Monthly training report and why you should have one, too

I know I previously introduced the "Monday Miles" theme several posts back about a weekly training report. Perhaps, some of you are wondering why (or relieved) that I haven't posted one since early May. After much thought, as I care about this blog incredibly so, I've decided that weekly training reports are a little overbearing.  To be blunt, they're unnecessary.  What I think is actually more useful and indicative of the fitness you're in is actually a monthly training report.  A monthly training report allows for reflection of what you have accomplished (or failed to complete) in the last thirty days. 

If your miles were lagging, you can bump it up in the next month. If, per chance, you see too many off days that you didn't know you had you can adjust accordingly in the next month.  If you didn't race at all in the previous month, you may want to try and get a quick 5-K or 10-K in there just to stay sharp.  The monthly training report is even vital to marathon training; the marathon, more than any other race, is so dependent on organized and dedicated training that the littlest things can affect it. A monthly training report will smooth out the edges and keep you focused on your goal, whatever that may be.

Even if you're just trying to maintain fitness, you can adjust your schedule to work, family and other mitigating factors after only a 10-20 minute perusal.  After that, you should be well on your way to another successful month of training. Here's my training log for the month of June:

I'll add it up for you: 239.7 miles. That's just about 8 miles a day. I'll even provide what I learned from my monthly training report; in June.

I only had two off days, which is the status quo for a training month for me, except one problem: they were within three days of each other. I had to make up for it the rest of the month by training harder, taking zero off days and fewer easier days just because of a few days of laziness at the beginning. I know now to refrain from doing that, unless I'm injured or sick. There was even a race in there, my first since the Boston Marathon, which I was happy about. Not only did I get some more racing experience, but the overall time was better than I expected with a top-15 finish to boot. Seeing the paces of all my runs, I'd like some of my easy days to be at a slower pace and will continue to work on that in July as well as more speed workouts, strides and longer long runs.


Does anybody else do monthly training reports? Will you now? Do you see any (or more) benefits in them? What do YOU think?