In this episode I explore how keeping a training journal, and dedicating a small amount of time to self-reflection, can be an absolute game changer when it comes to your progress.
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Listen to the Training For Trekking Podcast on: Or any other of your favourite podcast platforms! Chapters 0:00:00 Introduction to Episode 11: 20 Lessons Through 20 Weeks of Training 0:01:34 The Game-Changing Power of Keeping a Training Journal 0:03:13 The Importance of Self-Reflection in Training 0:04:54 Taking Accountability and Practicing on Your Own 0:05:41 Reinforcing Positives and Reviewing Progress 0:06:50 Visualization and Pondering for Enhanced Training Benefits. 0:07:32 Importance of Self-Reflection in Training and Hiking 0:08:21 The Power of Reflecting on Training Sessions 0:09:53 Applying Self-Reflection to Hiking Experiences Transcript Introduction to Episode 11: 20 Lessons Through 20 Weeks of Training [0:00] All right. Hello, hello, ladies and gentlemen. In today's episode, we are covering episode number 11 of our 20-episode mini-series, 20 Lessons Through 20 Weeks of Training. Essentially, today, we are diving into such a valuable topic, which is all about self-reflection. Let me tell you the story about where this lesson came from. Now, early in the process of this training process I went through, in all honesty, I was a bit overwhelmed. In the early weeks, because I was like, whoa, I haven't really done anything like this before. This is completely new to me. I haven't sort of learned so many new things in a long time. It's really like, you know, a lot to get through. And in all honesty, I was a bit overwhelmed. There was just so much to learn. I realized I was forgetting quite a bit. You know, we'd have a session in the morning and, you know, I thought it all made sense. And then the next day we come in and I'd be like, oh my gosh, I forgot what we did. Or I forgot these certain points or what I'm supposed to do in this situation or whatever it may be. [0:59] And turning up, like, yeah, I was just constantly finding like, you know, even a couple of days later, I was like, what was that? What was I supposed to do? What was this tip that coach gave me or whatever it may be? And I was really, really struggling to kind of have things sink in. And in all honesty, it was a bit frustrating initially because I was taking in some stuff, but I realized, look, I'm forgetting a lot and it's really, really, really holding me back. And eventually at my coach's suggestion, and he suggested this to everyone in the group, what I started to do, which really, really, really helped here was I started to keep a training journal. The Game-Changing Power of Keeping a Training Journal [1:34] And the coach sort of said this to everyone. He was like, look, in all honesty, there's so much to get through. You should be at the end of every session, sitting down, writing down what you've done and keeping a journal. It's such an important thing. And for me, this was an absolute game changer. And it basically changed this feeling of kind of overwhelmed to being a bit more in control and having a bit more clarity. So essentially what I did here was immediately after each session, so we trained in the gym, I'd come home, I'd have a shower, and I'd make a coffee or breakfast and sit down with pen and paper. And I would just write out a few important notes. I would write out what we did in the morning and exactly the exercises or the drills or the things we learned. I wrote out exactly what we learned and the important things that I needed to remember. So, the important points, while they were fresh in my mind, I was like, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. [2:25] On top of that, I also wrote wrote out the things that I struggled with. And I was like, oh, that didn't feel super natural. The things that I needed to practice on my own. I was like, you know what? These things are doable to practice by myself. This type of stuff I need to filter in during my week. So next time we do this, I'll feel a little bit more competent. I wrote down the questions I had as I was writing it out. I was like, oh, I can't remember this certain thing, or this doesn't make sense. So I need to ask this question. And I also wrote out what worked well for me. And just like as a bit of of a positive, hey, this worked well, this felt good, I used this little tip and that went well, or whatever it may be. And I just wrote all of these things down. Now, this whole process took 10 minutes each morning. [3:05] It was a little bit of a habit I had to get into, but it literally only took 10 minutes each morning and it was an absolute game changer for me. The Importance of Self-Reflection in Training [3:13] Now, ultimately, this was for a few big reasons. When I was really reflecting on why this reflection was important, there was a few big reasons why it really made a difference. Number one, it cemented the morning lessons in my mind. So, as we know, like, you know, anytime you try to learn something or revise something, just reading something or doing something once really sinks in. But if you can revise