miCoach uses the Calorie to indicate the amount of energy used with each workout. I might be wrong here, but shouldn't that at least be kCal (Kilocalorie, thousands of calories)? A single calorie approximates the energy needed to increase the temperature of 1 gram of water by 1 degree Centigrade (that's about 4.2 joules, and next to nothing). I'd like to think I'm burning off a bit more than that when running!
Having said that, the Calorie as a unit of measurement is formally depricated, and has been replaced by the Joule (or KiloJoule) with the introduction of the international system of units (SI), also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calorie.
Bottom line: am I wrong or should miCoach be set straight? Should it be kilocalorie, or even kilojoule? Perhaps both, as a user option?
Quick answer.....miCoach is right (If a little old fashioned') and you're mostly right too, but are getting somewhat mixed up with your Upper Case C's.
The kilocalorie (kcal) is exactly equal to the large calorie, or 'Calorie' (Cal) *Upper case letter*.....which is 1000x a small or 'gram calorie' (cal) *No upper case letter*. When the pacer says you have expended 200 Calories......it means 200 large calories, ie 200 Cal = 200 kcal = 200,000 cal.
Sometimes the distinction is never actually explained properly when being taught about energy, or food nutrition. The Joule, as you said, is the modern SI unit for energy, or work, hence the Joule is based on force, whereas calories are based on heat and are more relevent to food nutrion.
As you said, 1 cal is roughly 4.2 J (joules). And, obviously, 1 Cal or 1 kcal is roughly 4.2 kJ.
I hope things make a bit more sense. A calorie is so small in terms of nutrition and excercise, that the Calorie was adopted to represent the larger amount, and has been used on food packaging and dietary plans since.
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