Logging the miles

There are many benefits to logging the miles...and the times...and the route....and the weather....and the frame of mind!

Once you have put pen to paper and set a target or goal and have planned a programme to take you there, it's time to start the training. However, the pen pushing doesn't stop there! It is important that you record your training by keeping a diary or a log. In this you can record the distance you covered, the time it took you to run it, how easy or difficult the route was, how the weather helped or hindered, your heart rate, how you felt going into the run, during and after and much more. But why would you do this? Well, there are many reasons:

Motivation

There is nothing quite like seeing your progress written down to motivate you to go out and do that next session and add that to your log too. Pretty soon you have your own story of success that you can look back on to see how far you've come!

Learning

Even if you have a great memory, as time goes on, you won't remember every detail about your training. There will be times when things don't work out how you expect them to and so you can look back over your diary and seek out the reasons. They are normally there in black and white. You may come across a comment such as "Felt somewhat lack lustre today, pushed on anyway and was glad to get it done". You can often follow a trail backwards after a bad performance or a great performance and trace what went right or what went wrong. By doing this you will start to learn about yourself, your strengths, weaknesses and limitiations.

Reminder

You may want to replicate a great performance. Your training diary will hold the secret of previous success. It's good to look back and pull out the key sessions that led to those successful performances.

Monitoring

Consistency is one of the most important factors in maintaining fitness. By writing your training down in a diary you will be able to monitor your progress and check that you are keeping it consistent with gradual progress. You will be able to quickly see how heavy or light your training was in any given week.

There are many different ways to log your training from simply writing it down in a diary to using GPS systems that can be uploaded to a computer. You can also keep a track of your miles and races on your runbritain profile page.