diff --git a/metaseq/checkpoint_utils.py b/metaseq/checkpoint_utils.py
index 472fedd8b..eeecf638e 100644
--- a/metaseq/checkpoint_utils.py
+++ b/metaseq/checkpoint_utils.py
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+# fmt: off
 # Copyright (c) Meta Platforms, Inc. and affiliates. All Rights Reserved.
 #
 # This source code is licensed under the MIT license found in the
@@ -33,6 +34,7 @@ def save_checkpoint(
     trainer,
     epoch_itr,
     val_loss,
+    log_training_trajectory=False,
     training_finished=False,
     async_callback_fn=None,
 ):
@@ -74,8 +76,7 @@ def is_better(a, b):
     )
     checkpoint_conds["checkpoint_{}_{}{}.pt".format(epoch, updates, suffix)] = (
         not end_of_epoch
-        and cfg.save_interval_updates > 0
-        and updates % cfg.save_interval_updates == 0
+        and ((cfg.save_interval_updates > 0 and updates % cfg.save_interval_updates == 0) or (log_training_trajectory and updates in [10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500]))
     )
     checkpoint_conds["checkpoint_best{}.pt".format(suffix)] = (
         val_loss is not None
diff --git a/metaseq/dataclass/configs.py b/metaseq/dataclass/configs.py
index c618d540e..41ff4ff4e 100644
--- a/metaseq/dataclass/configs.py
+++ b/metaseq/dataclass/configs.py
@@ -385,6 +385,12 @@ class DatasetConfig(MetaseqDataclass):
             "help": "if set, validate language model at the beginning of training or fine-tuning process"
         },
     )
+    log_training_trajectory: bool = field(
+        default=False,
+        metadata={
+            "help": "(InstructOPT specific) if set, evaluate and save checkpoints more frequently in early stage of training"
+        },
+    )
     fixed_validation_seed: Optional[int] = field(
         default=None, metadata={"help": "specified random seed for validation"}
     )
diff --git a/metaseq_cli/train.py b/metaseq_cli/train.py
index 3669c2b7e..da2946f04 100644
--- a/metaseq_cli/train.py
+++ b/metaseq_cli/train.py
@@ -37,7 +37,9 @@
 from metaseq.model_parallel.megatron_trainer import MegatronTrainer
 from metaseq.trainer import Trainer
 from metaseq.tasks.streaming_language_modeling import StreamingLanguageModelingTask
-from metaseq.tasks.streaming_finetune_language_modeling import StreamingFinetuneLanguageModelingTask
+from metaseq.tasks.streaming_finetune_language_modeling import (
+    StreamingFinetuneLanguageModelingTask,
+)
 
 
 logging.basicConfig(
@@ -418,6 +420,10 @@ def validate_and_save(
             and num_updates >= cfg.dataset.validate_after_updates
             and was_successful_step
         )
+        or (
+            cfg.dataset.log_training_trajectory
+            and num_updates in [10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500]
+        )
     )
     do_validate = (
         (
@@ -432,6 +438,10 @@ def validate_and_save(
             and was_successful_step
         )
         or (cfg.dataset.validate_at_beginning and num_updates == 0)
+        or (
+            cfg.dataset.log_training_trajectory
+            and num_updates in [0, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500]
+        )
     ) and not cfg.dataset.disable_validation
     valid_losses = [None]
     if do_validate:
@@ -446,6 +456,7 @@ def validate_and_save(
             trainer,
             epoch_itr,
             valid_losses[0],
+            log_training_trajectory=cfg.dataset.validate_after_updates,
             training_finished=should_stop,
             async_callback_fn=functools.partial(post_checkpoint_callback, cfg)
             if cfg.checkpoint.cloud_upload_path