Garmin Sites

Since I got the Garmin a few weeks ago, I have had fun learning about it and the websites or programs that I can view the data with. I have used Garmin Connect (web based), Garmin Training Center (local to my PC) and Sport Tracks (local to my PC). All of these are free to use. Of the three the one I use the most is Sport Tracks and I do like it as I can sync the data to Buckeye Outdoors where I like to keep my web based running log. All of these have been ok but none have brought the data to life.

I was reading a blog I follow called "On the trails with Ed" and he mentioned using BIM Active to look at his Garmin data, his data looked interesting so I gave it a shot. For those that might wonder, I follow his blog as he lives in Kentucky and runs races in Kentucky as well as my beloved Southern Indiana like the Gnaw Bone 50 (his 2008 race report) and the Tecumseh Trail Marathon (his 2008 race report). Gnaw Bone is about 10 miles from where I grew up and the Tecumseh trail marathon takes place just northwest of Nashville which is just 6 miles from Gnaw Bone, can you guess which events I am looking at doing in Indiana?

Here is the BIM active display of data from my recent race at Afton, it was exported from BIM directly into my blog, I just added the commentary above and below. (It does look a little prettier through the BIM webpage, but it looks ok here still). In order to get my Garmin data into BIM, I did have to export the data from Sport Tracks to a GPX file and then import it into bim.

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 835 ft Location: Afton Alps Ski Area, MN Elev. Gain: +6 ft Date: 07/04/09 Up/Downhill: [+2181/-2175] Time: 06:32 AM Difficulty: 4.3 / 5.0 Performance Distance: 15.58 miles Time: 3:37:19 Speed: 4.3 mph Pace: 13' 57 /mi Calories: 2485 Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 12' 57 -1' 00 4.6 +0.3 -42 ft 2 13' 34 -0' 23 4.4 +0.1 +122 ft 3 12' 13 -1' 44 4.9 +0.6 -128 ft 4 13' 07 -0' 50 4.6 +0.3 -9 ft 5 13' 18 -0' 39 4.5 +0.2 +138 ft 6 11' 25 -2' 32 5.2 +0.9 -246 ft 7 14' 55 +0' 58 4.0 -0.3 +279 ft 8 10' 58 -2' 59 5.5 +1.2 -256 ft 9 15' 44 +1' 47 3.8 -0.5 +253 ft 10 11' 37 -2' 20 5.2 +0.9 -262 ft 11 12' 14 -1' 43 4.9 +0.6 -23 ft 12 14' 51 +0' 54 4.0 -0.3 +197 ft 13 13' 32 -0' 25 4.4 +0.1 -3 ft 14 16' 00 +2' 03 3.8 -0.6 +55 ft 15 15' 37 +1' 40 3.8 -0.5 -76 ft end 25' 58 +12' 01 2.3 -2.0 +10 ft Versus average of 13' 57 min/mile

Posted from bimactive.com

Now for my race analysis, in looking at my data it makes sense up to mile 12, before that my pace slowed on the hills which is what I did. But after mile 12 my pace no longer matched the course which is pretty much what happened. I couldn't manage the terrain and maintain my pace with my injuries.

So if you want another Garmin data site, give BIM a try, it's free to register and for me it's a site I may use as it allows me to analyze my data a little more easier than the other sites, if only it had a direct interface to my Garmin or could sync with Buckeye, it would be even better.

So even though I like it, I still like Sport Tracks better as it has both of those, the data just isn't quite as pretty to look at.