Tracking your cardio progress

Through the next few months a lot of people will be increasing their cardio training in order to drop a few extra pounds and to slim down for the summer months.

People will do this in many ways and the aim is to try to increase your output on training whilst dropping the pounds. So how can you keep a track of this progress and what are the benefits of doing this?

It doesn’t matter if you run three to four times a week or hit the treadmill everyday in the gym keeping track of your training is essential when it becomes a large part of your life just like any other activity. Tracking your every progressive step and your every small setback can be a fantastic tool to keep on top of your game and really work on your strong points and your weakest areas.

So what can you do to make sure that you can track your training effectively over time?

Keep a diary

Write down every time you smash a personal best or even more importantly when you didn’t. Write down how you felt and the time of day to really get a grasp on when and how you broke the records or failed to.

Read your notes

Making these notes is pointless unless you are going to read through them every now and then. Reading back on your best moments and your bad ones can give you real perspective on where you stand with your training. Recognise where you have come from and how far ahead of your own goals you are.

Record the best times

When training cardiovascular it is key to keep a time list of your best efforts so you can track your record times across a single distance. It is a fantastic way to see the (hopeful) improvement in times each week and see where you spiked in fitness goals and maybe dropped off. Alongside your reasoning (time of day and feelings) whilst training you can track how to perform at your absolute peak in order to keep progressing.

Use your records

When you achieve a new record time from your training or a new distance or a new speed it is important if you want to keep improving that you use it as a new goal. If your break a record then write it down large in your training diary. When you train next try to beat it and record the time you get whether you beat it or not. It may take two sessions or two weeks or two months to beat your previous best but make sure you do it and record it as an achievement, right before you write it down again as the next target to beat.

The aim of improvement is to keep tabs on your progress as if you don’t understand what you are working towards in number form then you can’t quantify your success. Using numbers and figures to record things gives our minds the ability to recognise what is success and what is failure. We can always of course quantify if we have succeeded by the way we feel but using numbers is the best way for your mind to recognise success and failure.

Be sure to always talk your training through with a like-minded person or someone who is a training partner so you can gather some outside feedback. Doing this can be surprisingly helpful as in some situations the outsider can also set you new goals or give you a view on your training that you previously overlooked or ignored.

Track your progress and keep records of your failures and successes. Give yourself time to progress in your training and always work hard to beat your previous best and remember to ‘Do the damn thing!’

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