Excel Swim Log Template?

RE: Excel Swim Log Template?

Former Member — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:23:35 GMT

Doesn't USMS have a results database that tracks all your meet times for you? Only if the meet director submits them. We have that problem in my LMSC. Only the zones meets and one or two random others get sent to USMS database. Most just e-mail the results to us and we have to track our own.

RE: Excel Swim Log Template?

Former Member — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 16:55:39 GMT

Just for information, both hy-tek and easyware use micosoft access to run their programs.

RE: Excel Swim Log Template?

Former Member — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 15:34:13 GMT

But the idea of avoiding the descending line to the boneyard is appealing. Not, considering that you have (one -anyone-everyone- has) only two choices 1- (relatively slow) descending line to the boneyard or 2- diving/jumping/crashing into the boneyard :oldman::oldman:

RE: Excel Swim Log Template?

Former Member — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 13:58:00 GMT

They have a nice set up on floswimming. When you register with the site you can then go to floswimmer and post all the times on line. Please look at the Hollidaysburg YMCA masters and you should see the times I have posted for this season. Loren

RE: Excel Swim Log Template?

beluga — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 12:14:06 GMT

Attached is a simple excel spreadsheet I use to track times & splits. The first line is a sample data; the yellow highlights is entered while the green is calculated. Enter the date/stroke/distance and subtractive splits, and the cumulative split and final time is calculated. The final time is max from the cummulative splits, to save a little bit of typing. If you don't have splits, you can just enter the final time over the formula. The time boxes use the custom format m:ss.00. Times must be entered x:xx.xx so excel will recognize them as times.

RE: Excel Swim Log Template?

Chris Stevenson — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 12:14:02 GMT

Jeff's job as Top Ten recorder and registrar is almost like having another full time job. Eek. :bolt: I actually don't think we have Potomac Valley LMSC records, although that would be unusual. I've never even seen them. I think Jeff must be refusing to keep them. lol I'm not opposed to keeping track of my times if there was some easy way to do it. Although I'm quite fine with the fact that I can't remember any of my 50 evilstroke times. Jim: Shame on you, wasting that math SAT and lapsing into early math alzheimers. My verbal score was higher and I am math hater. I don't think I can do middle school math anymore ... All right, I just read Peg's post. You're all a serious bunch of geeks and nerds. :thhbbb: Hey, I'm a chemistry professor, a certain amount of geekiness comes with the territory. (Yes, I actually teach students a 6-lesson Excel tutorial for statistical data analysis; believe it or not, Excel proficiency has helped some of them land their first job/promotion.) Based on what I hear, I think Registrar is much harder than Top Ten; I certainly wouldn't want to trade. And you don't keep LMSC records because yours would be so embarrasingly SLOW compared to ours...perfectly understandable.

RE: Excel Swim Log Template?

Chris Stevenson — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 12:06:06 GMT

When I set up my spreadsheet 4 years ago, I didn't have luck getting the time format to work the way I wanted, so I did something different. It sounds like most of you are looking for a data warehouse, but I also wanted to have some analysis capabilities via excel's PivotTables. To get the PivotTables to show up the way I wanted, by ascending time, I had to create a "total time in seconds" column. I have the time entered as text, and then have a bunch of hidden columns that break out the minutes and seconds (including the decimal) based on the text entry. Last, there's a column with a formula that adds them up into total seconds (a 5:05.05 500 is a 305.05). It is a pretty round-about way to get what I wanted, but I have the text "time" column in my PivotTable and don't really look at the total seconds column. Yes, I basically use it as a database for our LMSC, while still allowing me to do calculations with the times. (Only recently have I ported my own swims to Excel.) Jeff, you probably have it set up just the way you like it, but converting to seconds is much easier than that (its a one-step calculation); see how in forums.usms.org/showthread.php I guess there is a lot of :frustrated: about Excel and times...maybe someday I'll write up something and post it somewhere (not sure where)...

RE: Excel Swim Log Template?

Former Member — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 10:26:36 GMT

Doesn't USMS have a results database that tracks all your meet times for you?

RE: Excel Swim Log Template?

