This week, I completed three running activities, covering a total distance of (31.3 km, 19.4 miles) and taking a total of 137,149 steps. Here are the details of my running activities for this week:
This is the report of the first month of my 2022 weight loss journey. It includes the original data for each day (my intake calories, my weight in kg, my weight in lbs, my BMI and my total daily steps), the calculated data for each day (my estimated weight loss per day in gr) plus three charts. I explained the method I used for estimating my data in my earlier post available here. For this month’s calculation, I used my BMR=1758 calories and 610 calories burned in 100 min walk with my own walking pace (10 min/km equals 16 min/mile) and cadence (120 spm) using the calculator on this website.
This is the report of the first month of my 2022 weight loss journey. It includes the original data for each day (my intake calories, my weight in kg, my weight in lbs, my BMI and my total daily steps), the calculated data for each day (my estimated weight loss per day in gr) plus three charts. I explained the method I used for estimating my data in my earlier post available here. For this month’s calculation, I used my BMR=1754 calories and 609 calories burned in 100 min walk with my own walking pace (10 min/km equals 16 min/mile) and cadence (120 spm) using the calculator on this website.
This is the report of the first month of my 2022 weight loss journey. It includes the original data for each day (my intake calories, my weight in kg, my weight in lbs, my BMI and my total daily steps), the calculated data for each day (my estimated weight loss per day in gr) plus three charts. I explained the method I used for estimating my data in my earlier post available here. For this month’s calculation, I used my BMR=1798 calories and 624 calories burned in 100 min walk with my own walking pace (10 min/km equals 16 min/mile) and cadence (120 spm) using the calculator on this website.
This is the report of the third month of my 2021 weight loss journey. It includes the original data for each day (my intake calories, my weight in kg, my weight in lbs, my BMI and my total daily steps), the calculated data for each day (my estimated weight loss per day in gr, my estimated weight in kg, my estimated weight in lbs and my estimated BMI) plus three charts. I explained the method I used for estimating my data in my earlier post available here. For this month’s calculation, I used my BMR=1706 calories and 592 calories burned in 100 min walk with my own walking pace (10 min/km equals 16 min/mile) and cadence (120 spm) using the calculator on this website.
This is the report of the second month of my 2021 weight loss journey. It includes the original data for each day (my intake calories, my weight in kg, my weight in lbs, my BMI and my total daily steps), the calculated data for each day (my estimated weight loss per day in gr, my estimated weight in kg, my estimated weight in lbs and my estimated BMI) plus three charts. I explained the method I used for estimating my data in my earlier post available here. For this month’s calculation, I used my BMR=1754 calories and 609 calories burned in 100 min walk with my own walking pace (10 min/km equals 16 min/mile) and cadence (120 spm) using the calculator on this website.
This is the report of the first month of my 2021 weight loss journey. It includes the original data for each day (my intake calories, my weight in kg, my weight in lbs, my BMI and my total daily steps), the calculated data for each day (my estimated weight loss per day in gr, my estimated weight in kg, my estimated weight in lbs and my estimated BMI) plus three charts. I explained the method I used for estimating my data in my earlier post available here. For this month’s calculation, I used my BMR=1791 calories and 622 calories burned in 100 min walk with my own walking pace (10 min/km equals 16 min/mile) and cadence (120 spm) using the calculator on this website.
If you have ever tried to lose weight during a diet, you might have asked yourself how much effort should I put in to drop a certain amount of weight in my diet? Also during a diet, you might simply ask yourself how much weight I have lost so far? For the second question, you might answer: I would weigh myself everyday to find out the amount of weight I have lost so far but the problem is not that simple.
First of all the process of losing weight in a diet is not always gradual but instead it is sometimes a sudden process. In other words during your diet, you might experience 7-10 days with no significant weight loss and after that all of a sudden in a few days, you would experience a sudden weight loss in your diet. Second, if you scale yourself every morning to measure your weight loss, you might not always find the right answer. Your body might have extra body water or your stomach might not be completely empty and that makes a significant error in measuring your total weight loss during your diet.
