Running, lifting, swimming, underwater basket weaving…whatever. Everyone needs to keep account for their training progress.
If the thought of carrying a notebook and pen around with you while you workout sounds silly, go online! There are a variety of free options where you can log your workout progress, and since we all spend a majority of our time on our phones or iPads, why not take a few seconds to log your progress?
Personally, I make an effort to keep a daily streak of logging every single one of my runs. The summer time is when runners will build up their base, and they’ll use their training throughout the season. If they play it smart, they’ll reward themselves with an outstanding season. The same applies if you’re into weightlifting or swimming.
7 Reasons You Should Keep A Training Journal
1. You’ll be honest with yourself
If you design an imaginary world where you believe yourself to be training to your absolute potential, you’ll fail. If you log in your training daily, your details will be right there in your own words. Writing down your workouts in your own words will keep track of your true progress. There won’t be any sugarcoat details if you’re honest with yourself.
2. You’ll keep up to date in a team
This was the primary reason for why I started logging my daily runs. Over summer, my team splits up either to head home or travel to a new city for an internship. We’re all connected on the same running log network so we can keep each other accountable for our workouts.
3. You’ll track your progress
When someone asks you how your training is going, you’ll go right off memory and maybe tell them a few exaggerated accomplishments. We’ve all been there. With my running log, I can track all of my runs on my calendar and see how I’ve improved over the course of time. All of the facts will be right there for you.
4. You can spot out day’s you feel good, or day’s you have no energy at all
When you log your workouts daily, you might spot out trends where you feel fatigued or set a nice PR. You’ll look back at your past logs and spot if an injury might occur. For example, I noticed that on my running log, I frequently said that I had a minor foot pain over the course of two weeks. When I injured my foot later on it was easy to see when it all started.
5. You’ll be able to set clear goals for yourself
With all of your workout facts together, it’ll be easier for you to gauge where you want to be in the future. When I first started logging my runs, I found that my workouts were slow and very simple. Now, I can truly see my progress, and this motivates me to stay consistent with my work.
6. You’ll move forward on your training
Instead of arguing with yourself about whether or not you hit that mark, or ran that pace already, you can easily check your workout log and see for yourself what you did. It would be a waste of time to just guess that you’ve set a new PR. If you want to go ahead and pretend that you’re successful go ahead and continue to guess about your workout marks.
7. You’ll learn from your mistakes
When I first started my running log, I made the mistake of being dishonest with myself. I would guess my pace and mileage, only to realize that I didn’t accurately mark my runs. Over the summer I log my runs everyday and make sure I get the facts straight. I found out what makes me workout effectively and what doesn’t. This is a huge confidence booster, as I now know to log my workouts daily with 100% accuracy.
Starting A Workout Log Is Easy
All you have to do is go down to your local shopping center and buy some sturdy notebooks. It doesn’t have to be some $12 overpriced notebook with sections. Multiple college ruled notebooks will do just fine. I prefer to keep my logs online on running2win.com. That way, if I forget my notebook at home or anything, I can easily just go online and write down my stats from there.
Keep it simple
All you have to do is write down the date, a short description of the workout, the necessary stats that you need to remember (reps, mileage, pace) and maybe tack down a difficulty rating on a scale from 1-10.
DO IT NOWWWWW!!!!
J