Back in the day, I really got into documenting all the training I was doing. Whether it was weight workouts, excursions to the climbing gym, or runs around town, I wrote it down. Something about looking at all of my physical activity made me feel good.
I also blame it on not having a coach and being a later-in-life athlete.
In fact, not only did I write it down, I kept it all. Since I never received any awards for the races I ran, the binder represented a trophy of all my athletic achievements and fitness milestones. It contains approximately 4 years worth of training logs. Don’t worry, I’m not going to unload all of that on you but I would like to give you an idea of my OCD around this particular area.
Click to see the ugly details.
I think the records tell an interesting story of what my life was like then and what was important to me. Fast forward a few years and I’m now living more of my life online. Why not transfer my race record-keeping to a more digital (and eco-friendly) form? Welcome to my experiment.
I found a free tool that allows me to easily record my training online. There are lots of similar programs out there, but I wanted something that was going to have a dead simple interface without any unnecessary bells and whistles. No reason to make training for a marathon any harder than it already is.
<ulterior motive>In the hopes of keeping myself honest and accountable, I’m putting a link to my public training calendar in my sidebar. Gulp. Should you ever be curious how I’m doing in working towards my goal of running a marathon, simply click on that link. Double gulp. It’s out there and I’m interested to see if my training transparency does the trick of getting me across the finish line.</ulterior motive>
If making my training calendar public doesn’t prepare me for the marathon I want to run, then five months from now, when I’m woefully unprepared to complete 26.2 miles, you can point to my digital training log and say, “I told you so”.
Yes, Mom, even you.
In the words of Gatorade and Jeremy Tanner, no excuses.
