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triathlon excel training log

Hi,



As a beta test of my new training log, I would like to give away 100 free excel training logs to fellow triathletes and 220 readers. The only thing I ask in return is for some constructive feed back of what you think of it and what you would like to see added so I can continue to improve it for all users.



If You are interested download from http://www.triathlondiary.com/

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Comments

  • WellaWella Posts: 188
    James,



    Thanks for this. I'll give some initial feedback once I've plugged in my training details and then some more once I've used it for a while.



    Wella
  • Thanks James,



    This looks infinitely better than my home-made amateur attempt at the same and I shall give you feedback, good or bad as and when I use it.



    Initial bit of feedback therefore is positive - I particularly like the ability to record mileage on multiple pairs of running shoes.



    Cheers, LoR

  • Thanks , I look forward to your feedback.



    20 downloads so far of the Tri Training Log.



    I will keep a daily running total of downloads so that new visitors can see how many freebies are left.



    Cheers

    Jimbo
  • Thanks Jimbo. V.useful - not least so that I notice when I have a lazy week/month and so feel reinvigorated to keep up the average (and keep improving the times).



    Few suggestions:

    - On the training log it would help if the title bar (date, time, distance etc) was always visible no matter how far you scroll down so that you can remember which data goes in which box once you get past 8 Jan.

    - The charts are excellent, but it would be useful if there were separate ones for swim, bike and run as well as the composite one. At the moment, five good bike rides in a month (say 150km) means that your 8 good swims (say 10km) barely register on the bar graph.

    - It would also be useful to have line graphs plotting your varying speed in time trials (e.g. charting your speed over a 400m swim, a 5km run or a 20km cycle - where you could choose your own standard time trial distance). Ditto a graph that shows your improving (or worsening) times in each race.

    - The times are quite hard to enter in the training log at the moment - the format seems to convert minutes into a date (though this may just be my poor IT skills).

    - If you want to market it commercially then it would be easier to sell if there was some programming etc that linked pages (a bit like a website) and so made people feel as if it was 'professional' software (i.e. from an IT design company). At the moment not enough separates it from the excel spreadsheets that most of us use at work (and hence many people will feel that they could have made it themselves). I'd add at this point that I've been intending to make an excel training log for over a year and have dismally failed to do so because it's such a complicated time consuming thing to put together, so I'd definitely pay a fiver to have someone else do it for me - Many others won't though. You'll also need to work out a way of stopping everyone from just sharing the spreadsheets with all their mates (you may already have this worked out).



    Thanks very much though - all the above are intended to be constructive. As a whole, it's probably only a clique market but it's definitely a useful product. Good luck.



    Mike

  • Great feed back, some of the points will be easy to incorporate; others will take a little more thought on my part on how best to do them.



    I am still trying to decide whether to leave it out there for free and leave the donate button or just a minimal charge. I am not looking to make my millions on this, just enough to cover the website costs and buy my self a post race beer every now and again.



    I will wait for a bit more feedback and then look at building version 1.1. I will post when the new version is out there and get a new free copy to you to play with.





    If 220 want to make a small donation I may leave it out there free for a lot longer! for their readers and forum participants!!!



    Thanks again for everyone’s comments so far.





    45 downloaded so far
  • Ji Jimbo,



    I agree with 'Tiring' - freezing the first 12 rows would be hugely useful. Also, whilst I measure my swims in Km, I generally measure my runs and bike rides in miles using gmap-pedometer or similar. In my spreadsheet I've got a simple calculator (*1.6 or /1.6) which will automatically convert whatever you put in to the other (did that make sense?!). The addition of that would be useful to me certainly. Other than that all good so far.



    LoR
  • LoR .



    The fixing of the top 12 rows is a no brainer , I will fix that tonight and get it up loaded to the site . I thought I had done that , must have slipped through the net .





    There is a conversion calculator on the calculators tab , I will look at moving that to the log page so there is less clicks around the sheets.

    Cheers
  • Excellent thanks James, I have one small point to make, perhaps the days of the week down the left hand-side. I went to put in some old sessions that I had done early January and had to keep counting the days which got confusing when you scroll down excel s/sheet.



    Otherwise superb, I will endeavour to use it throughout the year. I have nothing like this at the moment...

    Cheers
  • Thats a fair comment , I used to have that column formatted as date and day , I will revert back to that approach (26/01/2007 Tue).



    I will add that to the list of updates to make



    Cheers

    Jimbo
  • 80 logs downloaded to date
  • Much better! I'll let you know how I get on...

    [:D]
  • We have hit the 100 download mark ,

    I will leave the free downloads open until sunday evening



    Cheers

    Jimbo
  • 113 downloaded so far.



    I will still leave open until Sunday eve.



    With the feedback so far I think I will be able to turn around an enhanced version by next weekend. I will then leave any tinkering for a while.



    So from Sunday eve, I will remove the free download.



    The new and improved version will have a nominal charge. (Less than a couple of bottles of TAUT!! )



    With some of the proceeds going to great Ormond Street kids hospital



    Thanks for all the feedback so far.



