workout
Append workouts into one
04/07/10 13:25 Filed in: Import
Problem: You made several activity recordings and want to append each single activity to one concatenated representation.
Background: You can only append activities to each other while you are about to import them. Once they are within the diary, it's not possible anymore to alter them.
Solution: In the import pane, place a checkmark on each entry you want to concatenate. In the lower toolbar, use the Append toolbar button to replace both by a concatenated representation. Each activity will be represented as a lap within the resulting placeholder activity.
Background: You can only append activities to each other while you are about to import them. Once they are within the diary, it's not possible anymore to alter them.
Solution: In the import pane, place a checkmark on each entry you want to concatenate. In the lower toolbar, use the Append toolbar button to replace both by a concatenated representation. Each activity will be represented as a lap within the resulting placeholder activity.
Activity workout splits and caclulated aggregates
19/03/10 12:21 Filed in: Conceptual
Problem: When I drag the horizontal interval slider, the value for maximum speed changes. Why is that so?
Explanation: TrailRunner can display the maximum speed value from either the imported workout data (if available) or can calculate the value by an analysis of your workout data.
On statistical aggregates
If your GPS Device has lost its signal and re-catches it, the recoded course may contain errors. This error may lead to unrealistic values as such signal jumps may assume you where moving faster that light. Therefore TrailRunner uses a low-pass filter of roughly 90% and takes the highest value within the result as your maximum speed. To turn this off, uncheck the calculate statistical aggregates option.
On split intervals
The horizontal interval size slider controls the size of interval splits.
The intervals are being displayed as white lines in the graph, each containing a white circle on the value that was most common within this interval.
In addition the lowest values and the highest values within this interval are being displayed as a dot bordered gray region.
The overall maximum speed of an activity is the maximum speed from all these split intervals.
As this is a statistical calculation, the values may vary when you change the size of the split intervals. The bigger the intervals, any filtering becomes stronger.
Explanation: TrailRunner can display the maximum speed value from either the imported workout data (if available) or can calculate the value by an analysis of your workout data.
On statistical aggregates
If your GPS Device has lost its signal and re-catches it, the recoded course may contain errors. This error may lead to unrealistic values as such signal jumps may assume you where moving faster that light. Therefore TrailRunner uses a low-pass filter of roughly 90% and takes the highest value within the result as your maximum speed. To turn this off, uncheck the calculate statistical aggregates option.
On split intervals
The horizontal interval size slider controls the size of interval splits.
The intervals are being displayed as white lines in the graph, each containing a white circle on the value that was most common within this interval.
In addition the lowest values and the highest values within this interval are being displayed as a dot bordered gray region.
The overall maximum speed of an activity is the maximum speed from all these split intervals.
As this is a statistical calculation, the values may vary when you change the size of the split intervals. The bigger the intervals, any filtering becomes stronger.
Difference between ascent, descent and elevation
03/04/10 19:00 Filed in: Conceptual
Problem: In the altitude histogram, TrailRunner displays three values derived from altitude values. These are named elevation, ascent and descent. What's the different between these?
Description: Elevation is the absolute difference between the highest summit and the lowest valley. It may also be named altitude difference or altitude range.
Ascent is being displayed as ascent/descent value which is the gain in only positive / negative altitude differences.
Example: With an altitude series of 12, 13, 15, 13, 11, 16 the elevation is 11..15 = 4, the ascent is 12..13..15 // 11..16 = 8 and the descent is 15..13..11 = 4
Tip: As most GPS receivers tend to be very inaccurate with the recoding of altitude data, the ascent and decent values can become unnaturally high as only small gains can sum up to huge values. In TrailRunner > Preferences > Advanced you can set a low pass filter for the ascent/descent calculation. See Filter altitude noise.
Description: Elevation is the absolute difference between the highest summit and the lowest valley. It may also be named altitude difference or altitude range.
Ascent is being displayed as ascent/descent value which is the gain in only positive / negative altitude differences.
Example: With an altitude series of 12, 13, 15, 13, 11, 16 the elevation is 11..15 = 4, the ascent is 12..13..15 // 11..16 = 8 and the descent is 15..13..11 = 4
Tip: As most GPS receivers tend to be very inaccurate with the recoding of altitude data, the ascent and decent values can become unnaturally high as only small gains can sum up to huge values. In TrailRunner > Preferences > Advanced you can set a low pass filter for the ascent/descent calculation. See Filter altitude noise.
Can I merge GPS data with workout data?
10/02/10 21:12 Filed in: Import
Problem: Is there an easy way to merge GPS data and HR data into TrailRunner?
Solution: When your heart-rate data contains distance information, the you can do the following:
- First import the track from your GPS device, iphone or file and make a route of it so that it appears in the routes list.
- Remove the activity as otherwise you cannot add a new activity for the same date. - Then import your workout from your ForeRunner 50 or HRM file and select the route in the import panel.
TrailRunner will now merge the Heat-rate data and the GPS Data based on the distance information.
