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Is there a way to plan future runs? (Read 1879 times)

runnerclay


Consistently Slow

    Thanks for all the quick replies!  I'm surprised so many people train without planning the coming weeks.  I find myself injured or not running much if I play it by ear.

     

    I have tried adding "planned runs" as another activity, but it's hard to switch it from one activity to another and preserve some of the other metadata like equipment and workout type.  The best thing I've found to do is just add "Planned" as a workout type, but then I can't mark something as "Easy" or "Tempo", which is a little problematic.

     

    The real big pain is that since future runs are the same as actual runs in the eyes of the software, data uploaded from my Garmin does not recognize any of my planned items and just adds a second run to each day.  This basically doubles all my totals, and I have to delete the plans to have an accurate log again.  Not too bad, but a little frustrating.  Especially since I would like to put the workout type and equipment in the plan and not have to re-enter it after the upload from my Garmin.

     

    Glad to hear that the dev team is working on it, though!

    The RA site is unloading your garmin workouts before you run themConfused

    Run until the trail runs out.

     SCHEDULE 2016--

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    unsolicited chatter

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    L Train


      Planning runs far ahead might make my head pop off from the stress.

       

      But I could see how that would be a cool feature. 

       

         I mean nobody really follows a training plan off the top of their head or based on how they feel day to day, do they?  Anyway, my brain can't keep track of the details involved in a training plan...

         

        Depends what you mean by off the top of your head--I have a plan but I don't really need to write it down.  And you'd be amazed how unimportant a lot of the details really are and how few of them you really need to keep track of.  I generally have a pretty good outline in my head for the next week or so's daily runs, and a rougher outline for the next few months in terms of overall mileage and emphasis and frequency of workouts.  Once you've done this a few times you realize you're really not freewheeling it.  You know based on the season, your current fitness, how far out a goal race is, etc., pretty much exactly what you need to do next.

         

        But I get that there are times you want to plan out into the future in a little more detail.  I've done this for marathons a few times.  I've generally used a spreadsheet.  To me that's the best way to see my a future plan laid out nice and orderly.

         

        The running is log is for what's already happened.  It's a written record of events.

        Runners run

        alhizeer


          Hm. But it might be difficult for RA to match up the actual garmin track to a planned run anyway -- how will it know which matches? They're unlikely to match perfectly. Maybe you didn't run exactly the planned distance, down to the last foot. Maybe you got tired and sore and didn't even get within 100' of the plan.

           

          But OTOH, Eric is a genius.

           

          I don't want RA to match the distances at all because I would like to know, specifically, how what I actually did compared to what I planned to do.  So, if I have a really bad week or a bad race, I could maybe go back and see whether I ran significantly more or less than I should have based on my training schedule. 

           

          What I want is for RA to know that I planned to run X miles for a set of days and store those as separate objects in the database, then when it loads data from my Garmin, fill in metadata from any planned runs on that day (such as equipment, workout type, etc) that make sense into the actual workout data.  This way, I can spend a chunk of time planning out my runs, and tracking my workouts should be as simple as plugging in the 305 and hitting upload.  I would much rather spend an hour planning out my next month of runs and not have to delete the planned runs after the garmin uploads.

          alhizeer


            The RA site is unloading your garmin workouts before you run themConfused

             

            No, but RA does not know it's a planned run anymore when tomorrow becomes today!  We need a way of marking a run as planned other than the fact that the run's timestamp > current date/time.

              I don't want RA to match the distances at all because I would like to know, specifically, how what I actually did compared to what I planned to do.   

               

              But och! I backward cast my e'e,
              On prospects drear!
              An' forward, tho' I canna see,
              I guess an' fear!

               

              sometimes burns helps...sometimes not.

              Come all you no-hopers, you jokers and rogues
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              MrH


                You could just write your plan in text form.

                 

                If you want to lay them out on the calendar, create an activity called 'Plan' with text describing the workout and this will be visible in the Calendar view as a 'hover box' without clicking.

                 

                Unless you have a desire to chart what you might do in the future, what's the benefit of creating separate entities with mileage like an actual workout?

                The process is the goal.

                Men heap together the mistakes of their lives, and create a monster they call Destiny.

                alhizeer


                  But I get that there are times you want to plan out into the future in a little more detail.  I've done this for marathons a few times.  I've generally used a spreadsheet.  To me that's the best way to see my a future plan laid out nice and orderly.

                   

                  The running is log is for what's already happened.  It's a written record of events.

