So, you think you have the legs to take on Lance Armstrong. One way to go about it would be to race against his time in the latest ingenious use of Twitter, the Twitter Time Trial (and for the cycling-illiterate, a time trial is where riders leave the start gate one at a time, in an attempt to set the best time over the exact same course and distance).
But a better way would be to race Lance using TrailBlazer Challenge.
The app uses the iPhone’s GPS to track details about your ride or run (or swim, I suppose, if you have a waterproof casing like this one). It’ll record everything an good bike computer or stand-alone GPS unit would — time, speed (current, maximum and average), distance, altitude and heading. It’ll also record your track, which is color-coded by your speed through the different sections, and superimpose it on a detailed, Google-Maps style map. It’ll even display graphs of your speed and altitude.
But the best thing about it is its ability to export these logs and let me compete against other logs — which means not only competing against the likes of Lance by importing one of his session logs (if he has this app), but also being able to compete against myself, using logs created during previous training sessions.
The latest update even has a Facebook-upload function, so now all my friends can know about my latest leg-ripping ride; and maybe word will get to Lance that he’s got a showdown coming. There’s even a free version (whiteout the ability to compete against saved or imported tracks)
The only drawbacks to TrailBlazer Challenge are the fact that I had to reset my iPhone a few times due to a low-memory warning, a few missing features compared with stand-alone units (like the ability to stop the clock when not moving, like when waiting for a traffic light)and the hit-and-miss accuracy of the iPhone’s assisted-GPS.
Compared with the powerful Garmin receiver I usually train with, TrailBlazer wasn’t far off. For instance, a 14.33-mile ride recorded on my Garmin with a max speed of 25.8 mph showed up as 14.4 miles with a max speed of 28 mph on TrailBlazer.
Update: Gary from Trix Software (the people behind TrailBlazer) has correctly pointed out that both TrailBlazer apps actually have a very clear way to pause a workout; what I had meant to write was that the app lacked an auto-pause feature common to bike computers and GPS units.
Verdict: 3.5/5 — at $4, way cheaper than a stand-alone GPS, or even a post-ride latte (almost). Sloppiness due to the iPhone’s A-GPS and lack of features may make serious athletes stick to a stand-alone unit.
