From my pont of view, TrailRunner 2.1 is done. The new release migrates your diary into a modern database format, fixes several bugs and adds compatibility to Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. Below the most important changes and extensions:

Diary
For better performance and for future extensions I rewrote the diary storage. Diaries are now based on a sport kind like running or biking.
So in future versions diaries can have different parameters for calculations.
TrailRunner 2.1 will already honor speed units like distance per hour or minutes per distance for sport kinds and also will calculate calories with a different formula.
This migration should solve many startup performance problems and will keep your mac responsive even with very large diaries.

Trimming workouts and Tracks
I do not know why I did not add this earlier but you can now trim workouts to be imported and routes within the map. Trimming means that everything from the edge up to and including the selection will be removed.

The screenshot shows a workout to be imported. You can either select something in the graph and then hit the backspace key or you open the track editor and use the Trim Selection command.
Update: You can now even remove data points in the middle of a track. There’s a new tutorial available explaining all operations available (Tutorials > Import and edit Tracks)

Improved Importers
TrailRunner 2.1 can now import Lap information from LoadMyTracks gpx files. Also GPX files are being loaded much faster due to an asynchronous decoding. Same goes for large tcx files you drag onto the TrailRunner application icon or main window.
The workout importer for non GPS workouts (the one that shows a list of routes below) now also displays a target diary selection menu.

Improved Map Speed
Though I highly recommend to remove any duplicate tracks within your map by following the instructions in the Mastering Track Merge tutorial, performance can be pretty bad with many long tracks on your map. In TrailRunner 2.1 I am testing a new display caching approach and have found results to be very good. Scrolling on my machine went up from 24fps to up to 60fps. But in most cases you should get 2x.

Other Improvements
Workout Graph: Added a Preferences option to change the interval resolution for the graph view. (TrailRunner > Preferences > Advanced)
General UI: Added a two finger zoom gesture for modern MacBook trackpads.
Local Route Editor: Added a drag over track to be included rerouting where there was only a drag to way-point rerouting before.
Streets Route Editor: Improved the OSM routing for very long route calculations.
Route Import: Added EveryTrail.com as an import source
Weblog publish: I removed the private and public comment approach as it caused some trouble in the past. When you publish your weblog, all notes will be published.
Export preserves timing: When you export tracks in TrailRunner, the original timing information will be preserved. This makes it posible to read data from your device and then later use an export for geo-tagging.
Route Filtering: The main window search field now filters for routes that contain the given search string in either their name or in the name of any way-point they come across. For example: say a route has a name of biking and goes over a waypoint called ruin, then a search term of ru will find this route. To filter on way-point names only, whith this example just enter wp:ru into the search field. To filter on route-names only, enter rte:ru into the search field.


Before you install TrailRunner 2.1
As TrailRunner uses a new diary store, you should better make a backup of your old.
All data in TrailRunner is being stored within the following folder on your Mac:

< yourhome >/Library/Application Support/TrailRunner/

You old diary was stored in RunLog.xml
When the new version starts up, it will migrate your old diary entries into the new diary. The new file is named ActivityStore.sqlite
A backup of your old diary will be copied to Archive/RunLog;4.xml for if there’s a problem with the migration. You can always move this file back and rename it to RunLog.xml
Please note that even after the migration was done, a much smaller RunLog.xml will stay in place, as it still contains some legacy data. So should you require to migrate back, just delete this file.
Important note: You can not use TrailRunner 2.0 at the same time as TrailRunner 2.1 as after the migration the diary will appear to be be empty on 2.0

Jump on the TrailRunner 2.1 track
TrailRunner 2.1 has its own app-cast so if you download the version below, you will be notified on updates.

> Download TrailRunner 2.1
> Import and Edit Tracks Tutorial
> Mastering Track Merge Tutorial

Please give feedback in case you have any trouble with the migration or other stuff.

Have fun,
- berbie.

