apps

Tag Archives — apps

How and What to Post to Training Peaks (training log)

by Peter Glassford
Posted in Bike Skills Project PODCAST Smart Athlete
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One of the biggest sources of friction in coaching is communication. I have never blamed athletes for this. At best it is clunky to communicate through apps and training devices … but all this is slowly changing as things happen automatically. There are a few newer features and apps I think you should check out from TrainingPeaks.com and HRV4Training.

How did You feel represented by 5-options of smiley, or not so smiley, faces!

This should now pop up in the mobile app and on the website when logging a workout … go with your gut feeling on these ratings. First feelings/thoughts not what you think your coach wants to hear!

RPE … how hard was the workout

You can also rate this after you finish the workout in the workout pop-up window and a slider scale from very easy -> moderate -> All Out!

To Augment your comments – use the Training Peaks Mobile App and ask yourself

WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, HOW MANY, HOW MUCH, HOW FEEL YOU?

Telling your coach (or your future self) what you did on that day, where you rode, who you rode with, how many reps, what strategy/goal did you have, how you felt and any other things that are relevant like gear, stops for lunch, blips in your device files, or saddle sores and other ‘niggles’ that might be important for future injury/illness decisions.

Use HRV4Training to get resting HR, HRV **AND** post ‘metrics’ and ‘annotations’ to Training Peaks

This app is great. It works. It is simple and has been around for ~5 years. I have used it for over 3 years. The data is good and it just requires your smartphone camera and your finger. While HRV and HR is great to have the added bonuses of 1-5 minutes (you choose duration) to meditate each day AND send metrics/comments to your training peaks account to sit with all your automatic training file uploads is HUGE.
Here is the link  to the website: http://www.hrv4training.com/
Link to 2 podcasts with Marco the HRV4Training creator on Consummate Athlete: LINK
Make sure to turn all the metrics on and fill it out each morning – above screenshot shows key spot in HRV4Training APP
This is the metrics window where you, or your coach, can see how you are doing each day.
The annotations (notes) is a huge win for communication if you make  the 2min habit each morning

Was this helpful? Do you have other questions or issues with posting? Let me know!

If you would like to get a TrainingPeaks.com account linked to my coaching account you can do this at this link.

Apps to Improve sleep by minimizing blue light from screens

by Peter Glassford
Posted in Lifestyle Smart Athlete
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A Common question is how to improve sleep, perhaps by reducing screen time or ‘blue light’ exposure. This can be an easy adjustment to make on most devices, some changes are ‘native’ while others require you to download an APP. Reducing the screen time especially, and to a lesser extent, the brightness/blue light could possibly help reduce sleep disruption from screens.

Molly and I talked about our favorite apps and routines for productivity on this episode of the Consummate Athlete Podcast

While the stimulation (or stress) from emails and other online content can be a bigger issue than light the reality is some of us need or want to be on screens later at night. To reduce light exposure try these apps. The color on your screen will change when it ‘shifts’ to night mode, but most people adjust and don’t notice after a minute or two.

I find the light to be ‘campfire like’ and as it dims around 5 pm (or sunset) it is a good ‘stop reminder’ for me to shut down for the day and focus on family/friends and getting outside for some activity.

Flu.x is a popular App for PC and available for IOS

https://justgetflux.com/

How To Use nightshift mode on iPhone 

Open settings on iPhone, scroll to display & brightness, select “NIGHT SHIFT”,  can schedule or turn on once and select the ‘screen temperature’ (I run mine quite dim all day and very dim at night)

for Google this is another app to adjust your screen :

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.eyefilter.nightmode.bluelightfilter&hl=en