Theory of our calculations
In this article, I am trying to introduce a method to calculate the amount of weight loss during someone’s diet using calorie counting. In order to maintain your weight in a day, someone’s intake calories should be equal to that person’s burning calories. In order to lose weight, your burning calories should be more than your intake calories and for gaining weight, your intake calories should be more than your burning calories. In our case, we definitely need to lose weight so our intake calories should be less than our burning calories but the main question here is how to find the calorie equivalent of everything in this process.
Calorie Calculations
For your intake calories, the answer is simple. You might measure how many calories you consumed during each day. Your burning calories during each day contains two parts (and we have to add them up together to evaluate your total burning calories in each day). Your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) and the amount of calories you burn during your activities in a day.
Basal metabolic rate is the amount of calories your body needs to accomplish its most basic (basal) life-sustaining functions. One popular way to estimate BMR is through the Harris-Benedict formula, which takes into account weight, height, age, and gender (reference Here). Below is the BMR formula for women and men respectively: (you can alternatively use this website to calculate your BMR)
Women BMR = 655 + (9.6 × weight in kg) + (1.8 × height in cm) – (4.7 × age in years)
Men BMR = 66 + (13.7 × weight in kg) + (5 × height in cm) – (6.8 × age in years)
You also need to calculate your burning calories during your daily activities as well. That greatly depends on the source of your burning calories each day. Some fitness trackers estimate your burning calories so that’s an option. In my case my main source of burning calories during my diet was walking so I found a way to estimate my burning calories each day using my total steps.
This website estimates the total burning calories of your walk using your age, gender, height, weight, speed and duration of your walk. I recommend calculating your burning calories for 100 minutes to minimize the approximation error. In my case, my burning calories per 100 minutes of walking with 10 min/km (16 min/mile) pace using my (age, height, weight) was 622 calories i.e. 6.22 calories per minute. My walking cadence (number of steps in one minute) is usually 120 so my burning calories per each step on average is 6.22/120 calories. Therefore, my total burning calories for a certain number of steps is equal with (number of steps)*6.22/120 .
Maximizing the accuracy of burning calories estimation
Remember during your diet as you lose weight, both your BMR and your burning calories by your activities would change so you’d better update your numbers in the websites I provided above once every month. For example my (BMR, burning calories of 100 minutes of walk) when I was 79.2 kg (174.4 lbs) were (1791,622) calories respectively but one month later when I dropped 3.2 kg (7 lbs) the corresponding numbers were (1748, 607) calories respectively.
Required calories for losing weight and the assumptions
Now we have an idea about the calculation of intake and burning calories. For example, let’s assume at the beginning of my diet, I had 15000 steps in one day as the main source of my burning calories and my total intake calories in that day was 1500 calories. The question is how much weight loss should I expect after that day so let’s do the calculation.
My BMR using the formula I provided above was 1791 calories. My burning calories for 15000 steps on that day using the formula above was 15000×6.22/120=777 calories. Therefore my total burning calories on that day is equal to 1791+777=2568. As a result, my burning calories minus my intake calories is equal to 2568-1500=1068 calories. But how much weight loss should I expect for burning 1068 extra calories?
The answer depends on whether you are burning fat, muscle or LBM/protein. There are 3500 calories worth of energy in one pound of fat (7709 calories per kg) and 700 calories worth of energy in one pound of muscle tissue (reference Here). If a person creates a 3500 caloric deficit, that deficit does not come solely from fat but for simplicity of our calculation, we assume that person is solely burning fat. Of course that would lead to an error in our calculations but remember we are just doing an approximation in our calculation.
Back into our example and using the above assumption, a 1068 calorie deficit would lead to 1068/3500=0.305 lbs or 1068/7709=0.138 kg of weight loss.
Calculating weight loss for long term data using Google sheets
Assume you have your intake calories data for one month and you have also stored your total daily steps as your main source of burning calories for one month. The question is how much weight loss you should expect during that month of your diet. I am answering that question using google sheets and I want to emphasize based on the above explanation, the accuracy of our method would decrease for data more than one month old and you have to rebuild your table every month. I am using my own data for one month to explain my method to you and I will compare the results with my daily weight measured every morning during that month. The final google sheets data is available in this file.
