The Running Log - Lab Exercises

Exercise 1: You get paid mucho smackers for telling people how to get speedier on foot ...

1. There is this runner, let's call him "Bob". He has been keeping track of his runs in a file called "Running.txt" with read.table("http://caspar.bgsu.edu/~courses/stats/Labs/Datasets/running.txt", sep="\t", header=T) Information on the file, and the variables it contains, are included in "RunningLayout.txt". The running log lists the speed along with weight, distance and other information. Plow through the data and evaluate predictors for running speed. Recommend a set of priorities that will allow the runner to increase performance.
2. Bob wants to qualify again for the Boston Marathon, which means that he needs to be able to run a marathon (i.e., 42.2km) in 3:30 hours (i.e., at a pace of 4.976 min/km or 12.057 km/h). What would he have to do, short of selling his soul, to get there?
3. Are there any underlying concepts that can explain variation in running speed? Are there variables and outcomes that group together?

Competences earned this week:

1. Phrase predictions based a set of variables that describe past performance