

Show HN: Predict Your 5k, 10k, Half-Marathon and Marathon Race Times - jerryjeremy
http://www.racepredictions.com

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jerryjeremy
I started this project as a way to dive into learning web development. I
wanted to build something a little different from traditional race prediction
calculators where you just enter a single time for a recent training run.
Accessing all of a runner's GPS data from Strava allows me to put a rolling
window on each run and find the fastest sub-segments and build predictions
based on that.

This was built using Ruby on Rails and is running on Heroku. The biggest
challenges for me were:

\- Connecting to an API (Strava) and consuming the data

\- Figuring out how to efficiently use Sidekiq (especially on a single Heroku
dyno)

\- Design (this is still a work-in-process)

If it's not clear, this is for Strava users only at the moment. I plan on
adding additional API access when I can find them. There are also a few more
prediction calculations that I would like to include as well.

~~~
cwcw
Nice work. Some suggestions from my personal experience using Strava:

* Most runs are training runs so they carry their purposes instead of full-effort race simulation therefore predications based on training runs are usually a bit off.

* Having said that, Strava supports tagging runs which are races; not sure if the API can expose the tags but it would be useful to do a past race based prediction.

* Other than race time predictions, another area of interest is to evaluate training quality. A Chrome plugin, StravistiX does some of it but I'd like to see more such as using VDOT based on Jack Daniels' running formula which have their meanings in training.

~~~
jerryjeremy
Great suggestions - thanks!

My thought on the training run piece is that you don't even have to think
about which runs or races (or even subsegments of runs/races) are your
fastest. Just throw everything into the funnel and out come your race
predictions. I'll think about how to use the race tag, because that is
available through the API.

Training quality is a big one for me, too (especially with a family). I've
actually been working on something similar and much larger than just having
race predictions.

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brian_s
Nice work! Keep building!

