Performance Manager Comes to Life in WKO+

Today we launched Version 2.1 of WKO+, and in it contains a chart that is going to revolutionize how we all plan and periodize our training. The Performance Management Chart is so powerful that it is going to make people go back and really think about what is necessary to improve your fitness. Based on science and designed by the expert in the exercise physiology of power, Andy Coggan,the PMC is really something.

It’s also really exciting to have WKO+ in multi-languages as well. I hope that lots of people in Europe enjoy it!

Personally, for me, it’s the achievement of a dream that I have had for 4 years now. This chart was my original ‘big idea’ back in 2002, when I realized that we should be able to periodize our entire training plans by the wattage numbers. I went to Andy Coggan and told him about my dream and that we needed a ‘number’, a ‘score’ for each workout. He came back to me two weeks later and that was the birth of ‘Training Stress Score’. Since then, we have learned so much about training with power. It’s just incredible how many awesome coaches there are out there that really are ‘getting it’. It’s exciting to see how much CyclingPeaks is appreciated and fun to hear of other people’s discoveries and theories.

So, it’s been a while since we have been able to make this next dream a reality, and really this is just the first step in making it complete(the ‘planning’ side is still to come). One of my goals is that I have always wanted to periodize training plans, not by hours, or miles, or kilojoules, but by the actual stress that we experience in training. Controlling the actual training load and making that the true ‘dose’ of training to me was really the only way to do it right. We have this wonderful power meter tool on our bikes now, that can give us the ability to quantify the training stress for each ride, and certainly that means we have to be able to figure exactly what it takes to bring an athlete to peak fitness. With the PMC, you should be able to do that.

As a coach, to me, the ‘holy grail’ of coaching isn’t just getting someone fit, it’s getting them fit, when they want to be fit! So, when an athlete comes to me and says, ‘I want to win the world championships on August 26^th’, then I, as their coach need to be able to manage their training loads throughout the season so that they come ‘on form’ near to that time. That’s the power of the Performance Management Chart. While I don’t think everyone will ‘get it’ about how amazing and revolutionary this chart is, I hope that it helps them. Truly, I believe we are changing the cycling world with this addition. Hope you will use it, learn from it, plan your season with it and tell me what you learn too!

I have to give a big thanks to all the people that have helped this dream become a reality.

Without the help of all these wonderful people, it would have never happened.

Many thanks to: Jeff Hovorka, Andy Coggan, Dave Harris, Gear Fisher, Dave LaMay, Donovan Guyot, Dirk Friel, all the beta testers that have given their time, thoughts and inputs as well and everyone else out there that is supporting us everyday. Thanks!

Hunter Allen
President and Co-Founder
CyclingPeaks Software