The Exercise Log is similar in set-up to most paper-based sports logs. However, the adding, averaging, comparing, etc. of different workouts is done automatically for you. In addition, many other useful features are provided.
The log is geared most towards running (which is what I do most), but it should be equally useful for any number of other sport, such as swimming, bicycling (and thus triathlons), skating, or weight-lifting. Let me know if I can add any features that would make it more useful in logging your workout program.
Quick start tip: You can just start adding workouts and find out about the log’s features as you go along. When opening the log to enter a new workout, just click on the date listed after To: on the title card to jump directly to the most recent workout currently in the log.
Quick update tip: When you receive a new version of the Exercise Log, and want to update your own log to the new version, this is now basically a one-step process.
Go to the Title Card, click the Import/Export button, select importing from another log file, and choose the All Info option. This will copy all workout data, all weekly log entries, and all tallies you have generated, as well as PR listings and global information such as common workouts. All you need do to complete the updating process is delete any global information that may have already been in the new version of the Log you received.
I always welcome questions, comments, and suggestions for future additions.
Send e-mail to maurits@fas.harvard.edu.
About Help
This Help section explains in detail the functioning and features of each of the individual sections of the Log. To enter the Help section, choose Help from the Go or Log menus in the menubar. This will put you at the Help overview card (which comes directly before this card).
You can also click on the Help button (labeled with a question mark) at the bottom right of all cards in all other sections of the Log. This jumps you to the first Help card for the appropriate section. You can then jump back to the card you came from by clicking on the return arrow at the bottom right of each Help card.
To return to the Help Overview card at any time from within the Help section, click on the words Help Cards underneath the navigation buttons at the bottom of any Help card. From the overview card, you can quickly jump to any Help card you want by clicking on the appropriate topic or sub-topic.
It is probably a good idea to print out or save to a file the complete text on all the cards in this Help section for easy reference. To do so, click on the printer icon below.
Within the help text, you may occasionally find italicized markers of the form jumpN where N is a number (e.g. jump1). Click on these markers to jump to the location referred to in the help text immediately preceding the marker.
Using the log
Use the Workouts section to add and review workouts. You can scan back and forth through the cards in the section to look at each workout in turn, or you can skip through a day or a week at the time to go more quickly to a specific period.
Use the Weekly section to compile all workouts from a given week into a convenient weekly overview. Totals will also be shown, and space is provided to make notes to yourself.
Use the Tally section to compile listings of specific types of workouts entered in the Log. This allows you to look at all workouts of a given sport, all races you have participated in, or the number of miles you have put a pair of running shoes (or, alternatively, a pair of bike tires, swimming goggles, etc.)
Use the Global Information section, finally, to edit the lists of sports you participate in, workouts you do frequently, shoes you wear, etc., as well as set the default units in which distance and time data are given.
Exporting and importing data
Hypercard is a very useful program for the attractive presentation of information. For hard-core number-crunching, graphing, etc., however, a spreadsheet program such as Microsoft Excel or Claris Resolve is far more efficient. In order to enable you to exchange data with such programs, you can import and export workout data from the Log to a data file (as well as import data from another Log).
On the title card of the Log, the Import/Export Data button lets you import all the data from a text-file, or export to a text-file those workout descriptions that fall within a range of dates you specify. For further instructions on using this button, refer to the Help section for the Title card, where it is covered in more detail. (jump1)
In the Tally section, you have the opportunity of compiling a tally of workouts meeting a specific selection criterion, and then exporting that data. This enables you to filter out workouts you are not interested in, but you also lose information (details, weather, etc.) compared to the plain export function. However, for charting purposes most of that information is not too relevant anyway. Check the Tally help section for more info about this export function. (jump2)
Commas
Hypercard uses commas as internal separators of lists. To facilitate aggregating information internally, much of the data you provide to the log, and in particular all of the items that appear in popup-menus are prohibited from containing commas. If you enter a comma anyway, the program will just to remove it, so nothing will go wrong. Just don’t be surprised when this happens.
Buttons/pop-up menus
In general, any enclosed rectangle as well as any picture (of an arrow, a calculator, etc.) is a button you can click on. The most salient exceptions are scrolling fields (which may or may not perform a function when you click on them—try!) and the “Week of...” title at the top left of every Weekly overview card (which has no function).
Any shadowed rectangle is a popup-menu, so make sure to hold the mouse down rather than just clicking and releasing to make the menu pop up. Make selections from a popup menu as you would from a regular menu-bar menu (go to the selection and release the mouse). A number of buttons have different effects when you press the shift- or option-key down while clicking on them. These are all described individually where relevant.
System information
Hypercard This log should work with Hypercard 2.0 and 2.0v2, but some features may work slowly or badly, if at all. I recommend you upgrade to version 2.1 (or later) of Hypercard. The log should also work correctly with the Hypercard Player.
