Why You Should Track the Really Long Trends
The benefits of looking at our past data for motivation, performance, and recovery
Running can be either simple or sophisticated. There are plenty of incredibly talented runners that run by feel and track their paces with their stopwatch alone. Alternatively, there are those of us that feel naked without our GPS enabled running watch, heart rate monitor, and tools to track running dynamics. I tend to fall into the latter category. I have to admit I once left for an early morning long run so completely focused on my gear that I didn’t realize until about a mile in that I never changed out of my pajama bottoms. Priorities.
With this background, I want to introduce an area not discussed often nor easily covered by our fitness trackers — looking at our data to see the long-term trends.
Why would we want to look at years of data?
There are several reasons considering our long-term trends can be very useful.
Consistency is the key to performance and health, but so is knowledge.
The seasons and our event/racing seasons are cyclical, and by extension so is our training. We can’t always be at our peak of performance. Based on our events and goals, we develop training plans to allow us to train in the months leading up to these events. This is why it is particularly useful to look back at our training data from months and years past. What worked and what did not will be hidden in that data.
Looking backing to PR
If I’m looking to PR in a particular event, it’s extremely useful to compare training data from the previous years. For any given week in the training cycle, I’ll compare my volume, paces, and speed work to look for areas that can be improved upon. It can also be very motivating to look at my paces during speed work in prior years. For example, if I noted I could hold 6 min/mile in half-mile repeats, I’ll be extra motivated to try to match or beat that pace this time around.
Looking back to recover
An overlooked area in which training data from previous years can be beneficial is recovery. This is in regards to what to do, and what not to do. If I’m recovering from a marathon or particularly hard event, I find it is very easy to overdo it, resulting in a longer recovery time (or an injury). To help pace myself, I find it very useful to compare my training during previous recovery periods. If I note that I was running very slowly for a few weeks after a previous event and then was able to pick it up, I’ll feel much better about running slowly for a few weeks now. This helps provide the confidence that it is okay to run slow — the speed will come back.
Motivation during those tough times
We all have tough stretches. Sometimes it’s tough to stay consistent and get out the door, or we’re dealing with a nagging injury, bug (COVID…), or it’s just tough to get off the sofa or out the door into the dark and cold. I’m there right now. But when I see that during the same month last year I was making it out the door every day, or my mileage was much higher, I’m much more likely to do it again. If I’ve been consistent in the past, I can be consistent and get out there again.
Health tracking benefits
Just as there is great value in our primary doctor tracking our long-term trends, our fitness data is equally valuable. Stored within this are detailed records associated with our activity levels, overall fitness estimates such as VO2max, and power estimates (if cycling with a power meter). Should a change in our health occur, having years of this type of information to look for long-term trends can be invaluable.
How to look back?
So, I’ve sold you on the usefulness of looking back and you have been recording your data on a fitness platform such as a Strava or Garmin, but just how do you find this data? Fitness platforms are focused on the last few days, weeks, or months at best. However, in almost all cases, the data is still there. As every fitness platform is different and I can’t focus on them all, I can provide information in regards to Strava and Garmin.
When accessing Strava, your running history is found under your profile, in which we can pick the year from a drop-down menu (a premium account is not required for this). As an example, the figure above is my running data from 2018. It is quite easy to tell when I fell, breaking my arm and big-toe (while peaking out for a Tri), and when I started to recover.
If you are using Garmin, Garmin Connect has a number of nice features when accessed from a browser. In particular, find their “Reports” page, which easily allows filtering by activities and years.
Why not store your data?
If you aren’t using a fitness platform to track your workouts, perhaps considering the benefits of tracking this data over a longer time period might be a motivating prospect. Consistency is the key to becoming a stronger runner and staying healthy, and knowledge can certainly help keep you consistent. Happy running!
