Training Logs For Increased Athletic Performance

As you know I’m a big fan and user of goal setting, specifically SMARTER goals.  Most people have heard of SMART goals, but not many have heard of, no less use, SMARTER goals.  In case you are not familiar here is a post that discusses SMARTER goals.

In this post I’d like to discuss the ‘ER’ in SMARTER goals.  The ‘E’ stands for evaluate and the ‘R’ stands for revise or regroup.

So let me ask you, how can you evaluate and revise if you don’t know what you’ve done, if it’s working and the results if you don’t write it down?

You can’t!  And this is a prime reason so many fall short of reaching their performance or athletic goals.

This is where a training log comes in.  You can call it a journal, diary, ledger…it doesn’t matter what you call, the question is do you have one and do you use it to its full potential.

Several years ago read an article about past Olympians and their discussion about their development as athletes.  Throughout the article one thing become very clear, the single piece of advice that was endorsed by the majority of the Olympians was you must be diligent about keeping a training log.

That’s it?

These athletes have reached the pinnacle in their sport and the best piece of advice they offer is to keep a training log?

If you’re like me right about now you’re probably saying something like, “I already keep training log…sort of…I was looking for advice that will give me the edge.”

So perhaps it’s time to take another look at training logs and figure out how to make it more useful tool.

Diversifying The Use Of The Training Log

The training log is your own personal history of your training and performances.  It can, and should, be used to see what works and what doesn’t for you in training to meet specific performance goals.  A majority of athletes and individuals use training logs to keep track of the basics such as the number of repetitions and weight lifted, distance ran, laps swam, balls thrown or puts made.  Most athletes never go back and check the information and the journaling process is just to satisfy some voice in their head telling them they ‘should” keep a journal.

Limiting your training log to this basic information is only scratching the surface of the potential of what a training log can really provide.

While each athlete should structure a training log to meet their needs, a good training log might include:

• The facts of the workout such as the number of reps, weight, miles laps, weather, the time of workout, etc
• Goals for the workout and the extent to which each goal was achieved.
• How you felt physically.
• How you felt mentally.
• Hours of sleep the night before
• The diet the day before, especially the last meal before the workout.
• What you need to work on in the future based on today’s results.
• A success from the training session, i.e. what you did well or accomplished.
• This lessons learned or reminders that can be applied to competition.

Hidden Benefits Of Keeping A Training Log

In keeping a more detailed record of your training, some of the benefits to you are:

• Increased Motivation: Having daily goals and evaluating your performance based on accomplishment of your goals can serve as a source of motivation.  A clear purpose to your training today can enhance your intensity and drive.  Also, having a written record of things you need to work on based on past training can increase your motivation as well
• Keep You Accountable: Training logs distinguish wishful thinking from reality. It’s easy to fool yourself into thinking you had a great (or horrible) workout, but by writing down what you did, how you felt, goals achieved, etc. this will tell the real story.  Training logs keep you accountable for what you’re doing on a daily basis.
• Build Confidence: As I have mentioned in earlier posts, nothing breeds confidence like success!  What better way to build confidence then to purposely acknowledge your daily success?  Athletes often take a critical view of themselves, always looking for areas that need improvement.  Keeping a log of daily success forces you to recognize your progress and success, and this leads to and builds confidence.
• Allow For Self-Analysis: Keeping a detailed training log enables you to better find the factors in a good or poor performance.  For example, you may find your performance flattens when you get less than six hours sleep, or that you tend to train best when you work out with a partner or it that after a stressful day at work you struggle with your motivation.  You can scrutinize what you have done to look for trends or patterns so you can make any needed changes.

There is no single training log template that will meet the needs of all athletes.  There e-versions, pre-populated version and my favorite…the good old composition book.  What it important no matter what type of journal/log you use, you need to take the time to develop a training log in a format that’ll you’ll use and will work for you.

Experiment with various pieces of information that you may want to include in your training log in.  Figure out what information is going to be useful to you, then commit to keeping and referring back to the log.

By keeping a training log you will be able to ‘ER’ and stack the odds in your favor of reaching your perusal goals.

If you’d like more info on improving athletic performance take a look at “Mental Training for Athletic Performance.”

OK…what works for you with training logs?  Please let me know in the comments below:

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