Fonts The stack uses the following fonts and sizes: Courier 10, Geneva 9, Palatino 10-12-14, Times 9. If you do not have these fonts in your system file, some of the text may look odd or be aligned incorrectly.
Language Most of the title headings, field names, etc. in this log are in English. References to dates are an exception. These will generally appear in the language (and format!) of your system (with the partial exception of the Weekly Log, for efficiency reasons). I have tried to avoid assuming anything about date formats, etc. In particular, this should enable you to transport the log across Macs with different localized systems without experiencing any trouble. You may get dates displayed in different formats for different workouts (for example), but the functioning of the log should not be affected. (If it does not work as expected, please let me know!)
Navigation
General
You can always navigate through the stack using the options in the Go menu.
In addition, the left and right arrow keys have the expected effect of going to the previous and next cards in the stack, respectively. However, these two options ignore the stack structure. To make optimal use of the log, it is suggested you use the navigation buttons which appear at the bottom right of every card.
Menu
The Log menu, which appears as the right-most menu on the menubar (as well as on the Title card), allows you to jump directly to any specific section of the stack.
The current section of the log is always indicated by a checkmark in front of its name in the Log menu.
Help
The button labeled with a question mark brings you to the Help section (that’s where you are now). When appropriate, you will see help information relevant to your location in the log. Once inside Help, you may browse around as much as you wish.
Click the Go-Back arrow (bottom right button) to return to the card you came from.
When you run across italicized markers of the form jumpN where N is a number (e.g. jump1), you can click on this marker to jump to the location referred to in the help text immediately preceding it.
Sections
The black arrows labeled Sections bring you to first card of the previous or next section of the log. Sections are, in order: the title card, Workouts, Weekly Overviews, Tallies, the global info card, and Help. You can also jump to any given section directly by selecting it from the Log menu.
Between sections
Clicking on the word Sections on any workout card jumps you to the weekly overview card containing that day, if there is one (to jump back to the workout section, select Jump To… from the Weekly Menu and specify which day to jump to).
Within sections
Within sections, use the white arrows to move back and forth between cards. If clicking one of these arrows has no effect, that means you are at the first (or last) card in that section already. In some sections, holding down a special key while clicking the white arrows modifies their function. These keys and their effects are listed below:
Workouts, Weekly Log, Tallies
Command key: go to the first or the last workout cards in the log, respectively.
Workouts
Shift key: go to the first workout of the previous day or next day.
Option key: go to the first workout one week (7 days) earlier or later.
Workouts: (underneath the white arrows) jump directly to the first workout on or
after a given date by clicking on this word and specifying the date.
Sections: (underneath the black arrows) jump to the weekly overview card for
this workout by clicking on this word.
Weekly Log
Weeks: (white arrows) jump directly to the card for a given week by clicking
on this word and specifying a date within that week.
Help
Shift key: go to the first card of the previous or next Help topic.
Help Cards: (underneath the white arrows) jump to the Help Overview card.
Title Card
Name and date range
On the title card there is a space for you to enter your name (or any other identifying information you want to put there), so you can personalize the log. Immediately underneath, the dates of the first and last workout entries in the log are shown.
You need not occupy yourself with this information—the program automatically updates it for you as necessary.
Hint: Clicking on the last date will jump you to the last workout in the log, which is handy when you want to add a new workout or just review the most recent workouts you have completed.
Create blank log
Click this button on the title card to create an empty log, with just one blank card each for the various sections (but including, of course, the complete help section).
Import/Export
Click this button in order to import workouts from another log stack (e.g. an older version of the Log stack) or from a data file, or to export workout data or weekly totals from the log stack to a data file. Data files are written (and expected to be read) as tab-delimited, text-only files.
Note: To export to another log stack, go to that stack and import into it, or, if necessary, create a blank log first, and then import into that.
Importing a complete log
You may import all the information stored in an exercise log into another log. Almost no information into the destination log will be deleted; all the information from the other log will be merged in as logically as possible. Workouts and Weekly Overview cards will be inserted in the correct chronological order. Totals will automatically be recalculated. Tallies will be copied as is, as will any PR data. Global information about sports, workouts, equipment, etc. will be added to that already present in the destination stack. The only information in the destination that is overwritten are the first-day-of-week setting, default units (for distance, time, etc.) and pulse and weight flags on the Global information card.
This option is recommended for updating existing logs to newer versions of the underlying program without having to re-enter any of your data.
Importing a set of workouts
Instead of importing all the information from an existing log, you can also import just a set of workout entries within a range of dates you specify. If you already have workout entries in the present stack, the imported ones will be inserted in chronological order. No information about weekly or yearly totals, nor any weekly cards will be imported, so you will have to regenerate all that once the importing is finished. The same goes for any tally cards in the other log stack.
