Friday, March 14, 2008

record keeping

first off, thanks for the great discussion on running in the evening versus the morning. seems like the general consensus is we like to run in the morning. you all have definitely motivated me to try and get my butt out of bed and enjoy a morning run more often. let's also get a "holla" for daylight savings time, though huh? i ran 8 miles last night (in my goal pace!!) and walked the dog afterwards before it was dark. hallelujah.

so my next burning question is how anal are all of you in your record keeping when it comes to your running? since the dawn of my running time, i have faithfully logged every mile, every course, every time, every race. i love being able to see exactly what i've run every week, every month, every year. i know how many miles are on each shoe and when to replace them. i know what goals to set for myself because i can see where i've been. however, it's a little exhausting having to recall and record all of it. do you think it's worth it?

i use a few different ways to keep track of things. nike's training log is fantastic, just due to the fact that is talks with nike+ when i upload runs from my ipod. i also keep a separate excel log that i can manipulate and total. yes, double record keeping i know. but it works for me.

8 comments:

  1. Hey! I'm pretty anal about my log. I just moved it from nikerunning.com to runningahead.com. Nike's was all flash-based and didn't always work quite right for me... probably because I manually input everything (Garmin 101 and no Nike+). So I switched. I like runningahead's format and it's really user friendly, plus I can export my data to a spreadsheet in case I ever want to move it somewhere else. On my running blog I have a little sidebar thing with the miles I've run this week, month, and year. That's a pretty cool feature too.

    ReplyDelete
  2. you know, i was just thinking about this the other day... i don't log ANY of my runs, but i was wondering if i should. i have run hundreds of miles over the last 2 years, but i don't really know how many. kind of sad, huh? i have a garmin, but because i have a iMac, the software the garmin comes with is not compatible with my computer... i'd have to buy another program, which i've never done, because it's just another thing to buy... anyway, i should record all my miles, though, because i'm sure it would be an effective training tool to look back and see how i did with missing so many runs or if my times actually improved from using a specific training regime.

    ReplyDelete
  3. i have actually never really thought about it. but thanks for bringing it up. i will have to start when i start running again in a week or two. i can totally see how it would be helpful to see improvements, etc.

    ReplyDelete
  4. zach, i love the input from runningahead. very cool.

    it's true that logging in those miles is an extra step, but it might be worth it in the "long run". ha!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hey,
    I like to use mapmyride.com, (aka mapmyrun.com, mapmyfitness.com) To log both running and cycling. You can use it for just about any athletic training. The coolest feature is that you can save your routes in a google maps type view and link them to your workouts... I beleive it can also synch with some GPS devices, but I'm not that savvey.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Honestly, I've never really logged anything. Sometimes I wish I did, but then I realize I have too many other things to worry about. I usually just get new shoes when I realize I should probably get new ones. Nice system, huh? So I have no idea how many miles I've run in the last 3 1/2 years. Although that would be kind of fun to know.

    ReplyDelete
  7. that's the dilemma, molly! it takes some serious effort to do it, you know? now that i've started though, i don't ever think i could stop.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I can honestly say I've never logged a run in my life. I would even have to think really hard how many races I've done or what I did them in. I guess I go by milestones - like I've run X number of races or something, instead of what I do them in. Interesting how different the motivations can be for doing the exact same sport.

    ReplyDelete