Q: Is everything I post to the site going to be seen by the public?

A: No--you have control over what you share and to what degree you share it by changing your privacy settings in My Settings. That said, fastloop is a social network and we encourage people to share as much about themselves as they feel comfortable doing.

Q: What's a "blog"?

A: The term "blog" is derived from the words "Web log". It's basically an online diary or journal. You can use it to record quick random thoughts, lengthy pontifications on the subject of your choosing, or your very innermost dreams and desires (but keep it clean, cowboy).

Most members will find it useful as a journal to accompany their training as they get ready for some event, then also as a place to write up everything about their race experience. You can attach blogs to your race recap so that they're easily accessible along with the other race details anytime you want to relive the day.

Usually people allow full viewing access to their blogs--that's sort of the point, to share your thoughts and let others share in your ups and downs along the way--but if you think you might be writing stuff like, "Dear Diary, last night it finally happened..." you might want to keep that to yourself.

Q: What are heart rate zones and should I be using them?

A: Heart rate zones are ranges for your heart rate (as measured in beats per minute) that define different levels of exertion--Z1 being the easiest, Z5 the hardest. Each person's set of heartbeat ranges is different so we've left that up to you to fill in. Though there are various rules of thumb to determine your ranges, the best way is considered to be by starting with a lactate threshold test. From there, there are formulas to determine what the range for each zone should be.

The zones are useful training tools because often times professional coaches will assign workouts using them (45' run at Z2, e.g.). The idea is that once an individual has determined their ranges, they can they then use a heart rate monitor to train more efficiently by staying in the designated zone throughout the workout.

Even without knowing your heart rate ranges though, it's still possible to use zone training for workouts, going by perceived effort instead. It's less exact, but some people prefer the freedom from a heart rate monitor and the idea of having their workouts dictated by electronics.

The debate continues over which is the better method of training (Rocky vs. Drago as we like to characterize it), and various top athletes use each method, with some even changing approaches throughout their career. Either way, it's helpful to use the "Z" field when recording cardio workouts in the Training section so you have a sense of how hard the training session was.

Q: What's a Baseline Set?

A: A Baseline Set is a group of strength/power exercises you tend to do on a regular basis. By saving them as a set, you can quickly bring them up without having to re-enter each one individually. Then simply alter the details, add/delete exercises, etc. based on what your actual workout was for that day, and presto-- you just saved yourself some keystrokes.

Q: How do I add a link to a website in a blog or my "Here's me in a nutshell" answer?

A: Simply follow the syntax below, replacing the capital letters with your URL and what you want the tag to say on the page:

<a href="YOUR WEBSITE ADDRESS" target="_blank">HOW YOU WANT IT TO APPEAR</a>

Example: <a href="http://www.fastloop.com" target="_blank">my new home page</a>

This will yield a tag that says: 'my new home page' with a link to www.fastloop.com. We recommend copying and pasting the code above to avoid retyping errors.

Q: Does it cost anything to join fastloop?

A: Nope. Everything here is gratis. And in fact it probably took more time to find this question in the FAQ than it will to register. So go on, what are you waiting for?

Q: How can I get a link to my Profile page in order to send it to someone outside of fastloop?

A: Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. Two choices-- 1. Simply copy the URL that appears in your My Profile page (careful-- NOT your My Fastloop page), or 2. Right click the "link to my profile" link on your My Profile page and select Copy Shortcut from the menu that appears. Done. Now just paste the link wherever you want.

Q: Why can't I see one or more of the graphs in the Races section?

A: You may need to download Adobe's Flash Player in order for the graphs to render. If you already have Flash and you're still having issues, try hitting the Refresh button on your browser... some browsers can be a little fussy.

Q: I started a Community so I'm the moderator, but I'm wondering what the various links on the "membership manager" page do.

A: This page allows you to manage everything about the membership of your community. You can invite, approve, block and remove members, and even reassign moderator status to another member. Of the people in your community only you have access to these tools so remember - with great power comes great responsibility. Or something like that.

Q: What's the deal with Communities?

A: Communities are a way of forming groups within fastloop. Create one for your group of friends, your team or any collection of people you deem worthy of association. You can make the community private or public (moderator approval to join or not), then once it's created your group gets its own bulletin board (forum) and anyone in the community can share their albums with the group too. I know, pretty cool.

Q: Arrgh! What's with all these Forum email notifications?

A: Calm down...you can manage all this by changing your settings on the My Forum Settings page. Our thought is to keep you more in the loop than out, so when you join fastloop you're set up to receive emails anytime someone posts a new topic to a public forum. Then when you join a community, you're defaulted to receive emails anytime someone adds a new topic or replies to a topic in its forum. But hey, this is all totally configurable...tailor it however you like.

Q: Can I be automatically notified when someone posts a new topic to a Forum or replies to a topic I posted in a Forum?

A: Absolutely! Glad you asked. You can manage all this with Subscriptions, found on the My Forum Settings page. Forum Subscriptions let you manage nofications at the forum level (selections affect all topics for that forum), while Topic Subscriptions allow you to manage specific topic notifications.

Q: Why can't I see the Forums for public Communities?

A: Even though a Community may be public to join, we hide the Forum from view unless you're actually a member. Saves clutter... and cuts down on lurkers.

Q: Why don't you have more FAQ's listed?

A: Because we haven't received enough Q's to consider them FA just yet. Something not clear though? Ask us