[Revenged]

I wanted to ask - is it worth recording how long + how far you run for every time you go out?

(I've started running myself for about a month now and i'm a bit addicted ... but I'm not sure if it's a good idea to record runs every time i go out... I have this idea that i'll come back from a run (thinking i've done really well) and after one look at my watch i think " **** did I ONLY RUN FOR 15 MINUTES! " - does that happen to you guys? )

[ps. how can you record how far you run - do you all have some really expensive shoe gadget thingy? plan your runs before you go out? or do you all run with metre ruler wheels ?]

thank you kindly sexy runners...

 

[scr8pe]

It's down to a matter of choice and whether you find that logging your runs helps you.

I wouldn't worry about logging slower times. If you’re new to running, you will see an improvement almost every time you run for a while. If you don’t, you’ll either find it spurs you on next time around or you may have a cold on the way. For example, I've struggled all week with motivation and realised that the sore throat this morning is the cause of my laziness!

For me, I find logging my runs in Excel helps. But then I'm fascinated by statistics. Others might log their runs in a diary form purely to record how they felt etc.

There are many methods and I'll list a few of the more common methods in order of cost

Web blogs. There is one as part of this site. You can record your time, distance and other elements daily. Another running blog site is mapmyrun

Pedometers. These give a rough guide to the distance and time. Nike do a good one that you can plug into your ipod and is surprisingly accurate. Mine was correct to within 400m over a half marathon last weekend. But all is dependant on the accuracy of your calibration and the consistency of your stride length.

Sat Nav. These or the more expensive, but I guess the most accurate and easiest to use. I can’t give you any more details on these as no one has taken the hint and I still await one as a surprise gift!

 

[Grant]

I log my runs in a notebook and look back over previous runs to see if I'm progressing. On the other hand, if I have a few slower runs back-to-back, I can spot it right away - usually this means I'm over doing it and take an extra day or two rest.

Also, since I got my Garmin, all my runs get logged electronically, too.

 

[Revenged]

ok pedometers...

what do you guys think of this one?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Timex-Pedom...p/B0006U29DK/ref=pd_ts_sg_16?ie=UTF8&s=sports

 

[scr8pe]

ok pedometers...

what do you guys think of this one?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Timex-Pedom...p/B0006U29DK/ref=pd_ts_sg_16?ie=UTF8&s=sports

It seems very basic and would leave you to calibrate and then work out all the times v distance calculations. If you have an ipod, for another tenner you would have an all singing and dancing one that even works out the calories burned as mentioned earlier

 

[Revenged]

we'll see... there was nothing better that i could see on amazon... i've ordered it... if it's rubbish then at least it was cheap as chips...

 

[Steve]

I log all my runs good or bad....that way I can't cheat myself about what I think I may have done!!

 

[scr8pe]

we'll see... there was nothing better that i could see on amazon... i've ordered it... if it's rubbish then at least it was cheap as chips...

Let us know how you get on with it, I'm not convinced that actually enjoy having the earphones continually popping in and out whilst running. I had several pictures taken of me at last weekends Reading Half and all but one of them shows me fiddling with the damned ipod earphones!!

 

[TOrunner]

I wanted to ask - is it worth recording how long + how far you run for every time you go out?

(I've started running myself for about a month now and i'm a bit addicted ... but I'm not sure if it's a good idea to record runs every time i go out... I have this idea that i'll come back from a run (thinking i've done really well) and after one look at my watch i think " **** did I ONLY RUN FOR 15 MINUTES! " - does that happen to you guys? )

[ps. how can you record how far you run - do you all have some really expensive shoe gadget thingy? plan your runs before you go out? or do you all run with metre ruler wheels ?]

thank you kindly sexy runners...

YES!

I would highly recommend tracking your progress. It if it's visible, it's achievable.

I use mapmyrun.com which is an awesome site to track how far you've run.

I also take note of how I feel before, during, and after the run and what the environmental conditions are like.

The better you track yourself, the easier it will be to see what "state" you need to be in for the best possible runs!

 

[Grant]

YES!

I would highly recommend tracking your progress. It if it's visible, it's achievable.

I use mapmyrun.com which is an awesome site to track how far you've run.

I also take note of how I feel before, during, and after the run and what the environmental conditions are like.

The better you track yourself, the easier it will be to see what "state" you need to be in for the best possible runs!

+1

I generally only add notes about how I feel if it has been a particularly bad run (so I can take preventative action in future), but should really start adding in the positive things too, so I can repeat them.

 

[GoSlow]

I think it's a good thing to log your runs, so you can see how far you've come. Also found it useful when picked up an injury to see any patterns eg building up mileage more quickly than you realise!

Can get a bit obsessive with it though, when you start turning it into charts, graphs etc

 

[Katten]

I track most of my runs on my Garmin, so I can see my weekly mileage, and my split times. I never had the patience to write everything down on paper, but I can remember to plug my watch into my PC after a run, so this way is much better for me.

 

[Grant]

Can get a bit obsessive with it though, when you start turning it into charts, graphs etc

Thats one of the best parts of it!

 

[Trinity]

I think it's a good thing to log your runs, so you can see how far you've come. Also found it useful when picked up an injury to see any patterns eg building up mileage more quickly than you realise!

Can get a bit obsessive with it though, when you start turning it into charts, graphs etc

I know someone like that... won't mention their name

They used to have a spreadsheet with ALL of their running on spanning 15 - 20 years!!


Life's too short for that kind of thing... I can just about remember to plug my Garmin in to the PC every couple weeks..and that's only coz it needs charging anyway

 

[Katten]

It would be intersting to do some stats, eg try and calculate deviation from your average speed on a run, or see how fast you normally are on the 1st, 2nd, third mile etc, but have never been arsed to do it yet

 

[Revenged]

ok, cheers for the advice...

i used the mapmyrun webiste and it was brilliant... !

i'm planning to just log the distances i run but i don't think i'm going to record my times...


ps. i'm not even sure what "try and calculate deviation from your average speed on a run" means. but it sounds craZy!

 

[Katten]

*sigh* as in, figure out whether, with an average speed of 8mins per mile you are doing some at 6 mins, some at 10, or most of then near the 8-min mark

Anyway, glad you like the website

 

[richardsimkiss]

It's all about stats :d On friday I set up a little spreadsheet that compared my performance in all the races I've done so far (based on the formula for the calculator on RW site to predict race times)... it shows that I've always progressed steadily, but at the moment I'm improving at a faster rate that when I entered my first few races - something to do with structured training methinks, lol.

Shame the graph trendline isn't able to 'accurately' predict future times though, if it could I'd be expecting a 1:20 half marathon next month!!! :huh:

 

[almost_no_specifics]

I log all my runs on mapmyrun.com. My dad found an excel sheet that you can download from download.com or something. I find that seeing that I've done the runs is very satisfying and a good way to keep motivated - I hate seeing spaces on the calender where there should have been runs! I don't tend to keep track of the weather, my morale, weight or any other of those things though - if I have a really bad run I tend to remember it for ages and why! Although having said that, once you hit the longer mileages there might be more... subtle things a play, so keeping a track of everything might help you delineate any issues that arise, mile by mile, run by run, whatever.

 

[andrew_n]

I have to say, the training recorder on this site is superb. It has everything you need to keep track of every element of each run. I started to use it but as our coach wants to see my weekly marathon training, I just fill in a table in a text document and email it to him every Sunday night. For mileage tracking, I used to use Gmap but now I use the A-Z map of my area which is installed on my wife's laptop.