The Athlete's Diary
As you read the manual, you will see two icons:
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This "Advice" icon gives you tips on using the software effectively. |
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This "warning" icon lets you know about very important things which you should pay special attention to. It often calls attention to common mistakes which some of our users make; we hope you'll avoid them! |
To install The Athlete's Diary on your hard disk, first insert the diskette with The Athlete's Diary into your PC. Double-click on the Install.exe program. Follow the on-screen instructions given to you by The Athlete's Diary Installer program; explanations are provided at each step of the process.
To start The Athlete's Diary, double-click on its icon, select it from the Start Menu (if you chose during the installation process to have it added to the Start Menu), or double-click on any of the icons for any log (if you chose during the installation process to configure your system so that ".DAT" files automatically are known to be Athlete's Diary logs). If you open the program itself (rather than a log), the first time you'll be asked to either start a new log or open an existing one. If this is your first experience with The Athlete's Diary, you might want to open one of the sample logs first and "play around with it" before starting your own log by selecting New from the File menu.
If you are also installing and using the Palm version of The Athlete's Diary, you can install it at at the same time by running the separate Install.exe program that accompanies the Palm software. This program will not only install The Athlete's Diary software itself into your handheld unit, but will also install the conduit which transfers information between the desktop and Palm versions of The Athlete's Diary.
If you are using both versions, there are several possibilities:
The Initial Screen
When the program starts, you'll see a screen like the one above.The Athlete's Diary consists of a series of "tabs" which activate the different functions of the software, along with a series of menus.
To switch between the various views, simply click on the corresponding tab.
The menus in the program provide access to functions which are typically used less often:
Select New under the File menu to start a new log. When you do, you will be asked to set up your preferences and sports (see next two sections). If you have a log open at the time you create a new log, you will be asked if you want to retain your existing sports, preferences, etc. If the log was your own log, most likely you'll want to answer "Yes"; if you had one of the sample logs open, you should probably answer "No" so that you can make your own choices "from scratch."
The Athlete's Diary offers you a number of customization options, which you will be asked to set up whenever you start a new log. These preferences are saved with your log, and can be changed at any time by selecting User Preferences under the Configure sub-menu of the Special menu. To set preferences, just click on the desired choices, and then click on the OK button.
Configuring Preferences
The options you have are these:
The Athlete's Diary allows you to track up to eight different sports or fitness activities, each with its own units of distance and pace, as well as a unique one-letter abbreviation. When you start a new log, you will be asked to set up your Sports List. This list is saved and can be modified at any time by selecting Sports under the Configure sub-menu of the File menu.
Configuring Sports
The name of the sport, the abbreviation, and the pace units are irrevocable choices you cannot change them once you have started a log. Because of this, be sure to give thought to your choices when you start your log.
The first time you run the program, the Sports List box at the lower right of the screen will be empty; as you add sports it will fill up with your information.
Select a sport from the scrolling list provided, or simply type in the name of any other sport not on the list, or if you just want to use a different name (Biking instead of Cycling, for example). The program will choose an abbreviation for you, which will be used in entering and identifying that sport. You can change it if you want to. No two sports can have the same abbreviation, so if you select both Weights and Walking, for example, one of them must be represented by a letter other than W.
Next, select a unit of measurement for the distances for that sport miles, kilometers, yards, meters, and Units/None. Units/None is provided for activities like Aerobics in which no distances are involved, or for sports in which you wish to record the distance in other units, like stairs climbed, calories burned, weight lifted, etc. You should also select Units/None for sports with multiple distances like duathlon and triathlon.
Finally, select pace units in which your speed for that sport will be calculated. Your choices are minutes per mile, minutes per kilometer, miles per hour, km per hour, or None (for non-distance activities).
After you have made your selections for a sport, click on the Add button to add it to your list - don't forget this step! Up to eight sports can be added to your Sports List in this way. When you are done adding sports, click on the Done button. If you make a mistake while entering a sport, click on the name of the sport in the Sports List box, and then click on the Delete button (and then re-enter it correctly, if thats what you want).
Once a sport is entered, you can set the color for the that sport which will be used for display purposes on the Week and Graph screens. Select the sport by tapping on it on the Sports List screen, then tap the Set Color button.
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If you participate in a number of sports only occasionally, you might want to select Misc (Miscellaneous) as one of your sports. This will enable you to keep track of your one weekend a year cross-country skiing, or an occasional basketball game, without requiring separate totals for each of these sports. The usual units for Misc is None, since the only common denominator for the various sports is time. |
The Data Entry window presents you with a series of fields into which information is entered. The Athlete's Diary provides you a place to record the date, sport, category (training, intervals, or race), distance, time, and pace of your workout, along with a description of the route or workout, and a comment as well. If there is anything else you want to keep track of your weight or your heart rate, for example you can do so in the comment field using the Keyword feature, which you'll read about in the next chapter.
Data Entry Window
Use the Tab key to move between fields (or use the mouse to click on each field into which you want to enter data). You can also use Shift-Tab (hold down the Shift key while pressing Tab) to move backwards from field to field. When you have filled in the desired fields, click on the Save button (or press the Enter key); the entry will be added to the log.
