News Archive

In this section you can find all news items that are no longer news.

Running tools on Run site

Posted by Mladen, 6th April 2005

First of all, new version of Run is on its way. However, since things got just a tad bit more complicated than I anticipated at first, it will take a few more days to sort everything out and make sure all features do what they are supposed to. I know that some of you are eagerly anticipating this release, because quite a few novelities will be introduced. Hang on just a little bit more, you definitely won't regret it. I promise.

But I've got good news too. As of today, you can find a few fine running tools on the Run website. Yes, I have finally made available pace, goal time and splits calculators right here on the site, so you don't have to install Run, just for the calculators, but these might change your mind about Run too, who knows. You'll find these under Running Tools in the main navigation.

I know that most of you already know what I am talking about, but I'll do a little explaining anyways.

Pace Calculator. Use pace calculator if you want to find out how fast you'll have to run to cover the distance in the desired time. Go to Pace Calculator.
Goal Time Calculator. Goal time calculator is a handy tool when you want to adjust your pace over the chosen distance to find out how long it will take you to cover it in time. Go to Goal Time Calculator.
Splits Calculators. This one an aboslute must for all those that are serious about your racing. Use splits calculator to develop the right strategy for your fitness level and personal bests alike. Go to Splits Calculator.

Whether you're an experienced competitor or a novice, you'll probably admit that these are cool daydreaming tools too. So have fun using them.

Enjoy your running.

Mladen

Critical updates and numerous improvements in Run 0.7.3

Posted by Mladen, 25th February 2005

Latest version of Run (0.7.3) is the last minor release before the next major release that is planned for the second half of March. However, Run 0.7.3 could as well be labeled a major release, since there have been literally tens of changes including some important improvements.

First of all, I have discovered a bug in shoe management that accidentaly deletes an entry in runners table when a selected shoe should be deleted instead. This is now fixed. Besides this important change there have been other additions to Shoe Management functionality. These include but are not limited to: when shoe name is changed, all entries in a runners table when this shoe was used are updated and when shoe name is changed a check is performed whether a shoe with the same name already exists or not.

There has also been an application wide change in how date and time input forms present and handle user input. From this version on, runners no longer have to manually input dates and times of their runs, but can do so via drop-down menus. This is definitely a big step towards user-friendly interface that has always been one of the most important aspects of Run.

However, majority of all other application-wide changes were made "behind the scenes" and are thus not immediately noticable to the user, but do contribute to streamlined functioning of Run. To explore the details of all changes that make the 0.7.3 version of Run a recommended upgrade, see the Change Log.

Please note that there has also been a slight change in the table where shoes are stored, so it is recommended that you use a small script that handles those changes. To find out more about this change see, Upgrading Run.

I hope that all these improvements are important contribution to the overall user satisfaction. Drop me a note if you have a question or a suggestion for further improvements.

You can get your copy of Run 0.7.3 here.

Enjoy your running.

Mladen

Shoe Wear Bar and Splits Calculator in Run 0.7.2

Posted by Mladen, 15th January 2005

Run 0.7.2 is another minor release featuring several functionality additions and enhancements. Probably the most important new feature is Splits Calculator. Splits Calculator is an extremely useful and powerful addition to the indispansable Pace Calculator.

The Splits Calculator, which is accessible via Pace Calculator, does all those split times calculations for you. It is an essential tool in planning your strategy for races, especially longer races such as half-marathons and marathons. All you have to provide are your race pace (which you can calculate using the Pace Calculator), distance and length of one segment, and the Splits Calculator tells your cumulative time for each split or segment of the race. Once you start using it, you'll never look back to paper-and-pencil-scracth-your-head strategy planning.

For further details and using tips, see the Splits Calculator section of the Run manual.

Another cool new feature of this Run release is the Shoe Wear Bar added to the Shoe Management. For each pair of shoes you can now track wear-and-tear via a color bar that changes color in relation to how worn out are your shoes: green for new and top condition shoes, through various hues of lime, yellow, orange and finally red which means that it is time to retire your shoes because both you and your shoes will appreciate such action.

For further details on the Shoe Wear Bar and tips on how to put Shoe Management functionality to work for you see the Shoe Management section of the Run manual.

Many will also probably appreciate a few changes and additions to the Run documentation that is still in README.txt file, but is getting better and better.

You can get your copy of Run 0.7.2 here.

Release of Run 0.7.1

Posted by Mladen, 4th January 2005

Run is an application that replaces the old fashioned paper diary where runners log details of their running activities. Run has been since its inception developed with runner's needs in mind, which is reflected in its ease of installation, configuration, use, and most importantly, its functionality.

Run 0.7.1 release is a minor release featuring several usability feature additions/enhancements and a few fixes. Probably the most important feature addition is introduction of shortcuts within Run. From now on users can use solely their keyboards to navigate through Run. Another useful enhancement is that runners can now view and thus request data for both their active and retired shoes from the main display page.

Other than that version 0.7.1 of Run includes only minor fixes and functionality changes.

You can download Run here.

Run Now Includes Shoe Management Functionality

Posted by Mladen, 19th November 2004

Run 0.7 is a second public release of Run. The main reason for this release is addition of shoe management tool which helps runners track usage of all their shoes. Shoe management in Run makes tracking your shoe usage trivial, since you won't have to track the usage on paper anymore.

Main functionality of shoe management tool includes:

adding shoes and specifying properties for each shoe,
retireing used shoes,
reactivating retired shoes, and
above all, integration with Run, so that you can use all shoe management functionality with other Run functionality.

You can download Run 0.7 here.

Official Run Release

Posted by Mladen, 5th October 2004

Run 0.6.1 as a first public release of Run, has been thoroughly tested and used by multiple real runners for almost a year. Which turned out to be ample time to remove all and any obscure or unnecessary functionality, and more importantly, during that time runners' comments, suggestions and needs were taken into account.

Current version of Run thus includes:

tracking current and past distance covered in a given month/year,
amount of time spent on the runs,
tracking shoe usage that helps prevent unnecessary injuries,
pace calculator that calculates speed in km/h and min/km for the desired distance when either total time and distance or per kilometer time and distance are provided, and
native support for tracking data for multiple runners with username/password access.

You can download Run 0.6.1 here.