Endurance Junkies Blog

Training Log Start Day of Week Now Configurable

2010-01-12T15:01:00.004-05:00

You can now select which day of the week will be the start day of your training log. This day has defaulted to Sunday for all members in the past, but you can now set it to whatever day you would like. This affects how your Training Volume by Week charts display.

You can change this setting by:

Go to your Training Log
Click the Account Settings tab
Click the "Manage your training log Start Day of Week setting" link
Select the day and click the Submit button

Marine Corps Marathon Logistical Tips

2009-10-18T11:57:00.028-04:00

I've raced or spectated at several Marine Corps Marathons over the years. These are some logistical tips for getting around that should be of some help.

The MCM has a great Expo with a ton of vendors. This year it will be at the new DC Convention Center for the first time, but I doubt much will change in terms of logistics. If you can do it on Friday, it is not nearly as crowded and you won't spend too much time in line to pick up your race packet. Take the yellow or green line on the metro to the Mt. Vernon Sq/7th Street Station. There are public parking garages around the convention center, but I imagine that it will be a bit of a madhouse on Saturday.
If you are taking the Metro to and from the race, buy your farecard ahead of time. Make sure to include enough for the trip there and back, you don't want to wait in any additional lines to purchase a card the day of the race.
Check out the official Spectators Guide for getting around and the best places to watch the race.
The MCM materials are serious when they say there is nowhere to park at the start. Even if someone volunteers to drive you, they can't get that close to the start. Take the subway or an MCM shuttle bus from Crystal City. If you can, take the Blue or Yellow lines. Try to avoid changing trains at the Rosslyn station that morning, it gets incredibly crowded. If you are coming from the Orange line in VA, just give yourself a little extra time to change trains in Rosslyn. If you just have to drive or someone wants to drop you somewhere, park or have them drop you at the subway in Crystal City and take it north to the start. If you are coming from DC, get on the Blue or Yellow lines; avoid the Orange line and having to change trains in Rosslyn. Metro map
If you are checking a bag, get off at the Pentagon station and head to the Runner's Village. Give yourself a lot of time, this is a very long walk and will be crowded. If you don't need to drop a bag, consider getting off at the Arlington Cemetery station and heading directly to the corrals at the start. The Arlington Cemetery station can get mobbed, but once you are out, it is a shorter walk to the start than from the Pentagon station.
If it is a cold morning, buy some cheap sweats to wear that you can throw away at the start. They will be collected by the race and donated to charitable organizations.
The first few aid stations, especially the first one, will be unbelievably crowded. You do not have to grab a drink from the first table. Run a couple of tables down and then duck in to grab something.
The Awakening sculpture is no longer in Hains Point. :(
During the race, there is usually some hashers or a rugby team when you first enter Crystal City, around mile 22.5. They hand out beer and crackers/gold fish/pretzels/etc. If you eat some of the crackers, the only thing to wash it down with is beer. If you don't want the beer, don't eat the crackers. I found this out the hard way a few years ago.
The finish area is always chaotic, there are just too many people in that small space. They make changes every year to improve it, but something always happens. If someone is meeting you at the finish, let them know that it can take several minutes from the time you cross the finish line until the time you can see them. Before you exit the finish area, make sure to get your picture taken and get all the food and water that you need. Once you exit this area, you cannot return. No one else is permitted in this area.
If you are meeting someone at the finish, arrange ahead of time where that will be. The finish area is at the Iwo Jima Memorial and spills into Rosslyn. It becomes incredibly crowded. I suggest the Family Link Up area where you can meet by initial of last name or the UPS trucks where racers pick up their checked bags.
If you cannot find someone waiting for you at the finish and you did not carry a cell phone, just start asking people to borrow their cell phones. I've always been able to find someone that let me make a quick call on their phone. You can always play the "I just ran a marathon, please help me" card.
If you are taking the subway or a shuttle bus from the finish, be prepared to wait in some massive lines. Picking you up from the finish area is about the nicest thing someone can do for you that day.

Have some additional tips? Leave them in the comments.

EnduranceJunkies.com offers free online training logs for users of all sports and levels. They can also post your workouts to Facebook and Twitter to share with your friends. If you are participating in MCM 2010, sign up here to have the race automatically added to your schedule.

Jay Runs Every Day to Honor His Son

2009-08-27T17:52:00.014-04:00

A couple of years ago, while Jay was training to attend the FBI National Academy, he ran every day with his son. His son pushed him to complete his training. When he got to the academy and was running/training 7 days a week, he could hear his son pushing him as he was trudging along those long trails and miles.

Jay's son is in the US Army-Airborne and has been deployed for two years, including one year in Afghanistan. Jay has set a goal to run every day until his son returns home. This goal is Jay's way of honoring his son and showing him that his efforts did not go unnoticed and were not wasted.

Visit Jay's Endurance Junkies training log and offer him some encouragement.

Widgets to Display Workouts on Your Blog or Web Site

2009-07-19T17:24:00.006-04:00

We have released our first widget, the Recent Activity Widget, that you can place on your web site or blog. It displays your last three workouts with links to your training log. We have more widgets on the way. Please let us know of any ideas you have for other widgets.

If you do not have an EnduranceJunkies.com account, sign up now! Registration is free and only takes a few seconds.

Example of Recent Activity Widget:

Log Your Workouts Faster Than Ever

2009-06-25T18:37:00.000-04:00

We have updated our training logs so that they are even easier to use. Buttons representing activities are now used to add a new activity or sport to your training log. The top three activities that you log are displayed so that you are always only one click away from adding them to your log. Your training log keeps track of your top three activities and will change over time.

A button for adding a note to your log is displayed next to your top three activity buttons. Additional activities can be selected from a new, easy to use popup box that displays them in a much cleaner format than the old drop down box.

