Daniel's VDOT- EXCEL Guru's

Triathlon Forum
1

Here is my objective:

Create an excel document which has VDOT Calculator in it.

I am thinking I would have to:

  • Create a drop down list to choose ‘test distance’
  • Create a lookup based on ‘test distance’ & time inputted by user
  • Link this to a lookup within the VDOT table to calculate VDOT. (Kind of tricky as it would have to be within a range of times)
  • Link the associated VDOT to a linked table which has the training intensities based on the calculated VDOT & output

Any ideas on how to actually do all of this or if there is an easier solution.

Pretty much, I want to be able to do what this online tool does in excel or replicate the same exact thing online for personal use (I know many people will ask; why not just use the tool that is already there- believe me, I have very valid reasons): http://www.runbayou.com/jackd.htm

Mahalo,

Daniel

2

Here is my objective:

Create an excel document which has VDOT Calculator in it.

I am thinking I would have to:

  • Create a drop down list to choose ‘test distance’
  • Create a lookup based on ‘test distance’ & time inputted by user
  • Link this to a lookup within the VDOT table to calculate VDOT. (Kind of tricky as it would have to be within a range of times)
  • Link the associated VDOT to a linked table which has the training intensities based on the calculated VDOT & output

Any ideas on how to actually do all of this or if there is an easier solution.

Pretty much, I want to be able to do what this online tool does in excel or replicate the same exact thing online for personal use (I know many people will ask; why not just use the tool that is already there- believe me, I have very valid reasons): http://www.runbayou.com/jackd.htm

Mahalo,

Daniel

A simpler/cleaner solution would be to use the published closed formulas to calculate VDOT from test distance and time:

  • VO2 cost of running a distance/time velocity (see Oxigen Cost formula)
  • %VO2max that can be sustained for time duration (see Drop Dead formula)

VDOT= VO2 / %VO2max

Then you can lookup Daniels Tables with VDOT value for training intensities or (better IMHO) calculate vVO2max from VDOT and use %vVO2max values for E-Pace (72%), M-Pace(85%), T-Pace(90%), I-Pace(98%), R-Pace (107% for 200m / 105% for 400m).

Equivalent performances is not so easy to do without table lookup, you could do it with Newton Raphson iteration as shown here

Hope it helps,

3

Thanks… I appreciate the inputs & am going to try it out.

Mahalo!

4

I’d just make an html redirect to the mcmillian calculator
.

5

Just wondering if you’d be willing to share what you come up with. Am really interested in seeing how it turns out. Thanks!

6

I fudged it for now…

Here is what I did:

Calculated the % of each training intensity for a prescribed VDOT to the VDOT’s 10k time. I did this throughout the entire VDOT table to make sure that the ‘pattern’ & %'s did not vary greatly. So, what I came up with is that given your 10k time…your training intensities at each level are about X% of your 10k time. Then, it is just a matter of multiplying those %'s by the athlete’s actual 10k time to come up with his/her training intensities. Listed below are the %'s but I used a range to give myself a little margin for error.

Not fullproof but a quick fix for now.

Easy: 21%
Marathon: 18%
T-400: 4%
T-1000: 10.72%
T-mile: 17%
I-400: 4%
I-1000: 9.45%
I-1200: 11%
R-200: 1.71%
R-400: 3.5%

Note: To do the calculations, it is easier to convert your times to seconds or as a fraction of minutes.

7

oh my god! I just looked at your blog and you are breaking rule 1 of what not to do on a website… do not automatically start playing music, ever.

8

I don’t know if this will help you, but I found a guy that was trying to accomplish the same thing by making a VDOT calculator in excel. Here’s his link:

http://www.twentysix-two.com/upload-excel-training-log-and-/

9

quite a nice table here http://www.electricblues.com/runpro.html (the zip file)
anything you want done with excel just ask and I can generally make it happen (assuming that it is within excels capabilities)
.