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Golden Cheetah Cycling Performance Software for Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows
Power Zones File Guide

The zone file format consists of a list of date ranges and the power zones that should be used for all rides within each range. Someday I'll add a dialog to GC that allows you to type in your zones within the application. Right now, you'll have to write them into a text file yourself. For example:

>     # Power zones for Sean Rhea

>     From BEGIN until 2006/07/17: # after original testing
>       1, Active Recovery,     122, 167
>       2, Endurance,           167, 228
>       3, Tempo,               228, 274
>       4, Lactate Threshold,   274, 319
>       5, VO2 Max,             319, 365
>       6, Anaerobic Capacity,  365, 678
>       7, Sprinting,           678, MAX

>     From 2006/07/17 until 2007/02/05: # since Workingman's ITT
>       1, Active Recovery,     135, 185
>       2, Endurance,           185, 253
>       3, Tempo,               253, 303
>       4, Lactate Threshold,   303, 354
>       5, VO2 Max,             354, 404
>       6, Anaerobic Capacity,  404, 752
>       7, Sprinting,           752, MAX

>     From 2007/02/05 until END: # since 20-min Diablo ITT
>       1, Active Recovery,     139, 191
>       2, Endurance,           191, 260
>       3, Tempo,               260, 312
>       4, Lactate Threshold,   312, 364
>       5, VO2 Max,             364, 416
>       6, Anaerobic Capacity,  416, 774
>       7, Sprinting,           774, MAX

If you copy the above into a file named "power.zones" in your GoldenCheetah directory (e.g., "~/Library/GoldenCheetah/YourName"), GC will display power zone information for all your rides using my power zones.

The format should be pretty obvious. Comments start from a '#' character and run until the end of a line.

A range goes from a date (in YYYY/MM/DD format) at which to start using the following zones to a date before which to stop doing so. Also, you can start the first range in a file with the keyword "BEGIN", which will be treated as the earliest possible date, and you can end the last range with the keyword "END", which will be treated as the latest. Also, in order to have your zones displayed in the "Weekly Summary", each range needs to start on a Monday.

After a range, you enter the zones to use during that range. Each zone has a name (e.g., "2"), a description (e.g., "Endurance"), a low power and a high power. The number of zones, their names and descriptions are entirely up to you; I use ones similar to those advocated by Allen and Coggan, as you might have noticed. The lower number in each range is inclusive, and the upper one is not; i.e., you should read the range as [low, high). Also, you can use the keywork "MAX" to indicate the maximum possible power.