it, write it down, practice it, read it out loud or whatever it may be. It really just helps lock things in. And for me, the pure act of writing this thing down, thinking about exactly what we went over and having it all laid out, it just cemented what was in my mind. So the next day when I woke up and I had to do it again or have had to do it again in a week's time, I could remember much easily. Now, the second important thing is it made me self-reflect and self-reflection as a whole is just such a valuable thing and we're so bad at spending proper time as self-reflection and all too often we'll just sort of say hey you know what that session wasn't very good or hey I felt really weak or hey you know I struggled with this or whatever may be but it's very very rare unless we intentionally put time towards it where we actually get a little bit deeper. [4:19] And in this situation, when I could sit down and write down, you know, really, really think, what did I struggle with? I could identify exactly what I struggled with. Not just saying, oh my gosh, that session was a bit tough, or oh my gosh, that was really, really hard. But I could say, you know what, I struggled with this technique. I struggled with this exercise. I was really out of balance. This sort of phrasing didn't make sense to me, or whatever it may be. And identifying those exact specific things was so, so, so, so valuable. Now, number three, it made me take make accountability about what I needed to practice on in my own time. Taking Accountability and Practicing on Your Own [4:54] Because prior to that, I was kind of coming out of these sessions and I'll be like, oh my gosh, I couldn't remember that. Oh my gosh, I struggled with that. And I was like, oh, you know what? I'll just deal with it when we're in the classes. And that was just my way of dealing with it, but it wasn't really working. But when I sat down, wrote out these things that I struggled with, I could say, you know what, actually, this is something I can practice during the day. You know, in between meetings, I can do do two minutes of practice here and do a few bits and pieces here. Or this is something I can kind of practice on my own in the gym. Or this is something I can just have a bit of a think about and really, really put a bit of attention mentally into it. Or I can watch some videos online and whatever it may be. But it made me take accountability to actually take that step to practice what I needed to do on my own terms. [5:36] And that's so important. Now, number four, this little habit of journaling really Reinforcing Positives and Reviewing Progress [5:41] reinforced the positives and be able to sit down and write down what went well. Number one, it cemented those positive things in my mind. So I was like, you know what, this worked for me, so next time I'm going to do this. But also giving me a positive at the start of the day and saying, you know what, actually, it's not all bad. You did struggle with certain things, but that was actually really good, and you did well there. And giving ourselves credit personally and a positive at the start of each day or sometime during the day, such a beneficial thing. [6:07] It also gave me something to review. And essentially, Eventually, I'd write down those notes whilst fresh in my mind. And then later, I'd review them. I'd review them at night. I'd review them at random parts in the day. Or if I knew I was going to do a session, I was like, I can't remember exactly what we did last week for this type of thing. I could just read back the notes. I could cement it in my mind. As we kind of got closer and closer and closer, and there were certain things I needed to remember, I was reviewing them almost every night. And it's just a simple five minutes going through things, cementing it in my mind. It was so, so, so important. And then finally, it also just gave gave me things to ponder and visualize. Now, visualization is such a beneficial thing of purely sitting down and thinking about what you want to do. Visualization and Pondering for Enhanced Training Benefits. [6:50] You know, in the training context, if you struggle with exercises, you can sit down and literally think about certain exercises, setting yourself up, going through the motion, what muscles should be working, this and that, and this will literally help you do the exercise better. There's been a lot of studies to show this can be beneficial. So for me, I could sit and, you know, it gave me things to sit down and actually visualized through the day. Again, in odd moments, I could visualize this exercise. I could sort of wonder about this or whatever it may be and really put myself in there. And all of these things combined, for me, it made it such an incredibly powerful tool for so many reasons. For 10 minutes invested, it just branched out into so many benefits. And for me, during the training process, it was so, so, so, so beneficial. Importance of Self-Reflection in Training and Hiking [7:32] Now, for hikers listening to this podcast, this is is exactly the same thing, both for your training and also for your hiking. Because for a lot of people, when they're