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It is not necessary to fill in all fields for every entry; only the date must be filled in. If you are sick, for example, you might just put "Weak from the flu" in the comment, and enter that. |
Here are the details about entering information in the various fields:
For sports for which Units/None has been selected as the units, you can enter anything you like in the distance column, or leave it blank. If you enter a number, you will be able to total and graph the sum of the values you enter, which might represent weight lifted, stairs climbed, calories consumed, or any other numerical value you want to use to measure a particular activity. In other cases, you might want to enter letters, like OD for Olympic Distance triathlon, or HIM for Half Ironman.
The distance can be marked as an estimate by preceding it with the approximate sign, ~, e.g., ~10.4M. Estimates are treated normally for the purpose of calculating totals.
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If you don't know the distance, you don't need to estimate it yourself. Instead, enter your time and estimated pace, and the program will come back and fill in the distance for you (marked with an ~ since it will be an estimate). Most people can estimate their own pace much better than they can estimate distances. |
The program will not let you enter a distance unless you have entered a sport.
Entering colons ( : ) in the time is optional. A 3- or 4-digit number is assumed to be Minutes:Seconds (e.g., 2325 becomes 23:25 after you press Tab), while a 5- or 6-digit number is assumed to be Hours:Minutes:Seconds. If you enter a 1- or 2-digit number, the program assumes this is a number of minutes, not seconds. In other words, enter 15 and after you press Tab the value will read 15:00.
Fractions of seconds (tenths and hundredths) can be entered, either with or without colons, e.g., 4512.3 or 45:12.3, 537.18 or 5:37.18.
The program knows that if you are entering pace it must be an estimate, so don't put a ~ when you enter it. The program will place a ~ in front of the data it has estimated (time or distance).
If you enter a pace, it must be in the relevant format. If the pace for that sport is a speed (miles per hour or kilometers per hour), the entry will look like a simple number, e.g., 21.3. If the pace is in minutes per mile or kilometer, pace must be entered in the time format, e.g., 7:45 (again, you can leave out the colon if you wish).
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Some people prefer to enter just the time for their workouts, even for sports like running. This is permissable, but your totals and averages will be more useful if you enter a pace estimate and let the program calculate your estimated distance. Most people can easily estimate their pace to within 15%, and isn't that better than no estimate at all? |
The program will not let you enter a pace unless you have entered a sport.
The Athlete's Diary will memorize up to twenty of your common workouts not only the route/workout description, but also the sport, distance, category, and any other fields that you wish to memorize.
Once a workout is memorized (described below in Chapter 4), you can enter that workout quickly and easily using the Autofill pop-up menu located just below the Route/Workout label. First enter the date, then select the workout from the pop-up menu. Now click the mouse down on Autofill popup and a pop-up list of the memorized routes will appear, as shown above. Select the desired workout from the list. The memorized information is filled in, and the cursor moves to the first blank field (most often the Time). Enter the time, modify other fields (like the Comment) as appropriate, and click on Save.
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Using memorized workouts to enter data in your log is just a starting point. If today's workout varied in some way, feel free to change the appropriate part of the entry. |
To enter large amounts of information in either the Route/Workout or Comment fields, simply keep typing; the field will auto-wrap and auto-scroll. You cannot use the Enter (Return) key to insert a new line; both fields are essentially one long, continuous line of text.
Use the small scroll bars at the right edge of each field if you need to scroll backwards or forwards to view or edit the contents of that field. The limit to both fields is 511 characters, or 255 characters if you want to maintain compatibility with the Palm version of the software.
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As you enter the Route/Workout and Comment, bear in mind that these fields can be used for selecting entries (Chapter 6). For example if your dog's name is Nicky and you always enter with Nicky in the comment when you run with him, you'll be able to look at all the runs you've done with him, and even total up his mileage as well as your own! Try to be consistent. In this example, if you wrote with the dog in the comment one day, that run wouldnt be included in Nicky's totals. |
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Note that, although the Route/Workout and Comment fields can contain more text than can fit on a single line, they are still effectively "single-line" fields, that is, you cannot have a "new line" in the middle of your route/workout or comment entry. Pressing the Enter (Return) key is the same as clicking on the Save button, that is, it adds the current entry into your log. |
If you have selected Automatic Save as a preference, your log is automatically saved when you select Exit from the File menu. If you haven't selected Autosave, when you Exit you'll be asked if you want to save the changes you have made; click on Save if you do. You can also select Save in the File menu at any time to update your current file.
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If, like many people, you start using The Athlete's Diary by entering many months' worth of data from your written log, you should save your work frequently don't leave yourself at the mercy of a computer crash! |
Here is a step-by-step example of data entry:
If you have done one of your memorized workouts, the process is even easier:
It is the rare athlete who doesn't repeat certain workouts. The Athlete's Diary allows you to memorize up to twenty of your most common workouts, and then lets you enter those workouts into the log with a single menu choice. you'll see later that you can also display or graph just those workouts with a single menu selection.
A memorized workout consists of the route or workout description itself, as well as the sport, distance, category, and any other fields that you wish to memorize.
