I'm ready for more data !!
This is for a course project in Scientific Visualization. My son, and two nephews have been running HS X-country hence I have 3 teams performances but I would love much more data. That bad news is that I would like you to email all your HS or College team race data. The good news is that I will send back (quickly) the first ten teams data, with performance analysis data , and nice graphs. The best news is that hopefully I will make this into a web server so that coaches and runners can submit the data and get instant results (with graphs and plots).
The main reason I need lots of team data is to come up with a "normal" team performance curve for a XC season. Thus coaches can compare their own team against others, and possibly improve their coaching, etc.
Another reason is to somehow grade or categorize those "difficult" or "easy" courses, which can be done with enough data over several seasons. I hope to come up with a "difficulty factor" say .75 to 1.25 which will help runners gauge their performance better.
For example the Franklin Park 5k seems to be an "easy" course based on my charts so far, changing the distance from 3.107 to 3.04 (which was suggested by somebody -4850meters instead of 5000) seemed to bring the performances back in line. BTW if anybody has info on this type of stuff, previous works, books, etc please let me know about them.
Now for the details.......
My program tracks up to 20 runners per team for any number of races. It can handle runners that go back and forth from varsity to jv and viceaversa. If you would like to see performance curves for boys and girls on the same charts that can be done (keeping boys and girls on the same 20 person team ) It can handle JV's running a different course..(but will be on the same graph chart as varsity)
For each race the program calculates the Performance Factor (PF) and pace for each runner. The PF and PACE for the TOP 5, TOP 7 and ALL runners is also calculated. The TOP 5 and TOP 7 spread (in minutes) is also calculated.
The PF was put on the net a while back, and is similar to Purdy points. PF = (3337/pace)*(distance)^0.0689 where pace - minutes per mile, distance in kilometers ^ means to the power (please someone let me know if there is a better method based on charts)
A PF of 1000 is close to the world record for all distances.
Basically this normalizes each race based on distance. Since these vary from 1.3 to 3.3 miles in High school something like this is needed.
EMAIL YOUR TEAM DATA TO ME!!!!!! ..... FIRST 10 REQUESTS WILL GET RESULTS BACK GARRANTEED.
I will (reluctantly) take data by fax (only first 10 garranteed) however, my computer fax is not on all the time, so you have to call first. (or email letting me know when you will send it) (508-657-8878) fax (508-658-7411)
*****************************************************************
Now the tricky part ..... input format..(later on this will be a web form) Please send E-mail in the following format:
(everything after // is a comment... don't put in e-mail)
________________________________________________________________________
Belmont Hill Varsity&JV // team name
Belmont // home course name
2.96 // home course distance
Ryan Bob Neal Joe Chad Todd Dave Mike Jaret Will // 1st 10 runners names
Chris James Jack Dan Stan Kevin John JamesR Sean // 2nd 10 names
// names can be anything... r1 r2 r3... if you want anonimity
// if you could put age...that would be nice... I don't use it yet
// but It would be a next step
// the order of these names always stays the same for every race
// that is, the list of times must always be in the same order
// as the list of names... hence times will not be in order of finish
16 17 17 15 17 ...... //age- blank if not known
300 300 200 100 250 100 50 ..... // miles in 10 weeks prior to season
// again not using the summer training miles yet
// now comes the race data
09/17/94 Lincoln-Sudbury Invitational //date course against-who
// spaces separate data-items ... so use a "-" for two word entries
2.7 0.0 0.0 0.0 // varsity-boys-dist(miles) JV-boys-dist VGirls JVgirls
88 hot humid flat course, grass, woods // temp. & comments .. not used yet
15:03 14:32 15:31 1726 1747 - - - - -
- - - - - - - - 17:07
// times for runners ..use "-" if DNF or not known
// also you don't have to put in ":" between minutes and seconds
// separate times by at least one space
09/24/94 Franklin-P Bay-State
3.0138 2.5 0.0 0.0
68 drizzle grass dirt
16:33vb5 16:59vb 17:49 18:34 - - 15:21jb21 - - -
- - - - - - - - - -
//if you have a different race for JB junior boys, or you just
// want to distinquish btween varsity and JV put the letters
// "vb" or "jb" after the time. you can also put a place
// which is not used currently. But pace and PF are calculated
// based on the JB course (2nd ) if the letters "jb" follow a runners time
// if no letters are after a time... the first or Varsity course distance
// is assumed.
09/28/94 Andover Phil.And.
3.107 0.0 0.0 0.0
85 hot& humid grass and woods
17:27 17:14 1815 1935 1832 2011 2000 2048 2023 -
2055 2147 - - - - - - 2013
.....
......
more race data
Now your reward ... the analysis and pretty plots of the data.
For the first 10 people who send me team data I will send
you the following analysis... which ever way you desire.
(if you can't handle Gif or BMP I can send you the results
in the mail) let me know how you would like the results.
(I could fax them...but you won't see the pretty colors)
Also let me know how you feel about letting others see the
data. For now I am planning on showing overall plots and statistics
for all teams combined. Hence individual team results would be
protected. But feel free to change the names to protect the
innocent. I'm just looking for the facts M'am.
OUTPUTS -
1 - A color graph ( gif,bmp or something similar) of your
runners PF values over all the races.