Tags: diary, routes, workout, services, import, EveryTrail.com, TCX, backup, GPX

As developing a decent iPhone application is as much work as developing huge parts of TrailRunner I decided to not write my own iPhone app but to partner with one of the existing ones. This companion application you can buy in the App store is iTrail.
TrailRunner and iTrail require domestic Airport/Wifi network to transfer data from the iPhone onto your Mac.
This is how it works:

Buy iTrail
If you did not already, buy iTrail in the app store and make some route recordings.
> Website

Transfer Routes
Start TrailRunner. You’ll notice a new icon in the toolbar if you are a first time user. Otherwise you can add this icon by control clicking the control bar and adding the new iPhone Icon.



An importer pane will open on the left hand side of the main window. Follow the steps described there.



In the current version of iTrail (shown on the left), TrailRunner and iTrail Desktop are the same. This will change in the future to something like in the right screenshot (taken from a preview build of iTrail 1.7).

It is important to know that TrailRunner can not interpret the proprietary CSV file format of iTrail. The GPX file format is the one you should choose for the transfer.



After the course was received in TrailRunner you’ll see the regular workout import pane you might already know. Choose any of the import options and probably add a diary entry for this recording.

Tags: iPhone, routes, GPX, export, import, cellphone, diary

TrailRunner 1.8 is out !
Have fun and thanks for your feedback!

> Download


User Interface
Reworked the overall application design to match the current state of the art


Map loading
Although already improved much in 1.7 this now should be it.

Track editor
Selections within the profile chart, route slider, track editor and route description window are now fully synchronized.



Routes vs. Workouts
One of the biggest problems for TrailRunner newbies was, that the differences between a route and a workout / the main document and the diary wasn’t intuitively clear. So I now changed the interface to make both approaches available in the main window.



Download here: http://trailrunnerx.com/download-beta-redirect.html

Tags: MacOS X 10.5 Leopard, Maps, routes, directions, diary

To import workouts from your polar heart-rate monitor into TrailRunner, please follow these steps:

1. In TrailRunner Preferences > Synchronize : Select TrackRecord as your Helper App
2. Press the download Button to get TrackRecord from bluecrowbar.com
3. Close Preferences and open your main TrailRunner document.
   You might in advance create routes that reflect the courses of the workouts being imported. To learn how to create routes, first read the QuickGuide Tutorial
4. Press the Import (from heart rate monitor) Button in the upper tool-bar.
5. TrackRecord will start up. Import your workouts and Export the Sessions to your Desktop. (Please make sure that you use the english date format: mm/dd/yy when you export your files)
6. Now drag each exported workout session onto the main TrailRunner window, the import pane on the left will open.
7. Select a matching route and press the add Button.
   A new diary entry will be added combining the information from the selected route and the imported workout

Tags: Polar RS200, import, diary

From build 192 on the Polar HRM import will work better but should still be considered as experimental. I now import the [IntTimes] block and then, if a [HRData] block is available, merge the additional data in. What surprises me is that the data in HRM files are very inconsistent. On the one hand in the leading part of the file the workout duration says to be e.g. 0:41:20.0 but the last Interval ends at 0:44:49.5. Also if the recording interval is set to every 5 seconds and you multiply the number of [HRData] sets by 5 you also get more seconds than the given workout duration. Next, the [Trip] duration is totally off any other values one can accumulate. At last, the file doesn't contain calories burned but only your weight and VO₂ max. So I have to calculate the calories myself. All this means that you will never see identical values for the same data.
To retrieve HRM files from your watch, try TrackRecord or use some PC Software. TrailRunner Preferences now has TrackRecord added as a helper application for the import button. Use Import or drag a HRM file onto the TrailRunner dock icon. Anyway the workout import pane will open. To connect the workout with a route, select one in the routes list and add your workout to the diary like shown in the example below.