To memorize a workout, fill in the Data Entry window as if you were making a normal entry (don't worry about the date; it will be ignored). When you have entered the information that you want to memorize, select Memorize Info from the bottom of the Autofill popup menu. A dialog box will appear. Enter the name you want to give to this workout, then click on the OK button to add the workout to your list (or click on Cancel if you change your mind).
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Many people confuse the name of the workout with the contents of the Route/Workout field, or with the memorized workout itself. The name of the workout appears in the popup menu, and should be kept short. The contents of the Route/Workout field is a full description (as long as 255 characters). And the memorized (Autofill) workout itself contains not only the Route/Workout description, but typically the sport, category, and distance. |
Memorized (Autofill) workouts, like Preferences and Sports, are stored with the log. This means that different logs (i.e., different people or different years) can have different memorized workouts.
To delete a memorized workout: : when you select the route from the Route/Workout pop-up menu, hold down the Delete key as you release the mouse. You will be given a chance to change your mind. Deleting a memorized workout does not affect any entries in the log which used that workout. You can't modify an Autofill workout; instead, simply delete it as just described and then re-enter it, correctly.
Memorized workouts appear in the menu in the order in which you create them, so its a good idea to enter your most popular workouts first, so they will appear at the top of the menu.
The standard numerical information entered and tracked in The Athlete's Diary is time, distance, and pace. But there are other things you may wish to keep track of in your log your weight, your resting heart rate, the time you spend in your target heart zone, and so on. The Athlete's Diary uses Keywords to let you track this kind of information in the Comment field of your log.
A Keyword is simply an abbreviation that you pick (like Wt to track your weight), and then use to enter numerical information as part of the comment field, e.g., Ran well today. Wt=164. Once you do this, the Keyword information can be extracted, totalled, and graphed by the program.
To memorize a Keyword, select Add New from the Keyword pop-up menu which appears below the Comment label:
Adding a Keyword
This screen will appear:
Enter the Keyword (without an equals sign) in the Keyword abbreviation box, and then enter a more descriptive label which will be used to label your graphs of this quantity. For weight, for example, the Keyword abbreviation might be "Wt", while the Keyword label might be "Weight in pounds" or "Weight (lbs)".
Now select between the three types of Keywordsd. An averaged Keyword is something like weight. If you enter it twice a week in your log, you don't want to see the total (!), you want to see the average of those two entries. A totalled Keyword might be something like ascent, where you are keeping track of how much climbing you do on your bicycle (or on foot). Here, of course, you do want to add entries together, just like totals of distance or time, rather than average them. A non-numeric Keyword is one you will be using simply for selection. For example, you can set the enter the name of a particular pair of running shoes as a keyword, so that later on it will be easy to select only workouts done with those shoes to total mileage on that pair.
Click on OK, and your Keyword will be memorized.
To delete a Keyword, select it from the Keyword pop-up menu in the Data Entry window, but hold the Delete key on the keyboard down as you release the mouse (you will be given a chance to change your mind!). As with Autofill workouts, this will delete the Keyword from the menu, but it will not affect any of the data in your log.
Keyword values are entered into the Comment field. Enter the Keyword, being sure to always use the same spelling, followed by an equals sign (=), followed by the Keyword value. don't use spaces around the equals sign.
More than one Keyword can be entered in the same comment. For example, your comment might read: Great workout. Wt=165, RHR=42.
You can enter the Keyword simply by typing it in, but the recommended method is to simply use the Keyword popup menu; this automatically adds the keyword (and an equals sign for averaged or totalled keywords) so that you won't have to remember the abbreviation you are using.The Keyword is added at the current insertion point; it does not replace the entire comment.
The numbers you enter with your Keywords can be simple numbers (like 160), times (like 34:50), or percentages (like 75%). You might use a time Keyword to track the time you spent in your target heart zone, or to track particular splits of your workouts. If you have a hill climb that is part of a regular bike route, for example, you might enter Hill climb=41:30 in your comment each time you do that route. Now you'll be able to graph the average time per week it takes you to do the hill climb.
When you use a percentage keyword, the entry is treated as the percentage of the time found in the Time field. If you spend 75% of a particular workout in your target heart zone, for example, you might enter THZ=75% in your comment field. If you do this for every workout, you'll then be able to graph time per week or month of exercise in the target heart zone.
Keywords are stored with the log. This means that different logs (i.e., different people or different years) can have different keywords.
Weight training and exercise machines are not ideally characterized by time, distance, and pace. Nevertheless, The Athlete's Diary can easily be used to keep track of these activities. How you do so depends on what you want to keep track of, and what kind of calculations that you want to do (if any).
If you set the distance units for the activity to Units/None when you set up your Sports List, you can total or graph any number you put in the distance field. You might want to keep track of the total weight you lift, or the number of sets times the number of reps per set, for example.
You may also want to use the Keyword feature described in the previous section to track various numerical aspects of your training with weights or machines.