Former Member — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 09:30:03 GMT

Beluga, this is just what I was looking for. Thanks so much

RE: Excel Swim Log Template?

aquaFeisty — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 07:03:23 GMT

For the most super-easy way to enter your times in excel, just type the hatch mark (') before you type in the time. That signifies to excel that the box is a text-format box and whatever you type will show up exactly as you type it. Of course, since your time is now 'seen' by excel as text rather than numbers, it's not much use if you want to do anything with the data (plot or whatnot). Muppet, I used to do my spreadsheets exactly like yours... lots of multiplying, subtracting, then putting it all back to together in multiple hidden columns. I refer to it as the 'brute force method'. I kinda like brute force and still use it to doublecheck when I come up with a slightly more elegant solution, but seriously, if you ever have to totally revamp your sheets try Chris Stevenson's method. It saves a lot of time and misery (and typing)! I never thought of tracking my season bests over multiple seasons. Hmmm... that sounds pretty cool! Most of my excel effort goes into my training log which tracks yardage and workout time for swimming, weights, and PT exercises. I started tracking my workouts this way when I did tri's because I could not keep the three sports balanced without a pictoral representation. Now that I no longer do tri's, I converted the biking and running section to weights and PT. The dates are conditional formatted for intensity level and everything rolls up to month snapshots and a rolling season total. It's very helpful in tracking training habits (and taper!!!) from season to season.

RE: Excel Swim Log Template?

Midas — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 01:55:02 GMT

RE: Excel Swim Log Template?

Former Member — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 15:23:47 GMT

Try www.winningstats.com -- they have a swimming log program (including times) that's free.

RE: Excel Swim Log Template?

The Fortress — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 11:17:54 GMT

Mental illness? Well maybe, but try doing Jeff's job of Top Ten recorder for your LMSC using pencil and paper and let me know how that works out for you. (At least, that's how I ended up learning all this: as Top Ten recorder I use Excel to maintain our LMSC records and for Top Ten submissions every season.) Oh, and if anyone thinks Excel is quirky, give Team/Meet Manager a try. Ye gods...:frustrated: Jeff's job as Top Ten recorder and registrar is almost like having another full time job. Eek. :bolt: I actually don't think we have Potomac Valley LMSC records, although that would be unusual. I've never even seen them. I think Jeff must be refusing to keep them. lol I'm not opposed to keeping track of my times if there was some easy way to do it. Although I'm quite fine with the fact that I can't remember any of my 50 evilstroke times. Jim: Shame on you, wasting that math SAT and lapsing into early math alzheimers. My verbal score was higher and I am math hater. I don't think I can do middle school math anymore ... All right, I just read Peg's post. You're all a serious bunch of geeks and nerds. :thhbbb:

RE: Excel Swim Log Template?

Muppet — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 11:15:19 GMT

Chris, what would really be cool is if there were a way to not only keep you absolute times over the years, but also your age-graded times a la the british site. that way, instead of seeing a long slow decline to the boneyard, with the occasional dead cat bounce thrown in during years of exceptional effort, you could have a more flat, and possibly even ascending, line pointing towards Ancient Swimmers Heaven! You and your darn finnish formula!! -- When I set up my spreadsheet 4 years ago, I didn't have luck getting the time format to work the way I wanted, so I did something different. It sounds like most of you are looking for a data warehouse, but I also wanted to have some analysis capabilities via excel's PivotTables. To get the PivotTables to show up the way I wanted, by ascending time, I had to create a "total time in seconds" column. I have the time entered as text, and then have a bunch of hidden columns that break out the minutes and seconds (including the decimal) based on the text entry. Last, there's a column with a formula that adds them up into total seconds (a 5:05.05 500 is a 305.05). It is a pretty round-about way to get what I wanted, but I have the text "time" column in my PivotTable and don't really look at the total seconds column.

RE: Excel Swim Log Template?

