The Importance of Keeping a Log…..
Nope, it ain’t a piece of wood….
On my bookshelf is an orange book with 365 days in it covering the period of 1977-78. I was a junior in high school and running was my passion then…
In it, I have the mileage I ran each day, how I felt, workouts, weather, sickness, injury, race results, and periodic romantic comments towards my then-girlfriend. It is a look into my past. It is from a running perspective an analysis of what I did then that was right and what I did that was wrong. The pages also stir up old memories of youthfulness and vigor and the startling realization that the older I get the faster I was.
Training logs are important. In today's world, we have our watches linked to Garmin Connect, Strava, Training Peaks, and many other useful tracking platforms. They give us so much valuable feedback and for many of us as long as we get a thumbs up on Strava the workout was good and if we receive a lot then the workout was great, however, those thumbs won’t get us to the finish line…..
Any good training program requires direction and feedback. To pick a race months down the road and have a clear training approach to it without paying attention to what you are doing, is like throwing ice cream against the wall and hoping it sticks. Keeping a log is not only about your miles but also important observations you are making with your training. It will help you organize your runs, see the results of those runs and quite possibly stave off injury and sickness.
You will see patterns, good and bad that will help you to progress to your goal.
A log whether in a notebook, on a wall calendar, or on your computer should have a record of, at the very least, the following:
1: Goal of the workout for that day and its structure.
2: The result of the run.
3: How you felt.
You can always add more details like what you ate before, during, and after your runs and races, weather comments, and what shoes you wore (which is a great way to track mileage on them). The more info you have on yourself the better and it is motivating to see where you came from to where you are today……
