It’s tempting to distill performance down to single numbers, to define ourselves by our FTP, our MAF pace, or our Personal Best. These numbers are easy to understand, and give us a sense of surety in our place in the world. HOWEVER, focusing on data alone can be counterproductive and even unhealthy.
Through decades of experimenting with training the human body, science can tell us a LOT about what is happening in our bodies, but it can’t tell us everything! For us to perform and progress at our optimal levels, we have to listen to the numbers, but not worship them.
As a coach, data is a fantastic way to deepen the conversation with an athlete, but it should not BE the conversation. The conversation that truly matters is: “How did you feel?” Through an accurate and honest portrayal of your sensations during the workout, you can tell me much more than data alone. Combine the two? NOW we’re cookin’ with gas!
In order to optimize the information transfer between athlete and coach, or indeed information between yourself now and your future self, a training journal is a very important step. By writing down SUBJECTIVE data in addition to the OBJECTIVE data of your training log, you are more likely to make better training decisions, stay healthier, and thus improve faster. I recommend four main sections with which to very easily rate a few subjective measures. For simplicity’s sake, I typically rate these all on a scale from 1-10.
- Energy: How energetic did you feel after the warm-up? Once you were warmed up, did you feel the best you’ve ever felt? 10! Got through the workout, but felt like crap the whole time? 5.
- Execution: How well did you follow the workout? 10 means you hit every single of the aspect of the workout exactly as planned, 1 means you did something completely different.
- Recovery: How were your recovery choices from the last workout to this one? We often don’t GET choices in recovery (crying baby, crisis at work, etc.), but how would you rate the choices you DID make? Did you go to sleep early? Or did you stay up late watching Conan? Did you drink enough water after yesterdays workout? All of these choices factor into how effective your workout was today.
- Mood: Often I’ll see an athlete’s mood turn sour a couple days before their performance takes a dive. Are you excited for this workout? Are you cranky going into it? 10 means you were flying high and really wanting to train. 1 means you wanted to do ANYTHING else.
***These data points are DOUBLY important on days when the workout doesn’t get done! Rate the Recovery, Mood, and then tell me more about why the workout didn’t happen!
It’s important to know that you should not be judging yourself based on this subjective data. You know if you missed a workout, or if you didn’t execute the workout well. This is simply digging a little deeper in to the WHY, and is a very powerful tool for future improvement!
Journal on my friends!
Joe Howdyshell is the coach and owner of the Summit Endurance Academy. He spends his time racing in jorts, drinking beer, and nerding out about exercise physiology. Want to raise your badass quotient by 5 points? Email him. Joe@SummitEnduranceAcademy.com
