Running, especially long-distance running, is a quite simple sport. That's probably obvious by looking at it. You don't need much more than your own body, a decent pair of shoes, and some cold water. Most of us have these already. Something else you'll need to succeed will be a distinct goal, accountability, and persistence. We've got these as well, though each will need to be honed if we want to get the most from our training. One tool that aids these is the running log. To many, running is not so much a competition with others as it is a competition with oneself. [Jason may find comfort in this during the many months preceding his team's loss.] A running log is a good way to keep track with what you're trying to achieve and what you've already achieved. It's also a good way to look back and see what did and didn't work. Most importantly it's a good way (when shared) to keep up the accountability with your training partners.
We've had a few suggestions for training logs, and I'm open to all ideas, but I'll throw out here a few things I'd like some feedback on. Here are four online logs we can try. Some of these I've used and some I haven't. Some feed through RSS and may be able to feed directly into our blog (how cool would that be?) and others are simple to share with others who want to view your progress. While I keep researching our options, check these out and tell us what you think.
Cool Running
Nike
Road Runner Sports
Running Journal
Additions:
running-log.com
the running log
athleticore
runnerslog
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12 comments:
I'm a confessed non-runner (well, previous to now--I just mean I don't have any previous experience to give credence to these notions I'm about to spew), but here's my response:
1) Cool Running is cool. I've used it before in my other non-running past life. I like that it tracks how much you've used your shoes, and it gives you the option to track non-running activities (like swimming, which I suspect I'll be doing as part of my training). But it is obviously geared toward running; the options don't change when you're entering a non-running workout. So it's not my super fave. Dunno what will happen when they move to Active Journal (happens this month), though.
2) Nike is ugh. I didn't have the patience to wait for the log to load. It might be great, but their site is too busy.
3) Road Runner Sports is okay. I like that this site uses maps to show your paths, but I don't like that it doesn't offer "swim" as a workout option (just run, walk, cycle, general). Cool that you can automatically load your workouts to a blog. . . .
4) Running Journal. This is a more complex site--less user-friendly--but I like it. Love that it offers two ways to enter workouts: run or x-training (which offers lots of specific types from swimming to inline skating, from rowing machine to the elliptical). All of that is pretty customizable too, with the ability to save certain runs or workouts that you expect to repeat. You can also track shoes here, which seems useful. AND we could create a team and share our workout journals with each other that way.
So I vote Running Journal.
ok, this may sound rude.. but are each one of us really going to be that concerned with what everyone else is doing as far as training.. that would take some time for me to review everyones work out for the day/week. i know journaling may be important, but why not just have everyone do their own journaling.... or why not we all create our own "running blog" and we could all say that on a specific day we all post what we did for the previous week.. that way if i want to see what micah and chris did for the week, i could pull up their blog and have it right there.... this is just a thought.... im betting that the majority will not like this idea, but its just one to think about.
or, another way would be to have everyone do the same training program so that we all are doing exactly the same... or we could do 2 programs.. 1 for beginners and one for experienced marathoners..
that would be another suggestion.
laters
sj
it would probably be hard for everyone to do similar programs since we have people expecting to do probably 3 or 4 types of training here, or at least i would probably not be likely to do someone else's training program having done two races myself. probably i would follow a general guideline but be unlikely to keep very close to it.
more specifically to me, i probably will enter my training into a log but probably won't enter it into a blog and a separate log. i think you're right that we won't be reading the training of each other very regularly, but for the less experienced here it may be useful to have all the training visible to a third party at any moment (which most of the logs have as an option).
i'm just suggesting these online logs as an alternative to excel or paper logs (which must be constantly updated and exchanged, a cumbersome process) or a google spreadsheet-type log (which may be rather easy to use, but not as versatile).
To speak on behalf of all those non-marathoners running this thing. I think the purpose of a training log that others can see is to be able to share personal triumphs (PRs with distance and/or time) and have some overall accountability. As far as I'm concerned, having the "team" to fall back on for moral support is what gets you through the days when you really just don't want to do anything from a personal standpoint.
I think the benefit comes in being able to say (1) "Hey guys, look! I managed to run every other day for a whole month!" or "I ran 4 miles today; I've never run more than 2 miles at one time in my life." and (2) Wow, Wes is running exactly like he said he would. If he can do it, so can I. I really need to stay on the ball with this.