If you work with different kinds of machines, or different kinds of weights, there are two ways to keep them separate:
Swim sets, track workouts, etc., can't be described by a single pace. Perhaps you run 440s with a warm-up/cool-down and jogging between intervals. There are four ways to enter workouts like this:
If you use one of the first two methods (the first is probably the most commonly used), then you can record times for each set or interval in the Comment field. The program won't do any calculations on those splits, but you have a record of your splits, which is probably the main thing you want.
Multi-sport events (duathlons, triathlons, etc.) should be entered in a particular manner. First, enter the event as a Duathlon (Biathlon) or Triathlon, with your total time for the entire race. For the distance you might enter OD for example, for Olympic Distance, or HIM for Half-Ironman (or just leave it blank). You can also enter the distance in the Route/Workout field, where you have more room. This entry is for informational purposes only; neither the time nor the distance(s) which are part of this log entry will be included in your totals.
In order to calculate your pace for the individual segments of the race, and also to have your time and distances included in your totals, you now add a second, third, and possibly fourth entry into the log, one for each segment, with the individual sport entered as appropriate for that segment. Of course if you didnt get exact splits for this race, you'll have to use estimates. Use the Comment field to record your transition times.
The comment field is used to track equipment use, in two different ways. The first applies to equipment which is changed, and then remains in use. An example would be a new bike tire, or a new pair of running shoes for a person who only wears one pair at a time. In this situation, the first time you start using the new equipment, just enter a phrase in your comment field like "New front tire" or "New Adidas" or something like that.
The second type of equipment use applies to situations where you are alternating equipment with each workout. The typical example of this is people who alternate between two or three pairs of running shoes. For this type of equipment use, you'll need to enter something in the comment field for each workout, like "Asics#1" or "Asics#2" to show which pair of shoes was worn for that workout. To expedite this, and to make sure you enter the abbreviation consistently each time, you should create a "non-numeric keyword" (see above) containing that abbreviation. Now you can just select the appropriate keyword from the popup list to enter it for each workout. When you retire that pair of shoes, you can simply delete it from the keyword list.
In Chapter 6, you'll read about how to use the information you have entered in order to total up your equipment use.
The Log window provides a columnar list of all your workouts. Alternating weeks are displayed using alternating white and light-gray background. Races appear in red.
The Daily Log
Like a written log, entries always appear in chronological order. If you add a new entry which is out of place, it is automatically sorted into the correct position. When the log is first opened, the scroll bar is positioned so that the most recent entries (usually the ones of most interest) are shown. To scroll the log, use the scroll bar in the usual way.
When the Log window is the active window, double-clicking on any entry in the log brings up the Day view, displaying that entry in full detail. Clicking and holding the mouse down on any entry in the Log causes a pop-up menu to appear on the screen, with four choices View, Modify, and Duplicate, with the following results:
At the bottom of the Data Entry screen, the Recent Entries list always contains your last 10 entries. This mechanism described above works there too, that is, if you click and hold the mouse on any entry, you'll be able to View, Modify, or Duplicate that entry without having to go to the Log screen.
The Log window shows many entries, but some of the information is shown in an abbreviated format. To see complete details of a single entry, use the Day window. You can turn the pages of the journal forward or backward one entry at a time by clicking on the left and right arrows in the display.
Daily Journal
Buttons at the bottom of the window let you Modify, Duplicate, or Delete the displayed entry. Modify and Duplicate function like the same items in the popup menu on the Log screen; Delete is the only way to delete an entry from your log (you will be asked to confirm your selection if you choose this).
A calendar is a familiar way to look at your workouts. It has disadvantages (if you look at a weekly calendar, and it's the first day of the week, you don't see much!), but it has the big advantage that it provides graphical feedback of certain aspects of your training, how often you're swimming, when your last long run was, etc.
The Athlete's Diary provides two different calendars. One shows one week at a time; the other shows four weeks (an "athlete's month"). The single week view shows more information for each workout, but fewer workouts; the four-week view shows more workouts, but less information per workout.
Both views shows totals and the one-week view shows averages as well, along with the workouts themselves. Different sports are color-coded to help provide visual feedback.
To change the week (or weeks) viewed, you can either use the left and right arrow buttons to move backwards or forwards in your log, or you can enter the date of the desired week (or the first week of four) into the date selector in the same way that you enter dates on the Data Entry screen.
The Totals window displays a list of either weekly, monthly, or yearly totals, for each of your sports, as well as the totals summed for all sports. The number of times you did a particular sport, the total hours and distance, and the average pace are all calculated and displayed. Alternating weeks or months are displayed as alternating white and light-gray background. The scroll bar allows you to scroll through your list of totals.
| How Calculations Are Done The number of workouts is calculated from only those entries in which either the distance or the time is entered Average pace is calculated from only those entries in which both distance and time are entered. If you put entries in your log with just a time (or just a distance), the time (or distance) will be added to the total time (or distance), but will not affect the calculation of the average pace. Totals are calculated using only currently selected log entries (see Selecting Entries at the end of this chapter). This allows you to calculate, for example, the total mileage you have ridden your bike commuting to work, the distance you have run on hot days, etc. Sports in which the distance units are Units/None are totalled according to the numerical values in the Distance field, allowing you to total up stairs climbed, calories consumed, or whatever else you wish to measure. Average pace is not calculated in this situation. Totals are not calculated for multisport events including Triathlon, Duathlon, or any sport ending in the letters athlon or atlon (which covers a number of non-English languages). This is to prevent duplication, since the run, bike, and swim legs of those sports were also entered (and totalled) separately. |
The Graph window allows you to display in a graphical format all of the information which is displayed in the Totals window. What you see on the graph is controlled by the two pop-up menus at the top of the window, as well as the date and time period selections at the bottom of the screen.
