Training Logs

Training logs are great tools. They're helpful for keeping track of workouts (times and mileage), how you felt (which may point to sources of injury), etc. Since July of 2009, I have kept track of my workouts in Excel workbooks (although I can't find 2010). Over the years, I have gotten a bit more detailed in terms of actually adding up weekly miles (and graphing it), noting times, and color coding run, swim, bike, and "other" workouts (yes, I actually do that so I can visually check up on my cross training "progress", which is currently abysmal). Truth be told, I started this blog as a training log so that I'd actually keep track of more than just metrics (i.e., distance and pace).

So, why am I writing this post? I've found another use for training logs. As I said, I have logs dating back to 2009ish, which includes every marathon that I've run except for my first. And, I've made it through each of these marathons.

Boston is 1 month away (well, less now). I am not a calm person, so this is cause for me to start flipping out and doubting my training. I've already been anxious this winter owing to the crappy weather and the fact that I feel that I haven't done the workouts I should be doing. However, it hasn't snowed in like a week, and I actually have been managing to get workouts in. In fact, I had three pretty good runs in just 7 days. Good, right?

I was all excited this Saturday that I had finished my last long run... until I looked at Facebook on Sunday. Everyone else had run 22 miles. I had only run 20 miles. Crap. I had wanted to do a workout next weekend that would mutually exclude doing a 22 mile run. So, what did I do... immediately start looking on the Internet for reasons why I shouldn't do a 22 mile run next weekend. The great thing about the Internet is that you can almost always find what you are looking for. Which I did... some people suggest that there is limited benefit to running much over 2.5hrs, and I am not fast enough to cover 22 miles in this time. Perfect. However, I also realized that this search was rather limited, and Googling the opposite of my hypothesis also produced a fair number of hits with equally as compelling evidence.

Aggghhh. I went back to flipping out and trying to rework my training schedule to fit everything in. I could not race two weeks from now, but I really wanted to. I could try and do both workouts next weekend, but that would probably be disastrous. As I was moving Excel cells around and trying to get the numbers to work out right, I thought of something... have I ever run 22 miles in preparation for a marathon? As far as I can tell, twice. And one of them was the Frosty 50k. For the last three marathons that I've run, which includes my PR, 20-miles has been my longest.

So, training logs keep you from freaking out close to races. Afterall, training is an experiment of one... what works for other people might not work for you!