE body of work out there that if its easy to get into ERP would make this thing killer.

-Likewise the ability to EXPORT programs and workouts (don't bogart my data)

- track equipment (shoes and bike for mileage)

- The ability to upload actuals from powermeters, garmins, and polars - THIS IS A DEAL BREAKER. as it stands I think I am willing to live with it for now for the ease with which I planned out 2008 (30 minutes the whole thing from Halfs, to Olys and IMs)

OVERALL - thumbs up , a fat client training planner is a great idea and this one is well executed. I think with a few more features and some stability and speed improvements this would be so worth the $149 price tag.

thanks,
ed

Hi Ed,

Thank you for taking the effort to provide us with such detailed feedback. This is what we are looking for. The devise upload feature is something that is cropping up more and more often, and is something we are working on as a stand alone module to add to eRacePlanner.

You are spot on with your comments about importing 'packages' and 'programs' into the software, this is also in the works and customers will be able to pick and choose the programs and packages they add to eRacePlanner.

I will discuss the Power Zone comment with Kevin (the coach), and look further into the your other comments. I know that the ability to add a week to the start of a program will be useful, so I will add that to change list for the update.

I will also look at the copying of workouts and races from program to program. Can you give me an instance of when and why you typically do this?

Again thank you for your feedback, this is what we need to improve our product, we are glad you find the software easy to use overall and managed to plan a season in 30 minutes.

Regards,

Mike Read
eRacePlanner Team

Hi Mike,

Great to hear that improvements are in the works. This type of software gives me exactly what I need: Structure to plan. I know what I need and want to do, but it is labor intensive to build up a training program without this type of software. I also found a lot of value in the pre-built programs.

ADDITIONAL OBSERVATION:
- it seems that when planning workouts the ones you add are not visible in the day view until you exit the planner and re-enter (though they do calculate in the week total in multi week view. Also their descritions are off slightly when you mouse over.

As to when the need to copy from program to program: Well when I realized I could not add weeks tot he start of the program and I started it on Jan 7 but wanted Jan 1. I attempted to copy myt race over so I would not have to re-key them. It works, but not so well - you lose the countdown feature in the list view, and the names translate as "week" names (i.e. IM plan type 3 week 12)

As to the power feature - just even a simple zone calculation based on FTP input would be great.