Comments on: Slower but more stupider

By: Mile Repeats, Graphs, 3M » Knob

Mile Repeats, Graphs, 3M » Knob — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 04:19:03 +0000

[...] A while back I posted about trying to set up Google Spreadsheets as my training log. At that point I gave up trying to access the data externally, but a few weeks ago Google opened up their API, and I was able to wrangle some crude graphs and stats out of the deal. I may invest some time in actually setting up some sort of log, but we’ll see. I signed up for the new Flotrackr system, and its pretty nifty in some regards, but barebones in others. Really, it seems like more of a Facebook for runners than a training log. [...]

By: What game? Dot Game! » Knob

What game? Dot Game! » Knob — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 07:01:13 +0000

[...] So the Dotgame is exactly like the original SameGame, except for one thing (and my less-than-optimal graphics abilities). At the end of the phone version, you get bonus points for having fewer dots left, but I haven’t figured out the value pattern for that. A few test games shows the following: Dots-Left/Bonus 19/6 16/7 10/12 8/15 4/31 If anyone sees the pattern, let me know. I’m sort of slower and stupider these days. [...]

By: Looking back, looking forward » Knob

Looking back, looking forward » Knob — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 20:55:34 +0000

[...] Guess I’ve been quiet for a while, probably due to some guy making fun of me. Anyway, when we left off I was searching for a training log method I liked and would use. Well, the only further step I’ve taken since then was to sign up on coolrunning.com. It took all of about 20 seconds before I hated it. The interface felt like it was 1996 and I kept having to click back and re-login and basically, it sucked. So I haven’t used it since and I haven’t implemented any other logging system. [...]

By: Pat

Pat — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 17:26:23 +0000

In excel I enter my times as hh:mm:ss.nn (I know .nn is going overboard) You can then enter normal formulas such as =time/milage or =average(t1:t9) =sum(splits)/miles.

Does that simplifying anything?

TA DA! PRESTO! BAM!

By: dv

dv — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 14:33:32 +0000

Thanks Noel. It’s not the math that is the problem. I’ve got that figured out. It was just translating it to Excel Formula-speak and getting Excel to cooperate that had me stumped.

PERL or Python huh? Those two languages are too far above this meager PHP guy. ;) Seriously though, I’ve already got something brewing in PHP, so we’ll see.

By: noel

noel — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 04:57:05 +0000

You probably know this but use the INT function. Entering your times like min.sec is useful because you can manipulate it easily. You can also change the character used to represent the decimal so if you want to go back to min:sec you could.

There’s probably a function somewhere that does this but I would convert min.sec to min.fractionalmin like so:
=INT(min.sec)+ (min.sec – INT(min.sec))/60
(however my EXCEL doesn’t do this right and messes up the type conversion from integer to floating point. NO surprise there. It is EXCEL. Better Idea – screw Excel and use a real tool. But if you have to use excel, if you break up the calculation and put the (min.sec – INT(min.sec)) into its own cell and then in a new cell divide that number by 60 it will work.

So that will get you into real decimal time so you can play with your “there must be something wrong with your watch” splits. Then to show your results in min.sec you just do more or less the same thing except multiply the decimal part by 60, divide by 100 (or simply multiply by .6), add it to the integer part and you have min.sec. Or you could concatenate the integer part and the seconds part with a period in the middle, but then you’d have text which you could then convert to a number.

Now if you’re really going to be of service to the community you make it handle hours.min.sec, but then I suggest you use PERL or Python or something.

Finally, to paraphrase one of the greatest books ever written, Once a Runner, by John Parker, “Your training is like climbing a ladder, except this ladder is really more like a roller coaster track — some of the rungs actually take you down but you’re building momentum to climb higher rungs” or something like that.

By: dv

dv — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 19:46:32 +0000

Oui je.

By: Andre

Andre — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 19:36:31 +0000

wow, did you really spell “voila” as “ouila”?