Training Journal - An Asset

The one asset I cannot recommend most for an individual who wishes to train for something, whether it is a race, event, or personal development, is maintaining a journal. A journal serves many purposes including motivation, monitoring progression, can lend insight to overtraining, explanation for injury, when to increase volume or intensity, and so on. The benefits of maintaining an up to date log or journal for training for outweigh the disadvantages. It can eliminate the guess work out of training and even allow you to train to your potential.

You have many different options on how you can keep your training journal. Some people prefer to write everything down in an agenda or have bought a cheap notebook from the dollar store and created calendars and tables throughout. I have seen people come into the gym with printouts they made on Excel and writing down their progress. However you decide to record your training, there is always something to keep in mind – STICK TO IT.  Your training journal will stand to show your motivation and dedication towards your goal. It will also be able to show you what has worked for you in the past, this way you can avoid making mistakes in your training regime.

Personally, I use TrainingPeaks.com to record my workouts due to its ease of use and functionality. I can access Training Peaks from either my Blackberry, or log onto it through my computer. I use the basic version of the software which only allows me to input on the present day what I have done and not plan future workouts. If I upgrade to the Premium Version, I can do just that and more. Below I have included the difference between the two Personal Versions of Training Peaks (table also located on their website):

Features	Premium	Basic
Log exercise and meals	*	*
Track daily metrics (weight, sleep, stress...)	*	*
Basic analysis of workouts, meals and metrics	*	*
Upload workouts from 80+ training devices	*	*
Map, upload and record routes	*	*
Share workouts and routes to Facebook, Twitter & email	*	*
Interactive dashboard & journal	*	*
Mobile access (iPhone, Blackberry and others)	*	*
Calendar sync to iCal, Outlook, Google, etc	*
Enhanced analysis of workouts, meals and metrics	*
Schedule future exercise and meals	*
No advertising	*
VirtualCoach race season planning	*
Build an Annual Training Plan (ATP)	*
Basic strength exercise videos	*
Routes history and race tracking	*

I love the fact that I can simply add my workout from my Blackberry right after I am done and not have to worry about it once I get home. In addition, I can view previous weeks and see what I have completed. It also tallies up the total time of your training time weekly so you can monitor your volume. What I find especially interesting for endurance focused individuals is that you can map your routes. So if I go for a long bike ride, I can plot my route on a map and it will tell me my total distance and elevation throughout the journey. The online program is also compatible with GPS products from Garmin so you can magically sync those routes effortlessly.

Furthermore, you can also use Training Peaks as a meal and metric analyser. I have yet to experiment with these features, but what their website explains, you can use Training Peaks to also monitor weight loss through the metrics option. Simply take your measurements one day (girth, weight, etc) and then measure again in a couple weeks. Their nutrition database contains over 50 000 foods with users adding new ones frequently through the Community database. It will even monitor how much of specific vitamins and minerals you are getting daily which is a bonus for every user. All these features are powerful for everyday athletes who need that extra assistance.

Best of all, Training Peaks offers a “Dashboard” view where you can see Pie Charts and graphs representing your Fitness Summary, Metrics, Macronutrient Intake Percentages, Workout Durations, etc. These resources can help any athlete fine tune their progression so that they can reach their full potential.

All in all I would definitely recommend Training Peaks to anyone who wishes to keep a simple training journal, and best of all - its free. If you need to upgrade to Premium since you require the added features, it’s only $119.00 USD for 12 months which is not a bank breaking investment.  For more information on Training Peaks and their related software please visit their website.

This is my unbiased opinion - Training Peaks did not sponsor this message... but I wouldn't mind if they did.