    If you have left feedback I will be happy to send you a free updated version to thank you for your time and effort. Please make sure I have your email address, send it to me through the contact link on the website.



    Cheers

    Jimbo
  • Hi James,



    A bit more hopefully constructive feedback for you - the calculators seem to be doing some odd things. I get 'VALUE#' quite a lot in the rows where I'm inputting the day's activities. Also, the numbers at the top seem astronomical, so there's definitely something strange going on.



    One other suggestion, which you might want to kick into touch is that it would be useful if you could put in your current mileage in your shoes. I swap between three pairs, one's at 250, one's at 350 and one pair is brand new, but the log reckons they're all about the same.



    Hope this help you.



    Cheers, LoR
  • Lor ,



    Please could you email me your log so I can take a look .



    Normally the problem is if the HH:MM:SS is not entered in the exact format excel thinks its a date rather than a time, if you have only done 20 mins exercise is still expects 00 for hours , so 00:20:00 ( a 'feature' of excel!!) , I will be modifying that a bit when I create the new one , but there is no easy way to provide an input mask.



    I like the current milage on shoes idea , As I to am switching between older shoes as well in my transition to this log.



    I should be able to include that in the changes I am making and still make my weekend deadline . as I have added most of the suggestions , I just need to finish of the time trial tab and graphs



    email me.



    [center][:)] 126 logs in all down loaded [:)]

    Cheers

    Jimbo [/center]
  • LoR,



    Thanks for sending the log over , It was the dreaded time formatting excel problem. excel is very fussy and require colons between the hh:mm:ss. I have changed your times and all seems fine now,Have a quick check to make sure that I changed the times correctly . I have emailed the amended copy back to you.



    Cheers

    Jimbo



  • Firstly many thanks for all the feed back provided .



    The latest version of the log is now available for a nominal charge of £2.50 , less than the price of a couple of bottles of taut!! [:)]£0.40 from each sale will be donated to charity.[:)]

    A bargain considering the hours spent to get it to this standard; leaves you all more time to get out training rather than building excel spreadsheets!!!



    Included enhancements in the updated version are Top portion of screen locked on log pagesHyperlinked index pageHyperlinks around the sheets Hyperlink to mile/km calculator on log pagesSeparate and consolidated graphs for each yearTime trial pageDay included on the date column of the logsAbility to add current mileage to shoes grid[/ul]

    Time for me to get out on my bike now.



    All who have sent me their email address prior to today or who have contributed with comments. Will get a free new copy, I will send it out later today.



    http://www.triathlondiary.com



    happy training.



    Jimbo
  • By popular demand , a US version is now available. US date format MM/DD/YYYy and in miles.





    Enjoy



    Cheers

    Jimbo
  • All,



    Thanks once again to everyone for their input , there seems to be some interest in the log from all corners of the world . Good luck this season.



    In training for blenheim at the moment, I am all for this global warming , great biking weather



    Cheers and good luck

    Jimbo.
  • Just had my knee op , so will probably get around to updating the tri training logs to be 2008/09/10 for the end of the year.



  • bennybenny Posts: 1,314
    question is: who wouldn't want a free training log??[:D][;)]
  • Training log now updated for 2008 .



    Happy training



    Jimbo
  • feesfees Posts: 28
    Hi James,

    Busy training for my 4th Ironman South Africa so have purchased the training log. i am looking forward to using it as I previously only ever wrote everything down manually. I have only recently bought an Apple Mac so will be putting it to full use.
  • Ok into the 4th year, I have finally updated the log starting 2010. Added some additional user definable columns so that users can enter what every they want in, feedback over the last year or two has shown everyone wants something slightly different.

    What is great that the people who bought the original log back in 2007 are now coming back for the 2010 version.

    Still a bargain £3.00 , take a look at Traithlondiry.com

    Merry xmas all,
  • Hi ya

    Just download the diary i lots really good and hope it give me the kick up the ass that i need to reach my goals look forward to using !!!!!!!!!!!!

    Dave
  • Cheers David, hope you like it
  • I gave it away for free when I first created it back in 2007 , to get feed back from the forum on what people were after think I gave out about 100 of them.

    Few little tweaks nothing major through the 3 years, added a few extra columns so that users can add what every they want , as one thing I found out was that pretty much everyone wants something a little different , I started out tweaking the logs for individuals then realised I was working at about 10p an hour;-)

    Update it every year to cover the next 3 years.

    Always find plenty to bankrupt myself with in TRI's , half the reason I got into them was to get more gadgets .

    Cheers
    Jimbo
  • Jimbo

    Excellent timing. My 2007 version has just run out and I've been trying to work out how I could get a replacement - couldn't find any alternatives, other than those that did far more than I wanted and hence complicated it massively.

    Consider me to be another contented user - 3 yrs on one product makes me almost loyal!

    Mike
  • Mike ,

    Glad to hear you are back for another copy , I have had quite a few repeat customers who have come to the end of the 2007 diary , glad it works for you, see you in another 3 years ;-)


    Happy training

    Jimbo
  • just been onto web site and asking for £3 for training schedule is this right
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