Keeping track

Training logs, do you keep one? You should for a variety of reasons. If you struggle to fit in any exercise, a log is a  great way to get yourself motivated, who wants to see blank weeks? A training log also helps to time manage your life so that you can schedule exercise in. If you are a competive athlete, a log can be a valuable tool to monitor your progress as well as offering an objective view of your workouts. Often, an athlete will log miles, speed, distance and forget a crucial component: how you felt. Tracking how good you feel can provide a lot of feedback as to the progression of your training leading to a goal race and it can bring to the surface overtraining symptoms that may be lurking around.
While working at the lab today, I reviewed a training schedule with a runner leading up to his first marathon in a couple of weeks. He had a very simple method of tracking how he felt for each workout and I loved it!

Luckily there were mostly clear circles on his training log but it made me smile and I had to share this with you. Think about adopting something similar in your workout log. I use daily mile (link on the right, the widget shows my latest workout) and when I record a workout, I can record how I felt (Great, good, alright, tired, injured, sick), very user friendly with a click of a button. If you use training peaks http://www.trainingpeaks.com/ you can record how you felt in the metrics, or like many of the athletes I train, record your feedback in the post workout comments section if you have a premium account with a coach. The metrics are helpful because you can plot them on a graph and it includes everything from sleep to food if you wish. There have been a few instances in my build up for Boston that I realized I was feeling just "alright or tired" and I had to restructure training to allow for extra recovery, they have also served as a precursor to an oncoming cold virus that I needed to nip immediately. If you are recording how you feel, fantastic, keep it up, if not, make it a goal this week to start, it will pay off for you.