I started my logbook on 1 Nov 1978, back when I was “just a swimmer”. Over the 36 complete years of 1979 to 2014, I’ve averaged about 660 hr/yr of SBR, or about 12.7 hr/wk, or 1.8 hr/day. Also, just for the he** of it, I went back and converted all my yards/miles into ST aerobic points, using the ST Training Log-approved formula of 1 point = 1/4 mi run = 1 mi bike = 100 yd swim. My 1979-2014 logged yards/miles are:
S = (36,270,000 yd)(1 pt/100 yd) = 362,700 pt
B = (102,225 mi)(1 pt/mi) = 102,225 pt
R = (27,695 mi)(4 pt/mi) = 110,780 pt
Total = 575,705 pt over 36 yr = 15,992 pt/yr
Anyone else game to calculate their total ST aerobic points and points/yr??? The ST point system is a decent way to equilibrate the three disciplines:)
My current series only goes back to April 2003, when I started back up in triathlons. Average number of hours is all over the place. I have had training logs going back to the early 60’s when I was just a swimmer - but alas, I have no idea where they are now, too many life changes to keep up with.
My current series only goes back to April 2003, when I started back up in triathlons. Average number of hours is all over the place. I have had training logs going back to the early 60’s when I was just a swimmer - but alas, I have no idea where they are now, too many life changes to keep up with.
So, on your best estimate, how many years of logbook would you say you have if you could find them all??? How many hrs training would you estimate you’ve done per year??? While i don’t have logs for the 10 yrs prior to 11/78, I would estimate i prob avgd somewhere around the same, e.g. around 1.5 to 2 hrs/day over the past 46 yrs or so.
If I have not touched it in a year I sell it, donate it or trash it. About the only I keep for any length of time is my 1040’s
Ah, I see now, thanks. I could not live by that rule; I gave a bunch of stuff away to charity about 7 yrs ago, and some of that stuff I kind of regret having given away now, since they were things from my under-21 days, and not really replaceable now, not in their original form.
I started my logbook on 1 Nov 1978, back when I was “just a swimmer”. Over the 36 complete years of 1979 to 2014 (well, '14 is almost complete:), I’ve averaged about 660 hr/yr of SBR, or about 12.7 hr/wk, or 1.8 hr/day. My logbook is all paper and pen, recorded on about 3000 pages (so far) of 8.5 by 11" notebook paper, and stored in a series of three ring notebooks which take up about 3 feet on a bookshelf. Just curious as to who else has been keeping a log that long or longer??? I know that “Steve-Oh” is at 30 yrs with an average of around 1 hr/day, but wondered if others might have similarly long training logs. Ron Hill has a 50-yr logbook so AFAIK, i think he has the record for longevity but, since he was “only a runner”, i bet i’ve got a higher average hr/yr than he does, but of course i have no WRs or Oly Games appearances, nor any Boston Mary overall wins:)
Also, for those under say 46 (i suppose some precocious person might have started a log as young as age 10, if they were following Dad’s lead:), you might report on how many yrs you’ve been keeping a log as a percentage of your life. For me, that would be about 60% of my life.
Have you thought about putting it online somehow for people to learn from? Have you gone thru it and had any glaring trends?
I started my logbook on 1 Nov 1978, back when I was “just a swimmer”. Over the 36 complete years of 1979 to 2014 (well, '14 is almost complete:), I’ve averaged about 660 hr/yr of SBR, or about 12.7 hr/wk, or 1.8 hr/day. My logbook is all paper and pen, recorded on about 3000 pages (so far) of 8.5 by 11" notebook paper, and stored in a series of three ring notebooks which take up about 3 feet on a bookshelf. Just curious as to who else has been keeping a log that long or longer??? I know that “Steve-Oh” is at 30 yrs with an average of around 1 hr/day, but wondered if others might have similarly long training logs. Ron Hill has a 50-yr logbook so AFAIK, i think he has the record for longevity but, since he was “only a runner”, i bet i’ve got a higher average hr/yr than he does, but of course i have no WRs or Oly Games appearances, nor any Boston Mary overall wins:)
Also, for those under say 46 (i suppose some precocious person might have started a log as young as age 10, if they were following Dad’s lead:), you might report on how many yrs you’ve been keeping a log as a percentage of your life. For me, that would be about 60% of my life.
Have you thought about putting it online somehow for people to learn from? Have you gone thru it and had any glaring trends?
As to putting online, nah, I’ve never thought about that at all, never thought anyone would be interested per se. As to trends, I have noticed several but nothing new per se, mainly the importance of both quantity and quality, of occasional breaks in training, variety in workouts, etc. Also, i think really loving your sport is pretty crucial.
