How do you use a training diary?
How do you use a training diary?
Once the information is down in a training diary, it only becomes useful if you start to use it correctly.
Most obviously, it’s a good way to compare your current effort to previous training, and to plot what has worked and what hasn’t in the build-up to big events. For Clancy, that means assessing the impact of training camps and his preparation for major track meets.
He explains: “When we are doing training camps I’m always looking back on it. You’ll have your PBs in the hills, how many watts you did, what heart rate and how you perceived that effort. It means you’re always comparing your (current) self to your previous self.
“Also, for me, when you look back at the Olympics or a World Cup, it gives you a chance to see what went wrong, if anything, and assess what you did not only in that month but the months preceding it. You can spend hours looking back.”
However, a training diary isn’t just useful in the long-term and can also be used to make short-term decisions, as Gallagher explains.
“It can be useful in the short-term,” he says. “If you are under the weather on a Friday with a big event coming up, looking back you may find you’ve done a ride just days before that was in poor conditions and that you found difficult.
“Well, next time out you can change the way you approach that ride in future. Your memory should be enough to remember the recent rides in such cases but it always helps you to interpret the impact of your efforts if it’s down in black and white.
“Meanwhile, in the long-term, assessing how you prepared for a big event – be it a major sportive or a race, for example – and how your form changed over a number of months leading up to it helps you plan for the next big event.”
You can also use a training diary to spot trends in your training – but beware of the potential pitfalls, too.