2014 Training Week 9 (30/06/2014 to 06/07/2014)

Activity Details in Google Sheets

Activity Schedule in Google Docs

They keep each other moving

Summary of this week’s activities

First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 2 run and 2 swim activities in this week. On Monday (30/06) I had an easy 3K run with the following averages: (2.80 K, 5:14 min/km, 157 bpm), On Wednesday (02/07) I had a Running Room 10K run with the following averages: (10.00 K, 4:59 min/km, 168 bpm), On Wednesday (02/07) I had a 1.5 km lap swimming with average pace 2:18 min/100m (my watch says it’s a 3:43 am Wednesday swim but that’s not possible so there might be a one day inaccuracy in the time of the activity), On Friday (04/07) I had a 1.5 km lap swimming with average pace 2:11 min/100m.

MondayTuesdayWednesdayThursdayFridaySaturdaySundayTotal
Easy 3K run11.5K Lap Swimming  10K run 31.5K Lap Swimming5612.8 km Run 3.0 km Swim

My weekly mileage

Again based on this article, my two lap swimmings are equal with a 12K moderate run. Therefore my total weekly activities are equal with 24.80 K weekly mileage run. Comparing it to the 33.21 K weekly mileage of last week, we observe a 25.32% decrease in weekly mileage this week. That means I have to be more active in future as such a huge decrease in weekly mileage in week 9 doesn’t make sense at all.

In fact the way that I am training right now is not very appropriate as I have less activities in certain weeks and too much activities in the others. I have to train slow and steady in a safe manner to avoid getting injured and achieve the best results.

Comparing activities to see my improvement

Again if I compare my run activity on 18/06 with the following averages: (10.01 K, 5:04 min/km, 169 bpm, 182 m elevation gain) to my other run activity on 02/07 with the following averages: (10.00 K, 4:59 min/km, 168 bpm, 75m elevation gain) , we see everything is the same in those two activities but average pace and elevation gain. My this week’s pace was 0:05 min/km slower and at the same time it’s elevation gain was 107m harder. I guess the elevation gain and the pace would balance each other and that means we cannot observe a significant improvement in my activities during past 2 weeks.

Buying a new Garmin Fenix 2 watch

Due to the fact that I was swimming a lot in my trainings, I decided to buy a Garmin Fenix 2 watch which was more appropriate for my training compared to Garmin FR 610. The complete description of Fenix 2 in the Garmin website is available here and a comparison between Fenix 2 and Forerunner 610 is available here and here and here.

But in short, the advantages of Fenix 2 compared to Forerunner 610 for me are as followings:

  • Fenix 2 records swimming activities
  • Fenix 2 and it’s heart rate monitor measures running dynamics (included cadence) and also VO2Max which are very important features for runners (I don’t know if it’s about Fenix 2 or it’s heart rate monitor but in any case I have these extra features in Fenix 2 where I didn’t have them in Forerunner 610)
  • Fenix 2 is more appropriate for hiking
  • The battery of Fenix 2 lasts longers