The first menu, the graph type menu, controls the content of the graph, and provides standard choices of time, distance, pace, #workouts, and calories burned, along with the various "keywords" (see above) that you have set up. The second menu controls the sport or sports which are displayed in the graph.
The one "tricky" thing about the graph type menu is that distance and pace can only be chosen if you first choose a particular sport. In other words, while you can select Time or #workouts or calories burned for running or cycling or running and cycling combined, if you want to graph pace (or distance), you must first select running (or cycling or anything other than "All Sports") and then select pace (or distance).
The time period for the graph is controlled by the popup menu in the lower right, and the starting point of the graph is controlled by the date selector in the bottom middle of the screen. As with the Week view, you can move forward or backward using the arrow buttons, or just enter the desired starting date for the graph using the date selector. Scales for the vertical axis are always automatically selected by the program.
All graphs, including keyword graphs, can include data from all your workouts, or from just selected entries. For example, you can graph your Average Heart Rate (AHR) for all your workouts, or you can select a particular interval workout and see a graph of your AHR during just that workout. you'll read more about selection in the next section.
Normally, the Log, Totals, Graph, Day, and Week windows display your entire log. If you wish to view, print, or analyze just part of your log, you can use the Select screen to select just a portion of your log.
The Selection Window
The Selection Criteria window displays each of the fields, with a pop-up menu to its right that contains a series of appropriate modifiers for that field. For example, the distance pop-up has Equal To, Approximately Equal To, Greater Than, Less Than, and From(/To) choices.
For the distance, time, pace, route, and comment fields, if you select one of the choices from the pop-up menu, one or two (as appropriate) data entry fields will appear on the right of the window. Click on that field and then enter the desired selection criteria. Note that some fields will not appear at first until they are relevant so your screen will not appear exactly like that shown above. For example, until you enter a sport, the Pace field will not be displayed, since it isn't appropriate without a sport.
The date shows a starting and ending date. When you first display the screen, these will be filled in with the earliest and latest dates in your log, in other words, the dates appropriate for selecting your entire log. To display only entries after a certain date, just change the starting date to the desired day; to display only entries before a certain date, just change the ending date.
The rules for entering values in the fields are similar to making an entry in your log: times don't require colons when entered, distances don't require distance units if they are your default units, and so on.
When you first use the Select screen (at a time when all entries are "selected"), there will be just two buttons on the bottom of the screen - Select and Clear (there is no "Cancel"; if you change your mind about wanting to make a selection, just click on another tab to return to another screen). Once you make a selection, the selection will be reflected on the top line (the "Title Bar") of the window, right after the name of your log. There you will see something like "545/545 entries" (if all entries are selected), or "123/545 entries" (if a selection you have made includes 123 of the entries).
If you have made a selection, if you return to the Select screen, you will now see four new buttons. Five buttons are now labelled "Select":
Once you have made a selection, the Log and Week windows can be set to display only the selected workouts, or to display all the workouts but with the selected ones highlighted. The second mode lets you see your selected workouts in the context of your entire log, so, for example, you can see what you did on the days before and after the selected workouts. You do this by choosing either the Show Selected Only or Show All, Highight Selected toggle button on the Select window, or making the identical choice from the Select menu. The value of this probably won't be obvious to you at first, so just try it so you can see the difference between the two "modes."
To quickly return to viewing all your entries without having to return to the Select tab, choose Select All from the Select menu, or, equivalently, press Ctrl+A.
In Chapter 4 you learned how to enter information in the Comment field in order to track equipment use. It is on the Select Criteria window where you then use that information in order to total up the usage (distance and time) for that equipment. The two situations discussed there are analyzed differently. In situation one, you entered "New front tire" (or something like that) on the day you mounted a new front tire on your bike. To find out how many miles you now have on that tire, in the Comment popup select Since, and then enter "New front tire" in the comment field, so that the screen reads "Comment since new front tire". Now, when you press Select, the software will first search your log (from the most recent entry backwards) until it finds the requested phrase. If the phrase is found, the date of that workout will be substituted for the start date.
For the second kind of equipment use, like multiple running shoes, you do something different. From the Keyword popup menu, select the keyword for that equipment. When you do so, tthe keyword abbreviation will be inserted in the Comment field, and the Comment popup will be set to Contains. Now when you press Select, all workouts containing that equipment will be selected.
In both cases, when you press Select, you will be taken to the Totals window to see your usage.
People training for marathons, century bike rides, and many athletic events want to follow training plans (also known as training programs) which have been developed for that purpose. You can find training plans in books, in magazine articles, and now, on computer as well. The Athlete's Diary gives you the ability to create your own training plans from scratch, to enter them yourself from magazine articles, to create them by duplicating some of your own previous training, or by using a training plan obtained from Stevens Creek Software.