Let’s start with 7 days of data and we assume we would add each day’s data to the google sheets table at the end of each day. Our table starts with the following data:
A
B
C
D
E
1
Date
Intake Calories
Steps
Weight (kg)
Weight (lbs)
2
08/05/2021
1490
0
78.2
172.2
3
08/04/2021
2060
81
78.41
172.7
4
08/03/2021
1730
22060
78.4
172.7
5
08/02/2021
2100
15324
78.6
173.1
6
08/01/2021
1160
0
78.4
172.7
7
07/31/2021
1380
2641
78.3
172.5
8
07/30/2021
1430
25698
79.2
174.4
Now our main goal is to see our weight loss each day and add them up together since day one to know our total weight loss. Therefore we would add two columns called weight loss and total weight loss in our google sheets file. The formula for my weight loss cell is as follows:
=(1791+C2*6.22/120-B2)/7709*1000
If you want to generate the above formula for yourself, you might replace 1791 by your BMR, 6.22 by the amount of calories you burn in one minute of walking and 120 by your walking cadence (your total walking steps per one minute). 7709 would remain the same (there are 7709 calories worth of energy in one kg of fat). We drag this formula in the google sheets file to generate the entire column.
Remember in that column negative weight loss means gaining weight. Now in the last column, we want to approximate our weight by subtracting our initial weight minus the sum of each day’s weight loss from the beginning. In terms of google sheets formulas, in the last column, we want to have the following numbers respectively from the bottom to top: D8, D8-sum(F8:F8)/1000, D8-sum(F7:F8)/1000, D8-sum(F6:F8)/1000,…, D8-sum(F3:F8)/1000. For that purpose we need to use the $ sign in order to keep one variable constant. Therefore use the following formula in the column before the last one and drag it to the top to generate the formula for the entire column. The formula is:
=$D$8-sum($F8:F$8)/1000
By dragging the formula in google sheets, making the last two column and deleting the columns presented before we’ll have the following table:
Date
Est. Weight Loss (gr)
Estimated Weight (kg)
Estimated Weight (lbs)
08/05/2021
39
78.6
173.2
08/04/2021
-34
78.6
173.1
08/03/2021
156
78.8
173.5
08/02/2021
63
78.8
173.6
08/01/2021
82
78.9
173.8
07/31/2021
71
79.0
174.0
07/30/2021
220
79.2
174.4
I applied this method for three consecutive months and reported the results in the next three posts. The accuracy of the method was surprisingly good, especially for the beginning (first couple of months) of the diet.
First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had two run activities this week. On Tuesday (27/04) I had an 11K run with the following averages: (11.01 K, 5:40 min/km, 142 bpm, 10m elevation gain). On Friday (30/04) I had a 16K run with the following averages: (16.01 K, 5:40 min/km, 168 bpm, 15m elevation gain).
My VO2Max this week in my (Tuesday, Friday) activities were (51, 50) ml/kg/min respectively. My weekly totals this week were 27.0 km run and 109,779 steps
First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had three run activities this week. On Monday (19/04) I had a 14K run with the following averages: (14.01 K, 6:05 min/km, 135 bpm, 145m elevation gain). On Friday (23/04) I had an 11K run with the following averages: (11.01 K, 6:00 min/km, 159 bpm, 18m elevation gain). On Sunday (25/04) I had a 14K run with the following averages: (14.00 K, 5:31 min/km, 164 bpm, 12m elevation gain).
My VO2Max this week in my (Monday, Friday, Sunday) activities were (48, 48, 49) ml/kg/min respectively. My weekly totals this week were 39.0 km run and 114,215 steps
First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 4 run activities this week. On Monday (12/04) I had a 10K run with the following averages: (10.01 K, 5:39 min/km, 175 bpm, 13m elevation gain). On Tuesday (13/04) I had a 3K run with the following averages: (3.24 K, 5:34 min/km, 164 bpm, 12m elevation gain). On Saturday (17/04) I had a 14K run with the following averages: (14.01 K, 5:33 min/km, 163 bpm, 73m elevation gain).
My VO2Max this week in my (Monday, Tuesday, Saturday) activities were (46, 47, 48) ml/kg/min respectively. My weekly totals this week were 27.2 km run and 140,938 steps
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).
