You do keep a ride journal don’t you?
Off season or not, I always record my mileage, distance, and route. It’s a habit I developed as a runner. Somewhere I have years of running logs. Why?
If you are training for something or trying to lose weight, then a log is an essential tool. It will help you spot likely problems such as overtraining, the wrong kind of training or in impending crash.
But I just like to ride? Why do I need a log? I’ve kept my log for years. It gives me a way to go back to a particular ride like I Made the Grade to see how I’ve done in the past. I’m something of a mileage junky too. So I like to see how much mileage I’ve done. I don’t bother with pulse rates or power generation, but it is nice to know whether I was alone or with the club. It is nice to look at the routes especially when they are ones I do all the time. It does give me a sense of my fitness.
A log will give your cycling focus and might encourage you to get out a bit more often. According to the survey in RoadBikeRider, most people are using electronic logs. You don’t have to but they have the advantage of adding up your mileage and calculating averages and paces and separating out which bike you used automatically. I’ve used a program called Runner’s Log on my palm device since before 2000. It synchs with my computer and gives me charts and graphs on the desktop which I don’t get on the palm.
Since I no longer use my palm much, I’m looking for another way to keep my logs. Steve always sends out an Spreadsheet all set up for the new year about this time. When he does, I’ll post it here (if that’s okay, Steve). But I’m going to look closely at the online bikejournal RBR sites in the article below and maybe even the CyclilStats software though I’m not interested in paying much.
How do you use your log? What do you log? Is it on paper or electronic? I’d like to hear from you as you plan you next year of cycling. I’ll collect your comments and post them here. –Corrie
Road Bike Rider.com currentissue
Dear (Digital) DiaryPaper is definitely losing favor for record keeping among cyclists. Or at least among RBR roadies.
Our poll last week asked, “What will you use for your cycling diary in 2008?” Only 30% of 1,800 responders said it’ll be some form of handwriting, while 62% said they’ll do their record keeping digitally. The remaining 8% said they’ll use what certainly doesn’t work well for us anymore — memory.
Among the digital devotees, almost half will log their miles on a homemade spreadsheet such as Excel. Others will use a commercial training log (e.g., CycliStats) or freeware.
We were taken to task by several roadies for not offering web-based training diaries as a choice. They told us to take a look at http://www.bikejournal.com. We did, and we were mighty impressed.
Bikejournal.com offers a free log with all the features you’ll probably need, or you can pay a modest annual fee for access to the deluxe version. With a new year and new collection of rides about to start, you might want to take a look.