2020 Training Week 20-21 (30/11/2020 to 13/12/2020)

Activity Details in Google Sheets

Activity Schedule in Google Docs

Summary of activities

First, let’s review my activities during this period of time. I had 6 run activities these two weeks. On Tuesday (01/12) I had an 11K run with the following averages: (11.01 K, 5:30 min/km, 151 bpm, 23m elevation gain). On Thursday (03/12) I had an 11K run with the following averages: (11.13 K, 5:25 min/km, 163 bpm, 22m elevation gain). On Friday (04/12) I had an 11K run with the following averages: (11.01 K, 5:41 min/km, 160 bpm, 16m elevation gain). On Sunday (06/12) I had a 14K run with the following averages: (14.00 K, 6:00 min/km, 162 bpm, 32m elevation gain). On Tuesday (08/12) I had a 14K run with the following averages: (14.01 K, 5:32 min/km, 169 bpm, 23m elevation gain). On Wednesday (09/12) I had a 14K run with the following averages: (14.00 K, 6:08 min/km, 140 bpm, 23m elevation gain).

MondayTuesdayWednesdayThursdayFridaySaturdaySundayTotal
0714K Run14K Run1011121328.0 km
936917842190021028942476701767,457
75.3 kg77.5 kg77.4 kg75.8 kg75.6 kg76.6 kg76.6 kg
MondayTuesdayWednesdayThursdayFridaySaturdaySundayTotal
3011K Run0211K Run11K Run0514K Run47.1 km
4423177705997149972273592001855693,678
75.7 kg77.0 kg76.5 kg76.0 kg76.7 kg76.3 kg75.9 kg

VO2Max and weekly mileage

My VO2Max these two weeks in my (Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday) activities were (50, 50, 50, 49, 48, 49) ml/kg/min respectively. My weekly totals in week 20 were 47.1 km run and 93,678 steps. Also my weekly totals in week 21 were 28.0 km run and 57,457 steps.

About individual runs

On Tuesday (01/12): Even after 4 days from the time of my accident in Columbia park, each time I pass by it, I feel very stressed about having another run there. I am also sure it’s not safe to have most of my runs there so I am really grateful that I was forced to change my running field to a better one! Due to the fact that the terrain condition was normal for running with enough light at night, I was able to focus more on my running dynamics during the run, especially my running cadence and my posture. I am really satisfied with my running cadence as my final average cadence was 180 spm and it was always between 180 +/- 3 spm during the laps of the run. My posture was also OK during the run except the parts that the road was too dark! Actually the conditions of the road was great right up to the Burrard bridge but after that and along the seawall, it got extremely dark (absolutely no light) and as a result, I quickly switched my direction because I really didn’t want to run in a dark road. It is in my to do list with high priority to buy a running head lamp for early morning runs or my runs at night. Running along the seawall had another huge advantage and it was getting motivated by seeing lots of runners running along it. I was also trying to find a good place for my speed runs along the seawall but couldn’t find any. So it seems to me for my speed runs, I need to have my 3.5km warm up run towards the west from my starting point. I am still not 100% sure about it and I have to look more in order to find a good place for my speed runs. Also in the dark parts of the road, I was very cautious about how to take my steps in order to avoid hitting the ground in case it wasn’t smooth enough. During my run, I again had a little bit of nipple bleeding from both sides. My VO2Max improved to 50 in this run and my heart was working way better in it compared to the previous runs. My final average heart rate was just 81% HRMax but my final average pace was 5:30 min/km!

On Sunday (06/12): Today was among those days that I didn’t want to have my run partially because I was a bit lazy and partially because it was rainy and cloudy outside (fortunately no rain during my run, just in the morning). In my life in Vancouver, I found this pattern that I need more motivation for my runs on rainy, cold or cloudy days. This week was a recovery week in my training plan and all of the runs were general aerobic. However, my last two runs were a little bit faster than general aerobic runs (average heart rate 86% and 87% HRmax respectively) and therefore for this reason, I strictly decided to stay in the safe zone by running it as slow as a real general aerobic run (70-81% HRMax). However I started my run very slow (the first lap’s pace was just 5:49 min/km), I noticed that my heart rate monitor reports my heart rate unreasonably high (86% HRMax for the first lap) and the inaccuracy in my heart rate’s data continued up to the end of the run. Therefore when I noticed that pattern early in my run, I decided to finish my run with a final average pace around 6:00 min/km. I thought that average pace would be slow enough for this run as my final average pace in my last two runs were 5:41 min/km and 5:25 min/km respectively. I successfully finished my run with the final average pace 6:00 min/km and I’m very glad about it. It feels awesome when you see you are able to manage your runs that accurately. Also during the run, when I saw my average heart rate was being reported (mistakenly) that high, I was almost 100% sure that my Garmin watch would decrease my VO2Max after this run and my guess was true. My VO2Max calculated 49 after this run unlike my past three runs that it was being calculated 50 in all of them. About my cadence in this run, I had a very good cadence in the first 9km of the run (always between 178-181 spm) but in the next 5km it suddenly dropped to 172-174 spm mainly because it was dark and I was also tired.

On Tuesday (08/12): In my training plan for this week, there were 5 runs including a 5K recovery run with a total of 59km weekly mileage. Based on my past years’ experiences, I knew a 4 days training plan is the best for me so I slightly modified the plan into a 4 day training plan in a way that the weekly mileage would remain the same. In my last run, I complained a lot about the accuracy of my heart rate monitor but I experienced the exact same thing in this run too, the measured heart rate was unreasonably too high to me. I had two options, either run too slow to have a real endurance run based on the measured heart rate data or to have a comfortable endurance run based on how you feel and regardless of the measured heart rate data. I chose the second option because I simply believed in the fact that if you want to get faster, you need to gradually push your boundaries. I would still try to avoid overtraining but I guess in this run I was far away from it. To be on the safe side, I decided to have this run a comfortable endurance run, and instead run my next 14K general aerobic run very slow. Based on those explanations, I was very satisfied with the result of this run as the final average pace was 5:32 min/km. The final average heart rate was measured 90% HRmax and it was as high as the VO2Max dropped another unit to become 48 ml/kg/min. During this run, I was getting faster by means of time in a way that my average pace during the first half of the run was 5:41 min/km, much slower than my average pace in the second half of the run which was 5:23 min/km. My running cadence also improved in this run as during the entire run, it didn’t become lower than 177 spm and my final average cadence was also 179 spm. It is almost clear to me that for the runs up to half marathons, the faster I run the better my cadence is. I also know that my running cadence would be poor when I’m tired during the run. In fact when I’m tired, I can either focus on my speed or my cadence but not both!