Share Your Training - Post Your Workouts to Facebook

2009-06-07T15:13:00.008-04:00

You can now post your EnduranceJunkies.com workouts to your Facebook Feed. This new option will appear at the top of the page when entering a new activity in your training log.

It is all pretty self explanatory, but there is more info here: www.endurancejunkies.com/facebook/. The post will look something like this in your Facebook Feed:

If you are using Facebook, check this out! It is a great way to share your training with your friends on Facebook!

New Functionality - Find

2009-05-27T22:09:00.001-04:00

Look for the new FIND option on the top menu, it allows you to search for other members, groups and events by location or interest code. As our membership gets larger, we'll add some additional functionality to allow you to further refine your search results.

For an example, search on 50 miles for United States and zip code 22202 (this is the Washington, DC area). You will see at least one member (me!) and a group that I created. Or check out 100 miles for South Africa and the city of Cape Town to view a bunch of our South African members!

Fun stuff!

Use Our New Group Functions to Manage Your Training Club or Team

2009-05-12T21:19:00.003-04:00

If you regularly train with a group of friends, a club or a team, you've got to check out our new Group functionality! Groups are used to organize groups of people around common interests and/or locations. Groups can be public or private and each group has its own forum for posting messages.

The neat thing is that you can create Events for your Group. Events can be anything, but are commonly used for organizing group workouts, happy hours, meetings, etc. Group members RSVP for these events, making it easy to manage and organize group workouts.

We have also built some exciting integration with Twitter, which will allow you to receive Group notices for things like new members and new events via Twitter.

To see an example of a training group, visit the Groups tab in my training log: http://endurancejunkies.com/profile/profile_groups.asp?ejid=2

To create a new Group, go to the Groups tab in your training log and click the Create New Group link. For more info about Groups and Group Events, check out our new help section: http://endurancejunkies.com/help/

Stay tuned for more cool functionality. For example, you will start seeing Groups and Events appearing in searches on the site.

Post Your Workouts to Twitter

2009-02-10T22:27:00.006-05:00

EnduranceJunkies.com can now automatically post your training log activities as tweets to your Twitter account. When you create a new training log entry, you will have the option to post it to Twitter. Only new activity postings can be sent to Twitter. Edits or deletes to your training log cannot be sent. Twitter allows only 140 characters per post, so an abbreviated entry is sent in the format below:

To set up this service for your EnduranceJunkies.com Account:

Go to your Account Settings or Training Log tab
Select the 'Post Your Workouts to Twitter' link
Select Yes to enable Twitter postings and provide your Twitter username and password.

That's it! Once you have enabled this functionality, you will see a new option at the top of the New Activity page to post it to Twitter. You have the option on whether or not to post each new workout.

If you do not have an EnduranceJunkies.com account, sign up now! Registration is free and only takes a few seconds.

Please visit Twitter.com for more information about the Twitter service and to create your free account.

New Functionality - Comments Tab

2009-02-10T20:30:00.000-05:00

I've been going back and forth with how to handle user comments in your training log. On one hand, I like having them tied to the daily log. On the other, I also like when all comments are laid out in a list and you can go back and read everything.

So I've decided to implement both. The comments in your training log will continue to function as they have in the past. But I've also added a new tab called Comments that will display all of your comments in one place. These are the same comments that show in your training log, it is just a different way to look at them.

Check it out and let me know what you think!

New Functionality for Your Profile & Training Log

2009-02-03T23:19:00.001-05:00

Today I am really excited to start rolling out some of the site enhancements that I have been working on for some time. You will notice a new look for your training log and profile. There are now tabs that run across the top of these pages that make for easier navigation between your profile, training log, charts and friends pages.

The profile page has been enhanced to include more information about yourself to make it easier to find other members that share your same interests. Enhancements include:

The ability to provide location information. This will help you find other members and groups near you.
The ability to specify your interests. This will help you find other members and groups with similar interests.
New functionality to upload a larger picture to display in your profile in addition to the smaller avatar picture.
Your training log description has been moved to your profile and is now called About Me. This is in response to requests to keep the training log page as simple as possible so that you can easily manage your workouts.

The Training Log page looks just a little different, but don't worry, the functionality has not changed! There is now more room on the page to display your logs and the various controls have been centralized at the top of the page where they are easier to find and use. The training volume chart has been expanded to include the past 12 weeks, giving you a better snapshot of your training history and progress.

The Account Settings page has been moved to a tab in your profile. This page centralizes all of the various site settings for your account onto one page.

These new enhancements are the first steps in providing new tools to help grow this community. Updating your location and interests will help you find other members that can provide advice, find people to train with or just to make new friends.

I welcome your feedback!

Recommend This Site to a Friend

2008-12-11T23:31:00.001-05:00

I have added a form that allows you to quickly send an email recommending this site to a friend. We do not collect the email addresses you provide, it is only used to send this one message to your friend. We appreciate the recommendations!

You will see a link to this form, Recommend Site to Friend, at the bottom of every page.

Export Your Training Log Data

2008-12-05T22:13:00.000-05:00

You can now export your training log activity & daily vitals to a file that you can save on your own computer. You can do this to backup your data, analyze it with another program or do whatever you need to do with it.

Look for the Export Your Training Log Data link on your Training Log tab.

Body Measurements Chart Now Available

2008-11-28T20:06:00.001-05:00

A new chart for tracking your body measurements is available under the Charts Tab in your Training Log. It will show the progress of your weight, body fat percentage, waist, hips or any other vital data point we capture over a date range that you select. You can choose to display the measurements by day, average by week or average by month.

You privacy settings for your vitals are enforced when displaying this chart. This will allow you to restrict who can view this chart.