The Training Diary

13 April 2021

17:08

In your diary you, you will draw up a plan for the season, record the details of workouts, add comments on how training is progressing, and summarize race results. At the end of your season, as you start thinking about the new season ahead, you training diary will provide answers to questions, including the most important one: What can I do to race better next year ?

Planning with a diary

 

At the end of the current week, open your diary to the coming week and plan the daily workouts by sport. Use the workout codes found in Appendixes B,C,D and E to note the swim, bike and run sessions. If you're also doing weight lifting, indicated the day or days and type of workout (AA, MT, MS, or SM).

What to record

 

Basic log entries

The most basic workout data includes the sport, date, time of day, planned workout, actual workout completed, course route or venue, distance and duration of the workout, and equipment used.

 

When you look back at workout data several days, weeks or months later, you will also want to know of anything that set the workout apart from the norm:

• Did it go particularly well or poorly ?
• How did you account for that at the time ?
• Was it cold, hot, windy, or rainy ?
• Did the weather affect your workout that day ?
• Did you have a training partner who caused you to work a little harder than usual, or not as hard ?
• Who was it ?
• Was there anything that happened out of the ordinary, such as a knee that didn't feel quite right or tires that were underinflated ?
• Perhaps you tripped and fell during a run

 

Morning warnings

Decide which of the morning warning are good indicators of unusual stress for you and that you know you will measure and record regularly. Then assess and record them in your diary first thing in the morning when you wake up. You might use a simple "+" or "-" rating or a more detailed scale from 1 to 5.

 

Physical notes

How did the workout go ? Did you accomplish what you were intending ? You may use a simple grading system from A to F, as if you were in school. Also keep a track of workout details, such as time by heart rate, pace, or power zones.

 

Mental notes

Record how you felt about the workout. Are you satisfied with how it went ? Do you feel as if you are making good progress ? Do you have concerns ?

 

Miscellaneous notes

Anything unusual that may affect you: travel, environmental factors such as altitude and humidity, career-related stress such as working long hours, injuries and illnesses, and family activities that interrupt workouts.

Training analysis

 

The starting place for analysis is asking yourself the most basic of training questions, such as these:

• Am I making progress toward my goals ?
• Is my training too hard or too easy ?
• Am I getting enough rest and recovery ?
• Is my diet meeting my fuelling needs ?

 

The answers to critical concerns about progress are found in your diary. It may take some searching, but the answers to questions such as How am I doing ? are found there. If you are doing an occasional B- and C-priority races, they will serve as the very best markers of progress toward your A-priority race. Other indicators come from periodic testing.

Race analysis

 

Good or bad, after every race you need to asses how you did.

 

The common reasons for a poor race performance have to do with race management. The goal should be to do the second half of the bike leg at a slightly higher power output than the first half. This is called negative splitting. If you learn to do this, you come off the bike ready to have a fast run. The way to learn this skill is to rehearse it in training at least weekly in the last 12 weeks before the race.

 

Another race management issue has to do with race-day conditions, especially heat. If it's a hot day, you need to make pacing adjustments. Go more slowly. Several weeks in advance, you should have a good ide of what weather conditions have been for a particular race in past years and perhaps even an early indication of what might be expected this time. If it's going to be hot, you need to prepare well in advance by doing some heat adaptation. Run frequently in the hottest part of the day in the last month or so before the race. If it's much cooler where you live than where the race will be held, you need to be creative.

 

What if you had a great race ? Races in which everything went well deserve special attention. Did you do anything aside from the usual race preparation, especially in the week leading up to the race and on race day ? Give it considerable thought because there is something here you need to understand so you can do it again at the next race.