This week I got a new training journal and I am loving it. For the last few years I stopped using an actual handwritten training journal and just recorded my training on an online log. This was great because I was still recording my runs, etc, but there is nothing quite like an actual hand written journal. And this journal I have is not just any regular journal. This is a special training journal called “Believe” created specially for women distance runners by professional distance runner ladies. It is not just a place to write down your daily training, but also a place to write about your goals and dreams. It is also full of motivational quotes and helpful information for all runners about (what else) running! I have only had the journal for a few days now, but I am already loving it – and feeling inspired! This week’s main focus was to do my plantar fasciitis exercises every day. And there is no way I am going to leave a journal entry blank now. So I have been doing my exercises every day, where as before I had been letting it slide. Every week I will focus on something new that I would like to improve in my training regime. I feel like my training journal is really going to help me work on all the little things that will end up making a big difference.
Anyone that is training for something should have a journal or log. My new running journal is pretty fancy and definitely awesome – but anything, even just blank notebook will do. Writing down your daily activities allows you to see how far you’ve come in your training. If you get injured, you can look back at your training log to see what was going on that might have contributed to your injury. Or if you have a successful competition, or really awesome week of workouts, you can look back into your journal to see what you were doing that helped you do so well.
Writing down your goals is the start of achieving them. Simply saying “I want to run a half marathon next year”, is not good enough. You need to write down “I will run a half marathon in this amount of time on this date and here are the steps I’m going to take to accomplish this goal”. Every week you can track your progress in your journal. This keeps you motivated and on target!
Alright so it is pretty straight forward – training journals are awesome and an important part of any athlete’s life. No wonder our coaches at IF keep training logs for the work we do in there! So if you don’t have one yet, you better go get one and get writing!
Natasha Wodak
IF Sponsored Athlete
Innovative Fitness, Kitsilano