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!
First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 4 run activities this week. On Tuesday (24/11) I had an 11K run with the following averages: (11.01 K, 5:51 min/km, 161 bpm, 104m elevation gain). On Thursday (26/11) I had a 14K run with the following averages: (14.00 K, 6:35 min/km, 147 bpm, 102m elevation gain). On Friday (27/11) I had an incomplete tempo 3K run with the following averages: (2.72 K, 5:44 min/km, 157 bpm, 14m elevation gain). On Sunday (29/11) I had a 16K run with the following averages: (16.01 K, 5:35 min/km, 161 bpm, 32m elevation gain).
My VO2Max this week in my (Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Sunday) activities were (48, 48, 49, 49) ml/kg/min respectively. My weekly totals this week were 43.7 km run and 78,614 steps
About individual runs
On Tuesday (24/11): It was supposed to be a general aerobic run (70-81% HRMax) and before the run I decided to have it with a final average pace 6:00 min/km. Immediately after starting the run, I felt that I needed to change my training field again and run in the Langara Golf Course because I was a bit down and couldn’t run in a boring field (my regular training field) for the entire 11 kilometers. While passing the 49th avenue, I had to stop my run two times for a total of 53 seconds and it is almost clear (at least the first stop) in my running heart rate diagram! Running in the golf course with it’s own uphills and downhills, it is difficult to manage your pace and your heart rate so again like in my last run, I decided not to carefully monitor my pace and therefore my final average pace was a little bit faster than my desired pace (5:51 min/km vs 6:00 min/km). As a result, my final average heart rate (86% HRMax) was also higher than the desired range (70-81% HRMax). Therefore, I experienced overtraining the day after this run which I was tired all the time during the day. I postponed my 14K endurance run from Wednesday (the day after this run) to Thursday and on Wednesday I even didn’t have my daily walk. This is why I should really stay committed to my own training plan and avoid overtraining but sometimes it happens and in this run, I really didn’t believe I was running too fast for it! The other thing that I wanted to mention today is about the weather condition and the conditions of the terrain! I usually never complain about the situation, but after this run I told myself multiple times during the day that it is really difficult to stay committed to a training plan in rainy cold days with muddy roads which makes your entire shoes and clothes muddy! I am still grateful for living in Vancouver where I can easily run in fall and winter without too much trouble for it. I know it is almost impossible to run on the roads during the same time of the year on the east coast!
On Thursday (26/11): In my training plan, it was a 14K endurance (74-84% HRMax) run. After overtraining in my latest run, for this run I strictly decided to work with my heart rate and disregard my running pace completely ! I also decided to run in my regular training field (around Columbia park) because it had less uphills and downhills and it was easier to manage your pace and heart rate in it compared to Langara Golf Course. It was a good run until the end of kilometer 5 where at that point, both of my feet started to feel numb and it continued for 2-3 kilometers. After that, fortunately things got back to normal! My final average heart rate was 79% HRMax and my final average pace was 6:35 min/km. I am really surprised how I was able to manage my run that slow such that my final average heart rate was in the desired range! Previously, as long as my pace was slower than a certain one (usually around 6:00 or 6:15 min/km for endurance runs) I was considering my runs safe no matter what my heart rate was, but after overtraining in my last run, I changed my method! In fact after my last run, I decided to strictly stay in the desired heart rate zone so that I would be able to avoid overtraining in the long term! Based on those explanations, it was an awesome run today and I was successfully able to manage my run as an endurance one (a real endurance one actually :D) ! I also want to mention the conditions of the terrain! This time it was way better compared to the last run and I didn’t get muddy at all! It was still a bit cold (average temperature 10.6 C) but no rain during my run!