Chris Stevenson — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 11:10:44 GMT

Next time Mr. Fort says my hobby is veering into mental illness, I'll show him this thread. I'm such a luddite, I don't use excel or keep track of anything, workouts, times, etc. But the idea of avoiding the descending line to the boneyard is appealing. Mental illness? Well maybe, but try doing Jeff's job of Top Ten recorder for your LMSC using pencil and paper and let me know how that works out for you. (At least, that's how I ended up learning all this: as Top Ten recorder I use Excel to maintain our LMSC records and for Top Ten submissions every season.) Oh, and if anyone thinks Excel is quirky, give Team/Meet Manager a try. Ye gods...:frustrated:

RE: Excel Swim Log Template?

jim thornton — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 11:08:13 GMT

Chris and Leslie, you two wee babes of 40-dom, one day you too will slouch towards LiveWell's superb neologisms (well, at least the masculine version): Crones/Chronuses. Speaking as Chronus who once scored 782 on the math S.A.T., but can no longer remember what a quadratic equation is (possibly an equation with four feet? No, that's not right...is it?), know that a certain Luddite quality is inevitable in us all. That's okay. Math is meant to serve the Chronus, and not vice versa! Chris, I will supply you ample time to grade your students, etc. But I bet if you came up with a cool looking freeware ap for swimmers, many would send you a stipend out of gratitude! Not a tithe, exactly, but you could put me down for $5! And math challenged Chronuses like me, hoping to maintain glory in our own minds, are legion! I bet you that when all is said and done, you could next at least $15!

RE: Excel Swim Log Template?

The Fortress — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 10:50:55 GMT

RE: Excel Swim Log Template?

Chris Stevenson — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 09:26:33 GMT

RE: Excel Swim Log Template?

ViveBene — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 08:57:29 GMT

RE: Excel Swim Log Template?

jim thornton — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 08:39:57 GMT

When you guys get this idiot-proofed, would you send me a copy of the file as an attachment and email it to me? I would be thoroughly grateful. Chris, what would really be cool is if there were a way to not only keep you absolute times over the years, but also your age-graded times a la the british site. that way, instead of seeing a long slow decline to the boneyard, with the occasional dead cat bounce thrown in during years of exceptional effort, you could have a more flat, and possibly even ascending, line pointing towards Ancient Swimmers Heaven! Jim Thornton Jamesthornton1@comcast.net

RE: Excel Swim Log Template?

Chris Stevenson — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 08:21:40 GMT

Yeah, that's what I do, but it doesn't entirely work. I set up the cell with that formatting, and then type in "0:52.41" and hit enter. I click on the cell again in the the box right below the toolbars (where you input formulas) it says "12:00:52 AM". WTF?!? The value is correct but the formatting is wrong. Follow Ahmed's instructions: go to "format cells" (Ctrl+1 is the shortcut key), then go to the "Number" tab and the "Custom" category (where it is may depend slightly on your Excel version). Type in "m:ss.00" in the "Type" box. Ahmed's instructions are probably more clear than this. Excel stores all times and dates as serial numbers (basically, days as a decimal number). Changing the formatting doesn't change the value of the serial number, only how it is displayed. What you are seeing is the number you input in the "time" format, or "h:mm:ss AM/PM". You just need to change the type of formatting to "m:ss.00", it is still the same number either way (0.000606597222222222 to be exact!).

RE: Excel Swim Log Template?

Former Member — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 07:27:59 GMT

I like Ahmed's solution better than mine. It involves fewer steps to make it work I think.

RE: Excel Swim Log Template?

Former Member — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 07:21:13 GMT

I would love to have one. I can't figure out how to get Excel not to convert time times into "time" (i.e. time of day). Actually if I just knew how to do that, then I'd be set. If you are putting your times in a column, say, then you highlight that column and then click Format, click Cells and, finally, highlight Text in the new window that opens and click OK to implement the change in format. That will force the entries to take what you type in, so 10:45.47 should appear as just that instead of defaulting to time of day. It will probably automatically left justify so, if this annoys you, you can change the justification in the column. This works with my version of Excel which is from MS Office 2000. I have both a daily training log and long-term record of all my master's swims in Excel and haven't had any problem.

RE: Excel Swim Log Template?

Former Member — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 07:19:17 GMT

I would love to have one. I can't figure out how to get Excel not to convert time times into "time" (i.e. time of day). Actually if I just knew how to do that, then I'd be set. Go to (i.e., highlight) the Cells you want to format. Click on Format.........Cells.......... Choose "Custom" then find one that looks like mm:ss.0 In the input type box add another zero to it mm:ss.00 and it works. I'm doing this with Excel 2000 (your version might be a bit different but these are the steps.) Good Luck

RE: Excel Swim Log Template?

Midas — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 06:08:30 GMT