                   

                  Yes, I've used a spreadsheet for my log and running plan for a few years, but I always found it motivating to write out a training plan in Excel and then "check off" runs that I did.  That way I can see where I was, where I am, and where I'm going.  I agree that there's an inherent difference between a plan and an event, and I think there should be in the data model behind RA, but it's really beneficial to see both the plan and the execution in one place, at least for me.

                   

                  I would like RunningAHEAD to replace my spreadsheets completely, but without an ability to enter my plan, I cannot migrate everything to it.

                   

                  To each his own though!

                    To add to what Mikey said,  there's no way I can stick to a written plan verbatim.  I picked a plan (based on Nobby's recommendation), and try to hit the overall mileage (or time running in this case) and workouts planned each week, keeping in mind that there is a reason why the workouts are structured as they are.  Example a medium workout before a long run day, an easy day after a hard day etc.   Other  than that maybe I'll run a couple of races or run with a group just to mix it up.  

                     

                    This can become crap shooting if I try to peak for each of those races.  I'll use those races just as a fitness check and closer to my goal race to sharpen for the race. 

                    alhizeer


                      You could just write your plan in text form.

                       

                      If you want to lay them out on the calendar, create an activity called 'Plan' with text describing the workout and this will be visible in the Calendar view as a 'hover box' without clicking.

                       

                      Unless you have a desire to chart what you might do in the future, what's the benefit of creating separate entities with mileage like an actual workout?

                       

                      There's a couple good use-cases. First, I would like to plan things like run type and equipment used, and it would be a lot easier to enter my data (either by hand or through the garmin) by just copying what I had in my plan, rather than re-entering it.  Second, I don't want to chart the future, but I would like to compare planned vs. actual to look for places where I did not run enough or ran too much.  If my past runs are stored separately than my past planned runs, this would be possible.


                      Prince of Fatness

                        I would like to compare planned vs. actual to look for places where I did not run enough or ran too much.

                         

                        How would you know this?  What if it was the plan itself that its flawed?  How do you distinguish if it is the plan that is flawed or the actuals?

                        Not at it at all. 

                        alhizeer


                          How would you know this?  What if it was the plan itself that its flawed?  How do you distinguish if it is the plan that is flawed or the actuals?

                           

                          I don't, but it's more information than I would have otherwise.  I might conclude that I ran too much not because I deviated from the plan, but because I followed the plan, but without recording what the plan was, I have no way of knowing if I followed it.  I don't have that good of memory.

                          AmoresPerros


                          Options,Account, Forums

                            ????

                             

                            I know we have had some differences--and I can't even remember what we were arguing about before--but I thought you were one of those poeple who would have a plan (my second post).  My first post wasn't even a responce to you.  Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed; or are you still carrying our previous "argument" around???

                             

                            No, I'm just pointing out that your claim was pretty silly. Most of the people I know do not have every day of every week planned out, and yet your allegation that they then crapshoot around trying to PR every time, is generally false -- this is based on cases I know personally. I think you exaggerated to try to make a point, and think that that is a bad practice - it's like inventing a strawman and attacking it. Because that is bad logic, it makes your argument weak -- not weak due to what you're proposing, but weak because you're using a poor tactic of debate.

                            It's a 5k. It hurt like hell...then I tried to pick it up. The end.

                              No, but RA does not know it's a planned run anymore when tomorrow becomes today!  We need a way of marking a run as planned other than the fact that the run's timestamp > current date/time.

                               

                              im starting to think this could become really useful, but i would like to add to it.

                               

                              can users be prompted to complete a planned workout (via private message, facebook news feed, email?)? OR have RA recognize achieved goals? it could be like a lightweight digital trainer.

                                No, I'm just pointing out that your claim was pretty silly. Most of the people I know do not have every day of every week planned out, and yet your allegation that they then crapshoot around trying to PR every time, is generally false -- this is based on cases I know personally. I think you exaggerated to try to make a point, and think that that is a bad practice - it's like inventing a strawman and attacking it. Because that is bad logic, it makes your argument weak -- not weak due to what you're proposing, but weak because you're using a poor tactic of debate.

                                 

                                Frankly, I don't know of any other way to peak correctly.  We built our on-line training program based on that premise.  I'm sure Pfitzinger or Daniels or even Hal Higdon whose programs I've seen many people on here use also have done the same based that premise.  It's a road map and, if you're suggesting that to get to, say, New York from Minneapolis is just to hop in a car and start driving instead of checking out the map first, to me, is crap shooting and I don't know of any other way to describe it.

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