Fitocracy

From Fellrnr.com, Running tips
Revision as of 20:14, 27 February 2012 by User:Fellrnr (User talk:Fellrnr | contribs)

Jump to: navigation, search

Fitocracy is not a Training Log in the way other sites I've reviewed are. Instead of directly tracking mileage, fitocracy assigns points for workouts, with a vast array of activities covered. These points are used like a Role Playing Game, where you go up levels as you get more points. There are also specific 'quests' you can fulfill, such as running a marathon. Fitocracy understands that longer runs are disproportionately harder than shorter runs, so a 20 mile run gets you more than double the points form a 10 mile run. Also, the pace you run that is a factor in how many points are assigned for a run. By its nature, Fitocracy is one of the most social sites I've tried, with a vibrant community. I would not recommend Fitocracy as a training log for runners, and that is not its purpose, but I would recommend it as a social network. Fitocracy is especially good for more rounded athletes rather than pure runners, as it allows you to add in weight training and many other activities. One minor annoyance is the lack of API into the site, see you can't automatically post from software such as SportTracks. You can however post from SportTracks into Runkeeper and then import from Runkeeper into Fitocracy. Another minor concern is the limit on how much text can be attached to a workout, though you can add comments to your running workouts as an ugly workaround. I particularly like the Fitocracy leaderboard that uses rolling 7, 30, 90 day periods rather than a fixed week or month. Fitocracy is in beta, but you can join with this invitation

An example of the Fitocracy metrics

1 Terrain Setting

Fitocracy has a 'terrain' setting for runs, which has no official definition. The proposal that was posted on the fitocracy forums seems to have wide adoption and is reproduced here.

Flat <1% Elevation gain <53'/mile
Light Hills 1-2% Elevation gain <106'/mile
Moderate Hills 2-3% Elevation gain <159'/mile
Heavy Hills 3-4% Elevation gain <212'/mile
Mountains 4+% Elevation gain >212'/mile

2 Fitocracy points for running

Some simple analysis shows the following points given for running on the flat with no pack:

Miles 7:00 8:00 9:00 10:00
1 130 110 94 82
2 300 252 217 189
4 691 581 498 434
8 1,588 1,335 1,145 999
16 3,649 3,067 2,632 2,295
32 8,383 7,047 6,047 5,273

Per mile, the points are:

Miles 7:00 8:00 9:00 10:00
1 130 110 94 82
2 150 126 109 95
4 173 145 125 109
8 199 167 143 125
16 228 192 165 143
32 262 220 189 165

This shows that the points per mile go up independently with mileage and with pace. So the points for distance go up like this:

Miles Scale
1 100.0%
2 115.4%
4 132.9%
8 152.7%
16 175.4%
32 201.5%

And points per mile for pace go up like this:

7:00 8:00 9:00 10:00
100.0% 84.6% 72.3% 63.1%

So the formula is shown below, with p as the pace in seconds per mile and d as the distance in miles.

(0.000555476190476192p2-0.8333t+382)(1.0011d0.2012d)

The scaling for terrain is simpler; just multiply by these factors:

Terrain Scale
Flat 100.0%
Track 100.0%
Light 111.5%
Moderate 126.6%
Steep 139.3%
Mountains 153.2%