Moreover, no global information for the various default units or popup menus (shoes, common workouts, etc.) is imported either. You may import this information by going to the Global Information card and importing selected data from there (jump1) , or edit the relevant lists by hand on that card as you wish (or, of course, choose the complete import function already described).
Importing from/Exporting to textfiles
You may specify a date range for importing from another stack or exporting to a textfile. When importing from a textfile, however, all workouts in the file will be imported (it should be trivial to modify the range of workouts in the file yourself, as necessary, using a text editor or spreadsheet program).
When importing from or exporting to a text-file, line-breaks and commas will be removed from all text (this basically applies only to the Details and Comments fields). Thus if workouts exported to a textfile and then imported from that file into a different log stack look slightly different at first glance, that is because some commas have disappeared and lines may break at a different place. The actual text is left untouched.
The order of columns written to a text file when you export, and expected in a text file when you import, is as follows:
distance unit, time, time unit, pace, pace unit, equipment, weather, pulse,
weight, weight unit.
If a workout entry contains warmup/cooldown information (for distance, time, and/or equipment), that will be given in the same column, following the main entry, in parentheses.
Exporting Totals
When exporting totals, you may choose between year-to-date data or weekly data. These are the same as the yearly or weekly toggle-settings in the Totals display on each workout card. The program assumes you have calculated the totals on each card (more specifically—on each card that is the last workout in that week) prior to starting the export process.
Note: Another export option exists in the Tally section, where you may export the data compiled on any Tally card. This allows you to apply a more sophisticated filtering criterion for the workouts to be exported. On the other hand, you also lose some information, such as the workout details and weather information. See the description of this function in the Tally Help section. (jump2)
Workout Entries
Adding a workout
You may add a new workout entry by selecting the Add Workout option from the Workout Menu at the top right of each workout card. Select the date for the new workout from the submenu, or just select the Add Workout menu-heading to get the default of a new workout on the day after the current one (Add 1 day).
If the date you specify for the new workout is not in chronological order with respect to the workout cards surrounding it, the log will move the card to the appropriate place. Once you have specified the date, a blank workout entry will be created for you.
Removing a workout
You may also remove a workout card altogether by selecting Delete Workout from the Workout Menu. This option is preferred to removing a card yourself, as it will preserve the integrity of the other workouts on the same day. It will not, however, update any running totals on workout entries following the one deleted. To do that, you need to click on the Totals button and re-calculate the data.
Changing a workout date
You may change the date of a workout at any time by selecting that option from the Workout Menu. The workout’s date will be changed and it will be moved through the log so that all workout entries remain in chronological order.
If you have already entered workout information, the log will first ask you to confirm that you really want to move the entry around.
Workout name
Press down on the ‘Workout’ title and select ‘Describe workout…’ to name this workout (note: any commas will be removed from the name). You may also select a workout from the common workouts listed in the popup menu. See the description of common workouts below (you may specify which associated data the log should enter automatically).
Adding or modifying common workouts
You may add new common workouts to the list, or modify the data associated with them by pressing the option key while clicking on the workout’s name. You can specify which of the following information to add to the workout’s entry in the list of common workouts: distance, sport, workout-type, and effort level.
You may also add to or modify the common workouts list on the Global Info card. (jump1)
Details vs. comments
You will note that there are 3 lines set aside for details and 7 narrower ones for comments on every workout.
The details field is intended for a further description of the workout itself (description of a route, interval times, etc.), whereas the comments field is for comments about the workout (how you felt, workout partners, etc.).
The comments field is reproduced (in part) in tallies; the details field is not. You can include either or both in the daily summaries in the weekly overview section.
Clicking on the magnifying glass underneath the word Comments increases the size of the comments field to make long comments easier to read. The field also expands as necessary: once you enter more than 240 characters of text (roughly 7 lines), scroll boxes will appear automatically the next time you hit the return key. Thus you can enter as much information as you wish. (Warning: if you keep typing rapidly while this conversion to a scrolling field occurs, you may lose some letters.)
The icon next to the magnifying glass is an import button. Clicking there enables you to import a text-file (e.g. a race report) straight into the comments field.
Warmup & cooldown
You may do a warmup before and/or a cooldown after a workout, both of which are best viewed as part of the workout, and thus do not deserve a separate entry. The log makes it possible for you to enter information about warmup/cooldown distance, time, and shoes worn. This makes it possible to calculate pace information correctly while not ignoring any additional distance run, and it also allows you to use two different pairs of shoes (or other equipment) in a workout without having to create two separate workout entries. Note: if you don’t specify separate equipment for the warmup/cooldown, it will be assumed you used the same as in the main workout.
In the distance and time fields, you can enter two pieces of data, separated by commas—the first will be the ‘actual’ workout’s distance and time, the second the distance and time of the warmup/cooldown. To select the equipment used for the warmup/cooldown, press the Equipment popup-menu, choose the Warmup & cooldown submenu, and select the appropriate equipment, which may of course be the same as that used for the main part of the workout. (To de-select warmup/cooldown equipment, just choose the Warmup & cooldown menu-title and release the mouse there.)
