My exercise journal

I was reading this blog post about how and why this professional runner likes keeping a plain paper notebook for a weight-lifting and running journal. It got me thinking: I’ve fallen into something like this over the last few months.

Not writing things down in paper, but keeping a journal of my exercise. I keep mine in my digital journal, where I can include photos and attach date/location stamp stuff. I used to keep a paper weightlifting journal in high school (because we didn’t have phones everywhere). But I prefer the digital medium because I can include photos and because my hands shake too much (when I’m really lifting weights) to write clearly.

I’ve been using a digital app to plan my weightlifting for over a year now. And I record my runs with a heart-rate-monitoring Apple Watch. But over the last couple months I’ve semi-consciously started keeping this journal alongside it, recording how I felt during the session, writing down what I listened to or thought about. Attaching a photo or two of the local dogs I see. It has felt good to recognize myself as doing more than hitting numbers in my workouts.

And I look forward to finding these in a year - it’ll be much more valuable and enjoyable to me than it is to just review the numbers.