> TrackRecord - Polar RS200 SonicLink™ for MacOS X

Tags: diary, import, Polar RS200

TrailRunner can now import the last workout from your Nike + iPod Sports Kit. For that a new Toolbar-Button is available under View > Customize Toolbar.
The import process is straight forward. You connect your iPod Nano to your Mac. Press the toolbar import button (or File > Import > From Nike + iPod Sport Kit) and a sheet with the last workout data will come up. Optionally select the corresponding route in the list of routes (or create a new one) and press the Add button. Now the diary will come up, containing the new entry. Have fun with this one. If you happen to have problems with the import, please contact me as reading the data off the iPod Nano is done by a hack that might fail.

Tags: import, diary, Apple + Nike iPod Sport Kit, Nike+ SportBand, Nikeplus

TrailRunner 1.1 features an improved diary. In short it's about search, flag and compare.

Chart
In the new toolbar, switch the area above the entries table to display either calendar based data entry fields or a comparison chart.
The chart reflects the current selection in the diary table, displaying at least 10 weeks from the newest selected entry backwards. If you select more entries in the table, the cart will update to the new entries range.
Entries will always display as a grouped value based on the current interval. The base interval is by weeks and can extend to months if you select a big amount of entries.
In the legend on the right you see the overall values for the displayed data. If you need to know the data for one data-point, select it and you'll see the specific values in the lower legend.

Fitness
The fitness is a calculated value based on pace and heart-rate. The main idea is that if you where very fast with a low heart-rate, you're fitter. In the opposite if you where very slow and had a high heart-rate, you're less. This value is just an orientation and does not have the accuracy of the methods used in Polar watches or other bio-medical methods, but it gives a pretty good overall impression.
The scale of the values is in the value range of the polar watches, but that's only a nice coincidence.

Flag
As you are accustomed from Mail.app, entries can now be flagged in the leftmost column. If you start a series of exercises to reach a certain goal, flag the first one. If you had a very nice exercise or competition, flag it.

Search
The search field in the lower right corner will search for diary entries (looks into column route and personal notes) that contain the given search term. The diary table will then only display matching entries.
This provides various ways to tag and filter diary entries, to later compare entries of the same class. Some examples:
To find out how many kilometers you have accomplished with a pair of shoes, tag all entries with a unique tag like xasc06 (your Asics 2006 pair). When you later search for that term the chart legend will display the values you want to know: number of units and sum of kilometers.
To compare your performance in a certain route over time, enter the routes name and the chart will display the performance values.
To make a distinction between running and biking, tag all runs with xrun and all biking exercises with xmtb. Later search for either tag to see a chart with values only of this kind.
If you use a polar watch and regularly measure your OwnIndex, enter the OwnIndex in the personal comment like ownindex:52. Later search for ownindex and see you progress on the measure checkpoints (unfortunately not in the chart but filtered on entries with this information)

Export
Not a new feature but a good place to mention, if you select diary entries, edit > copy will put them as tab separated columns into the clipboard. An easy method to transfer entries into Excel or other analysis tools.

Tags: diary

The TrailRunner Diary has improved, The new version can now be exported as a Weblog. For that you can enter a public comment on a route in the above field, together with a picture and a private note in the bottom field (if you can read any german you will notice this note above being very private). Together with your weblog entries, a route description is also being published as a gpx-file. This enables other users to find routes from other TrailRunners.
Currently the weblog can only be exported to an FTP Server. If you do not like the design of the default weblog, the template is based on RapidWeaver from RealMac, so you can choose any RapidWeaver compatible theme for your personal weblog.

Tags: weblog, diary

To help you keep your personal TrailRunner data safe, I created a ‘QuickPick’ backup scheme for use in Apple’s Backup 3 software. For those new to .mac and Backup, a QuickPick defines a backup plan for a single application. For example, TrailRunner´s QuickPick lets you easily backup your TrailRunner preferences and your personal diary - each of which are stored deep in your users Library folder.

To use the set, copy it to ~/Library/Application Support/Backup/QuickPicks/ and add the QuickPick to your Personal Data & Settings Plan. You find the backup-plan in the Extras folder.

Tags: diary