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The usual disclaimer applies do not embark on any training program without the advice of your physician. |
You can enter future workouts using the Data Entry window just like actual workouts. Typically, you might enter just the planned time, or the planned distance, but not both (although you can). Then, when you actually do the workout, simply select that workout to modify (as described above), then modify the values as appropriate, and save it back into your log.
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Planned vs. Actual Training Some people like to be able to compare the training they planned, vs. the training they actually did. The Athlete's Diary is designed to have only a single time, distance, and pace for each entry. Nevertheless, there are several different ways you might use the software to track actual versus planned:
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The Athlete's Diary can also use training plans which are already prepared on disk. To The Athlete's Diary, a training plan is similar to a log, but the entries are given relative dates instead of actual dates. That is, the last date of the training plan (usually the day of the race on which the plan culminates) is given a date of 0, the previous date is called -1, and so on.
To use a training plan, first open your own log (or start a new one). Now use Merge in the File menu and select a training plan. The software recognizes that the file you are attempting to merge is a training plan, and asks you for the date of the race for which you are training (the last entry in the training plan is assumed to be the race; if this is not the case, just enter the date you want the training plan to end, rather than a race day). Enter the date, and the training plan will be merged into your log, ending on the day of the race.
If the training plan is, say, 112 days long, and the race is only 100 days away, somethings got to give! If the software detects such a situation, it will give you three choices forget the whole thing, read in only the last 100 days of the training plan, or read in the whole training plan (even though you've already missed the first 12 days). Select one of these choices.
You can create your own training plans in two ways. First, let's say you thought you did just the right thing in preparing for last fall's marathon, and you want to reproduce the last 12 weeks of training exactly. Open the log containing the relevant training, and use the Select window to select out the 12 weeks (or whatever) prior to and including the race. Now choose Save Selected As from the File menu, and select the choice which reads Save as Training Program. Now you can open this year's log, and merge in that training plan as described above. Of course, as you do the training you'll be modifying each entry to reflect your actual training.
The second way to create your own training plan is from scratch. Lets say you read a magazine article entitled 60 days to your first century (100-mile bike ride) and want to do that. Start a new log, and just enter those 60 days of training, starting the first entry on any day you like (it won't matter at all). Some published training plans of this type will include only a distance for each days workout. Others will include only a time. Some may include both. All of these methods are perfectly acceptable to the software. Now, once you have the training entered, use Save Selected As and choose Save as Training Program. Now open your real log, use Merge to read in the training plan, and tell the computer what day you'll be doing your century (or marathon or 10K or whatever), and you'll be all set. All that's left is to do the training!
The Athlete's Diary maintains a very important document the record of hours of your hard work. you'll be very upset if you lose this data! The Automatic Backup preference allows you to automatically make a copy of your log whenever you save a new copy. This means you'll have two files on your disk (one of them will be one day out of date), so you'll have twice as much protection. This isn't enough, though.
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For maximum safety, at least once a month, and better yet once a week, you should copy the log onto a floppy disk, and put that floppy disk in another room or even another place (like at your place of work) from your computer. This protects you against fire, flood, and theft. This may seem like unnecessary effort when nothing happens. It won't when something does! If you aren't sure how to do this, please consult the manuals that came with your computer - this is an aspect of using a Windows computer, and one you should be familiar with. |
Its also a good idea to make a hard copy on a once/month basis at least. As you start into a new month, you might select the previous month using the selection criteria, and then print out only those entries, so that all the entries for that month will appear on the same page(s).
Going on a trip and don't have a portable computer or the Palm version of The Athlete's Diary? Try this. Go to the Week view, select the 1-week view, and Print the log. Now you'll have a blank calendar page with nice neat columns or boxes. Jot down your training as you travel, and then enter it into your computer when you return.
The Print item in the File menu will print the log, totals, daily or weekly view, or graph, depending on which screen is active when you select Print. The function of the Page Selection portion of the Print Dialog box depends on the window. For the Log and Totals windows, All prints the entire (or selected portion of) the log; From and To print just the page range indicated. For the Graph and Journal windows, All prints just the displayed graph or journal page. To print more than one journal page, set the From and To fields in the Print Dialog to the number of the first and last pages that you wish to print (the page number of any entry is displayed in the bottom of the Journal, between the two arrows).
Both portrait and landscape printing are supported; experiment to find which you prefer for the different types of output. Windows which are printed as graphics (the Graph, Day, and Week windows) are automatically expanded, holding the aspect ratio constant, to fill as much of the printed page as possible.
The Log and Totals windows are printed (and displayed) in a monospaced font, which can be changed by selecting Font in the Configure sub-menu of the Special menu. Other windows are printed using pre-selected fonts in pre-selected sizes.
If you use Save Selected As in the File menu to save your whole log or selected portions of it as an HTML file, your log can be viewed by Web browsers such as Netscape, Mosaic, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, etc.
