RW - A sensible idea..

Barkles

Hey guys, how about making the most of technology and providing training updates and targets for us by email?
Going a step beyond the written plans in RW, is it possible to arrange more personal plans that could arrive at key moments when we're knackered?
This motivating and refocussing our attentions.
Think of the sponsorship possibilities ...

That way you could monitor progress giving you all sorts of info re articles and informing future article need!

Only a thought... I'll slip back to the dark side now.....

Greeny.

Good idea Barkles!
RW - Listen to the man (just don't look!)

Barkles

Hey Rw.... it aint just me!!!!!!

Don Minquez

Realrunner.com do something similar! That should get 'em going!!!

Barkles

I wasn't going to mention that Jon...

and recipes, tasty imaginitive stuff to do with pasta etc...

( sponsored by Tesco, or Safeway or something)

Iron SwissBobby

Barkles et al

I spoke to RW about using their written plans on our website in database format for this idea to see if I could get the system to print you all personalised plans with the appropriate dates and they said that they would not waive the copyright!!!!

pity.

SB

Barkles

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

There must be a way to to do this, especially if it's only open to subscribers.
ie part of a subscriber package.. news, motivation from Sprts Psychologists at key times... injury advice and recipes when we get bored of carb loading...

Iron SwissBobby

Interestingly they are no longer in the subscriber only part of the website so I might use then now and attribute correctly the source.

Barkles

I reckon a fair percentage of their readers buy the mag for the marathon prep stuff... from a marketing point of view I would have thought that this would be a major coup...

[Deleted User]

So all we would need would be a program to calculate personalised plans, based on a couple of parameters? It wouldn't have to match the RW schedules exactly, and even if it happend to then it wouldn't technically breach copyright anyway (but that's not really the point - we'd like them to be happy!)

Is this a good idea? If so, who's going to design it? (i'd be interested in giving it a go)

What parameters would we want to input?

Target time?
Target weekly mileage?
Starting Mileage?
Session profiles to use (A selection of maybe 5)
Valid profiles per day?

Has it been done before? No point re-inventing the wheel!

Iron SwissBobby

SH my Idea was to store the daily sessions for programmes in a database and then you give the race date and the printout would give you your daily session.

I am sure it is not a new idea, but I enjoy working out how to do these things.

SB

[Deleted User]

It's pretty simple to calculate a fairly convincing looking table of daily distance - just thrown together a spreadsheet that does this:

Increase by 10% each week, except last 2 weeks. Every 4th week is multipled by 75%. Give each day of the week a weighting, and there you go!

For each runner, you'd need race day and max. distance in week 14, then you could email out weekly schedules...

Barkles

Excellent chaps.. sounds convincing to me.

[Deleted User]

Fair point... However, the main difference with the RW programs is that they tell you what to do for each session, and the beginners one starts in minutes, not miles.

Have a look at http://www.houlihane.co.uk/running.htm
for a couple of samples.

Don Minquez

Sean seems to have a fair idea!!!!! Boy genius or what?!

Sean Fishpool

Coming late into the conversation as ever...

Barkles, it's something we'd love to do - we're just pretty tied up with the new online race registration system at the moment. It's on the list - but it's a long list I'm sorry to say...

And in an ideal world I'd be happy to let go of our schedules for tweaking, but we have a blanket copyright on everything on the site to keep things as simple as possible.

All the best

the other Sean

[Deleted User]

I believe you can sign up to something equivalent on the hal higdon site. Personally I think this could end up a millstone around your necks. Like following diet plans to lose weight, the more it seems that someone else is telling you what to do, the more the inclination to stick 2 fingers up at them so to speak.
Chances are you still need to tweak it to suit your timetable, and you risk overdoing it because you feel you've got to stick to what the schedule says.
You've got to be self-motivated to do marathon training successfully; use schedules for ideas and inspiration, and compare notes with your running mates, the rest should be based on your own insight into your capabilities on a given day. Go on - disagree!

Barkles

LauraL, as a 40 yr old, I have to say you are too nice to disagree!!!!
Was just trying to suggest ways of using the old electronic comunication system to improve the schedule system..

[Deleted User]

I was only seeing if anyone would rise to the bait Barkles! (hey it's been a long time by the way, nice to see you venturing out of the dark side to talk about running for a change!)

Iron SwissBobby

Thanks for that EP I have been thinking of some extentions to the Training log and one of them would be to have the option to make your training log public so people can see what you are doing, and what race you are currently trainging for. I would need a few weeks to do this as I am actually having to do quite a lot of work at the moment and I don't have a lot of time for writing these sorts of programs.

I had an interesting chat with Sean about this and he confirmed what I thought was the case. If I were to use the RW programs on the site for you lot then I would be in breach of their copyright.

However I still have my thinking cap on about training schedules and emails of your daily distances.

SB

Sean Fishpool

SB,

if only we could let you loose on our site software. Now *that* would be a pooling of resources...

Sean

Iron SwissBobby

Ok Sean

Give me a call and we can chat about this.

SB

Barkles

LauraL, I do run sometimes... I can't help being mostly mad...

Doubly Bionic Ironwolf

LauraL - you're right about using a schedule and tweaking it to fit. The only point to watch is that you may begin tweaking it a bit too much! Suddenly finding the race is closer than you thought and you've not done the training. Happened to me in the past. I find it's best to stick to a plan as close as possible or you end up cheating yourself.

Barkles

Hey, I've never really had a thread about running before....

Dustin

For what its worth....
The RW schedules are fine although they do need tweaking for individuals, after all we are all different.
However for those with a moderate knowledge of spreadsheets can knock up a revised schedule for pace/time/speed for target times in between those published in RW.
I find that it is almost impossible to follow schedules exactly and invariably sessions are swapped because of injuries,races,nights out & trips to the outlaws.
Also in 3 months if all goes well you may up target times from say 4h15 to sub4.

As regards motivation,one needs to look no further than the forum.

Sorry for waffling but I hope you get my point.

Barkles

Thanks Dustin, agree with all, was only trying to think of snazzy ways to use the electronic medium...