Event —Trackbuddy Field Notes
How to Log Track Workouts: A System That Sticks
2026-06-23 · 4 min read
Someone on r/trackandfield once asked for an app where they could "put in my times from practice and see my progression." Not a tracker — just the times, and the trend. That's the whole job of a track and field training log, and you can do it today with paper, a notes app, or a spreadsheet. What matters is the system, so here it is.
Why log at all
Because you will not remember. In March you will swear that last October's 150s felt easier at the same time. You'll be wrong in one direction or the other, and the direction matters: one means adapt the plan, the other means hold the line. A log settles the argument in ten seconds.
The second reason is pattern detection. The hamstring that "came out of nowhere" usually follows two weeks of visible spike in fast-running volume. The long jump breakthrough usually follows a change you can point at — an approach moved back two feet, a cue that finally landed. Logs surface these. Memory doesn't.
Three rules before the details
- Log the same day. Trackside is best, before you leave the facility is fine, tonight is acceptable. Tomorrow is fiction — splits invent themselves overnight.
- Use the same notation every time. The value of a log is comparison. If March is written differently from October, you can't compare them.
- Record the plan and the actual. "Planned 6×150 @ 95%, did 4, right calf tight" is more useful in review than a clean-looking session that quietly wasn't the session.
What to record, by event group
Runners: sprints, hurdles, middle distance
The session is reps × distance @ intensity, plus rest. Rest is not bookkeeping — it defines the session. 6×200 with 2 minutes rest and 6×200 with 8 minutes rest train different systems and shouldn't look the same on the page.
A complete entry:
- The set:
6×150 @ 95%, 4' rest, walk-back - The times:
18.42, 18.31, 18.55, 18.20, 18.47, 18.12 - How they were timed (hand times from a coach, self-timed, FAT at a meet — they aren't interchangeable, so label them)
- Conditions if they'd change your read later: wind, rain, spikes or flats, track or grass
Jumps
Times don't describe a jump session; attempts do. Record the approach length in steps, then every attempt including the failures:
LJ, 16-step approach: 6.02, ×, 6.15, 6.21, p, 6.08
The fouls and passes matter. Six fair jumps at 6.00 and six attempts with three fouls around 6.20 are different stories about the approach, and the approach is usually the problem. Add runway notes — headwind, board moved, new check mark — while you still remember them.
Throws
One number rules everything: the implement. A 12.88 with the 6kg shot and a 12.88 with the 7.26kg are different athletes. Log implement weight with every session and keep the histories separate:
SP 7.26kg: 11.80, 11.95 (stands) / 12.41, ×, 12.88 (fulls)
Note the drill variant too — stands, glides, fulls — because progress often shows up in one before the others.
Multis
Combined-event athletes log both ways, per discipline, in the notation of each. It's more writing. It's also why multis benefit from a log more than anyone: ten events' worth of "am I improving?" doesn't fit in a head.
Notation that scans
Steal the shorthand every meet program already uses:
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
6×150 | six reps of 150m |
@ 95% | intensity relative to best |
4' / 30" | four minutes / thirty seconds rest |
× | foul or failed attempt |
p | passed attempt |
w | wind reading, when known |
One line per set, one line of times or marks under it. If a session takes more than a minute to log, the format is too heavy and you will quit it by midseason.
Consistency beats detail
The perfect log — RPE, sleep score, ground contact notes — dies in week three. The minimum viable entry survives the season: date, session, times or marks, one line of feel. Twenty seconds. You can always add detail to a log that exists; you can't review one that doesn't.
Then, once a week, read it back. Best rep of the week, total fast-running volume, marks trending which way. That five-minute review is the entire payoff — it's the "see my progression" half of the original ask.
If you'd rather have the notation, the rest, the fouls and the implements handled for you, that's the log Trackbuddy is building. Until then: same day, same notation, plan and actual. The system is portable.