The essentials to put in your training journal

I am trying to emphasise the importance of keeping a journal with the young athletes I coach. By recording what you are doing, you can measure progress, see what works, see what doesn't work and also change behaviour.

It is well known that people do not realise what is actually going on in their lives. They classically under report how much alcohol they drink, how much food they eat and over report how much exercise they do.

One young player I coach said he didn't play well in a Volleyball match, his legs were tired. When asked what might have caused this, he thought about it and then said "Oh, I did squats that morning, do you think that might be it?"

What should be in a journal? I have written down some essentials, and some optionals, it depends on the individual.

Essentials:

1. Date, day.

2. Type of training - weights, run, cycle, technical, etc.

3. Loads, reps, sets, speed, distance, rest,

4. Perception of training - hard, easy.

5. Technical notes - not a full blown account, but 1 or 2 points to work on for the next session. This is goal setting in the real world, not some artifical paperwork exercise done twice a year.

6. Sleep - for me just recording it helps understand why I have trained like a donkey in a week where I don't get more than five hours a night

7. Mood on waking, a good indicator of your training load. If you are waking up tired and groggy three days in a row, take a day off. You probably need rest.

Optionals:

1. Food - again for me recording any junk food that I may eat - by recording it, it changes behaviour, you may want a clean sheet on your journal and so stop reaching for that biscuit tin last thing at night.

2. Alcohol - again, if you want to know in a month's time why you haven't achieved your goal of doing a long Sunday morning run, looking in your diary and seeing that you drink a bottle of wine on Saturday night might explain things.

3. Body weight - for me, it isn't a big thing, but once a week may be useful for some athletes. Make sure it is done on the same scales at the same time of day. The exception might be in warm climates when you are measuring fluid losses.

4. Other activities - everything has an impact on your training, if you have had to drive 400 miles in a day, that might explain why you didn't feel like lifting heavy that night. Working 14 hours on a project, travelling on a plane, having a cold, getting a late night due to children - all should be taken into account.

The journal should never be a burden, or take more than five minutes a day to do. That is the disadvantage of the online journals and recordings that some sports require their athletes to do. The athletes can spend half an hour a day inputting data - I am not sure who that benefits, it just produces a lot of data that nobody reads. As anyone who works for a big company knows - this happens a lot.

Some online journals are available for recreational athletes - I have mentioned mapmyrun before, which is very good- but that depends on your online access. For me, pen and paper are best - cheap, transportable and easy to use.

I have been keeping some form of training notes for about 17 years now, both technical notes and also recording loads, reps, distances travelled etc. These notes have ranged from a simple excel spreadsheet which summarised a month's training that I kept in a filofax, to an A4 piece of paper with a week's plan on a clipboard, to hardbound diaries. Whatever I have done, it has been simple, cheap and very easy to use.

Currently I am using an A5 hardback journal, with one week's training on a page. I write my technical notes down at the back. This seems to be working well for me, as it allows me to compare week to week easily.

Start keeping a journal and see your results improve.