TCTP Training Generator for Suunto Ambit/Ambit2/Ambit3
Introduction
This is a generator written in Perl that allows you to create applications for Suunto
Ambit/Ambit2/Ambit3 watches, somewhat similar to mytrainingplan.eu or
Seckle time interval app,
thus overcoming the limitations of Ambit/Ambit2/Ambit3 watches regarding
more complex interval training sessions.
Compared to the other apps, it is designed to work with very nice Carmichael's
Time-Crunched Cyclist training methodology, i.e., it is more flexible
to allow for overlapping training zones. It supports both heart rate based zones as well as power based zones and allows for very compact notation
of complex intervals, such as
20mEM+3x(3x(2mPFPI+2mRBI)+8mRBS)+30mEM+4x3mO1U2+15mEM
which equals to a training with
- 30 minutes of Endurance Miles
- 3x sets of 3x 2 minutes Peak and Fade Power Intervals with 2 minutes Rest Between Intervals and 8 minutes Rest Between Sets
- 30 minutes of Endurance Miles
- 4x 3 minutes Over-Under intervals, where Over interval lasts for 1 minute and Under interval for 2 minutes, repeated to fill in the whole OU interval and the Over portion is the last part of the interval
- 15 minutes of Endurance Miles
Be aware that the both Ambit and Ambit2 are memory-constrained
(Ambit in particular) and thus very complex training apps may not fit
into any of these models (I have no experience with Ambit3 though).
However, common Carmichael's Time-Crunched Cyclist trainings should
be fine, on the edge of the memory limit of Ambit2.
Btw, we should push Suunto to put the complex intervals into their
Ambit product line directly, comparable to Polar or Garmin....
Variants of the generator
There are two flavors of the generator:
- training-generator.pl – with automatic progression of the exercise. This creates programs that rely on overall duration of the exercise and switches among the training phases based on it. The advantage is that you don't need to pay attention to any activity other than training, while the disadvantage is that you can't change duration of the phase during the exercise. Another disadvantage is that the resulting applications are larger.
- training-generator-laps-compact.pl – with manual progression of the exercise using BACK/LAP button. The plus of this is you can change duration of the phase as you proceed with your exercise, but at the cost that you must not forget to push the LAP button to proceed. This may be annoying especially for very short intervals. Another plus of this is that the resulting applications are substantially smaller, as repeated exercises with the same type and length can be compacted in the code.
Personally, I prefer to use the lap-based version as I usually have problem following the length of intervals strictly, due to varying terrain and overall situation - as I'm training on mountain bikes in the nature.
Download and usage
You can download the Perl script from here:
Both flavors take one command-line parameter, specifying whether to use HR (heart rate) or POWER as the measure.
cat example-input.txt | perl training-generator-laps-compact.pl POWER >example-input-app.txt
Insert the generated Appliction into the Movescount Application Designer, verify that it fits into your watches and put it onto your display. A step-by-step guide is available for mytrainingplan.eu HowTo and this is very similar. You will need to define the following variables for your application in the Movescount Application Designer, through:
Custom zones
If you need other zones than the ones defined in TCTP, you can easily do that at the beginning of the script.
Changelog
- 2015-06-29
- Improved support for TEMPO - both power/HR and cadence. The resulting application grows a bit, but this is only for endurance trainings without complex interval structure.
- 2015-06-12
- Updated training-generator-laps-compact.pl to conform to the newest additional requirements by Suunto (no multiple semicolumn-delimited statements on a single line - whooaa).
Also, it required non-trivial help of Ray Maker from dcrainmaker.com to persuade Suunto that it is really not a good idea to cripple their existing products, e.g., by removing support for SUUNTO_BIKE_POWER_AVG in their API... Thanks Ray!
- 2015-03-29
- Fixed example-input.txt and example-input-app.txt files on the web; application itself is unchanged.
- 2015-01-11
- Updated laps-compact version to support also cadence (for fast pedal - FP - mode).
- 2014-08-22
- Beeps for going "too slow" are now with half the frequency compared to going "too fast".
- 2014-08-14
- Second flavor based on manual laps, with compacting of resulting code. Both scripts now take HR/POWER command line option (mandatory).
- 2014-07-28
- First working version based on linear time.