BEGINNER TRIATHLETE APP for iPod / iPhone

The long awaited mobile app from Beginner Triathlete (BT) is here. Don't let the name fool you, www.beginnertriathlete.com is not only for beginners, the capabilities of their site could make a professional triathletes life better. Anyway, I was following the forum posts about their mobile app, but wasn't banking on it happening before March.  However, Jeremy and Pattie E were trialing it on their Droid and said it was available for iPhones.  Having an iPod, I downloaded right away.  Its a very simple app: you can log swim, bike, and run sessions.  Would be nice to add strength too, but they got the main 3 in there.  I am really happy they came up with this app--it was no-brainer that they'd develop it.  After playing with it a bit and trying log some workouts, I have to say that overall, it's a very disappointing program.  I am greatful, don't get me wrong, but there are so many bugs and issues that it almost seems like the first release is actually a test.  They should have had a trial group for it--maybe they did and the testers weren't too thorough on testing it, didn't want to complain, what ever it may be, the app is pretty bad.  However, their website is so good that I know they will fix the app.  I tried 2 or 3 other triathlon/workout logging sites before BT and none of them come even remotely close to being as good.  I'm sure the app fix is just around the corner.

On their forum, the head honcho's in charge even apologized for all the major bugs in the program, which is promising and said they will fix bugs over the next couple weeks.  Personally, I think after they fix the bugs, a basic user should be able to do just that--the basics.  These guys put a lot of work into it and I think there is so many free features on their regular website that they should charge a little, even a buck or two, for the basic app and maybe for more an advanced app.

That said, if you are going to down load it now, some of the bugs I noticed were:
- once you enter the workout, you can't adjust the time of day you did the work out
- all words in the comments appear without spaces
- can only enter time in minutes--no semicolons can be used to identify hours and seconds
- can't work "off line", but it seems like its set up for that as there is a 'sync' feature
- since I use and iPod I can only go by way of WiFi, but it won't even let me sign in that way--have to have a
  WiFi connection

Here's some issues that other users posted:

• Couple of things: 1) will there be a way to add other sports into the log? (p90x, yoga, etc... that whole pull down menu) 2) The Run portion seems to calculate the pace incorrectly when syncing. For example, I put in a 5 mile, 50 min run. The app said 6.0 mph, correct (would rather see the pace in min/mile), but on BT.com, it's showing a 6 m/mi in my log. 3) Upon syncing, there are no spaces between words (soitlookslikethis).
• I keep getting invalid password when I try to sync and I know it's correct. Really appreciate you guys doing this! The BT powers that be rock!
• Can't wait to log a workout on it...I synched Jan/Feb (do you really have to sync each month????). When I view Feb's workouts though....it shows the swim or run icon, then the word, and under the word is "0:00:00". If you tap the workout to expand, it shows the actual time. Is the 0:00:00 time of day by chance? Or is it supposed to be showing the workout length?
• Also I noticed that for my swims on the website, I use meters and it converts to yards, which is fine, but on the app that same workout shows up in yards, but unconverted. For example, on the web I input 1500 meter swim, and it converts to 1640 yards, which is fine. But when I look at that workout on the app, it says 1500 yards. Along the same lines, on the app I can only input swims in terms of yards not meters.

I am going to stop using it for now, but when I get the update alert thru from the App Store I'll surely update it.