It’s often been said you can’t improve what you can’t measure and that certainly holds true with running. This free 2024 printable running calendar is meant to be posted somewhere you see it every day–so you can log you daily, weekly and monthly miles and track your progress.
This year, just for fun, we have included all the Abbott World Marathon Majors race dates as well.
Strava and other running apps are great and convenient, but I’ve found there’s nothing like printing out an old fashioned calendar, putting it on the fridge and writing down your miles where you and your family can see them.
This calendar is a blank slate for you to log your progress the way that works best for you. It can be as simple as writing down the number of miles or minutes you spent running every day and totaling that number up at the end of the week and month in the margins.
(once you open it, go to File > Make a Copy)
You can also use it as a training schedule for an upcoming race. For example, I open the calendar in Google Sheets and work back around 18 weeks from a marathon date and enter the miles, target pace and types of runs required each day per my training plan (including my weekend long runs).
Related: Running Pace Calculator
At some point in the day, usually after training, I write down the miles on the calendar for that day. Sometimes it’s the same as what the training plan called for, sometimes it’s under or over but I write it down no matter what.
Be sure to include rest days (REST) and cross training (CT: Cycling) and any intervals or pace your plan calls for (5 mi with 1 mile @ estimated marathon pace) for example.
It can’t hurt to keep your old calendars in a file somewhere. Looking back on your past races and training can be helpful or at least interesting to see how your training has evolved over time.
Feel free to include any notes on the quality of your run or how you felt physically or mentally at the time. These notes sometimes help you look back and see what you can improve or other factors that might have impacted your training like being too hot that day, under hydrated or running at a time you don’t normally run.
I also like to differentiate between a treadmill run, trail run over a regular street run. They each feel different and challenge the body in different ways so mileage alone doesn’t capture that session.
I always love totaling my actual miles vs. goal at the end of the month and looking over my notes to see where I’ve been and what I can do better the next month.