Note: For not GPS enabled workout devices you require a food-pod while your where running as TrailRunner requires distance information for the matching.
Solution: When your heart-rate data contains distance information, the you can do the following:
- First import the track from your GPS device, iphone or file and make a route of it so that it appears in the routes list.
- Remove the activity as otherwise you cannot add a new activity for the same date. - Then import your workout from your ForeRunner 50 or HRM file and select the route in the import panel.
TrailRunner will now merge the Heat-rate data and the GPS Data based on the distance information.
Note: For not GPS enabled workout devices you require a food-pod while your where running as TrailRunner requires distance information for the matching.
Diary: Display speed over distance instead of pace over distance
18/01/10 11:24 Filed in: Diary
Problem: Is it possible to display the average speed in km/h or mph instead of pace?
Solution: An activity is always assigned to a diary. And a diary can be of a sport type like running, biking, etc.
If you change your default diary to the sport type biking, it would affect the display for all entries within this diary.
TrailRunner > Preferences > Personal > Diaries: Select the diary and then change the type in the table Popup.
Solution: An activity is always assigned to a diary. And a diary can be of a sport type like running, biking, etc.
If you change your default diary to the sport type biking, it would affect the display for all entries within this diary.
TrailRunner > Preferences > Personal > Diaries: Select the diary and then change the type in the table Popup.
TrailRunner is cutting of graph edges
07/04/10 14:17 Filed in: Conceptual
Problem: As depicted in the screenshot above, TrailRunner sometimes cuts off high values within a chart.
Background: To analyze a workout, the most interesting part of the chart is the area your workout did spend the most time in. If your GPS signal was weak and produced a noise peak, this single error would decrease the vertical resolution of your graph and therefore would make it unreadable. For this reason TrailRunner cuts off the chart for everything that is located outside of approximately 90% of your data points.
Customizing: To customize this behavior, you can control the display range under TrailRunner > Preferences > Advanced > Chart : Vertical exaggeration.
Problem: As depicted in the second screenshot above, the head or tail of a chart may not be displayed.
Background: The chart above displays a statistical trend. This means that TrailRunner takes all data points available, creates a set of intervals (in this case one month per each interval) and then displays a representative data point for this interval. The representative is the value that had the highest statistical appearance within the interval (mathematically this is called a median, not average). Then a data point is being displayed at the location of the representative. As this is almost never at the beginning or the end of the interval the graph seems to be cut off.
Sidenote: Please also note the gray border around the graph lines. The border depicts the maximum and the minimum values within each interval. So the graph gives you a good overall picture on the trend including extreme values. All data points are located within the gray area and the most frequent values are depicted by the colored line.
Does TrailRunner support the Polar XXX monitor?
29/01/10 18:48 Filed in: Import
Problem: TrailRunner is not able to directly import Polar Workout data from the monitor.
Solutions: Using third party helper applications, TrailRunner may read data files created by these application. Known solutions are:
- With TrackRecord you can download workouts for some SonicLink Polar devices but Infrared is not supported.
- If you can manage to download HRM files with e.g. a windows emulator and Polar software you can import the file into TrailRunner. But it requires that you have worn a foot-pod during the workout as TrailRunner relies on the distance information to display a workout chart and merge the workout data with the course of a route.
- Any other application that can export GPX and TCX files from Polar devices can be used too, as TrailRunner can import these file formats.
> Supported Devices
Unsupported watches are: Polar RS300X
PS: Please let me know if you found a working solution.
Solutions: Using third party helper applications, TrailRunner may read data files created by these application. Known solutions are:
- With TrackRecord you can download workouts for some SonicLink Polar devices but Infrared is not supported.
- If you can manage to download HRM files with e.g. a windows emulator and Polar software you can import the file into TrailRunner. But it requires that you have worn a foot-pod during the workout as TrailRunner relies on the distance information to display a workout chart and merge the workout data with the course of a route.
- Any other application that can export GPX and TCX files from Polar devices can be used too, as TrailRunner can import these file formats.
> Supported Devices
Unsupported watches are: Polar RS300X
PS: Please let me know if you found a working solution.
How can I export my diary
24/08/08 12:04 Filed in: Diary
Problem: While TrailRunner already has some statistical graphs built in, you sometimes still want to create your own graphs like e.g "calories burnt per kilometer".
Solution: Select the diary entries in TrailRunner and use Edit > Copy to paste the data into an external spreadsheet application like NeoOffice or Excel. To select all entries in TrailRunner, use Command-A.
Tip: If you import your data into NeoOffice, follow these step to make NeoOffice use one column for each diary column.
Copy the diary entries
Open NeoOffice and select a new spreadsheet.
Press Command-P to paste the history in.
In the popup that appears, verify the Separator options - the settings should be “separated by tab".
Solution: Select the diary entries in TrailRunner and use Edit > Copy to paste the data into an external spreadsheet application like NeoOffice or Excel. To select all entries in TrailRunner, use Command-A.