Just viewing your existing log with a browser gives you one feature not present
in The Athlete's Diary - your entire Route/Workout and Comment will
show in each entry (compared to viewing your log in the Daily Log window, where just
the first one or two lines are displayed). You can get additional functionality by
using two features of HTML embedded images and links. Embedded images might be race
photos, heart rate charts, etc., which you have scanned or otherwise have on your
computer as either a GIF or a JPG file. To have the picture displayed in your log,
simply put something like the following in either the Route/Workout or Comment field
of an entry in
your log:
<IMG SRC="MyPhoto.gif">
(where MyPhoto.gif is the filename of your photo, and we are assuming that the file is in the same folder as your log itself). You'll find that this will only really work well if you keep your pictures fairly small.
A link might point to a Web page you have prepared yourself, or simply a text file which might be a copy of an e-mail you sent to friends describing one of your races. In the second case, save the file with a .TXT extension, and be sure to save it as a simple text file, not in some other format such as Microsoft Word. Now in the Route/Workout or Comment field, put something like this:
<A HREF="MYRACE.TXT">Race report</A>
The <A...> and </A> sections should bracket a word
or phrase which will become a link to your
race report. The referenced file can also be a photo:
<A HREF="MYPHOTO.JPG">Race photo</A>
You'll probably find that this method of including photos as links (rather than directly as described above) will be more suitable for large photos.
The current value of almost all pop-up menus, the size and position of each window that has been opened, the current choices for font, are all saved automatically when you exit the program, and are recalled each time you run the program.
Save Selected As Dialog Box
Configuring Calorie Calculations
To calculate calories burned, you can either enter a fixed weight (in pounds, kilograms, or stone) to be used for the calculation, or you can instruct the software to use a particular "Keyword" in your log (such as "Wt") to extract the weight from your log (which will therefore adjust the calorie calculations for your changing weight over the months or years).
Configuring Fonts
To configure one or another font, tap on the corresponding button along the left side of the window.If you have the Palm version of The Athlete's Diary, you'll be interested in HotSync'ing information between your desktop copy and the Palm version.
If you want to exchange data with the Windows desktop versions of The Athlete's Diary, you'll be using the HotSync feature to accomplish one or more of these four functions:
We'll discuss each of these functions in turn, but first we'll discuss the one thing they have in common - the Athlete's Diary folder in which data must be placed to be downloaded, and in which data will appear after being uploaded. This location of this folder and the files it may contain will vary from system to system, but a typical setup is shown here, in a case where we are assuming that the handheld unit (your Palm) has the name "Nicky" (folder or directory names are shown in black, and file names in red):
C:
Palm
Nicky
HotSync.Log
Athlete's Diary
Download.dat
Download.bak
PalmLog.dat
PalmLog.bak
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You won't need to create any of these folders (shown in black) yourself. When you install your Palm (or related, e.g., IBM, Franklin, Symbol, Sony) desktop software, the main directory (shown as Palm above but this name may vary on your system) will be created. Whenever you HotSync a handheld unit to that desktop computer for the first time, a new sub-folder is then created (shown here as Nicky). The folder name may be different than that of your Palm itself if the Palm name contains spaces or is longer than 6 letters (for example, it might be "Bullwi" if your Palm name is "Bullwinkle", or "SmithT" if your Palm name is "Tom Smith".). And finally, the first time you perform a HotSync after installing The Athlete's Diary conduit, the Athlete's Diary folder will be automatically created. The only thing you as a user will need to be concerned with are the files in that folder (shown in red).
The file HotSync.Log, which is a standard file created by the Palm HotSync software, is an important one for two reasons. First, because some people have trouble locating their "user folder" (C:\Palm\Nicky in this example). If you do, use the "Find Files" feature of your operating system to search for the file HotSync.Log. If you find more than one, open each one in turn (using the NotePad application) and read the information in it, which includes the date and time of the last HotSync. You should be able to recognize the "active" file by noting which one has the most recent date and time. Secondly, the HotSync.Log file is important because everything that happens during the HotSync is noted in that file. The Athlete's Diary conduit in particular will write such things as "uploaded 2 new entries" into that file. So if something seems to be going wrong with HotSync'ing, the very first thing to do is to read the HotSync.Log file and see what it tells you.
To select the action of the conduit, click the right mouse button on the HotSync Manager and select Custom from the HotSync menu. Note: if The Athlete's Diary does not appear on the list of conduits, then the conduit is not installed; consult the installation instructions for the Palm version of The Athlete's Diary in its manual. You will need to run or re-run the Install.exe program that came with your TAD/Palm software in order to activate the conduit.
Assuming The Athlete's Diary does appear, select The Athlete's Diary conduit from the list which appears and click on the Change button. A dialog box will appear with the four possible choices, allowing you to select the HotSync action for the next HotSync and the default action for all other HotSyncs.
