In my last post, I discussed two books that have helpful winter training programs. But in order for you to see how you're doing, you need to record what you've done. The two journals covered here contain the same essential elements: 1) a brief training program description, and 2) blank pages where you can record both objective data (distance, time, heart rate info) and subjective data (mood, notes). I've used them both, but they have different strengths & weaknesses. Read on to see whether one of these is right for you!
Joe Friels' Training Diary: A weekly log for tracking your cycling fitness was my first training journal. In 12 informative pages, Friel discusses why you should track your training, helps you plan your season, and instructs you on how to use his diary. There are pages that you can fill in to help map out your program, and detailed information on the number of training hours you should be aiming for, depending on your level. In addition, there are blank graph pages you can use however you want, as well as the usual places where you can record bike setup info, race results, etc. The remainder of the book contains the actual blank diary pages that you fill in to record your training sessions. I've included a pic showing a typical diary page. Click on it for a larger view.
As you can see, the Friel diary pages leave plenty of room to record such things as weather, a route description and a lot of notes. Each morning, I'd rate my sleep/fatigue/stress/soreness as well as record my resting heart rate and morning weight. I find the latter two numbers most useful - heart rate for indicating oncoming illness or overtraining, and weight for whether I'm hydrated (or eating too many Christmas cookies!). For each of your workouts, you can record distance, time and heart rate data as well. My favorite section is the Route section where I can record where I went that day. Also, the notes section is large enough for this to become an actual journal for your life in general (provided you're not too wordy).
I really liked the Friel book and came very close to just buying another one for my second year of riding, but I figured it'd be good to try a different journal. The Carmichael Training Systems Cyclist's Diary is much more detailed and a little more comprehensive than the Friel book. Carmichael's training philosophy, as well as information on Goal Setting, Periodization and Workout Intensities is included in 17 pages at the beginning. One particularly useful feature - especially if you're not already well-versed on the CTS approach to training - is the CTS Self-Test. Taking this test is how you establish your training zones that you'll use throughout the journal. Like the Friel journal, there are blank graph pages and places to record misc info like bike measurements, etc.
The remaining pages are the guts of the diary itself. This journal prompts you for a lot more data than the Friel journal - for example, not only do you record how many hours of sleep you got, but also how you'd rate the quality of your sleep, and you can rate your mood as well (though for some of us, that can be an always-changing number!). There is also a section where you can keep a detailed weekly record of your strength training (sorely lacking in the Friel journal) and cumulative totals of all your numbers.
Clearly, you can record a lot of numbers in the Carmichael journal, but there's so much to fill in, it can get a little overwhelming. Also - and the biggest drawback IMO - there is no room to say much at all about your route on a particular day. And there are only a couple of short lines where you can record personal notes.
While I'm glad I got a different journal for this year - and the extra information is a nice addition to my training library - if I don't find another journal I like more than the Friel book next year, I'll probably go back to him. The Carmichael book is for the much more numbers-oriented cyclist. The Friel book has enough room to record the numbers you need, while also providing space to record all those intangibles that make cycling - whether you're training seriously, racing or just riding - such a wonderful sport.
Which training journal do you use? Any you'd recommend to me for next year?
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Oh, now I want a nice journal! I'm just using a homemade spreadsheet on my PC at the moment. Your Sunday ride must have been pretty thru the park and along the beach!
Posted by: Sarah | February 14, 2007 at 09:50 AM
I have Friel's book, and it's a great reference and a bible for the racing cyclist. However, I don't really use it much. Our coach gives us all the workouts we need and the info is given to us using nutri-fit's webisite- http://www.nutrifitcycling.com
however, for my personal diary and recording of statistics, i use Polar's training diary program. It's a fantastic program and I haven't found anything better- you can upload your HR charts, keep track of any custom metrics, and it does reports and other snazzy stuff. I would definitely reccomend it. I'll do a little writeup on it soon.
Good luck with the winter training! we're in the home stretch!
-Christophe
Posted by: Christophe | February 15, 2007 at 10:03 AM
I'll fix the blog comments on our shop's site. It probably requires approval from the administrator or something. Try it again soon.
I'm starting to feel better. Maybe I'll tag along and try to get up there to Cat 3 with you!
Posted by: Josh Boggs | February 17, 2007 at 10:16 PM