Beyond the Numbers: The Timelessness of Logging Runs

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For years, my daily writing habit consisted of whatever I had to do for school or work and updating my training log as a runner.

My collegiate team kept an online training log, and I’d sit down after every practice and race to type out how things went that day. I quickly started going beyond the usual entries of just numbers: miles, workout splits, personal bests, or personal worsts. My training log became a place to sort through self-confidence issues, laugh about team shenanigans in the dining hall, and find connections between the physical and mental side of the sport.

A lot of what I wrote about back then had nothing to do with the workout that day. Yes, the main goal of the running log was to document what worked and what didn’t work and to make sure training was consistent. It had numbers to analyze and fret over and comparisons to make from seasons past; those numbers have value. But it was so much more than that.

If running was something that was a highlight of my day, then writing about it was a way to commit it to memory.

I continued logging after college as I worked through numerous injuries, a couple of marathons, and training for regular races. The habit has followed me as I…