ARTICLES, TIPS, TRAINING & GENERAL ADVICE

Tracking Your Workouts

by Lisa Sabin, December 30, 2007

Why Should I Track My Workouts?

Motivation- People are motivated to work out by keeping track of their work outs.  Tracking allows you to look back and see what you have accomplished.  When you see what you have done, it motivates you towards your next goal.

Watching your stats grow can be very motivating.  Seeing how many minutes or miles you’ve put in is exciting.  You see the results, not in just how you feel, but on paper.  This makes your success more tangible.

Attention To Detail-Paying attention to what you are doing brings focus.  Do you want to get stronger?  Do you want to get faster? Do you want to eat better?  Be healthier?  The first step to making changes is to know what you are currently doing.  Once you see what you are doing, you can determine what you would like to do to and make the necessary changes.  When you track what you are doing goals are more easily realized.

Organization/Planning-Pick an event to train for, or a fitness goal.  Develop a clear idea of what it takes to get there.  Plan the work outs.  Measure what you actually do against what the plan says you should do.  For example: I want to run the Seattle Half Marathon.  In order to run the race I will need to be able to run 13.1 miles on the day of the race.  I can find a training plan in the Sweat365 library, copy it and save it.  I can plan what I need to do each day over the course of the next few months to achieve my goal.   It’s a lot easier to produce the desired outcome, when you pay attention to the details.  Listening to your body is important.  Training plans are not written in stone, sometimes you need to evaluate how you are feeling and make adjustments in your training plan.  Again, keeping a record of what you are doing and when you deviate from your original plan and why is beneficial for future training.

Record of what’s been done-Logging your workouts establishes a history of what you have done.  Noting how you are feeling, what your heart rate was, etc.  Recording this information in detail will help you know how your body responds to training.  Have you had any injuries?  What lead up to getting injured?  Can you see any patterns?  Am I training enough to achieve the goal?  Am I over-training?  What worked for me?  What didn’t work for me?  What could I have done differently?  What will I do next time?

I have been keeping a training log since 1994, when I began training for my first marathon.  The log has been invaluable to me.  I frequently refer to what I have done in the past.  I have kept records of my fastest races, my fastest training runs, as well as my bad training days.  When I began training for my first triathlon in 2000, I began logging cycling and swimming too.  I log my strength training work outs and yoga as well.  I have kept a log of injuries.  I can look back and see what has been successful for me.  I can also see where things went wrong.  I can use the information to develop a strategy that continues to challenge me and help me move forward in my fitness.

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