December is a great time to reflect on the previous year—to glance back at your trends in training and performance so you can evaluate what worked or didn’t, and what changes should be incorporated in the new year. Whether we are working with a coach or not, most of us have some system to record our training.

Remember the old days when training logs were spiral-bound Hilroy notebooks with colour-coordinated highlighted sections? There was something so satisfying about physically inscribing the monster mileage hit a few weeks before that very first marathon! Of course, we are much more environmentally friendly now and most of us use some kind of electronic tracking system like Training Peaks that can automatically upload data from your various devices. While this is super convenient, if you’re not also filling out the comments section, if can be hard to recall the bigger picture. What was going on in your day when that ride fell apart, or when you aggravated your hamstring? Were you over-tired? Was it 40 degrees out and you forgot your water bottle in the car?  Was your boss burying you in extra work at the office? Had you just had an argument with your spouse? External factors obviously impact our ability to perform and recover, and documenting these can give you a much better understanding of your training and racing trends. Furthermore, doing so also forces you practice self-awareness which is invaluable in all areas of life.

Every coach will tell you they have some athletes who write quite a bit in these sections and others who never record a single word or even emoticon. Certainly, I would never encourage my athletes to divulge anything they don’t feel comfortable sharing, but even brief comments about how a training session felt overall  (“This was easy and felt amazing!”), can be really useful for your coach in optimizing workouts  set from week to week, but it also gives tremendous insight into what’s working or not and why. I always maintain that the best coaching happens in conversation. Let your coach hear where you’re at. The sooner after a session you can fill out those comments, the better. The further we get from the period in question, the more distorted our perceptions can become. Think about how hard you ran in that last 5km race you did. You gave it your all didn’t you? Yet, how many times have you said to yourself (a shower, a meal, and a nap later):  “I totally could have gone harder!” If you’ve ever done that, despite finishing with nothing left in the tank, you’ll understand the value of immediacy. Time has a way of filling in the blanks with new versions. To be sure, that’s not always bad. I wonder how many of us would do another Ironman if we DIDN’T forget how it felt?

Whether you’re working with a coach or coaching yourself, consider making it a New Year’s resolution to document the anecdotal training feedback in addition to your metrics. Doing so is bound to give you a much more thorough understanding of your ability to perform which is crucial in actualizing your potential.