Unit measures
The rectangles displaying measurement units (miles, hours, etc.) are cycle-buttons. Clicking on them causes them to cycle through a list of relevant units (e.g. from miles to kilometers). Note: the corresponding data field will be converted too. To change the unit but not the data, hold down the option key while clicking the unit button.
Distance/time/pace calculations
When 2 of these 3 fields contain data, a click on the small calculator icon to their left will cause the third to be computed automatically. The system will try to avoid rounding errors, but may not always succeed (of course, you can just edit the calculated figure to your taste).
Pulse and weight info
In versions 1.11 and earlier of this log, pulse and weight data was copied automatically to all workout cards for a given day. This is not convenient for those wish to record maximum pulse rates during a workout (or pre- or post workout weight, etc.), so the feature has been turned off by default as of version 1.12. You can restore it by selecting the relevant option on the Global Information card. (jump2)
Totals
At the bottom left of each card, a small field displays the weekly or yearly total number of workouts, cumulative distance covered, and time spent practicing for each sport (actually, for each sport that appears in the popup list of available sports…not for any you enter yourself for just one or two workouts).
Click on the Totals button to calculate the totals. Usually you will want to start calculating from the last workout for which total data have been compiled. If you make any changes to earlier workouts, however, you have the option of recalculating from the beginning of the stack (necessary when you add a sport to the internal list of sports), from the beginning of the year or the week, or from any specific date.
Click the button underneath Totals to toggle between displays of weekly and yearly totals. The bottom button governs the distance units in which distances are displayed. Sports are listed in decreasing order of the number of workouts you have done in the week or year so far.
Note: Distance and time are only displayed when a checkmark is displayed in front of their names: “√distance”. Display can be toggled on and off by clicking on their names: “(time)” indicates no display.
Jump to workout
Click on the word Workouts underneath the white navigation arrows to specify a workout date to jump to. If no workout is entered for the date you specify, you will remain at the current card.
Select the Previous workout… or Next workout… options from the Workout Menu to jump to the previous or next workouts that have the same name as the current one, or feature the same sport and workout type, or just the same sport.
You may also jump to a workout based on a text-string you specify. Depending on the option you select, the log will search for a workout whose name (Workout field), or description fields (Workout, Details, and Comments) contain that text-string.
Jump to weekly log
You can jump from a workout to the corresponding weekly overview card by selecting the Jump to Weekly Log option from the Workout Menu (or by clicking on the Sections text below the section arrows). If nothing happens when you do this, there is no corresponding weekly card in the stack. (To add weekly cards, see the description of the Extend function in the Weekly Overview section. (jump3) )
Weekly Overviews
The weekly overview cards are intended to provide a quick overview of the workouts you have done in any given week. While you can enter any data you want in the daily field, it is recommended that you rely on the log to import information from the workout cards for you. You can then edit it as you please.
Adding weeks (Extend)
To add extra weekly overview cards, choose the appropriate option from the Extend sub-menu of the Weekly Menu at the top-right of each card. There are four options for specifying how to extend the weekly overview section:
1. Cover the range of workouts entered in the log. This will generate weekly cards to cover all dates between the first and last workouts you have entered. If weekly cards already exist at the beginning (or the end) of the range, it will start after (or stop before) them. If you have weekly cards for only the first and last workouts, and want to add cards for the range inbetween, use option 4 below.
2. Make up weekly overview cards to cover from the first workout description entered in the log to the earliest weekly overview card (or to the present date). If there are no workouts yet, or if the earliest one does not fall before the first already existing weekly card, no cards will be added.
3. Add cards from the week following the last weekly overview card in the Log to the last workout card. Again, if there are no workouts, or they do not extend beyond existing weekly cards, no cards will be added.
4. Add a specified number of cards from after the weekly overview card you are presently viewing. Only allows adding up to 52 cards at a time, or however many will bring you up to the next weekly overview card already present in the log (if any).
Compiling information
Select the Read in… option from the Weekly Menu to compile information from the workout cards and read it into the weekly overview card. You can read in information for a single day, the whole week, or this week and all the weeks after (not before!) it for which you have created overview cards. This last option is the default (and is useful when you import a lot of workouts into the log at once and want to read all that information into a set of new weekly overview cards).
You can specify whether the detail and/or comments sections for each workouts are to be included in the summary by checking the appropriate items in the Settings… submenu. These are toggle-settings: to turn them off, just check them again.
Shortcut: To read in information for a single day, you may also press down the option and shift keys while clicking on the date (the number) of the appropriate day.
Jumping to workouts
Select the Jump to… option from the Weekly Menu to jump to the first workout entered on the day you select. If no workouts are entered for that day, you will not leave the weekly overview card.
