Training Logs

I highly recommend that every serious runner keep a training log. Not only is it a great seasonal record of the current season, as you progress through your running career you'll be able to see where you've been, where you're going, what works and what doesn't. Also years from now you'll be able to dig them out and relive some weeks from the past. I have running logs going back over 40 years and I still get a kick out of going through them from time-to-time. You don't have to buy some fancy Runners World log book. Just get yourself a notebook and starting jotting down what you do each day. Here's an example of 4 weeks of training on a single sheet from one of my log books from 1974 (click on it to see it full size).
 

On our members page there's a much more detailed version of a running log page crafted by Bill Davies that you can print-out with a page for each day of the week and week's totals, not only for running, but for keeping track of each type of run (tempo, recovery, hills, speed, racing, etc.) plus various types of cross training, sleep, heart rate, how you felt, etc, etc, with a weekly summary at the end. You can find that on your members page (user name "cross", password "plover" on our website http://islandertrack.com.  When you get there click on the 2011 (I'll update that date soon) version of the log, but the pages you can print are the "last 4 pages of the log."


An approach in-between my rather minimal approach and Bill's log can be found on the University City Website at http://www.uccrosscountry.com/rl_running_logs.html.
Coach Gimi McCarthy not only shares some of his entries but he also provides a download for the the log itself.

Whichever approach you use is a matter of preference but I do suggest you start keeping a log if you haven't already done so.

-Coach Green