Tracking progress on Spreadsheets
 

hi all, now that i got a bike computer i was wondering if any of you can help in designing up a spreadsheet on excell in order to enter in all the data and how to best detect if im progressing or not.

i got a basic idea but what im sure some of you have set up some good ones in order to best see how my progress is going.

my bike comp has cadence,speed,ave speed,high speed,dist.. i also have a seperate heart monitor.

I did keep stats on Excel for awhile, but found a better tool in "Cyclistats" (http://www.shastasoftware.com/CycliStats/index.htm). But it does cost a few bucks.

Use it my selves. 'Shasta' appears here at the forum as SSP

thanks for that but i'm sure that you can do it just as good on excel..

Plus cycling is expensive these days and i've spent already too much cash on all my gear..

you may already know that there are some free web-based riding logs. i use activebody.org, and others may remember or mention the others....

The input I use are date, hours, minutes (I round to the closest 1/4 minute), miles, and average heart rate (add cadence for your tracking). I accumulate the following stats and graph/tabulate: cumulative miles, miles/month, miles/wk, avg miles/ride, hours/month, avg minutes riding/day, avg speed/month, max stats (speed, ride length, ride duration) and maintenance info (miles since lube/chain clean, chain miles, tune up miles, and tire miles). Many charts also link to the previous year's data for comparison. I do not link more than the previous year. Each new year takes about 20 minutes to recreate the previous year's links to the new spreadsheet.

Actually this would be a classic instance for using a database rather than a spreadsheet. The spreadsheet could do it of course but you would always be having to manually enlarge it where as the database would automatically enlarge itself. Do you have a database program. It shouldn't be that hard and there would probably be a template or wizard that would make it easier.

Regards, Anthony

fuji, that's pretty good, if you could maybe post your spreadsheet format so i can check it out that would be great.

bikejournal.com

I use this program

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=121978

Great site.

Here's a format I use that might give you some ideas.

I create a workbook file with a page (worksheet) for each month.

I also have a summary page that rolls up some of the information into averages and summations.

I track the data whether I'm out pleasure riding (usually w/o HRM) or doing my workout rides. For me, collecting and logging the data is about as enjoyable as the ride.

I also liberally use the "Insert Comment" feature of Excel to annotate any information that might apply to a particular value in a specific cell.

Monthy worksheet view:

http://tinypic.com/de4nqp.jpg

Summary page/worksheet:

http://tinypic.com/de4r5e.jpg

Good luck!
..rickko..

rickko-

Nice work.

My Polar HRM downloads all that stuff, but honestly I don't train on such a repetitive basis that comparing one week to the next is that useful.

In terms of tracking progress, I have one ride that I'll do at least once a week. I know how much time it generally takes, so it's pretty easy to tell whether I'm improving or not. The only other metric I pay much attention to is what gear I'm using going up the big climbs. I've noticed that I tend to go up a gear a full week or two before see much change in overall time.

Thanks.
..r..

I keep it simple. Date, time started, duration, avg speed, max speed, distance, route, and weather (temperature, max/avg wind, sunny, etc.), new sheet for each year with running totals at the bottom. I have a seperate sheet in the workbook for repairs, maintenance, upgrades where I note date, mileage, and what was done/bought/changed. Finally, I added a sheet with goals for the year.