Journal?

I got to thinking today about the structure of how I want the training log to work when I write it. A feature that I definately want to have is a place to keep comments in a journal type fashion about the workouts themselves. When I was in college, that was the best part of the training logs the few of us that kept them had. We did not really care what the workouts were; we were running between 85 and 105 miles every week and the details were just that: nothing special. The journal aspect, such as Fuzzy swimming in the goose pond, or Cam shucking his shorts to chase camel cow, or the famous “We can’t get any wetter than we already are” run, those are the things worth remembering.

So, if there is a comment section to make comments on the run, and it is going to be labeled as a journal section, why not keep them seperate with a mere mechanism to combine them? I am just getting into the blogging, but I can see this as a powerful medium. A lightweight journal/blog with its own RSS feed for each user: that could be a nice feature.

Just a thought that I am toying with. If I do decide to run with it, I have to decide if I am going to put a full engine there to be used, such as I have for this blog, of if I will home grow a solution. If I use a precanned solution, then I will have to make sure I stay on top of security updates and that it fits seamlessly into the workout section (which will be the focus of the website). If I home grow the solution, then I will be severely limited in options. Which may or may not be a bad thing, depending upon how I want to go about it.

This bears considering. What are your thoughts?