The Runners Training Diary

To most people under about 25, a diary is either an icon on a computer desktop (or more likely a phone..). The thought of actually writing something down is alien to most people these days. (Because I have very bad handwriting – I include myself in this).

In these days of spreadsheets & calculations, maybe running, along with most sports has become too mechanised.

When I have been out running and seen a fox dart into the hedgrow or seen the gathering mist around the lake near my house at sunset or other things that most normal people never know they have missed, do I really want to know that I did 23 minutes more than last week or that my average for the year is up 7%.

It’s interesting to know this – but it doesn’t change your live…

But that’s what it feels like – my running career (along with most other things I see on the news) has been reduced to lines on a screen.

However, the good news is that I have a large pile of training diaries going back to at least 1996 and I was looking through some old ones the other day – with authentic student coffee stain and realised that you couldn’t get that with a screen. (For a start it wouldn’t be compatible, wrong disc, wrong format, yadda yadda, blah blah). There is another way.

So the Runners Training Diary is a ummm… diary… (which you can start anytime of the year) but it also includes

• Loads of space to scribble notes (that’s a thumbs up from me then)
• Space to include relevant stats (heart rate, nutrition etc etc)
• Defintions of key terms (Lot’s of new years resolution runners will have no idea what a threshold run is – but they probably do it without thinking)
• A VERY comprehensive pace calculator
• 10 pages of key articles which you could probably get on any decent running website – you just won’t read them… ) in the first few pages.

All this is neatly held in a spiral binder – so you can fold it back on itself etc etc

Each double page features a “bet you didn’t know that you didn’t know this” type tips  including tips on cool downs, sports drinks, what to eat & drink after a session.

The runners training diary is useful, practical & if you are thinking of downshifting your running in 2009, then it definately is for you.

The runners training diary is available from all good bookshops or in the UK direct from www.cordee.co.uk

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Category: Book Reviews