On Friday (27/11): I started this run as a tempo 13K run and I planned to do it with a final average pace faster than 6:00 min/km up to whatever my heart rate allows me (80-91% HRMax) It was dark at night and the field was not visible properly. Also in my former runs around the columbia park, I had the negative experience of being close to fall down during the day but fortunately it actually didn’t happen. This run the story was different. In the first few minutes of the run I totally fell down on the ground but I let it go and started to continue my run. Again after a little while and for the second time, I fell down on the ground this time way harder in a way that both my hands and a little bit of my right knee got bloody! I made the right decision and didn’t continue the run, particularly because it was a tempo run and it was likely that I would fall down furthermore during the run. I was pretty down that night and partially the day after that but fortunately I quickly recovered. One of my main concerns was to find a new field for my training because there is nothing good around my neighbourhood but I also made a decision on that and decided to take a skytrain for my runs to the seawall and run there. I had the experience of running there for literally thousands of kilometers and fortunately nothing happened to me at all so it’s definitely safe to run there. The only problem is about timing where I have to spend 20 min to get there and 20 min to get back but I guess it’s worth it first and also I have no other option so lets stay motivated for the runs and choose the best field which is along the seawall.
On Sunday (29/11): It was my first run after my injury on Friday. I pushed myself hard to change my training field from Columbia park to a new place and I finally did it. I took the Canada line skytrain to the olympic village station and went to run along the seawall from there. The last time I was running along the seawall was a few years ago and it was such a pleasure to run there again. I believe you would have a better performance by running along the seawall compared to a closed loop like Columbia park because in the seawall you are free to improve your pace anytime you need vs in a closed loop you frequently need to turn and change your direction and that would reduce your speed and your performance a lot. Since I didn’t complete my last 13K tempo run, I was behind my weekly mileage for 10km, so I planned in my mind to have a half marathon in this run instead of a regular 16K run. Therefore, I continued to run along the seawall for almost 11K when I turned back at that point (2x11km~half marathon). I also planned to do a sub two hours half marathon so I tried to keep my pace about 5:40 min/km. After about 15km, I noticed that for a 16K endurance run in my training plan, maybe it’s not a good idea to both run it faster and farther (I was worried about injury and overtraining) so I just decided to keep my pace steady for the rest of the run and instead finish the run after just 16km. I successfully finished the run after 16 km with a final average pace 5:35 min/km and final average heart rate 86% HRMax. Therefore this run was a little bit faster than an endurance run (2% HRMax faster) and in the correct range of a lactate threshold run (80-91% HRMax). As a result, this run would partially compensate for my missed lactate threshold run in my training plan on Friday. Therefore everything was in place for this week’s training except a lack of 10km in my weekly mileage. At the end of the run, I noticed I had a little bit of nipple bleeding from both sides during my run.
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).
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)
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).
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!
First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 4 run activities this week. On Wednesday (16/09) I had a tempo 11K run with the following averages: (11.01 K, 5:04 min/km, 175 bpm, 15m elevation gain). On Thursday (17/09) I had a 13K run with the following averages: (13.01 K, 5:42 min/km, 154 bpm, 23m elevation gain). On Saturday (19/09) I had a 13K run with the following averages: (13.01 K, 5:55 min/km, 149 bpm, 23m elevation gain). On Sunday (20/09) I had a 16K run with the following averages: (16.00 K, 5:40 min/km, 153 bpm, 37m elevation gain).
My VO2Max this week in my (Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday) activities were (51, 51, 52, 52) ml/kg/min respectively. My weekly totals this week were 53.0 km run and 112,061 steps.
About individual runs
On Wednesday (16/09): It was my first run with my new running jacket and I was totally satisfied with that. It was very soft and fully breathable and I had a comfortable run with it. I didn’t fully close the zipper as it made me very hot. It was my 6th run with my new (replaced) heart rate monitor and I am much more satisfied with the replaced heart rate monitor as the data looks more reasonable to me compared to the older one. Today, my (average, max) heart rate went as high as (175, 189) bpm where I occasionally had this experience with my older heart rate monitor. During all of the three years that I was training with my old HRM Run, 175 average heart rate was something very normal, but with my new (previous one) heart rate monitor, 175 bpm was too high for me. Therefore I had difficulty with my previous heart rate monitor to set up my training zones but I hope the situation would be different with the new (replaced) heart rate monitor. Also the old one was bothering my skin a lot vs the replaced one that I am happy with it. It was a good run today where I had a 10K sub 51 min run without too much effort and also just in the second week of the new set of training. In my training plan it was supposed to be a general aerobic run but I did an intense (lactate threshold) run, so I have to make an adjustment in my future runs (instead of running a 13K lactate threshold run, run a 13K general aerobic run in future). Now that my new paces in the Killarney track and field are so close to my old paces there, I got the answer to my question that why my paces in the Central park didn’t make sense to me, it was mainly because of the location (both the terrain and GPS connection affected the result negatively)
On Thursday (17/09): I had this 13K run with average heart rate 154 bpm (about 82% HR Max) and therefore it would count as a 13K endurance (74%-84% HR Max) run. While I already had a lactate threshold run this week, it just remains a 13K General Aerobic (70%-81% HR Max) run and a 16K endurance run. Run was a comfortable one and nothing serious to mention about it.