2 - A color graph (gif,bmp etc) of your teams performance
over all the races. (top 5 pf, top 7 pf, all pf, sp 5, sp 7
normalized pace (inverted and scaled to home course)
3 - A plot of all team data averaged so far
4 - Tabular race data with hard numbers similar to example below
Currently there are several outputs from the program. Normally the race
data is done in landscape where all 20 runners are accross the top.
This is a modified example for e-mail only. If you are not
to far from Wilmington Mass. I could fax you a nicer looking output.
Output format (email - text)
X-COUNTRY RACE DATA (team name)
Runner1 Runner2 Runner3 Runner4 Runner5 Runner6 Runner7
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Race 1 data
time time time time time time time
PF Pace PF Pace PF Pace PF Pace PF Pace PF Pace PF Pace
Date Course Against Who Dist-VB Dist-JB Dist-VG Dist-JG
top 5 PF top 5 Pace top 7 PF Pace All PF Pace Spread 7 Spread 5
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Race 2 data
.............................
etc
Example data (only 7 runners ..can & will do up to 20)
X-COUNTRY RACE DATA BELMONT HILL
Ryan Bob Neal Joe Chad Todd Dave
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
15:03 14:32 15:31 17:26 16:12 17:47
662 5:34 686 5:23 643 5:45 572 6:27 615 6:00 561 6:35 0 0:00
09/17/94 Lincoln-Su Invitation 2.7000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000
637.60 5:49 620 6:01 620 6:01 3:15 2:35
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
16:33 16:59 17:49 18:34
678 5:29 660 5:38 629 5:55 604 6:10 0 0:00 0 0:00 0 0:00
09/24/94 Franklin p Bay state 3.0138 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000
630.60 5:55 612 6:05 612 6:05 3:21 2:43
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
17:27 17:14 18:15 19:35 18:32 20:11 20:00
664 5:37 672 5:33 635 5:52 592 6:18 625 5:58 574 6:30 579 6:26
09/28/94 Andover Phil. And. 3.1070 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000
637.60 5:52 618 6:02 591 6:19 2:57 2:21
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
16:56 17:00 17:27 18:24 17:52 18:51 18:38
647 5:44 645 5:46 628 5:55 596 6:14 613 6:03 581 6:23 588 6:19
09/30/94 belmont St.Sebasti 2.9500 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000
625.80 5:57 615 6:04 603 6:11 1:55 1:28
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
16:17 16:19 17:07 17:22 18:34 18:25
673 5:31 672 5:32 640 5:48 631 5:53 0 0:00 590 6:18 595 6:15
10/07/94 belmont GDA&LAW 2.9500 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000
642.20 5:48 626 5:57 557 6:42 2:38 2:08
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
16:55 17:40 18:12 18:16 19:16 19:51 20:20
685 5:27 656 5:41 636 5:51 634 5:53 601 6:12 584 6:23 570 6:33
10/12/94 stpauls Stpauls 3.1070 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000
642.40 5:49 622 6:00 561 6:39 3:13 2:21
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
16:07 16:39 17:05 17:56 18:40
682 5:27 661 5:38 644 5:46 0 0:00 613 6:04 589 6:18 0 0:00
10/15/94 Belmont BBN&tabor 2.9600 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000
637.80 5:50 621 6:00 563 6:37 2:54 2:33
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
15:56 17:11 17:00 18:25 18:41
690 5:23 0 0:00 640 5:48 647 5:45 0 0:00 597 6:13 589 6:19
10/19/94 belmont Rox Latin 2.9600 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000
633.00 5:53 618 6:02 568 6:34 3:16 2:41
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
16:56 17:23 17:27 17:49 18:31
676 5:31 659 5:39 656 5:41 643 5:48 0 0:00 618 6:02 0 0:00
10/22/94 Thayer Thayer 3.0730 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000
650.40 5:44 634 5:53 621 6:00 2:19 1:35
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
16:00 16:56 17:31 17:20 17:40 17:57 18:06
687 5:24 650 5:43 628 5:55 635 5:51 623 5:58 613 6:04 608 6:07
10/29/94 Belmont Rivers 2.9600 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000
644.60 5:46 636 5:52 574 6:29 2:06 1:40
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
16:57 17:39 18:35 18:40 18:39 19:24 19:54
691 5:24 664 5:37 630 5:55 628 5:57 628 5:56 604 6:11 589 6:20
11/05/94 GDA ISL's 3.1400 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000
648.20 5:46 631 5:54 631 5:54 2:57 1:43
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
17:46 17:47 19:15 18:44 18:49 19:54 20:58
662 5:38 661 5:39 611 6:07 628 5:57 625 5:58 591 6:19 561 6:39
11/12/94 HOTCHKISS NEW ENGLAN 3.1500 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000
637.40 5:52 619 6:01 571 6:32 2:42 1:29
**************************************************************************
P.S.
I appreciate it if you have gotten this far. I would like to
compare college data with HS. It should be quite different. So
please send me your data. Also let me know about other ideas
or what other analysis could be done. I have looked at plots
only showing home course data which does give a better idea of
the overall improvement. I will put some Gifs up of some
example plots very shortly and will give a web link.
Again all thoughts & ideas welcome
Patrick Hoffman
phoffman@cs.uml.edu
(if you would like to mail me your data)
2 Fletcher La
Wilmington, MA 01887
".....more input....."