My New Training Log

It is time to turnover to a new training log. For the past, what, 10-12 years I have been using "The Runner's Training Diary" from Bob & Shelly Glover. Obviously I must like it, or else I really don't like change. Or both!

I do like it, but they revised it a couple of years ago and I liked the previous edition better. Because I really don't like change at all! Mostly, what they did was put a bunch more info in the back. Good info but not really needed, and it makes it more difficult to flip back and forth between the diary pages and the yearly summary pages and the charts and schedules---all of which I use a lot.

So I decided to try something new. Ordered "The Runner's Diary" from Matt Fitzgerald. Will start using it next week. But have dipped into it a bit and not sure I like it better. There are a few things I'll like but other things I will miss.

What I don't like so far:

• Bigger, more awkward size, plus oversized cover pages that will get bent and look messy
• Doesn't have the handy marathon training schedules like the Glover book
• Has pace charts, but not the handy predictor charts that Glover has
• 4 pages per week vs. 2 pages per week in Glover, will make it hard to flip around from week to week
• Doesn't have the little spot to write in what shoes I wore, so I have to just put it in the regular notes

What I do like:

• Monthly Planning Calendar pages where I can record a summary of my planned runs for the whole month
• That's it, actually, I can't find anything else I like better at the moment

What I am neutral about right now:

• The spaces to record your nutrition for the day, because although it sounds appealing who knows if I will actually be able to keep up with it
• The "rating" space, because again, who knows if I will actually use that
• Intensity Factor, which might be fun to track if I can get the hang of computing it easily. You are supposed to take your current, "functional threshold pace" (the pace you could sustain for an hour in race conditions), convert that to seconds per mile, and then compare it to how fast you ran your workout. So you get an intensity percentage. Now who knows what my FTP is? So I am just going to figure it on a 60 minute 10k or something like that. Anyway, whatever you use, as long as you keep using the same thing I guess the Intensity Factors could be compared to each other. Doesn't this sound like too much work, though? That's what I'm thinking.
• Weekly Summary, again could be good if I use it, but will it be too much work.