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New
features and bug fixes in PC Coach version 4.0.5
New Features
1) A 'Summary' panel has been added to the Imported
Data Graph View. It shows any of the following that
are present in the data: monitor type, elapsed time, sample
rate, calories, Avg/Max heart rate, time in each HR zone,
time in/above/below the active training limits, recovery
info. The 'Summary' panel can be open or closed by default.
Click the "options" button on the Graph View toolbar
to set this option.
2) Timex files can now be imported into PC Coach.
PC Coach supports direct import from the Timex TDR, but
if you have some data already recorded in the Timex Trainer
software, or has trouble with the direct import, you can
use this feature to bring data into PC Coach that was imported
( or downloaded ) into Timex Trainer. Read the details on
how to accomplish this later in this document, in the section
'Importing Timex .CSV Files'.
3) If data is imported and linked to a workout, the
time of day of the workout is now brought into the workout
and displayed on the calendar if there is room ( typically
only the week view shows this).
4) The Intervals view graph has been retired. Now
the intervals information is integrated into the Imported
Data Graph View. Click the "options" button on
the Graph View toolbar to set options for intervals data.
Intervals can be a small bar along the bottom ( green for
warmup/cooldown, red for work interval, blue for recovery
) or they can also show as a larger rectangle whose top
is the average heart rate for that segment.
5) New display option for the Imported Data Graph View:
Printed copies of the graph can have the heart rate zones
shown in color, or not, to save ink cartridges. Click the
options button on the Graph View toolbar to access this
option.
6) New display option for the Imported Data Graph View:
The summary panel display of time below/in/above the
monitor's limits settings has a new option, to display
what is reported by the monitor, or to use our own method.
In the case of the Polar S410/S510/S520, the information
reported by the monitor is not very useful. See details
about this at the bottom of this document. Click the options
button on the Graph View toolbar to access this option.
7) For the Polar S710/S720, the Temperature graph now
comes up by default not displayed ( unchecked ). To
see that data, just check its box along the top. Remember
that temperature is only stored at each lap marker, and
is only stored if the altimeter is active.
10) A calories macro was added ( e.g. DFLT=HRM(Calories)
) to obtain calories info from Polar monitors. Any workout
that has a field for calories that references that macro
will now bring this data in.
11) If a workout has imported data attached to it, a
second icon appears on the calendar, to the right of
the workout type icon. This new icon shows the source (
Polar, Timex ).
12) The Quick Setup window for Polar S610, S710 and S720
has a different behavior with respect to the checkbox for
deleting workouts from the monitor on successful
download. Previously the box was always checked by default.
Now, you indicate when you set up your monitor options whether
you want to delete workouts by default or not.
Bugs that were Fixed in 4.0.5
The 'Distance' macro ( e.g. DFLT=HRM(Distance) ) works now
for data from the Timex TDR.Any workout that has a field
for distance that references this macro will now bring data
in from the appropriate monitor.
Printing of the Imported Data Graph View has been improved
in a number of ways. Especially, landscape mode works now.
Quick Setup for the Polar S610/S710/S720: when uploading
coming workouts to the monitor, if Monday start was selected
for the calendar, the day of the week for that uploaded
workout definition was off by one day.
Long term graph view: If Monday Start was selected, double
clicking on a point on the graph would take you to the calendar
but to the day before the day of the point you clicked.
Temperature was not being reported accurately.
Speed data from the Polar S520 was not being graphed properly.
It was 2x the actual speed.
In some cases, especially for Polar S410 and S510, the
laps were not drawn properly on the Imported Data Graph
view.
In some cases, if you had not imported data from a monitor
but instead added it by hand. Then if you opened the Workout
View and clicked on the Details button and clicked Calculate,
the data you added by hand was lost. This bug was introduced
in version 4.0.0.
Also in the Details view under the Workout View, the logic
of the 'Mark as Complete' checkbox could sometimes be the
opposite of correct.
The detach feature (from the Workout View ) was not working
properly for data from Polar S410 and S510.
Related to hrm files from Polar S610, S710, S720: In the
past, if you deleted a workout that had imported data attached
to it, you were asked if you wanted to also discard the
attached data, or keep it on the calendar as unattached.
If you indicated to discard the data, the hrm file was not
actually deleted. This caused a problem if you then wanted
to re-import that workout, because it was seen as already
present by the software. Now, these hrm files are moved
to a 'deleted' folder under the user's hrm_file folder.