Tip: If you import your data into NeoOffice, follow these step to make NeoOffice use one column for each diary column.
Copy the diary entries
Open NeoOffice and select a new spreadsheet.
Press Command-P to paste the history in.
In the popup that appears, verify the Separator options - the settings should be “separated by tab".
What's the resolution of the workout data graph?
27/04/09 22:39 Filed in: Import
Problem: When I view my workout data in other applications like garmin training center, the data points for heart-rate and speed are much more noisy detailed than in TrailRunner. Additionally the TrailRunner graph seems not to start at the left edge of the chart but appears to be indented. Furthermore a TrailRunner graph line sometimes is being drawn as a straight line without any intermediate data points, although there should be some.
Background: Other applications display the raw data of a device. This makes the graph unreadable. The philosophy of TrailRunner instead is to display the overall trend and development of your workout session.
Approach: TrailRunner has an auto split feature where the workout is being sliced into fixed distance intervals. For each interval the statistical median value is being calculated and one data point reflecting this value is then being used as a representative. As the location of the representative can be somewhere in-between the first interval, the graph might appear to be indented. Furthermore if representatives in adjacent intervals fall onto a straight line, only the edges representatives are being drawn and the connection line depicts the trend development.
Details: The auto split feature uses the following distance intervals. By the time of this writing it’s 250 m for workouts shorter than 10 km, then 500m up to 20 km, 1000 m up to 50 km and 10000 m from there on. A route with 42 km would then have 5 intervals.
Example: Below the identical workout in Garmin Training Center (upper image) and TrailRunner (lower image)
It’s rather obvious that the speed Graph in Garmin Training Center is full of noise and false signals. TrailRunner filters this out and gives you the statistical trend (blue line) for each interval (white circle within each interval separated by a white vertical line)
The thinner line around the blue line depicts the value range, so you still can make up that within the interval there was a great spread of values, but most of the time you stayed near the value depicted by the thick line.
BTW please note that the Garmin speed graph is upside down, so slower is a value near the top and faster is a value near the end. TrailRunner uses a the natural, mirrored display approach, where “better” is on top.
Background: Other applications display the raw data of a device. This makes the graph unreadable. The philosophy of TrailRunner instead is to display the overall trend and development of your workout session.
Approach: TrailRunner has an auto split feature where the workout is being sliced into fixed distance intervals. For each interval the statistical median value is being calculated and one data point reflecting this value is then being used as a representative. As the location of the representative can be somewhere in-between the first interval, the graph might appear to be indented. Furthermore if representatives in adjacent intervals fall onto a straight line, only the edges representatives are being drawn and the connection line depicts the trend development.
Details: The auto split feature uses the following distance intervals. By the time of this writing it’s 250 m for workouts shorter than 10 km, then 500m up to 20 km, 1000 m up to 50 km and 10000 m from there on. A route with 42 km would then have 5 intervals.
Example: Below the identical workout in Garmin Training Center (upper image) and TrailRunner (lower image)
It’s rather obvious that the speed Graph in Garmin Training Center is full of noise and false signals. TrailRunner filters this out and gives you the statistical trend (blue line) for each interval (white circle within each interval separated by a white vertical line)
The thinner line around the blue line depicts the value range, so you still can make up that within the interval there was a great spread of values, but most of the time you stayed near the value depicted by the thick line.
BTW please note that the Garmin speed graph is upside down, so slower is a value near the top and faster is a value near the end. TrailRunner uses a the natural, mirrored display approach, where “better” is on top.
Garmin Training Center shows a different distance as TrailRunner does
01/03/10 22:40 Filed in: Import
Problem: The ForeRunner device displays a distance for a workout. Garmin Training Center displays the same distance but TrailRunner displays a different distance.
Background: Your ForeRunner records geographical data points during the workout. At the same time your ForeRunner internally sums up the distance for the workout. It could sometimes happen that if you sum up the distances between each data points the result will be different to what the ForeRunner has summed up during the workout.
Reason: If you have intelligent recording enabled on your ForeRunner and the GPS signal quality isn't too good, the device will alter the recorded geographical course after it knows better. Problem is that at the same time the overall distance should also be adjusted, which is not the case.
Status: TrailRunner takes only the geographical information from the workout and takes this as the base. If your ForeRunner has internally stored a different distance, TrailRunner assumes this as an error in the ForeRunner device as it delivers contradictory information.
Background: Your ForeRunner records geographical data points during the workout. At the same time your ForeRunner internally sums up the distance for the workout. It could sometimes happen that if you sum up the distances between each data points the result will be different to what the ForeRunner has summed up during the workout.
Reason: If you have intelligent recording enabled on your ForeRunner and the GPS signal quality isn't too good, the device will alter the recorded geographical course after it knows better. Problem is that at the same time the overall distance should also be adjusted, which is not the case.
Status: TrailRunner takes only the geographical information from the workout and takes this as the base. If your ForeRunner has internally stored a different distance, TrailRunner assumes this as an error in the ForeRunner device as it delivers contradictory information.