Shortcut: To jump to a single day, you may also press down the option key while clicking on the date (number) of the appropriate day.
Reading in totals
Whenever the log is asked to read in information for the last day of the week (which day this is depends on the information you set on the Global Info card), it can also enter weekly and yearly distance and time totals into the Notes field at the top right of the card. To have it do so, check the Totals in Notes option in the Settings submenu of the Weekly menu.
Displaying totals makes it easy to keep a constant overview of the weekly and year-to-date (ytd) totals you have run, biked, etc (if no weekly information is given, then you entered no workouts in that sport for this week).
The display includes the number of workouts, the total distance (in the default distance units as specified on the Global Info card), and the total time (in hours).
The display format is somewhat terse, but even so the amount of information will often exceed the space allotted to the Notes field. You may either scroll to find the information you are looking for, or click the magnifying glass next to the word Notes. This will blow up the size of the field. Click the magnifying glass again to shrink the field back to its normal size.
N.B.: This option enters the new totals in front of any other contents in the Notes field, so if you repeatedly read in totals information, you might want to clear the field first.
Tallying Data
This is probably the most powerful section of the Log—you can specify search criteria, and the program will find all workouts meeting your criteria and list them (1 per line) in the scrolling fields on the Tally card. Most of the functions in the Tally section are controlled through the Tally Menu pop-up menu.
Note: the different pieces of information will scroll together except when you drag the elevator-box on the right (as opposed to clicking on the arrows or the gray area). In that case, drag the box, and then position the cursor within the right-most field in order to make all the other fields align with it.
Adding/deleting cards
Select the Add Card option from the Tally Menu to add a new, blank Tally Card.
Delete Tally removes a Tally Card. Note that you will not be allowed to do this unless at least one other Tally Card remains in the stack (you can always clear it, though).
Clearing information
The Clear Tally option from the menu clears all Tally data from the present card.
Search criteria
You can select 2 types of main search criteria: workouts and equipment. Clicking the field at the top left of the card will toggle you back and forth between these 2 options.
Workouts
It is likely that you will most often search for specific sports and workout types. Press down on the field labeled Current Selections… to see a hierarchical popup-menu of each sport about which the log knows, with for each sport all registered workout types.
You can select a single workout type by selecting it as with any hierarchical Mac menu. This will put a checkmark before that item in the menu (or remove it if the item had been selected previously). You may select as many workout types as you wish.
You can also release the mouse while one of the sports is highlighted (i.e. do not go into the submenus). In that case, a list will pop up in which you can make or unmake multiple selections at once. Click on items with the command key down to get multiple, discontinuous selections. Command-A will select all items. Click OK to register your new selections, or Cancel to get out without making any changes.
Equipment
You can also search for workouts done with specific equipment (e.g. a particular pair of shoes). This can be very useful for running, when you want to keep track of the number of miles you have run in a given pair of shoes (to replace it before it wears out and you get injured!!). To do so, make sure the top-left field reads Equipment (if not, click on it to toggle its setting). Then click on the popup-field next to it to see a list of equipment, and select the appropriate item.
Efforts
This is where you find out why each effort level should be preceded by a number. The program will test for efforts by number. You must list all effort values which you would like to be included in the search, separated by commas. Unfortunately, the program will not recognize ranges of the form 1-7. To make things easier, the field is filled in by default with all known effort numbers. Just remove the ones you do not want to include.
Date range
The program will look for workouts meeting your criteria only in a given date range. Click on the little arrows next to the From and To date fields to change that range. Keeping the mouse pressed down allows you to move faster, and pressing the option key in addition makes the date change by 10 days at a time (warning: this ends up being remarkably fast, so don’t keep it pressed too long).
Initially, the fields will be empty. Today’s date will be entered in the empty field as soon as you click one of the arrows next to it.
If you click on a field itself (instead of on the arrows), the From field will ask whether you want it to display the day after the last date for which an entry is listed on this tally card (if no entries are listed, it will just put the date of the first workout in the stack), while the To field will ask you whether you want it to display today’s date. This is a convenient way to append new selections to an existing tally.
Choice fields
The 2 right-most columns on each tally card are initially unlabeled. Click the popup fields above them to select a specification from among pace, pulse, weight, or cumulative distance or time. For example, to tally the distance run in a certain pair of shoes, you would choose cumulative distance; or to compare your pace in different races, choose pace. You need not choose anything, though (or you may specify something to be tallied for only one of the two choice columns).
In the case of cumulative distance or time, you can also specify a carry-over quantity at the bottom of the screen. This may be handy, for instance, when you create a new log but want to continue tallying distance covered in a certain pair of shoes.
Note that you cannot change the categories of each field after you have compiled tally information (since the program must know what you are interested in while you are compiling).
