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Keep a journal to monitor workout effects

A training log is one of the most valuable assets you have as an athlete. It doesn’t matter if you’re looking to get faster, go longer or maintain health; if you’re not keeping a journal, I suggest you start.

Your journal can be as simple as the small squares on a monthly calendar, a spiral notebook or a computer file. You don’t need to write a novel. A few basics will do. Include the workout activity, workout time and distance if it’s appropriate. Note the workout intensity — easy, moderate or hard — and how you felt.

It’s difficult to plan without the journal information. I ask all athletes I work with to tell me what they’ve been doing for the last six weeks. I also ask what they want to be doing in the next three to six months. I work backward from their goal events and forward from their current fitness level to design the training plan. If you are self-coached, you can use the same planning strategy.

In addition to helping you plan, your journal can keep you healthy on the road to success. If you start to feel aches and pains, use the log to track the beginning or root cause of an injury. Some things to look for include long blocks of training with no rest periods, notes about work or family stress, an abrupt increase in volume or speed, worn shoes and restless nights, to name a few.

If your speed is decreasing, you can look for some of the same indicators mentioned above. You also can look for signs of mono-speed. Do you run the same routes, at the same pace, week after week? If so, don’t expect to get faster.

Even if you’re not looking to go faster but want to maintain a healthy lifestyle, a training journal can tell you when you’re heading for trouble. Several days of comments such as “tired,” “low energy” let you know trouble is brewing. Unless you take action to recover, you are increasing the probability of illness or injury.

However, some athletes don’t need recovery because they aren’t doing the work they think they’re doing. At the beginning of the week, they plan to do a workout on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. As the week rolls along, life gets busy and the next thing they know, it’s Saturday. “Oh well, I’ll do better next week,” they might think.

A couple of weeks down the road, they forget what happened and remember what they planned to do. This unrealistic view of what they actually accomplished can lead to disappointment. Take a hard look at planned vs. actual.

Best of all, journals can be used to celebrate accomplishment. Celebrate consistent training, staying healthy, increases in speed or duration or your journey to regain health.

If you haven’t been using a journal, I suggest you give it a try for six weeks. When you start, keep it simple. After a few weeks, you might find that you’re building a gold mine of information.

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Fitness columnist Gale Bernhardt has coached at two Olympic Games.