Little Black Book(s)

Okay, so I'm not a single man, the books aren't black, and they don't contain the phone numbers of random women. So why call them my Little Black Book(s)? Because they contain every workout, every race time, every split, and every thought that I EVER had during my collegiate swimming career at Brandeis University.

My "Little Black Books"

After every workout I'd come home and log my workouts and feelings about practice into my swim book by hand. I had originally bought the first book in Chinatown at Pearl River Mart for about 2 dollars and didn't know what to do with it. I don't keep "feelings" journals.

So, the summer before I left for college, I decided to start logging my workouts in the book and made comments to motivate myself. When I felt great at practice, I let myself know. When I didn't feel great at practice, I'd just thumb back through the pages to see all the practices I DID feel great at. I meticulously logged in the book each day until I filled all the pages and needed a second book. In all, I logged hundreds of workouts, thousands of sets, and a ridiculous number of yards.

Nowadays, logging workouts is easy with online sites like Garmin Connect (which I presently use) and Training Peaks.  You can upload your information easily to these sites, calculate weekly totals automatically, and can share your workout and training accomplishments on just about every social media site with the click of a button. But, there is something therapeutic about keeping a personal, tangible workout journal that just can't be replicated by using an online site. There is a certain amount of personal reflection needed when keeping a log by hand that is missed when the computer does it for you. It's really hard to  get a sense of your own mental and physical progression when technology creates a mental disconnect between you and your training.

One of my MANY entries

Don't get me wrong, these online sites are extremely useful should be utilized to their full potential.   But, I urge all other athletes to try and keep a book like mine in addition.  I'm not talking about a computer Word Doc...I'm talking about a little, tangible, pocket-sized journal.

Log your workouts, log your aches and pains, log how you felt each day, log your weekly totals and then, after a couple of weeks, see if you haven't gained a much better understanding of yourself and your physical abilities. I know it's fun to post your miles and pace on Facebook to make others bow down to you, but as athletes we must remember why we train to the extent that we do. We ultimately do this for ourselves and not for our Facebook friends. And, with the many hours we put into training, we can find the time to take an extra couple of minutes each day to log our reflections by hand. It's about time that we bridge the technological disconnect and really make our training our own. So go out and buy your very own Little Black Book.  You won't be sorry that you did.