When you want to install a complete log from your desktop software into your handheld version (either when you first start using the Palm version of the software after having already set up a desktop log, or perhaps when you're about to leave for a trip, etc.), set the conduit setting to Download desktop log to handheld. Now from within the desktop version of The Athlete's Diary, select Save Selected As from the File menu, choose Save complete log from the choices which are presented, and save the file by the name Download.dat in the Athlete's Diary folder. Note that the file must have exactly this name to be recognized by the conduit. When you HotSync, any data (including not only workouts but also memorized "AutoFill" workouts, keywords, and sports information) will first be deleted from the handheld unit, and then the corresponding information contained in the Download.dat file will be written to the handheld unit. After the process is complete, the desktop file will be renamed Download.bak to provide an indication to you that that data has now been installed into your handheld unit.
A note on non-American-style dates: The Athlete's Diary on the desktop and in the Palm support two date styles: Month/Day/Year and Day/Month/Year. In the desktop versions, this setting is controlled by a preference setting within the software itself. On the handheld unit, the setting is controlled by the Palm's system preferences. When you are downloading data from the desktop to the handheld unit using The Athlete's Diary conduit, however, the date style is controlled by the system-wide setting in your desktop operating system (the Regional and Language Options Control Panel). This means that if you want to download data from your desktop to the handheld unit (using either this setting of the conduit, or the Synchronize setting described below, you must have all three settings in agreement - desktop operating system setting, the Palm operating system setting, and the preference within the desktop version of The Athlete's Diary.
If you have been using the Palm version of the software and now are beginning to use the desktop version, you'll want to start by uploading the complete log from Palm to desktop. Set the conduit setting to Upload handheld log to desktop and perform a HotSync. When you HotSync, all data (including workouts, memorized "AutoFill" workouts, keywords, and sports information) is written to the desktop to a file named PalmLog.dat in the Athlete's Diary folder. This file is a complete log, identical in format to logs which are created by the desktop version of the software, and can be immediately opened and used by the desktop software. When these files are created on the desktop, any previous version is renamed PalmLog.bak (Windows). Now you can use the File Open menu to open that log from your desktop Athlete's Diary. Next use File Save Selected As (selecting Save complete log) to save it into a separate file by a different name, because the PalmLog.dat name is a "reserved name" used to upload data from the Palm; it shouldn't be used as the name of your log. You can save the log in the special Palm Athlete's Diary folder, or you can save it in the folder in which your TADXP software is located; the choice is yours. Now use Open from the File menu to open the file you just saved, and then use Make Default Log from the Log sub-menu of the Special menu to make this new log your default log.
If you have used the Configure menu to configure the Download folder (see below in the Menu Reference section), then all new entries made on the desktop are automatically added to a Download.dat file in the correct folder. Alternatively, you can use the Select screen of your desktop Athlete's Diary to select just those entries to be downloaded into the Palm, and then use Save Selected As in the File menu to save just those workouts as Download.dat in your Athlete's Diary folder. Now set the conduit setting to Synchronize, and when you HotSync, the new workouts are downloaded to the handheld unit and appended to the existing workouts (and automatically sorted into place chronologically).
Set the conduit setting to Synchronize, and when you HotSync, any "dirty" (new or modified) entries on the handheld unit are uploaded to the desktop in your Athlete's Diary folder, to a file named PalmLog.dat (with previous files being renamed as noted above). These files are not "complete" Athlete's Diary logs but contain only new or modified workouts which have been entered on the handheld (changes to sports, keywords, and AutoFill workouts are not included). After the data are uploaded, they must be merged into your desktop log. This can happen in one of two ways:
AutoMerge
When the data are uploaded, the conduit checks to see if you have set a desktop "merge log" using Make Palm Upload (Merge) Log from the Log sub-menu of the Special menu. If you have, the data are immediately merged into that log.
If you have two different Palms (e.g., two members of a family) being HotSync'd to the same desktop, and want to merge the data from each Palm into a different desktop log, then you need to override the standard mechanism for merging by creating a text file named MergeLog.txt in your Athlete's Diary folder (and, if you are indeed HotSync'ing two different Palms, then each Palm will have its own Athlete's Diaryfolder and can have its own, independent, MergeLog.txt file. If such a file exists, the contents of that file are read and interpreted as the name of the desktop log file into which the uploaded data will be merged.So for example if the file named MergeLog.txt contains a single line of text reading as follows: C:\TAD\MyLog.DAT, then after new workouts are uploaded into the PalmLog.dat file, they will then be automatically merged into C:\TAD\MyLog.DAT. To create this MergeLog.txt file, use a simple text editor such as NotePad.
Manual Merge
If you don't want to use the automatic method, or for some reason it doesn't appear to be working, you can use the manual method. After performing the HotSync, open your desktop log with the desktop version of the software, select Merge from the File menu and read in the PalmLog.dat file containing the uploaded data. Make sure you do this before the next HotSync, before you lose the data in in your Palm Log file. If you make a mistake and do perform another HotSync before opening your desktop Athlete's Diary and using Merge, you'll still be able to Merge the data, but it will now be in the renamed file (PalmLog.bak).
And finally, setting the conduit setting to Do nothing...does nothing.
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Mailing Address: P.O. Box 2126, Cupertino, CA 95015
Copyright 1997-2004 by Stevens Creek Software
All Rights Reserved
The Athlete's Diary is a registered trademark of Stevens Creek Software LLC
