Something that could help make this site great would be to leverage the power of the back-end database. I'm not saying I want to write my own SQL statements or anything (although that would be nice), but a query wizard would be most beneficial. Once again, the RunningAhead.com online log provides a most excellent example.
http://www.runningahead.com/logs/3bd304da39294ede840f576dd54b3c53/searchQueries like these would be even more powerful if the Blog had a few extra inputs for each day:
1. Input for time of day for run (including option to separate out multiple runs for a day for those of us who like to do doubles and triples).
2. Input for weather conditions and temperature.
3. Drop-down list for course name, with option to add or delete courses (doesn't need to tie to course tool or anything).
4. Drop-down list for shoe name, with option to add or delete shoes (see previous post on shoes)
5. Input for duration of run.
6. Pace can be automatically calculated from distance and time, and stored in another field
I think storing a lot of this info, especially time, pace, and course name, would be beneficial. For one thing, it would cause each blogger to pay even more attention during the run, and once the data are stored, they are there forever, and can be sorted and compared through the query wizard. For example, I could query
[DISTANCE] > 11 AND [DISTANCE] < 17 AND [PACE] < 6:30 AND TEMPERATURE > 70 in order to identify and sort through faster-paced medium-long runs run in the heat. The possibilities are endless.