Units
The units for Distance, Time, Pace, and Weight data (the latter two are used only if one of the choice columns contains the relevant data) are all listed at the bottom of the card. Click these buttons to change the unit as well as convert all the data entered in the appropriate column(s). (Note: just as with the Workout cards, you may keep the option key pressed to avoid converting the data.)
Compiling the tally
Once you have specified all the search criteria, choose the Compile Tally option from the Tally Menu to get the program to read in all the information. The program will search through all workouts within the date range identified by the From and To fields for workouts that match your specifications. Once tallying is complete, the From and To fields will be updated to reflect the first and last dates of the workouts listed in the tally. The process may take a while, so please be patient.
You have a choice of replacing any existing information or appending new data after it. Appending is useful when you want to update an existing tally card to reflect new workouts completed since the tally was last compiled. A faster way of doing this is to select the Update Tally option from the Tally Menu. This shortcut is equivalent to setting the date range to include all workouts after the last one currently listed in the tally (as described above), then choosing Compile Tally and asking the program to append the new information.
As an example of the use of this last feature, I keep a card for each pair of shoes I currently wear for running, and every month or so, append all new runs in each pair to the appropriate tally, to keep track of the accumulated mileage on each.
N.B.: When you tally workouts that have a warmup/cooldown associated with them, that part of the workout will be listed as a separate entry in the tally listing, with the fact that it is a warmup/cooldown indicated by placing the workout’s name in parentheses.
Jumping to a workout
Click (in any of the columns of the tally table) on a line describing a particular workout to jump directly to the card for that workout.
Exporting the tally
You may export all the data displayed on a Tally Card by selecting the Export Data option from the Tally Menu. A standard tab-delimited text-only file will be created (or you may append to an existing file): one workout entry per line, and the data in the various columns separated by tabs, in the same order as displayed on the Tally Card.
Facts & Figures
The Facts & Figures page is provided to enable you to store a list of your personal bests, to satisfy your curiosity about how different paces, distances, and times are related, to see equivalent times over a number of distances (useful to predict how you should expect to do in a race over an unfamiliar distance), and to generate a list of splits for a given pace.
List of personal records
Most people like to maintain a record of their best performances over a number of distances. This list is provided for that purpose. For each personal record (PR, personal best, or whatever you like to call it), you can enter the distance, whether that distance is certified (in other words: known not to be short), the time, the date on which you set the PR, the name of the race or the course on which it was set, and the type of surface (indoor track, trails, beach, etc.).
The log does no checking on the data you enter. You may enter as many PRs for the same distance as you like, and you may enter data that makes no sense—the program will not care. When you enter data, press Tab to advance to the next item for this entry (as you would in a spreadsheet).
When you reach the last column (Surface), pressing Tab will return you to the first column (Distance) for this entry. Pressing Return, on the other hand, will cause a new blank line to be inserted in each column (you will notice a pause while this is done), and you will be left in the Distance column, on the new line. Similarly, when you press return while in the Distance column, the log assumes you would like to add an entry before the current one, so it will insert a blank line before in each column, shift the present entry down one line, and leave you at the beginning of the new blank line. Note that pressing return while you are in any other column has the same effect as typing tab.
If you keep multiple logs (e.g. one per year), you may import PR information from one into another by clicking on the Import button above the PR table. This will append all PR data from another log you select after any PR information you have already entered here.
N.B. Hypercard has the annoying habit of filling in extra return characters when you click in a field several lines below the last character entered in that field. This may mess up the coordinated scrolling of the different fields in the PR list at times. If it seems as though a single column has more lines than it ought to, just click on the excess lines with the Command and Shift keys down, to remove them.
In particular, make sure all columns have the same number of lines before importing PRs from another stack, or else things will not turn out as expected.
You can erase a single entry in the PR list by holding down the Command and Shift keys together and clicking on that entry. You can erase all entries at once by clicking on the Clear button above the table.
Holding down just the command key while clicking on a line in the PR list causes the program to attempt to jump to the workout entry corresponding to that PR, if that entry is in the log (or leave you at the first workout entered for that date, if it cannot find a matching entry).
Distance/time/pace calculations
When 2 of these 3 fields contain data, a click on the small calculator icon to their left will cause the third to be computed automatically. The system will try to avoid rounding errors, but may not always succeed (of course, you can just edit the calculated figure to your taste). This section works identically to that on the Workout pages.
Generating splits
At the bottom of the card you’ll find a section that lets you generate a list of splits for a given distance and pace. You may choose to see splits for both metric and non-metric distances (e.g. every mile and every kilometer). Enter the frequency of splits (e.g. 1 mile), and check off the check box next to this data to indicate you want to use it.
Click on the Display button to display the requested splits. You can print out (or save to a file) the list of splits by holding down the option key while clicking on the list. Clicking without holding down the option key will clear the list and hide the field.
