RunningAHEAD Training Log Review

If you've just read Runner's World 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.

RunningAHEAD is free online-based software and they would love your donation if you love them back. 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 RunningAHEAD 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 "Settings" -> "My Log Preferences" and select "Allow everyone to see my running log". 

When in "Reports" you have the option of displaying a basic distance vs time graph or creating a completely custom one (see "Analytics" below). Every graph has a "Publish" button in the top right corner generating a script that allows to embed the graph into your website; Blogger manipulates it as an image (positioning and size options in editor); and the graph is updated as you add new workouts (!!!)
The  graph above has been embedded and initially had only two sample workouts.

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 - type in a new name, choose from used names, or from mapped routes
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; equipment input (ie - type of shoe); 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" -> "Download training data to your computer".

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 only negative for navigation is - clicking on "Messages" or "Settings" takes you outside of the "Training Log" zone and you lose the left-hand-side menu.

Analytics

The "Summary" displays mileage stats as well as a graph of distance categorized by run type on a time scale. The information on this page is fully customizable allowing you to add and delete a multitude of information including Activity Calendar, Activity Graph, Current Weather, and stats by timeframe.

The "Reports" menu 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 have a sleek look. Graphs can be saved so you can surround yourself with stats like a baseball star; and they are embeddable and updatable for your website!
The plot above shows my pace progression since I've started running. As you can see, I got hyper-excited about running faster right around April 21st, after which, if you look back at my notes, the runs started getting harder, then i really started to feel terrible during the runs and my pace deteriorated.

Route Mapping 

Accessible through the "Courses" menu.
Map types include street map, satellite, hybrid, terrain, MapMaker, topo, USGS sattelite, VirtualEarth; however topo, USGS, and MapMaker never loaded for me.
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 - all points are displayed along route. What a relief from having to wait until the software recognizes the mouse-over and displays the route points. Inserting points is easy by clicking directly on the route with "Insert Point" checked. What a thoughtful feature! - if you are plotting along the same route twice you don't have to worry about "inserting" or adding a new point - just uncheck the box!
Elevation data can be loaded on request.
GPS data upload - 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).

Other options include addition of "water break", "medical", and "general note" points; Panoramio integration to view photos along route, quick zoom to view entire route, route reversal, and the standard out-and-back, and undo.
Other data entry fields include manual default distance, surface type, and notes. You can select to keep the route private or make it public in the browsable route community.

Overall, a GREAT tool. It is almost not glitchy (I only had trouble with deleting notes), and MUCH less glitchy that my experience so far. In fact, this is the best mapping tool I've used so far. (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.

RunningAHEAD vs Runner's World DOES 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 is fantastic - 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.

Runner's World Training Log Review
Active Trainer Log Review