Running? There's a Pocket Notebook for that...

How I use my Adventure Log

As a fan of note-taking in a digital world, I find myself utilising pocket notebooks more and more to house my daily notes.  I bullet journal, I keep a date-diary (with occasional reminders synched to my phone) and I am an incessant list-maker and mind-mapper.

Recently I have embarked on a new ‘journey’ in my life; moving from leading a community running group through the “Couch to 5K” programme and taking part in weekly ParkRuns to learning how to run the 10K distance over the next three months.  As someone who has only been running for a year this move up to a longer distance has been a huge decision for me, especially as I don’t find running easy and it doesn’t always feel natural - the after-kick of endorphines does make it worthwhile though.

I feel as though I have to document my journey in some way and when I saw the Adventure Log notebooks from Word. Notebook, I realised they were the perfect journal for me.  My running programme is 12 weeks long, I will be running four times a week, the Adventure Log notebooks are 48 pages long.  It’s too much of a coincidence!

Every time I finish a run I am documenting various thoughts about the run.  I want to feel more positive about how I run and why I run instead of feeling that I can’t do it (I know I can - it’s just a bit of a challenge). I’m forcing myself to evaluate each training session because putting pen to paper is a very permanent process.  Yes, you can rip the page out and start again but what is the point in that? I know I envisage a 5K run very differently now to how I did a year ago. I want to feel like that about a longer distance but over a much quicker period of time. This journaling process is helping me to order my thoughts and feelings. It also helps me to feel more committed to the adventure (see what I did there?) as it unfolds.

How do you use your Adventure Log?

by Nickie O’Hara

With one finger on the pulse and the other on the keyboard, Nickie O’Hara is not afraid to say it as she sees it. She works hard, is a true procrastinator, drinks wine, is occasionally published and is a Nana in her spare time. In the words of Raymond Babbitt: “She’s all sparkly. She looks like a holiday.”

Nickie blogs at Typecast and Geekalicious. You can follow Nickie on Twitter,  Pinterest,  Facebook,  Instagram, YouTube and  Google+