doing their training, again, they don't take a huge amount of time to self reflect. They don't really take a lot of time to really think about what's going on. Some days you'll have good days, some days you'll have bad days, but getting deeper, very, very rare people do it. So for your training as a hiker, I strongly encourage you to do the same thing. Keep a training journal. Spend five, 10 minutes after each session. Just write down how the sessions went, what you you struggled with? What went well? So you can reflect on this. You can study on this and use it to cement what you're doing. Because we only really have a certain capacity in regards to time we can spend training, both due to energy and also just our schedule, but actually being able to have these things to reflect on, you don't need energy for this. The Power of Reflecting on Training Sessions [8:21] Well, maybe a little bit of mental energy, but whatever it may be. You don't need a huge amount of time with this. You can do two minutes at a time, whatever it may be. And it can be so powerful. [8:29] So, for example, if you've just recently done a strength session, and say you did a strength workout, and you sat down in your journal, you might write down a few things saying, hey, this is a pretty good session. You know what? Like I was doing squats today, and I felt a bit of knee pain. So, what I did was I went back and reviewed the exercise video. Maybe you have a video in a training app, or maybe you went onto YouTube, and you reviewed the video. And I realized actually, you know, I wasn't keeping my feet flat on the floor. So, I did that. I concentrated that and made sure I wasn't going on my toes, and the knee pain was sorted. That in itself, that single statement, that'll cement that lesson in for next time. So next time you do squats, probably you're not going to have that issue. Another thing you could write down, it's like I was hopeless on the single leg deadlift. The first time I'd done this exercise, I was just wobbling all over the place. I couldn't balance and stabilize. So I need to practice this in my week. And I'm going to practice this in just random parts when I'm waiting for my coffee, when I'm just walking down the hall or whatever. And I'm going to practice this. So next time I do this workout, I'm not going to be wobbling all over the place. I'm going to be a bit more stable and I can push it a little bit more. I also noticed halfway through the session, I was getting a bit tired and I realized on reflection, I hadn't really had breakfast this morning. So next time, I'm going to make sure I eat something prior to training. You know, those are three points that could come out of a typical session, but as you can see, those have identified certain issues, cemented certain lessons, and really, really, really can be such a valuable thing. Applying Self-Reflection to Hiking Experiences [9:53] Now, if you're hiking, it'd be exactly the same thing. Reflect on what was good. Say, you know what? I was feeling really energetic for the first three hours. I got up the hills really, really well. I was keeping up with the people, whatever it may be. What was bad? Maybe, you know what? Actually, there was some rock scrambling and I really struggled with that. Or maybe towards the end, my legs get a bit shaky on the descents. Or maybe I just felt a bit lightheaded four or five hours in. What mistakes you made? You know what? I forgot to eat the entire hike or I didn't have breakfast. Or maybe we went out at the wrong time and it was too hot. Or maybe we were just going too quick and I got a little bit tired or whatever it may be. What changes you'll make? You know, I'm going to snack more. I'm going to have breakfast. I'm going to bring poles. I'm going to have more rest, whatever it may be. And have this little self-reflection at the end of each hike. It can be so, so, so, so, so powerful. And if you spend this five, ten minutes after each of these things, it does take a little bit of effort to get into the habit, but it just adds up and it can be so, so, so, so powerful. Powerful so this is my challenge for you as a hiker who's training and hiking and leading towards big adventure or just wanting to improve you know your hiking performance if you're doing this get a training journal you can do it on your computer you can do it on your phone you can do it on pen and paper whatever you prefer set aside the time write down what was good what was bad what you struggled with what you need to practice whatever and i promise you it'll make such a difference over the long term. [11:18] So, with that being said, I hope a few people take some action on this because it can be such a valuable thing. So, that's enough from me today. I really hope you've enjoyed today's episode. I hope you get a bit out of it and we'll talk to you very, very soon. Bye.
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AuthorRowan is an online personal trainer who specialises in training for hiking and mountaineering. He helps get them fit, strong and resilient so they can conquer every adventure. Archives
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