Daily Mile – Running Log meets Facebook

Daily Mile has pioneered a new category of online logbooks.  At heart, Daily Mile is like a specialized version of Facebook for athletes.  It fits into the category of “social media” but, instead of sharing videos of pets & children, Daily Mile members share their daily runs and race plans.  Many runners keep logs of their daily runs.  Having a blank space to fill in a logbook can be a strong incentive to get out the door when it’s raining or your enthusiasm is waning.  Having a record makes it possible to review your training before an important race and get insights about what worked or what went wrong.  And, the record makes it possible to recall so much more about the great experiences you had running months, years and even decades ago. A few “old school” folks still write up each run in a logbook.  Some of us track our mileage in a spreadsheet.  A few use a log application running on a PC or Mac.  And more recently, we have seen the emergence on online logs like Motion Based (www.motionbased.com), which cater to runners who want to upload data from their GPS watches. I have been using Daily Mile for about six weeks, long enough to get a sense of its strengths and weaknesses as a logbook and, more importantly, its promise as a way to connect with running friends.  I will comment first on Daily Mile as a logbook. Daily Mile (www.dailymile.com) is a web application that displays in your favorite browser.  Use of it is free and the only personal information you have to supply to create an account is an e-mail address.  So far there’s no advertising on the site.  Daily Mile is more than adequate as a basic logbook but lacks advanced graphing and reporting features you would expect in an application you pay for and install on your computer. The image at the right shows the basic form for “Manual Input” of a workout. You can enter as much or as little information as you wish.  The button for Advanced Options gives you additional fields for tracking gear use, average and maximum heart rates, perceived effort, automatic calculation of calories burned, weather conditions and optional key words (e.g., “race”) to aid in searching your workouts. The “Add Route” tab gives you a Google Maps feature to create a map of a route and save it for later selection.  You can also create a route by uploading a gpx file. “Sync Device” supports automatic upload from either Garmin gps or Nike+ devices.  You need to first create a free account at Garmin Connect or at Nike+.  I’ve been using Sync Device with both a Garmin Edge and Garmin Forerunner.  After I created the Garmin Connect account and shared the account name and password with Daily Mile, I’ve been able to quickly and easily upload basic information about my runs and rides.  Note:  Daily Mile does not support display of more advanced data such as summary data for individual laps, heart rate graphs, speed graphs, and elevation.  If you use these data, you will want to also continue using a more advanced log application like Garmin Connect or SportTracks. Once you have entered a workout, you have several possible views of your activity (and the activity of anyone you have “Friended”).  The Profile page (shown below) lists your recent workouts.  The graph at the top of the page shows a simple summary of your workouts one week at a time.  If you let your cursor hover over a daily entry, a summary pops up for the workouts on that day.  You can page back through your training a week at a time. The Home page is the social media heart of Daily Mile.  As you can see in the screen snap below, the Home page shows both your recent log entries plus the log entries of anyone you have "Friended" and any comments on the workouts.  There's also a weekly Leader Board (not visible) that shows graphically your total miles and the total miles of your friends. The Training page has three different views of your workout data:   - Analytics – simple graphs of distance, page, time, feeling, etc,  - List – a table listing of your training log entries that you can print or copy & paste into Excel, - Leader Board – you vs. your "friends" The Community menu on Daily Mile has options to find Routes saved by others, locate People to “friend,” setup Challenges, list Events you plan to run, contribute to online Forums, or join a Group. Bottom Line - There are more powerful alternatives for standalone training log.  What is really great about Daily Mile is the community of runners, the connections you can make and the support you can find there.  Watch for news to come about a GRTC Members group on Daily Mile.