Trend-spotting and pitfalls
Trend-spotting and pitfalls
As well as plotting what worked and what didn’t, a diary also gives you the means to look back through your efforts to identify trends in your training.
While an effort may well have worked several weeks ago, you may look back and find your progress has stalled if you haven’t advanced those efforts over the intervening weeks.
“Something as simple as spotting the lack of progress in your training gives you something you can change for the next time,” Gallagher says. “And you can’t really do that without the information to back it up.”
However, as valuable as a training diary can be, it’s not the answer to everything.
There are some weeks, as Clancy explains, when you may simply find you are in great shape and there is little to suggest why that may be. With a wealth of cycling experience behind him, he has found that sometimes the form is just with you – or not, as the case may be.
“It’s not an exact science,” he says. “I’ve been doing cycling a long time and even now it can be a black art. Sometimes you’re just absolutely flying and you have no idea why.
“When using a training diary, you have to bear in mind the human body is a biological thing and sometimes there will be underlying illnesses and fatigue and external factors that you just can’t get from a diary.”