A week after I signed up for my first 5K race, I realized I might need to actually train for it instead of hoping I could magically run 3.1 miles by pinning a funny bib to my shirt. I picked out a training program, but needed to figure out pace times and splits (which have nothing to do with bananas). Surely someone must have developed a nifty (and free) online program to track my progress? Indeed, several sites have!

The training logs I checked out had several common features. When you sign in you are presented with a summary page of your recent activities. Each site logs details of your workouts with varying amounts of detail. They auto-calculate your pace when you enter your mileage and time. They also keep track of how many miles you have put on your shoes so you will know when it's time to get a new pair to prevent injuries. If you like bar graphs, you can overanalyze all the details of your runs (from the time of day to the weather) in multi-colored glory on the X and Y axes. Each program lets you save custom routes as well as track activities other than running. They all get the job done, but there were some small differences.

• Runner's World The Runner's World summary page adds up the stats for distance and time over the past six weeks, the past six months, the past year and overall. It's an easy way to see your recent and long-term performance. It also lets you export your data if you want to make your own fancy-schmancy spreadsheets. It has the most customizable graphs, letting you choose what to track on each axis as well as whether to display it as a bar, line or plot graph. Register by clicking on the "Training Log" link at the top of the page.
• MapMyRun and its sister site MapMyRide offer tools that let you measure how far your running route is or how far your house is from the liquor store. These are the only sites that estimate how many calories I burn during a workout. (Nike lets you store that data, but doesn't calculate it for you). Its summary page only lists your monthly totals at the top, but it also lists how many calories you've burned and tracks your weight, your average morale and your average sleep. You can check specific days on the calendar for details of your workouts. When adding activities, you have to click through two pages instead of just one, as with Runner's World. There is no place to track intervals or placement times, but it suits the needs of most casual and intermediate runners. Register by clicking on "My Training" in the top menu.
• Nike Running is a Flash-based site with fancier animated graphics. Your registration works across all Nike sites, but they make you enter an address, so I gave them the one of my imaginary homes, at 123 Easy St, Pleasantville, CA 90210. I had to click on several links and accept several disclaimers before I eventually found the training log page, but once I did I was able to customize over 30 fields to include in my log. Nike also lets you import expert-designed training plans for everything from a 5K race to a marathon into your calendar. However, this was the only site that didn't let me calculate the distance of my routes with a Google Maps plug-in, which is odd because the Nike+ site does. Nike offers a gadget called the Nike+ sport kit that integrates with your iPod nano and can be used to track your distance as well as compete against other people via the website.

These are just three sites, but there are plenty of other training tools online. What are some of your favorites? --Jennette Fulda