Skater's Online Training Log

The purpose of the log is to provide a convenient place for skaters to keep track of their training or learning experience. Several skaters have noted that when using similar online resources they are more motivated to get out and skate. As you approach that first 100 miles, or 500 miles, or 1,000 miles, the urge to meet your goal, whatever it is, can really keep you going. It can also serve as a truth meter, so we do not have to rely on memory of how often we are really skating and what progress we are making.

This Log gives you a place to enter each skate, adding both the distance skated (in statute miles) and some estimate of the time (in hours and minutes) spent skating. Since an average speed is automatically computed, you can choose to correct the time for rest periods, or just use total times. There are arguments for both choices. In the end, when training for a marathon, it could be the real total time might be the best measure of progress.

Estimates of time or distance should be adequate to learn much from your records, but often we know more precise values of both. Mile markers are along the Burke-Gilman trail, Green Lake is 2.7 miles per rounding, and so on. If you use a GPS, you can measure the length of your route—but you may have to do this several times to account for lost signals. The GPS will also give you average speed, total time moving, etc... to the extent they are reliable. It is not uncommon along the Burke-Gilman Trail, for example, to lose the signal for some period of time, in which case you get shortchanged on distance if just relying on that output.

If you leave the time entry blank, the average speed will not be computed for that entry and the overall average speed will not be affected. The total average speed is determined from the sum of all times and the sum of all distances that had times recorded with them.

For those who skate both outdoors and indoors (speed skating or indoor lessons), you can mark your entry accordingly. For indoor sessions you will need to make some estimate of distance, based on the typical 100m track length. Fifty laps would be about 3 miles. An hour lesson with free skating is likely twice that or so, and a speed skating practice could be considerably more. Details and precise values are not so important, but keeping a record of all skating sessions should be helpful, even if they do not add a lot of miles. The percentages of indoor and outdoor miles is shown in the bottom of the list of your own log page.

The Duration recorded in the All Logs is the number of days from first entry to last entry.

To use the log, you must first Register a Username. There is a space for Name and email address, both of which remain strictly private and are not displayed to any user, and they are not distributed in any manner whatsoever to third parties (the first party is you, the second party is skateNW.com). A valid email address is required as your password is mailed immediately to that address when you press Register. If you do not get your password in a few minutes, then you may have a junk mail or spam filter in place. If so, go to your approved list of mail addresses and add SkateNW.com to your approved mailers list and then use the Forgot Login link (on the Log in page) to have the information sent again.

You can use the My profile link to change your password to something more convenient, and you can change your name (?) and Handle and email address. The username remains permanent. We suggest using the same username and password that you use on SkateNW, but this is not required.

Once logged in, you have access to the options on the top left of the screen. A typical sequence might be: (1) Go to the Log page to get an overview of what has been entered by others since your last visit. (2) Click Login to enter username and password. (3) Display My Log to review what you have entered in the past. (4) Click Log Entry to add your latest skate, or set of skates. And (5) after making your entry note how your average values and totals have changed.

If you make a mistake on a log entry, then use the Delete Option to delete it from the My Log display and then enter the correct one. All the average values and totals will be recomputed based on the corrected inputs. The All Logs page is essentially the home page, just what you see when you first arrive at the Online Training Log.

Anyone visiting the Training Log can see and Sort the list of logs (click any column header to sort on that column), but to make an entry, you must first log in with your username and password. You can click any handle to see individual entries, but you can only change your own.

If you forget your password or username, then go to the Forgot Login? link and enter the email address you used to register and that information will be immediately mailed to you again.

If you have questions about the use of the Log or suggestions about improvements, please post them on the Message Board at skateNW.com.

This Online Training Log is provided to the inline skating community compliments of www.skateNW.com and the friends of skating at www.elibrabooks.com—the new ebook solution.

We look forward to your participation and feedback.