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 (17/11) I had an 11K run with the following averages: (11.01 K, 5:58 min/km, 154 bpm, 65m elevation gain). On Wednesday (18/11) I had a 13K run with the following averages: (13.01 K, 5:56 min/km, 169 bpm, 88m elevation gain). On Friday (20/11) I had a tempo 13K run with the following averages: (13.00 K, 5:39 min/km, 177 bpm, 80m elevation gain). On Sunday (22/11) I had a 16K run with the following averages: (16.00 K, 6:16 min/km, 152 bpm, 137m elevation gain).

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Total
16	11K Run	13K Run	19	Tempo 13K	21	16K Run	53.0 km
11678	11924	19112	11749	14079	14147	17659	100,348
75.5 kg	76.6 kg	76.3 kg	74.8 kg	74.5 kg	75.4 kg	75.4 kg

VO2Max and weekly mileage

My VO2Max this week in my (Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday) activities were (49, 48, 47, 48) ml/kg/min respectively. My weekly totals this week were 53.0 km run and 100,348 steps.

About individual runs

On Tuesday (17/11): Another 11K run which completely cleared my mind. It was among those days today that I really didn’t want to run. I dressed up early this morning but decided to have a glass of milk and supplement as I didn’t want to run with an empty stomach and after that, I was feeling a bit tired so I again postponed the run. I wasn’t that tired but still not feeling strong enough to have an 11K run. The main idea about being tired is about my energy level and the quality of my last night sleep plays a critical role in this matter. I really need to have 8 hours of high quality sleep in order to have a good run in the day after and these days for many reasons including having tea late at night, I couldn’t sleep early like always and also the quality of my sleep was also not great. I really need to change certain parts of my life in order to get back to a disciplined lifestyle and being able to have a balanced life which would include all of my necessary activities. The key point for having a disciplined and balanced lifestyle is good sleep and focused mine. I don’t have that much to say about this run as it was supposed to be a general aerobic run (70-81 % HRMax) but before the run I told myself as long as you run it slower than 6:00 min/km it should be fine. My final average heart rate ended up 82% HRMax which make scene for a general aerobic run.

On Wednesday (18/11): Following my concern in my previous run, let’s first talk about my last night’s sleep! I had a much better sleep last night. I found this pattern useful, you either have to have a high quality sleep the night before or if the quality of your sleep is not good, you have to increase the length of your sleep! The quality of my sleep last night was not great, as like always, I woke up multiple times during the night to see if it’s time for getting up or not! From tonight on, I am going to wear my (Garmin Fenix 3 HR) watch at night (without my Garmin HRM Run) to be able to monitor my sleep more efficiently (for both quality and quantity of it)! Like always, when it’s time for working with numbers, I can analyse, manage and solve the issue way easier! As a result, I am going to add another column to my excel analyse file (for my training) called “sleep” and would monitor my sleep accordingly! About today’s run, I had a 13K endurance run (74-84% HRMax) in my training plan today and before the run, I told myself as long as it’s a 6:00 min/km or slower run, it should be OK even though my heart rate be a little bit higher than 84% HRMax. The reason is first, the accuracy of my Garmin HRM Run is not always great, and second sometimes it’s easier to work with your pace rather than your heart rate and third, managing your pace in your run is way easier than managing your heart rate! Based on those explanations, I successfully had my run with average pace 5:56 min/km even though my final average heart rate was 90% HRMax (I still question that measurement as the intensity of my run (what I felt) was just 5/10)! About the quality of the terrain, the road was full of holes filled with water and therefore it was difficult to run on the road, but anyways I am always fully equipped for my training and quality of terrain and weather conditions wouldn’t affect my run that much! In the worst scenario, you and your shoes would get wet, not a big deal!

On Friday (20/11): Lactate Threshold (Pace, Heart Rate)=(5:19 min/km, 180 bpm). I had a very good sleep last night with 85% deep sleep which is kind of weird to me. I usually get up multiple times during the night but last night it didn’t happen. Fortunately I added the sleep column to my training excel file and since two nights ago, I can monitor my sleep properly. I found it useful to sleep a little bit more (particularly for the heavy day workouts like tempo/speed/long runs) where in that case, I would have enough energy for my workout and my daily activities and I won’t experience lack of energy for sleep reasons. That was a serious problem for me in the past! This run was supposed to be a tempo (lactate threshold) run (80-91% HRMax) and before the run I just told myself if the final average pace is 5:40 min/km it should be OK even though my average heart rate would be slightly more than 91% HRMax. 5:40 min/km was a safe pace for this run as my last 13K run’s average pace was 5:56 min/km. I successfully finished this run with an average pace 5:39 min/km as desired and my average heart rate was 95% HRMax. I again want to question the measurement of my average heart rate because what I felt for the intensity of this run was just 6/10 and I wasn’t that much tired after the run. It’s always great to work with both heart rate and pace because lot’s of the time, one is not sufficient to determine how hard you should go for the run! I also want to talk about my stress level before starting this tempo run! I am usually stressful before tempo runs but for this run, because I told myself you can do it with a safe pace (just 16 seconds per km faster than my last run) I was pretty confident about the run. It’s always great to have less stress for the key activities of the week and instead, enjoy the time you spent for your important runs. Ater the run, I worked with my gym ball and foam roller to cool down my muscles! It’s necessary after the SOS workouts!

On Sunday (22/11): Another great run in a new field called “Langara Golf Course”. Sometimes life makes me distracted and long runs are the best for getting back to a focused life, particularly if it is in the great nature of Vancoucer. In the past, I had the experience of running in the same track and field for a long time and after that, I had less interest in running there. Also before this run, because my last run was a little bit intense, I decided to have it very slow with a final average pace around 6:15 min/km. In my training plan it was an endurance run (74-84% HRMax) but like always, I prefer to set a certain running pace goal before starting the run, which in that case things would be more clear to me. Working with a combination of pace and heart rate is always better than working with either of them. Combining those two facts together, immediately after starting the run, I decided to try “Langara Golf Course” today which was very close to my neighbourhood. I have never been there before (just knew it on the map) and I was lucky that I easily found it. Usually I visit a new course in advance before running there for the first time, but it wasn’t the case this time. During the run, I found that the perimeter of the course is 2.94 km . I measured it just once so it might not be so accurate. The course had a few uphills and downhills (the west side had downhills and the east side had uphills) so it was difficult to maintain a certain pace or heart rate during the run. As a result, I just decided to run comfortably there and at the same time, I tried to stay close to 6:15 min/km and stay in the desired heart rate range i.e. 74-84% HRMax. I am somehow surprised that the final average pace of the run (6:16 min/km) was so close to my desired one (6:15 min/km). During the run, I really enjoyed the nature of Langara Golf Course and of course in the future, one of my main options for my long runs would be there (better in the morning to stay safe from people playing golf)