Activity Details in Google Sheets

Activity Schedule in Google Docs

Summary of this week’s activities

First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 4 run activities this week. On Tuesday (10/11) I had an 11K run with the following averages: (11.00 K, 5:53 min/km, 163 bpm, 72m elevation gain). On Thursday (12/11) I had a 13K run with the following averages: (13.01 K, 5:41 min/km, 167 bpm, 103m elevation gain). On Saturday (14/11) I had an 11K run with the following averages: (11.01 K, 6:09 min/km, 173 bpm, 103m elevation gain). On Sunday (15/11) I had a 14K run with the following averages: (14.00 K, 6:10 min/km, 159 bpm, 90m elevation gain).

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Total
09	11K Run	11	13K Run	13	11K Run	14K Run	49.0 km
11023	19203	11482	13781	16044	12547	15508	99,588
75.5 kg	75.6 kg	75.6 kg	76.4 kg	76.0 kg	76.3 kg	75.9 kg

VO2Max and weekly mileage

My VO2Max this week in my (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday) activities were (50, 50, 47, 48) ml/kg/min respectively. My weekly totals this week were 49.0 km run and 99,588 steps.

About individual runs

On Tuesday (10/11): Back to run after 7 weeks of rest. Life got busy, I had to change my house and therefore I couldn’t train for 7 weeks. Hopefully I am back to run now. I am still not sure if I want to follow elements of a training plan or just run. The point is following a training plan with it’s desired intensities would make me tired all the time and it wouldn’t remain any room for me for my other activities but anyways my training is something I have to stay with because I need it for keeping myself mentally and physically balanced and also for being happy. About the run, I planned to do an 11K general aerobic run (70-81% HRMax) but my final average heart rate turned out to be a little bit higher (163 bpm or 87.6 % HRMax) That should be OK for the first run. My current plan for the following several weeks is to have 4 days a week run with 50-60 km weekly mileage. Again for the weekly mileage (and maybe for the intensities) I would follow 10K training plan of “Faster Road Racing” book by Pete Pfitzinger.

On Thursday (12/11): Based on my training plan it was supposed to be a 13K endurance (74-84% HRMax) run but again I did it faster (89.8% HRMax) and therefore it was a hard lactate threshold (80-91 % HRMax) run, I intentionally right down these numbers multiple times to gradually memorize them. This is the second time I am running faster than what I was supposed to run and this time it’s not OK. As a result I have to change my next run from an 11K lactate threshold run to an 11K endurance run. The reason that I was running faster than what I was supposed to run is simple, I can not convince myself to run slower than 6 min/km as it’s too slow for me in my prime time but I have to accept the fact that I just got back to my training after 7 weeks of rest and therefore I shouldn’t push myself too much , 6 min/km and slower should be OK for you for the first few weeks. The other point is, the day after this run I was super tired and I slept a lot. This is what happens to me all the time during my training after a heavy workout (particularly at the beginning of my training) and I don’t have any complaints about it. The other thing that I used to experience at the beginning of my training was overeating but fortunately I don’t have that problem right now because I carefully monitor my weight each and every day because I’m on a diet for more than 6 months.

On Saturday (14/11): Lactate Threshold (Pace, Heart rate): (5:28 min/km, 180 bpm ). I had this run in rainy weather but fortunately it wasn’t heavy rain. This was a very easy run for me (4/10 intensity) but for some reason my average heart rate was measured 93% HRMax with my Garmin HRM Run (that I really don’t trust on it all the time). As a result my watch determined my VO2Max 47 this time which again I am sure it’s not accurate. Anyways in this run I am very glad that I had it with a very slow average pace (6:09 min/km) and it would help me to have my 14K endurance run tomorrow with no much pressure on myself. During the second half of the run, my right foot got numb but towards the end of the run it was OK. I was a little bit busy this morning so I had to have this run later at night in rainy weather but in any case I am very glad that I made it ultimately!

On Sunday (15/11): About today it was a relatively warm and sunny day (Ave. Temp. 15.4 C) and it made the run so enjoyable. The data I got from my HRM Run was way more realistic today compared to yesterday. According to my Garmin HRM Run monitor, my average heart rate was 85% HRM Max and therefore as desired, it was an endurance run (74-84% HRM Max). During my run I noticed that my heart rate is slightly getting higher than what it was planned, but because my pace was slower than 6:00 min/km , I was OK with that and I didn’t push myself to keep my heart rate exactly in the desired range. Today, I had a great conversation with a friend of mine Ross who was a former Boston Marathoner. I told him when I’m on my training, I am tired all the time. I was assuming maybe this is the nature of training for a race and pushing your boundaries as it was my experience before and I’d overheard it from competitive athletes. He advised me that you might experience overtraining as it’s a common problem for athletes. I really didn’t believe my problem might be overtraining so from now on (including my run today) I decided to strictly keep my heart rate in the desired range of my training plan!