Since the great Garmin Hack of Ought 20, I’ve been really appreciating my good old paper records. I really love the Believe/ Compete Training Journals by Lauren Fleshman and Roisin McGettigan-Dumas. These are two runners who clearly know what they are talking about and are passionate about sharing what they know with the running community. You can get to know Lauren Fleshman on her podcast “Work, Play, Love” which is fantastic. Roisin McGettigan-Dumas is one of the hosts of “Keeping Track” which focuses on women in sport.
The layout in this journal for planning and documenting your running week is perfect, there is enough space to document a year of running. There’s a space for each day, the date, a description of your workout, log the miles, and your rating. Each week features inspiring quotes about running, training, and life. Each section guides you through exercises to consider different themes of goal setting, motivations, workouts, and other useful tips. I really like the strength training workout “the Dirty Dozen” that is in the Believe journal. I’ve been wanting to try it out and have really made progress with my newfound free time. I have far fewer sore muscles after long runs.
The main difference between the Believe and Compete themed journals are the themes of the sections. The weekly worksheets are basically the same.
I like to use different color pens to mark down my planned runs for the week, and in a different color document what I actually ran. It’s colorful, and I think it’s much easier to flip through the year and see progress than browsing through my Garmin data. I also try to mark down my goals for the training cycle and put in reminders each week about the big picture.
Right now I’m training for a virtual half marathon. I’m still dealing with some foot issues since my spring virtual marathon, and I want to make sure I’m really enjoying my runs. My goal for this training cycle is to focus on the joy of the thing. That means I might have to deviate from the plan (a lofty goal for me) and my journal entries say things like “I saw a woman walking her beautiful great dane and we exchanged good mornings” or “smiled a ton” instead of my times.
You can purchase these journals in several colors from Amazon, and the prices vary. Right now the best price is for the red Believe journal at $17.48. You can also buy these books from the Picky Bars website (Lauren Fleshman is one of the owners), currently for $22, but they occasionally have sales where everything is on sale.