Your personal running journal

once a week, you will discover which of the strategies feels best.
By trying variations, you can shift gears during the race, if a current strategy is not working.
Hill Training
    Running hills will improve strength for running better than any other training element I’ve found. Practicing good hill running form will prepare you to run better and stronger on race courses that have hills.
    When: Thursday is the most common day, but other non-long-run days are OK. During a 5K or 10K speed program, Thursday is often “interval day”. You may decide to run hills on another day or simply suspend hill training during the speedwork season.
    How steep: start with a very easy hill (1-3 %). If you will be running hills that are steeper than this in your goal race, you can move to a grade of 4-7 % after running two or more hill workouts.
    How often: Even if you only do two hills, it’s best to run them at least every 14 days. Once a week is even better.
How long: Count off the number of walking steps, according to your current fitness level, marking the start and the finish. It’s best to finish at the top of a hill, but this is not mandatory.
If this is the first speed training ever: 50 steps
If you’ve done sporatic speedwork: up to 100 steps
Those who’ve raced once a month or more for 6 months but have not done speedwork: 150 to 200 steps
Speedwork veterans, who have raced once a month or more for 6 months: 250-300 steps
    How fast: Start at a slow pace to warmup, after about 5 steps, increase the cadence (number of steps per minute) as you go up the hill. Reduce the stride length as you go up the hill to keep the legs resiliant. You should have some huffing and puffing at the top of the hill. Don’t sprint. If you have to use baby steps at the top, do so.
    How much rest between each hill: Walk down the hill. Walk more if needed before doing another hill.
    How many: Start with two Increase by one additional each week until you reach 8 or a number of your choice.
    Uphill form: Maintain an upright body posture (forward lean not recommended), touch lightly with your feet, stay low to the ground, stride should shorten as you run up the hill – as you pick up the cadence.
    Downhill form: Stay low to the ground with a light touch, don’t let the stride get too long, let gravity pull you down the hill. Some call this a “fast shuffle”.

10 Year at a Glance

11 Recording and Evaluating Your Data
This is your book
    Yes, you are writing a book. You already have the outline and you have probably started recording the times and distances of your runs. As you plan workouts, according to the schedules in this journal or otherwise, your journal can document the good times, and the faster times. It will allow you to modify your plan and track the changes. Later, you can look back after success or disappointment and often find reasons for either. If we don’t look back at the history of our setbacks, we will have a tendency to repeat them.
Each week:
Look at each workout, in advance to see if you need to make adjustments.
Quickly glance at the workouts you have “penciled in” over the next 8 weeks to make sure you don’t have any trips, meetings, or family responsibilities that require making adjustments.
Each week, add another week’s workouts in pencil, and note any changes in your travel, etc. schedule.
Each week, look back at the week before, noting problems and adjusting the schedule to move ahead.
The data recording
As soon as you can, after a run, write the facts in your journal. You don’t have to fill in all of the spaces – but here are the important ones.
mileage
pace
run-walk-run strategy
speedwork, if done (# of repetitions-times)
rest interval
aches or pains – specifically where and how they hurt
problems
In addition, you may also record:
Time of run
Total time running
Weather
Temp
Precipitation
Humidity
Any special segments of the run (speed, hills, race, etc.)
Running companion
Terrain
How did you feel (1-10)
Comments
Go back over the list again and fill in more details—emotional responses, changes in energy or blood sugar level, and location of places where you had aches and pains—even if they went away during the run. You are looking for patterns of items that could indicate injury, blood sugar problems, lingering fatigue, etc.
Helpful additions (usually in a blank section at the bottom of the page)
Improvement