To succeed in any type of sport you need to train yourself systematically. It doesn’t matter whether you’re training for a race, a competition or just for your own personal benefit – to see how far you’ve come you should keep a training diary.
Documenting your progress not only helps you with short-term planning but it also allows you to see your development over a long period of time. You’ll be able to determine which exercises were the most effective and which ones you can eliminate from your routine.
To ensure that you exercise regularly it helps if you’re having fun, not only with the activity but also with the upkeep of your training diary. It shouldn’t feel like just one more thing you don’t really want to do. Picking a pretty or very cool looking notebook can help to make you smile when you whip out your training diary or if you’re a gadget-gal or guy finding a training app or software can help you to look forward to making your training entries.
If you’re starting with a blank notebook here are some things that you’ll probably want to keep track of:
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Date & day of the week
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Time
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Length of your route or training session
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Description of the route (hilly, flat, dirt, asphalt …)
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Duration of training session
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Cardio, basic or speed training?
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Average speed
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Weather, temperature etc.
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What you ate and drank that day – helps you to evaluate how that affected the next day’s performance
- Your personal notes
Should you have a different exercise focus then it can easily be incorporated into your diary. Cyclists for instance often also keep track of their pulse in the mornings before they start their workout. That makes sense to prevent overtraining yourself. Having a faster pulse during your resting period can indicate a number of things, you could be asking too much of yourself when exercising or you could be in danger of cardiac arrest, which is a serious risk for any endurance athlete.
Thank you to Festina for this post. Festina has a range of cycling watches chock full of useful features to help you keep your training diary up to date and help you stay healthy. You can find a range of Festina watches over at Watch Depot.