I’m 20 years old now and I started logging my running in October, 2009 in an excel document. By the time July 2013 rolled around, I was doing so much swimming and biking compared to running so I created a new excel spreadsheet that would better contain and display triathlon related information. I averaged 30 mpw (4 hours per week?) (2010), 55 mpw (2011), 60 mpw (2012), maybe 4 hours/week (2013), 12 hours/week (2014).
I started my logbook on 1 Nov 1978, back when I was “just a swimmer”. Over the 36 complete years of 1979 to 2014 (well, '14 is almost complete:), I’ve averaged about 660 hr/yr of SBR, or about 12.7 hr/wk, or 1.8 hr/day. My logbook is all paper and pen, recorded on about 3000 pages (so far) of 8.5 by 11" notebook paper, and stored in a series of three ring notebooks which take up about 3 feet on a bookshelf. Just curious as to who else has been keeping a log that long or longer??? I know that “Steve-Oh” is at 30 yrs with an average of around 1 hr/day, but wondered if others might have similarly long training logs. Ron Hill has a 50-yr logbook so AFAIK, i think he has the record for longevity but, since he was “only a runner”, i bet i’ve got a higher average hr/yr than he does, but of course i have no WRs or Oly Games appearances, nor any Boston Mary overall wins:)
Also, for those under say 46 (i suppose some precocious person might have started a log as young as age 10, if they were following Dad’s lead:), you might report on how many yrs you’ve been keeping a log as a percentage of your life. For me, that would be about 60% of my life.
Impressive lifetime volume and consistency – inspirational
How do you feel that all that training has affected your health? I’m sure much better than being sedant but curious to understand long ter, effects of year in year out 10-14 hrs per week
I’ve kept a log since 1/1/1980… Until the mid 90s I was only a runner but averaged 4000 or so miles a year. In the mid 90s got a bike and started biking some too… At age 50 learned to swim (not well) and now do about 9,000 ish miles of S/B/R a year pretty consistently… So now averaging maybe 800 plus hours per year, back in the run only days about 400 a year.
Working on a 500,000 km in 50 years goal. 320,000 miles or so for non-metric folks. Right now I’m past 100,000 miles running, 100,000 miles biking and maybe 3,000 miles swimming.
Paper logs for many years, but now all on excel spreadsheets…
I have a hard copy log of my life in general starting in 1992, when I started it to track progress of my deliverables and tasks at work. I stated noticing that I needed to insert training as tasks/apointments to make sure they happened and did not get derailed just like anything else (I generally keep doing that). Thus the logging was born. It has been 600-900 hours every year since then, and likely was 900 hours in 1991 which was an over the top training year getting ready for my first Ironman.
The last 6 years I have a parallel copy on the ST log so anyone can see what I have been up to…so you can see I have been doing 730-880 hours recently. Without going into the drawer filled with these diaries, I’d safely say there are 22 years of training 1.7 to 2.5 hours every day all year. In the 12 years prior to that going back to high school, I was doing at least 2 hours of sport per day…either a sport practice + running on my own, or track practice and sport practice (soccer, baseball, tennis, hockey, football). Basically nothing has changed, I just got older, but I was doing ~2 hours of something per day since I was 12. My dad would not drive me to any games or practices, so I had the choice of taking the bus or bike…I chose to bike unless there was a snow storm. When I grew up, until 7 years ago I avoided buying a second car by riding or running to get places. I figured that owning something like 6-8 less cars in my liftetime would mean I can retire 4-5 years earlier in which case, I’ll be able to bike and train more!!! Priorities!!!
In any case, I’d say that at 49, I safely have around 36 years at or close to the 2 hour per day plan. Like many of your, if I don’t get at least 30 minutes, it’s the same thing as not getting to eat, or breathing oxygen. I just need all of that to exist. Most of my race results are an outcome of being a habitual exerciser who cannot sit still. Whenever I have a 7-15 hour flight, I do a really hard workout just before to ensure I can sit in place for that long, and even then as soon as I hit the ground I feel like I need to explode and start moving. Most of western life is like being a tiger call caged up in boxes all day (houses, cars, office buildings, trains, planes etc). Some of us need to roam freely outside the boxes that life compresses us into.
I’ve kept a log since 1/1/1980… Until the mid 90s I was only a runner but averaged 4000 or so miles a year. In the mid 90s got a bike and started biking some too… At age 50 learned to swim (not well) and now do about 9,000 ish miles of S/B/R a year pretty consistently… So now averaging maybe 800 plus hours per year, back in the run only days about 400 a year.
Working on a 500,000 km in 50 years goal. 320,000 miles or so for non-metric folks. Right now I’m past 100,000 miles running, 100,000 miles biking and maybe 3,000 miles swimming.
Paper logs for many years, but now all on excel spreadsheets…
This thread is going to become like a cross between Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and American Airlines (AA) milllion miles club! Never thought of totaling up lifetime miles!
