Skip to main content

Believe Training Journal: A Review, or Shameless Plug?

Trolling through Pinterest one day, I came across a pin recommended for me:  "13 Running Books You Should Be Reading Right Now".  I pinned it to my Run Junkie board to read later.  I listen to a lot of audiobooks in the car on my dreadful commute to/from work, so while I don't feel like I have the time to sit down and read, if I can find any of them on audio, I'd put it on the wish list to download from the library.

*This post has been updated with affiliate links from Amazon.com.

 When I actually had time to look through the article, I came across the Believe Training Journal. I used to love writing in my journal when I was a kid!  It wasn't a training journal back then - I wasn't athletic at all, it was just a bunch of angsty pre-teen stuff or details on whoever I had a crush on at the time.  Still, I know I could use some new tools, tricks, motivation, etc. to give my training a boost.  The summer has been super rough on my running.  Plus, my good friend (who also runs!) had a birthday coming up, so I ordered two!

The Amazon order just showed up last Friday, and I've only read through the first 20 pages, but so far I am really liking this.  I think it's just what I needed at just the right time.  So far, I have all of my races listed on the annual calendar.  I've started putting in the training runs I have this week.  I'm getting ready to chart out my goals, which for me includes running a sub-2 hour half marathon in January and a full marathon with said friend in February.  It'll be her first full!

Fast forward...  So I had to wait to post this until I gave my friend her birthday present.  :)  As I continue this post, I am now on my third week of the journal.  I can't say I'm doing anything drastically different than I would normally do - I keep track of all my mileage and training plans in a spreadsheet anyway (I am a dork by nature and trade).  But I'm also able to write out my goals, what worked for me during the week (and what didn't), and build excitement for races that I have coming up.  I actually look forward to writing in it every night, even if it is only a couple of lines.  It's at least encouraged me to try new things just so I have something worth writing down.

I'll be able to give a heartier review as the season goes on, but so far I would definitely recommend this to anyone looking to give their training a little refresh.  How cool is it going to be when I run my 2 hour half and look back through my journal to see everything I've accomplished?!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Countdown to Ragnar McDowell Mountain

If I had to sum up how my training went this summer, it would be...  "Hrmph." Or, insert your own onomatopoeia of disgust. If you know me in real life, or read any of my other recent posts, you know that my running has gone downhill (pun intended); not only in my actual ability but in my love of doing it. I don't know if I can use it as my sole excuse, but I did find out I was hypothyroid back in July and was diagnosed with Hashimoto's thyroiditis in September.  I do think these new-to-me medical issues have played a big part in my weight gain, my inability to "run it off", my feelings of lethargy and my discouragement with any type of physical activity.  As of right now I am still working on how to live well with this, but I haven't found a solution that makes me feel great yet.  There are far worse things I could be dealing with, but it's hard to be patient with your own health. As for that dreaded physical activity I was talking about, I ha...
Post a Comment
Read more

My Long-Overdue Recap of Grand Canyon Rim-to-River

I have been meaning to write this up for a long time.  A looooong time, like several months have passed since I went on this adventure.  I briefly mentioned it in my last post, about my hopes to do a separate write-up, but life got in the way and I haven't been able to just sit and write this out from start to finish.  I am having to piece this together over several days and hopefully it doesn't come out too disjointed - but since it was such an amazing trip, and since it's possible I may never do it again, I wanted to make sure I got it down forever on the internet. I don't remember exactly when we decided that we - Kelli and I - would do this, but I believe it was the summer of 2017, and we were both in a running rut.  It's hot as heck here during the summer and it's hard not to be in a rut if you do anything outdoors; plus, that summer I was still trying to figure out what was wrong with my thyroid, so I was just kind of depressed about my weight and genera...
Post a Comment
Read more

Identity Crisis

It has come to my attention that whilst my van was running away at Ragnar Del Sol, my best friend and her sister-in-law (both in the other van) decided to set the goal of completing Ironman in 2016. Apparently it is expected that I participate in these shenanigans with them. A couple of weeks have passed and I find myself just as indecisive about the whole thing as when I first heard about it.  Why am I waffling?  I think there are good arguments to do it and good arguments to hold off, or to just be a great spectator.  It's been a weird feeling for me though.  I'm pretty sure if I committed to it, and was able to train for it, I could finish.  So, for the first time, I'm not sitting around worried that I just can't accomplish something, and that's a pretty great feeling.  I was also kinda-sorta worried that I might somehow lose my identity as a "runner".  I've been making some small but incremental progress this year and I don't want to lose m...
Post a Comment
Read more