Facts & Figures: Predictions
Predicting running times
This heading would more accurately read “Equivalent running times for different distances.” A number of different formulae are around for comparing a performance at a given distance to performances at various other distances. Those implemented here take only a single distance-time point (others exist which extrapolate between multiple points; this may be added in a future version). In addition, I know of formulae only for running. If you know of comparable methods for swimming, cycling, inline skating, etc., please let me know.
If you are as well-prepared (both genetically and in terms of training) for a race at distance Y as you were for performance X, then you can usefully use performance X to predict how you will do at distance Y.
On the whole, these formulae work best at predicting your times at events close in distance to the performance on which the predictions are based (predicting with any degree of accuracy a marathon time from a 100 m. sprint is basically impossible (Flo-Jo notwithstanding). The Purdy methods seem to work best over wider ranges.
Select from the pop-up menu which prediction method(s) you would like to use. You may select up to three methods. The different methods are briefly described below. Then specify the performance from which you wish to extrapolate (provide distance and time), and indicate the distance for which you would like the equivalent time. Finally, click on the Predict button next to the popup menu to display a table of predicted times for various distances.
The “base performance” is marked by two asterisks (**) in front of it. A number of standard distances are always shown, plus the performance on which the predictions are based, as well as the distance you requested (in case it is not one of the regular ones).
While on the Predictions page, click on the go-back arrow (like the one at the bottom right of this page) at any time to return to the main Facts & Figures page. You may also print out (or save to a text file) the predictions by clicking the printer icon at the bottom of the page.
Prediction methods
The different prediction methods available are described briefly below. I show how a performance measure (point value) is derived. It is generally straightforward, given a performance measure and a distance, to reverse the method to find the time corresponding to that measure at that distance, which is how predictions can be made.
Purdy Table A & B
The Purdy data is perhaps the best-known prediction method. The Purdy points calculation is described in the following paper:
Purdy, J.G. “Computer Generated Track Scoring Tables.” Medicine and Science in
Sports, vol. 2, no. 3 , pp. 152-161, Fall 1970.
The system uses a table of running performances compiled in 1936 called the Portuguese scoring Tables. These tables lists distance and velocity from 40 meters to 100,000 meters, assumed (in 1936) to be the maximum possible speed in a straight line. These performances are arbitrarily given a Purdy point value of 950. World record times in 1970 have about 1035 Purdy points.
Times are derived from the table using Time = Dist/Speed, or if the exact distance is not in the table, by linear interpolation between the two adjacent entries in the table.
In Purdy Table A, I use Purdy’s own method of interpolating the time difference between two known entries (i.e. if our distance is half-way between two entries, add one half of the time difference between two points to the time for the smaller entry).
In Purdy Table B, I interpolate the speed difference rather than the time difference, which seems to me more reasonable. Thus, the two methods differ in their predictions only for distances that are not in the table, and then the differences are only very minor.
To these ‘ideal’ times, we add a factor for starting, and for running around the curves on a track. Now we have an ‘optimal’ time for the specified distance.
Using the optimal time and the optimal speed, we can calculate a Purdy point value, using the following formula: Points = a * (Toptimal/Tactual - b), where a and b are two scaling factors, which vary along with the optimal speed.
By comparing speeds at 100 meters and 3 miles, for 950-point and 1035-point performances, Purdy derives the following values for constants a and b:
k = 0.0654 - 0.00258*Voptimal; a = 85/k; b = 1-950/a
(where Voptimal = dist/Toptimal).
Purdy Curve
The Purdy curve points calculation is based on the following paper:
Purdy, J.G. “Least Squares model for the running curve.” Research Quarterly,
vol. 45, pp. 224-238, Oct. 1974.
In this paper Purdy generates a “running curve” for men’s world record performances as of 1970. This curve, then, can be used instead of the Portugues tables to arrive at an ‘optimal’ performance. Once Topt and Vopt have been calculated, the formula for calculating the points is the same as for Purdy, except that 950 is now replaced by 1035, since the running curve is based on 1970 data, not 1936 data.
Performance Factor
Performance Factor (PF) is a rough measure of the quality of performances at different distances. For any distance a PF of 1000 aproximately corresponds to a world record. The formula used to calculate PF is:
PF = (3337/pace) * (dist^0.0689)
where pace is measured in minutes per mile and distance in kilometers, and ^ is the sign for “raised to the power of”. How the pace dividend and the distance exponent were derived I do not know. My source for the formula is Patrick Hoffman’s WWW page: http://web.uml.edu:80/~phoffman/ex1.html
VO2-max
At one time, VO2-max was thought to be the main predictor of one’s athletic capabilities. It has since been learned that issues of efficiency and ability to perform for a long time at a given percentage of VO2-max are important too. Nonetheless, a formula introduced by Jack Daniels (I believe in his book Oxygen Power) for estimating VO2-max given a certain performance, and for predicting performances at other distances, appears to work fairly well (even if one ought not to place too much weight on the estimated VO2-max data). My source for the formula is Matt Mahoney via Patrick Hoffman.
