What went Wrong Log

In the November '09 Issue of the Running Times Magazine, Greg McMillan writes about "The What Went Wrong Log". Impressed with his column, I wanted to share my thought about it with everyone.

According to Greg's column if you are looking to answers for a poor performance, you need to examine the last 21 days. For some reason, the effects of training tend to lag behind the effects of performance. This lag can be as much as 21 days.

Far too often, we have a couple of bad races and we struggle to figure it out. Using Greg's approach gives us an opportunity to review the last three weeks. As Greg suggest by stacking days on top of one another we can see how heavy our work load really is and thus puts us in a better position to understand why we are not popping fast times.

But sometimes the training plan does not review anything special. Greg's column goes on to suggest adding in life stresses as well. A heavy work load, family stresses, too many things on our to-do list can all draw upon our strength to run well.

Sometimes just stepping back and looking at the previous days and weeks can help us better understanding as to why our bodies are not working as we might expect then. So take some Greg's advice and make a list out of your training days and see if it gives you any clues.

 

Tales from the Reading Runner.