KEEPING A TRAINING JOURNAL

 From 30 Thoughts for a Victorious Triathlete: “A training journal helps build confidence and mo­tivation. It also helps you feel a sense of accom­plishment. When you’ve completed your workout in accordance to a training plan for the day, it will feel great to log your training. Log how you feel both physically and mentally after each training day. Journaling helps you fig­ure out what works and what doesn’t. Try it for 7 days.” 

Journaling all of your workouts helps you see what works and what doesn’t. While there are multiple multisport journals for triathlete’s available, don’t stress over it. Just choose one that you can simply record your daily training and racing thoughts, nutrition, statistics, weather conditions, and even emotions.   A free training log is available for download from Triathlon Geeks’ website. 

 

Clarity

The key to keeping a training and racing journal is that, over time, it becomes clear whether you are improving and becoming a better triathlete. Review each week of training to see what it was that you did that seemed to make a difference, positively or negatively. Once you note the key factors, you then are motivated and inspired to make the necessary changes needed, or to maintain and build on what is working well.

Example: Recording your heart rate – Whether you’re just starting or rebuilding, you may notice that your heart rate is fairly high, but as you stay consistent, and slowly and intelligently increase your pace and effort, you will see via your heart rate monitoring that your cardiovascular fitness level is steadily increasing.  If you are running a 6 mile run at 8:00 per mile pace with an average heart rate of 158, and after a week or two of consistently doing this (and maybe throwing in some harder strides and tempos), you will more than likely see your average heart rate drop to maybe 148 at the same pace and distance – and because you recorded it all, it’s there in black and white for your  review.

Dividends

This is just one example of how keeping a journal of your daily workouts in a journal can pay dividends in your training, and understanding just what works or doesn’t work. Even recording your rest and fatigue levels can help you to focus on what will improve your swimming, biking, running, an strength training. So get a multisport training journal, then train, record, review, and tri.

Get your free training log here.

Triathlon Geek
Training strategies at: www.TriathlonGeek.com

Comments

[Daire Mul]

Good point on the heart rate monitoring Triathlon Geek, the only thing we are not doing at the moment.

We are keeping a log of training and comparing actual's Vs. aims and would agree with you that a log aids in the training process. Great for motivation and confidence.

Mul, The Triathlon Life