Mini-Review: Garmin Training Center for Mac

At the end of January Garmin finally released the Mac version of their Training Center software for managing sessions on the Edge 305 cycling / running GPS device. It was a long time from announcement to delivery. In the meantime since I bought the 305, I've been using the Windows version to archive the data, and a freeware Mac program called Load My Tracks to turn the data into Google Earth tracks. I wrote about the 305 and these programs in a recent post. I was unable to use the Windows version under Parallels due to problems with the USB interface to the 305, but I did use it occasionally on Windows XP.

The Mac version of Training Center is essentially similar to the Windows version, with a few differences to note. It works well enough, but there are a few oddities that are annoying; the Windows version shares these issues.

Good Stuff

The graphics on the Mac version are nicer. The about box credits SM2DGraphView by Snowmint Creative Solutions, so I presume this is the graphing engine that does the work.

The Mac version just generally looks and feels better. More fit-and-finish polish. Even the map display is rendered better.

Minor Flaws

There is no progress indicator--just a spinning beach ball--when the program communicates with the GPS device over USB. You just have to remind yourself when you launch the application that it hasn't crashed, it's just busy for a while.

There is also no way to select tracks on the device for download; it seems to get everything every time. This would make it impossible for two people to use the GPS and keep their workouts separately on their own computers. In a similar vein, the data is stored in a file located at ~/Library/Garmin/Training Center/Training Center.gtc. This means you cannot keep more than one data set, nor place the data where you want it.

The program and the GPS together do not consistently identify activity types correctly. I use it for running and cycling, but so far I don't see a pattern to when the program selects the little runner icon versus the little cyclist icon. There is also a little skier icon that it automatically selected for the first couple of sessions when I had the GPS in the car. There seems to be no way to manually assign the activity type, although you can manually organize each workout in folders that you name with types.

Although you can export data to an XML-based "tcx" format, you need a different program such as Load My Tracks to get the data into Google Earth or Google Map form. (See my previous article.)