My Toolkit for Accountability

We talk all the time about having goals, but without an actual plan, goals don’t really mean anything. I’ve found I have to keep myself accountable every day in order to move forward and avoid losing momentum. I have a few ways of tracking my progress, and so I thought I’d share them with you today.

 

Believe Training Journal

This training journal, created by elite runners Lauren Fleshman and Roisin McGettigan-Dumas has honestly revolutionised the way I look at my training. It’s a year-long training log that doubles as a journal and a handbook: you log your miles and rate each day/workout, but there’s space to do so much more than that too. Each week there’s a small prompt such as “When things get tough I’ll focus on…” and “Things that will make me a better runner”. It helps you look at your training more holistically- there are regular check-in pages as well as guides to nutrition, cross-training and balance, among other things.

Bullet Journal: Habit Tracker

I recently started keeping a bullet journal as a way to organize my brain and reduce anxiety- it’s definitely helping! For anyone who doesn’t know, a bullet journal is more a concept than a product- you take a blank journal and you organize it exactly how you think would best suit you- there are guidelines on the “best” way to do it, but in reality its entirely up to you.  One of the most popular add-ons is the habit tracker: it’s really simple- you decide what habits you want to keep for the week, and you track them. In the lead-up to marathon day this mainly consisted of my strength and conditioning routine, although I also added an “Act of Self Care” to make sure I was taking care of myself well.

Wall Planner

Way back in July when I started tentative marathon training, I drew myself up a wall calendar on Word, and sneakily printed it off in A3 on my work printer. It’s stuck at the end of my bed, and every evening I would fill it in for the day. It wasn’t a training plan as such, but it helped me keep accountable as well as see all the miles building up, which defeinitely helped mitigate a few taper-induced crises.

 

Accountability Buddies

For keeping yourself accountable, there’s no-one quite like a training buddy to count on. Not only can you tackle tough workouts together; even when you’re training separately you can check in on each other’s progress. It’s great to know that someone’s got your back, plus you can bounce all those crazy worries and nagging doubts off each other.

It’s not just the races, it’s the hours of training together!

So there you have it, my toolkit for keeping yourself accountable and always moving towards your goals. If you have any other suggestions I’m all ears!

How do you keep yourself driven and accountable?

 

Lots of love,

 

Pippa