They are still available in case you change your mind, but
they don't preclude re-importing that workout data if it
is still in your monitor.
The imported data graph was being redrawn multiple times,
which caused flashing when changing the window size.
In the Workout View, workouts with S410 or S510 data were
not getting a 'Detach' button.
Previously Added to Version 4.0.4
The following bug fixes were added in 4.0.4, which was only
sent to a few customers. These have all been included in
the 4.0.5 patch.
If the main PC Coach window was small when the graph view
window was opened, the graph view window was positioned
such that its title bar was above the top of the main window,
making it impossible to move or resize the graph view window.
The Quick Import button on the top toolbar was not working
properly for customers who have the Polar Coach heart rate
monitor.
Some debug code was added for customers whose workouts
did not appear on the calendar after an import
Importing Timex .CSV Files
In the Timex Trainer software, select a workout. Now click
the menu item File - Export. Follow the instructions there
to create a .csv file containing the workout information.
The .csv files created are stored in the 'Data' subdirectory,
under the main Timex Trainer directory.
In PC Coach, click on the 'Data Transfer Center' button
on the top toolbar. Select 'Manage Data Sources'. Select
'Timex CSV File' from the list, and click 'Add to my List'.
Now you are at the 'Equipment Setup - Timex CSV File' screen.
Click the 'Import' button.
PC Coach is setup to look in the default directory where
Timex Trainer stores the .csv files. If this path is not
correct for you, click 'Set or Change Path' to browse to
the correct location.
If there are .csv files in the specified location that
are not already imported into PC Coach, you can import them
now by clicking on 'Ok'.
Note that if you want to do this on a regular basis, you
can add a 'Quick Import From Timex .CSV Files' button to
your top toolbar. At the 'Equipment Setup - Timex CSV File'
screen, check the checkbox to 'Show a Quick Import button'.
Limits Reporting Options Explained
The 'Summary' panel in the Imported Data Graph View shows
time spent below/in/above the limits settings that were
programmed into the Polar monitors. The monitors report
these values directly as a part of the downloaded data,
but the information that is reported by the monitors is
not very useful. They report, for example, time below/in/above
limits 1 for the entire workout, including time that limits
1 was not active. And similarly for limits 2 and 3. This
made it difficult to make sense out of that information
because it showed time out of range for a limits range,
during time that the range was not being used.
To refresh your memory on this feature, the Polar S series
monitors have the capability of being programmed with three
different high and low limits settings. These settings are
what causes the monitor to beep at you if you are above
or below them. And you can switch between these three settings
during your workout. Most people don't use limits 2 and
3, except that if you use the interval training mode ( as
many of our built-in workouts do ) the limits are automatically
switched for you: limits 1 is active during warmup, then
limits 2 becomes active during the interval session ( both
work and rest ) and when you leave interval mode and go
to cooldown, limits 3 becomes active. ( Or if limits 3 is
not set, it reverts to limits 1 )
So to get a report from the monitor of the time you spent
below your interval limits (limits 2) that includes your
warmup and cooldown time makes it difficult to draw useful
information from it. It always show a lot of time below
the lower threshold.
Instead, you can select the PC Coach method. ( Click the
options button on the Graph View toolbar to access this
option.) Here's how it works:
If you used the interval training feature during the workout,
we can tell when the interval mode started and stopped.
We report time below/in/above limits 1 only during the warmup,
time below/in/above limits 2 only while you were in interval
mode, and time below/in/above limits 3 only during cooldown.
( If the monitor reverted to limits 1 here, because no limits
3 was setup, we still call it limits 3 on screen, to be
consistent.)
The other difference in the PC Coach method relates to
non-interval workouts. The monitors reported time spent
in each of the three limits even if limits 2 and 3 were
not used. We have found that almost nobody knows how to
switch from limits 1 to 2, and from 2 to 3, during the workouts.
And we learned that the time at which these switches occur
is not downloaded with the workout data. So we cannot reconstruct
the event and report based on only the time when a limit
was active. Instead, we have chosen to report only limits
1, since (excluding workouts where interval mode was used
) this will be the most accurate and understandable for
most users. If you are a person who switches between limits
manually when not using the interval training feature, then
you might want to elect to use Polar's method of reporting.
You will still get a report that shows time spent below/in/above
each of the limits even when those limits were not active,
but it might be useful to you to see the limits 2 and limits
3 reports on screen, even with that reporting flaw.
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PC Coach Elite Support 