Its basic structure is: (T = time, V = speed = dist/time)
VO2used = a1*V^2 + a2*V + a3
percentMax = b1*e^(c1*T) + b2*e^(c2*t) + b3
VO2max = VO2used/percentMax
This formula is not reversible, so time predictions are made through approximation (which is quite accurate, though).
Coe & Martin
In Training Distance Runners (1991, Leisure Press, p. 149), David Martin and Peter Coe (Seb’s father) give some multipliers to use for predicting performance at a few specific distances. The multipliers (and prediction range) vary depending on whether one is primarily a miler, a distance runner (5K) or a long-distance (10K and beyond) runner. When you select one of the Coe & Martin prediction methods, keep in mind that it can only predict for (and from) a limited list of distances, namely:
miler: 400m, 800m, 1500m, 3000m, 5000m
distance: 400m, 800m, 1500m, 3000m, 5000m, 10000m
long distance: 1500m, 3000m, 5000m, 10000m, marathon.
For the last two categories, predictions for/from the two shortest distances are considered to be less reliable.
Common Multipliers
Finally, there are a number of common multipliers floating around (on the internet, among other places). I believe the list I use is due at least in part to Jack Berkery
(I recalculated a few to put them all in the same format).
The weekly aggregation of distances or workouts can be done from any day you choose. The default is Monday, which meshes nicely with the weekly overview cards. You may, however, change this to any other day (though the weekly overview cards will still start from Monday, which may be somewhat confusing). Note that if you do so, you will have to recalculate all weekly totals in the stack.
If you use the log with system software in another language, the names of the days will automatically be adjusted, but Monday (or whatever its name in that language) is still the default first day.
Default units
This is where you provide the default units that appear when you add a new workout. Default units are also used to store information internally, so modifying them as appropriate will save both you and the log a lot of work.
Category to update
On the bottom part of the card you can change the entries in the various lists which pop up on the workout cards for you to select information from. Select the list from the popup menu on the left. Then add or delete items as necessary. To delete an item, click on it in the list on the right, and click the Remove Item button.
To add an item, enter its name on the dotted line and then click the Add Item button. It will be entered in alphabetical order to the list. Note that clicking on an item already in the list puts its name on the dotted line too.
Thus, to edit an item, select it, click Remove Item, make the necessary changes on the dotted line, and click Add Item.
The field on the right-hand side always displays the current contents of the list. You can make these changes final by clicking Store New Info, or undo all changes since the list was last stored by clicking Cancel Changes.
Importing global info
Click the Import Items button to import global information in any category from another log. You will be asked to indicate which log to import from, and the program will then read in any information in the appropriate category and display it in the list (duplicates will be ignored). Once the information has been imported, you can edit it as you wish before saving or canceling your changes (see above).
Copying workout types
Click the Copy Items button to copy a complete list of workout types from another sport. Select the sport to copy from, and all of its workout types will be added to the list you already have for the sport whose information you are editing.
This function is useful when you add several new sports all with the same types of workouts, or if you wish to change a sport’s name without re-entering all of its workout types (just add a sports entry for the new name, copy all workout types from the old name, and then delete the entry for the old name).
Once the information has been imported, you can edit it as you wish before saving or canceling your changes (see above).
Updating common workouts
Common workouts are updated just like the other global information. In addition, you may associate extra pieces of data with each common workout by appending them after the name, using a comma as the separator. (This is the probably only time the log will allow a comma in data you supply.)
Data you may add are: distance (unitless: just a number), sport, workout type, and effort level—they must be supplied in that order. The log will make sure that you are providing legitimate data (e.g. whether the sport you list is in fact in the list of possible sports). You may omit an item by leaving no space between two commas. For example, to specify a distance of 5 and an effort level of “3 - moderate” to a workout, enter the following: WorkoutName,5,,,3 - moderate
Note: it is often easier just to store a workout as a common workout when you enter it for the first time on a workout card. For information on how to do this, refer to the description under Workout Entries. (jump1)
Changing the list of sports
Important: If you change the list of sports available after you have already calculated totals on some workout cards, you may seriously confuse the stack when you try to update those totals. (To be specific, when you change the number of sports, or change the order in which current sports are listed, sports will no longer be associated with the totals belonging to them). In this situation, you should re-calculate the totals going back all the way to the first workout card in the log.
Common pulse/weight
If the button Daily Pulse is checked, the log will automatically copy pulse information you enter on a given workout card to all other workouts for that day. The Daily Weight button works analogously. This feature is useful if you wish to record waking pulse or weight for a day and be able to view it from any workout on that day. To store pulse- or weight data associated with a specific workout (e.g. maximum pulse rate attained during the workout), leave the relevant button un-checked.
