subject: Better Running Performance - How To Achieve Massive Progress as a Runner [print this page] f you are really serious about making massive progress and getting the most out of you running program - then I suggest to you keeping a running log/journal. Keeping a personal journal of your runs helps you track your progress, avoid past drawbacks and even inspire you to tackle new accomplishments. Serious runners leave out no detail of their runs, no wonder they can perform on such a high level.
This high level performance comes out from the deeper understanding of which conditions fuel their performance in the first place - running journal is key to helping you resolving and tapping to these more subtle and elusive conditions. By using it on a regular basis, you can learn from what is working in your running schedule and make appropriate adjustment. This feedback loop is an essential key to peak performance.
You running journal can be as simple as notebook, spreadsheet or even a weblog. You could use your running journal to write about the details of workouts and summarize how you felt before, during, and after every workout. In other words, you can use a running journal to record virtually anything you find important about your run. Here are a few guidelines for what information you need to put in you running log:
Daily and weekly mileage, you usually record distance, length of the run and the type of running training. Average pace or speed on training runs. Number of intervals and the duration of reps. Aches and pains: location and intensity, what you were doing at the time. The age of your running shoes. Where you ran. (The actual route or whether it was on a treadmill...) The time of the session. (Morning, noon...) Which food you ate before or after your run and how you felt the run went. your heart rate... Pre-run and post-run stretches...
Review you running log weekly with a critical eye. Pretend it is someone else's training program and you are playing the role of the critic in order to find out if is going as desired. You may be amazed as the training mistakes you find. Correct these mistakes and remember not to be harsh on yourself. We all need to make mistakes if we want to reach our full potential. Adopting this approach will not only make a better runner and one more likely to stay injury-free, but a better human being in general.
In other words, a running journal will help you understand why a certain run may have proceeded better than another run. For that reason, it gives you an in depth understanding of what makes you a better runner.
Better Running Performance - How To Achieve Massive Progress as a Runner
