“It’s Christmas!”

How cool do I look? As you can see I have just received the photos back from my 2010 calendar shoot. I have too say, I make Santa look cool!

Well enough about me, let’s get back to you! This week in my big fan mail bag I received a letter from a young boy called Kernowornever who asked if I could ‘fix it’ for him......

Dear Footnote,

I’ve started keeping a running diary but think I’m adding too much information. I write down every run/ training session, what I eat, how I feel, and calculate how many miles I run. Is this too much?

Well my lad, the very simple answer is you should keep note of whatever you feel is A) relevant and B) Useful. I know some runners who write down so much detail they include how many times they breath a day. I also know many people who don’t/can’t write anything at all. It’s seems to me you are somewhere in the middle. I will try and suggest what things you could write down that would be of use to your training…..

Training sessions

This is pretty much a must when you keep a training diary (otherwise you would have to call it something else!). The whole reason of writing your training down is so that you can review your training at various points in your training to help your future decisions.

·      During a training period you can monitor your improvement by reviewing sessions you repeat (i.e. you can be proud of taking off 1 minute your 5-mile evening loop).

·      At the end of a training program you can look at what worked, what did not, what you did not do enough of etc. This will help you too make the big improvements going into your next training period.

If you have the information readily available I suggest you keep a note of how long you ran for in time and distance. This will allow you to know your average mile speed and effort so that you know how hard you trained. If you don’t I suggest you estimate the distance to help add up your weekly mileage.

Weekly mileage

Many people will argue that you do not need to calculate your weekly mileage, as it is not the best way to sum up your week. I.e. just because you ran more miles than last week it “does not mean you have trained harder!”

I agree with the above but I find keeping a tab on weekly mileage will help motivate your self, as you get fitter. When I look at my weekly mileage I take pride that I own all of thiose miles and they are in the bank waiting to come out in my next race. It will also note if you have/ have not increased your mileage as much as you should have!

Tip: Estimating your mileage each day will make adding up easier than having to review each running route from memory.

Comments

Now this is what I call optional but I thought I would explain the usefulness for commenting. Stating how you feel whether it be a smiley face system or noting if you feel tired is a good indicator of overtraining and explaining how your body performs. When you have a really hard session on a Tuesday and feel bad for the rest of the week it is reassuring to know that your body is tired for a reason. No training schedule should be written in stone and you will sometimes need to adapt your training depending how you feel. Comments are also a great way to keep track on injuries/ niggles, monthly weight and even when you bought your last pair of trainers!

Tip: You don’t need to add comments everyday. Just when you have something to say!

Food

In my personal experience I found keeping a food diary to be very time consuming and obsessive. The beauty of running lots of miles is that you can eat as much food as you like! If you are anything like me you will not vary what you eat day to day (i.e. I eat the same cereal each day). I am sure if you have put yourself on a strict diet then it might be a motivator but in terms of running I personally think you could spend your time better!

There are also many of area's people might monitor like how many hours of sleep you get, weight etc. There are many arguments for their inclusion and many against. The main questions you need to ask yourself when looking at the your training diary is:

1.     “What do I learn from this data?” – Is calculating my speed for every mile relevant or am I being anal for the sake of it?

2.     “Do I pay attention to what I write?” - What’s the point in writing down I have a leg injury if weeks later you have not attempted to do anything about it?

3.     “Am I over complicating my training diary?” – Too much data makes footnote a dull boy!

Well I hope that help's. Maybe I have missed something off? Let me know what you keep a diary of and why it is useful to you?

Tags: training diary, weekly mileage, realbuzz.com christmas, running food diary, running training diary

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