Runner's World Training Log Review

If you've just read RunningAHEAD Training Log Review - no need to read the complete review below.

The following summary will do: RunningAHEAD has every feature that Runner's World Log lacks and is a complete easy-to-use package for logging your training. Scroll to the bottom of the post to see a quick summary comparison of the two.

Runner's World Log is free online-based software and is easily accessible through the RW home page top menu. You can see my criteria for evaluation here.

Blogger Integration
"TOOLS" -> "Display Training Stats" provides options to integrate basic and concise data into another website by pasting the automatically generated scripts:



Customization is limited to selecting # of workouts to be displayed (optional parameter); and formatting of border, background color, and font. 
The workouts "Run: 9mi" are linked to RW log and open up the entry for the selected training session containing all workout details.

NOTE: In order to make your training log viewable for everyone go to "OPTIONS" in the top right corner of the log, click "Training Log Profile" and check the two privacy boxes.

This integration feels a little limited, but overall I am happy with the concise and to-the-point format that summarizes what you are up to and providing links to see all pertinent information.
A big minus is that the graphs are not embeddable (see "Analytics" below). At best, it may be possible to embed the summary time vs distance graph via iframe.

Design Integrity
(click image to zoom)
Input allows a multitude of data including:
Distance - mi or km
Total time only - average pace is calculated for you, however detailed entry for pace-per-mile is not available
Type of run - easy, fartlek, hill, interval, long, race, tempo
Route - requires to select from a list of maps forcing you to use the integrated mapping tool
Weather - temperature as well as options for weather conditions
Exertion level - allows to separately rank work out quality and effort on a 1-10 scale
Workout-specific details -  great entry options for intervals, including ability to save preset interval workouts; as well as placement details for a race
Heart rate data - resting, average, and max
Notes - field for notes and a separate space for a link
Other - weight input; shoe input; a great bonus is ability to select from various workout types including biking, swimming, strength training, etc. 
Another huge bonus is ability to export ALL of the above stats in simple Excel-compatible format (as a tab delimited *.txt file) and what you do with that data is only limited by your imagination :) This is done via "TOOLS" -> "Export".

Usability
Very user-friendly and was very quick for me to figure out. The menu is concise and needed items are easy to find. The log work area is segregated from the outside RW content, which does not get in the way.

Analytics

The "SUMMARY" displays mileage stats as well as a graph of distance categorized by run type on a time scale.

The "GRAPHS" provides an amazing opportunity to create a very customizable graphs of any and all data that you have recorded for your workouts! This feature is absolutely great, the graphs look good, HOWEVER they are not embeddable and not savable and therefore not auto-updatable. This is terrible and a real buzz-killer. The only savior is the ability to export all of this data and work with it outside of RW using Excel.

Route Mapping 

Accessible through the "ROUTES" menu.
Map types include street map, satellite, hybrid, topo, and USGS sattelite; however topo and USGS never loaded for me. There is no Terrain map.
Adding points has no delay like in WalkJogRun or MapMyRun, and thankfully there is an option to NOT auto-center the map at every point, which can get a little annoying.
Editing points is very quick and easy because there is a separate editing mode which displays all points! What a relief from having to wait until the software recognizes the mouse-over and displays the route points. The downside is that you can't add a point between two others.
Elevation data can be loaded on request. 
GPS data upload - no capability

Other options include addition of "water break", "medical", and "general note" points; the standard last-point-undo and out-and-back tools are available.
Other data entry fields include manual distance, surface type, and notes. You can select to keep the route private or make it public in the browsable route community.

Overall, a good tool. It is somewhat glitchy when loading maps and adding notes, however less glitchy that my experience so far. I wouldn't mind using this route mapping tool if I were to switch to the RW log. (See all of my mapper reviews here).


Runner's World vs RunningAHEAD comparison

According to gossip Runner's World bought the rights for RunningAHEAD software, but never bothered to update it; while RunningAHEAD continuously makes improvements to it's software adding content and working out all those annoying deficiencies.

Runner's World vs RunningAHEAD DOES NOT have the following features:

- Saving custom graphs

- Publishing graphs to your website via embedding the automatically generated script

- Uploading GPS data via Garmin Communicator as well as from a plethora of file options, including GPX (any GPS device), TCX (Garmin Training Center), HRM (Polar), FITLOG (SportTracks), CSV (MapMyRun, custom), ZIP (Polar ProTrainer, Runner's World, etc)

- Manual entry for route name without requirement to map it

- Mapper - option to "follow roads", ability to insert points, less glitches (the only one I found is not being able to delete a note), and a huge map space while still keeping point plotting and map loading lightning fast.

RunningAHEAD Training Log Review
Active Trainer Log Review