If training is apart of your lifestyle (or you’re to start making it apart of who you are), well a training journal needs to be as well.
Chances are if you’ve ever taken your training seriously you’ve used a training journal or a training log (if you haven’t YET, what are you waiting for?!?). But, it isn’t just for those who are serious, it’s for everyone who trains, lifts weights, is physically active etc.
One of my best years was in 2005 and I still have my little “5-Star” notebook of my journals and logs for that season. I included all the times I ran in practice so I could compare them to the times I ran during my years at school (so I knew what I would have had to run in practice to convert that to 10.2 in a competition). I still look back on that little black book just for reference (and confidence!) and know that I can repeat those same times again and better them.
My training journal consists of a journal (or a diary…I don’t like that word much, but you get the point) and a log. The main difference is what you document in them after each workout or day. Training journals are just that, more of a journal than a log. This should consist of anything related to your feelings… your mental thoughts, how your practice went, how you felt etc. The log is normally made for the statistical information…what your practice consisted of, how much, your times etc.
Both journaling and logging are important to keep an effective history of your past. I’ve found out through experience and that for convenience sake it’s nice to have two combined together in some way. This way it’s always easy to remember to do both.
Benefits
- #1 of course is having a record of your training to look back on (helpful for times of injuries, times you overtrain or times you succeeded)
- Useful for planning future workouts, previous journals would help you figure out what worked well and what didn’t work at all
- A detailed journal is also really nice to have just for personal use, and to be able to look back on past months and years, to remember different accounts.
So head to Chapters/Barnes & Nobels and pick up a nice notebook (one with those really nice covers on it) and start writing every time you train. If you don’t want to spend some money on it, a regular notebook will do just fine.
Example:
(Here is an actual page from my journal this year.)
Tues. November 17, 2009
Workout
Warm Up – Short
4x300m
MT#2
MT#3
Cool Down – jog, skip 800m
Happy those are over and done with thank god! It
was a colder day today than the warm weather we
had last week, runs were a little tougher making
the times, but still put in the work.
Weights
A:Box Squats
315/9 325/8 335/8
B: Backward BB Lunge
135/7 x 3
C: Pendulum Glute Raise
25/13 35/10 45/10
D: Hip Thrusts
350/8 385/7 415/7
E: Calf Raises
270/16 270/16 300/14
E: Tibia
25/20 x3
New best in the hip thrusts, I’m still amazed how
strong I am and I’m still going up. I haven’t found
that 6-8 rep range weight to build more strength.
Box squats are getting easier, while theses types of
squats are a lot easier on my back. Shin’s are
starting to get a little sore so have to do the Tib
exercises before I get shin splints.
(original image by lil 1/2 pint)