My whole point is that I think the visible training log is much more important to the non-runners than the runners. (I count myself among the non-runners by the way.)
So, if I'm Scott Jackson or Micah Strange, I don't really care about finding the right log to enter in my training because (1) I already know how to train, and (2) I already know I can accomplish the training and the marathon itself. But having our training available to resources like Scott and Micah will make it easier for non-runners to ask real runners questions about our training. We might be able to just say, "I'm really concerned that I'm not getting in better shape because even though I'm running further, I am also running at a much slower pace in order to get there. I'm even walking. Is that normal?" You runners could take a look at our logs to see if maybe we should be doing something differently.
As far as training logs themselves, I'm still looking through all the options . I have been using Nike Plus just because I use it to run, however this is not the training log site Jen mentioned for Nike. In the end, I will be happy to use whatever works for everyone. (I'll post again later when I've looked through all of them.)
Then again, maybe I'm the only one interested in this outside of Chez Strange. Western, Denisons, Patillo, have you any opinion on this?
im good with publishing on any log that everyone decides on.
the overall scheme of my training will be as follows... currently i am running 3 days a week for 30 minutes.. i will probably do that until early of 2008. from jan till may ill slowly increase the milage and the intensity.. putting me in good form for the beer mile. in june and july i will back off a ton, and then from aug. till dec. ill train hard for the marathon... when we decide on a site for the logs, ill log everything specifically.. i usually like to plan out workouts 1-2 months in advance.
chau
sj
So I finally took the time to look into all of the aforementioned running logs. Here are my thoughts.
1) Cool Running. I like the way the weekly display turns out on this one. It gives you week, month, and year totals at the bottom with distance and pace. It has a PR feature that I tried to use, but it didn't seem to make much sense when it came out. It displayed the greatest distance but not the best time. There also didn't seem to be any way to modify that. I like that you can add other sports to this log (I still play soccer and flag football) to display that you at least did SOMETHING even if it doesn't affect your time or mileage totals. The shoe feature doesn't seem to be able to be updated to account for mileage that already exists on your shoes. They also have a search feature so you can compare similar workouts over time, which seemed useful to me. You can also download your log into an Excel file.
2) Nike. I actually like this one. I am probably partial to it because I have been using Nike Plus since January and feel comfortable navigating the site. MY favorite part is that it links up to my Nike Plus site so I won't have to hand enter any of my times and distances. :) You can add other activites pretty easily. You can download your log into Outlook, but I admit I have no idea why you would want to do this.
3) Road Runner Sports. This seems pretty cool. I like the part where you can use Google satellite maps to save your routes. It doesn't have as many point and click options as the others (weather, terrain, etc) but there is still a section for notes. The home page is kind of neat with local weather and your pace progession displayed automatically. There's all sorts of satellite linkage (GPS or mobile phone) deals that sound cool (much like the blog link possibility), but I have no idea how to use them nor the inclination to find out on my own. In essence, all the cool stuff is lost on me with this site.
4) Running Journal. The "Team" aspect of this one seems to be the best thing about it. The monthly display is too busy for me. The rest of it seemed pretty standard as compared to other sites.
SOOOOO, personally, I would use Nike's site. I do think if we're serious about this team thing that Running Journal might be the way to go. Overall, my position is that no one else should waste an afternoon familiarizing themselves with all these sites. Let's just pick one or agree we'll do our own thing.
In conclusion, I give my vote to Micah. That's worked for me in the past anyway. :)
can you "share" a nike log to all of us for viewing?
I just tried to find a way to share the Nike log. There might be a way through downloading it to Google or Outlook, but I didn't find it. So I'm going with "No, i can't share the Nike log."
i was playing around with running journal the other day and liked it okay.. im with jlowe... although i dont know the other sites, im happy with whatever. while i was playing around with running journal, i managed to create a houston 2009 team.
Jason, I think that you've hit upon two of the most important elements with Nike. You use it and like it. In some ways it might be easier should we all use the same or similar logs, but if you're using Nike's log and it works for you I don't see any reason for you to change (at least yet). If you could export your data to a google spreadsheet then you could post it and share it selectively and get it to us that way.
i added a few new online logs to browse. outside of athleticore (which i've seen before, and it looks pretty good), these seem to win the prize for most forgetful running log websites.
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