I kept a paper log for my senior year of HS. avg 11 hours a week, combination of running and lifting.
I have ST logs for 2009 and beyond. JUST s b run totals, not “other” in ( )
2009: 730 hrs = 14 hr/wk (110 swim, 330 bike, 330 run)
2010: 655 hrs = 12.6 hrs/wk (60 swim, 117 bike, 290 run) - I was injured and could not run for 3 months of this year. A lot of hours walking.
2011: 574 hrs = 11 hrs/wk (95 swim, 108 bike, 319 run)
2012: 670 hrs = 12.9 hrs/ wk (133 swim, 114 bike, 359 run)
2013: 786 hrs = 15.1 hrs/wk (158 swim, 156 bike, 346 run)
2014 to date 628 hrs = 12.3 hrs/wk (155 swim, 63 bike, 372 run)
I have some paper ones, a bit random, dating back to 1993, but as far as logging everything, I’ve been doing that since 2006. I average 1.5 hours/day year in, year out, or 10 hours/week.
I started my logbook on 1 Nov 1978, back when I was “just a swimmer”. Over the 36 complete years of 1979 to 2014 (well, '14 is almost complete:), I’ve averaged about 660 hr/yr of SBR, or about 12.7 hr/wk, or 1.8 hr/day. My logbook is all paper and pen, recorded on about 3000 pages (so far) of 8.5 by 11" notebook paper, and stored in a series of three ring notebooks which take up about 3 feet on a bookshelf. Just curious as to who else has been keeping a log that long or longer??? I know that “Steve-Oh” is at 30 yrs with an average of around 1 hr/day, but wondered if others might have similarly long training logs. Ron Hill has a 50-yr logbook so AFAIK, i think he has the record for longevity but, since he was “only a runner”, i bet i’ve got a higher average hr/yr than he does, but of course i have no WRs or Oly Games appearances, nor any Boston Mary overall wins:)
Also, for those under say 46 (i suppose some precocious person might have started a log as young as age 10, if they were following Dad’s lead:), you might report on how many yrs you’ve been keeping a log as a percentage of your life. For me, that would be about 60% of my life.
Impressive lifetime volume and consistency – inspirational
How do you feel that all that training has affected your health? I’m sure much better than being sedentary but curious to understand long term, effects of year in year out 10-14 hrs per week
All positive effects on my “health and well-being” as I can still eat pretty much whatever I want, and can still wear same size Speedo, pants, etc, as in college. I haven’t had any injuries that limit my workouts, prob cause i’ve spread the workout load over the three sports, plus i swim a lot, which is as you know less prone to injury than running (due to the nature of running) or cycling (due to cars, road hazards, etc).
I started keeping log books in college when I was a swimmer. Over the years I’ve done a number of sports, some that didn’t lend themselves to keeping detailed records. (Eight years of Motocross) I started keeping logs during my first year of college swimming (1964) at Orange Coast College under Al Irwin, who went on to be the first swimming coach at UC Irvine. That year we did about 2500 scy five days a week. I thought that was a lot (compared to HS it was…) The amazing thing was we had about a dozen Junior College All Americans on the team that year (Not me though). Of course back then the 500 free, Junior College National Record was 4:57. Yes, it really was a long time ago…
I’d estimate that during the years I did athletic sports, I worked out an average of about 1 - 2 hours a day. I still workout about the same today. I think I have had about twenty years of log books total. Currently on the shelf I have six spiral notebooks with two years of records each. Somewhere, there are also log books covering 1985-1992, when I swam and did triathlons and also shot competitively. During that period I won the Bud Lite Triathlon Series (over 40 AG) in Montana in 1987. Then, as a shooter, went to the Olympic trials in 1988 and the Team USA trials for Worlds in 1990, but didn’t make either team though…
As an aside, this year as I age up to 70-74, when I have probably my best chance to win another national sprint or aquathlon title, I have to stop racing due to a diagnosis of Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (enlarged heart). It looks like it may have been affecting my racing for the last couple of years and carries a risk of sudden death.
I have handwritten notes in logbooks going back to 1980, when I ran my first race. Takes up most of a 3 foot bookshelf, and no don’t tell me to “put it in the garage what good is it anyway”!!
Originally made entries in appointment calendars from Vermont Life Magazine (home). Later Jim Fixx running log and for about 10 years now Joe Friel’s triathlon log. I don’t look back at them much but despite online recordkeeping I still like writing in the book.
They did become useful, along with my Crown King 50K finisher jacket and a bunch or marathon and triathlon finisher medals, in a civil action against a reckless driver who ran over me and smashed my leg in 2007. We entered the logbooks, medals and jacket as exhibits to support our contention that my 100+ visits to physical therapist were justified in order for me to return to long/endurance events and exercise.
I guess someday my son will get to decide what to do with them, doubtful of any interest to anyone else.