On Saturday (19/09): My average heart rate was 149 bpm (79% HR max) and therefore as planned, it was a general aerobic (70%-81% HR max) run. The final average pace was very high 5:55 min/km and during the run, it was very tempting for me to run it faster but I had it in my mind that I have a 16K endurance run tomorrow and I have to save my energy for tomorrow too, so I tried to keep my heart rate low but I guess the final average heart rate (79% HR max) was still too high for this run. At the end of the 11th km, my average pace was 5:58 min/km and I decided to run the remaining 2km a little bit faster to make sure my final average pace would be below 6:00 min/km. Therefore my last 2 laps were slightly faster than the other ones i.e. 5:43 min/km and 5:39 min/km respectively.
On Sunday (20/09): I had this run with average heart rate 153 bpm (81% HR max) and therefore as planned, it was an endurance run (74%-84% HR max). At first, I had difficulty getting out of home and doing the run because I was still tired from yesterday’s 13K run but I told myself that I would run it slow maybe just with 74% HRmax (140 bpm) or as slow as 6:00 min/km. I also told myself that even if you are tired, you have to do the run because it’s in your training plan and you need it for your success. People do lots of things when they are tired because they need it for their success. I also got motivation from my father when he does a lot of physical work at the age of 70 without complaining about the situation. Anyways I successfully started the run with the aid of those thoughts and like always, things are easier when you are in it rather than when you think about it. I am still surprised how I did the run with average heart rate 81% HR max (average pace 5:40 min/km). That sounds too fast to me after a (79% HRmax) 13K run. I also want to mention that before the run, I told myself if I want to finish the 16K run in 90 min or so, my average pace should be 5:37 min/km and at the end of the run, my total time was 1:30’:45’’ which is so close to 90 min desired time.
First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 4 run activities this week. On Tuesday (08/09) I had an 11K run with the following averages: (11.47 K, 6:17 min/km, 164 bpm, 75m elevation gain). On Wednesday (09/09) I had a 13K run with the following averages: (10.68 K, 8:19 min/km, 154 bpm, 86m elevation gain). (In this activity my watch had a poor connection and the real (distance, pace) evaluated by myself was (13.76K, 6:27 min/km)) On Friday (11/09) I had an 11K run with the following averages: (11.01 K, 5:24 min/km, 167 bpm, 3m elevation gain). On Sunday (13/09) I had a 14K run with the following averages: (14.00 K, 5:36 min/km, 160 bpm, 14m elevation gain).
My VO2Max this week in my (Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday) activities were (51, 49(wrong), 50, 50) ml/kg/min respectively. My weekly totals this week were 47.1 km run and 125,405 steps.
About individual runs
On Tuesday (08/09): A little bit of pain in my left knee after 10 km , during my walk while returning home it was OK. It was my first run after three weeks of rest and also my first run in the Central Park. The trail that I was running on it was Trail of Hope and I walked on it 4-5 times before the run (on different days) to make sure I would memorize the path properly. The main difference in this terrain compared to Killarney track and field was the elevation gain of the terrain. The elevation gain of Trail of Hope in 11 km was 75m (15m/each loop) versus the elevation gain of Killarney track and field in 11km which was 25m or so. Also after three weeks of rest I got significantly slower (As a result my VO2Max decreased from 55-54 to 51 this time). I had a little bit of heavy chest during this run which might be because of my unadjusted running pace (running a bit fast). Also I have dropped 1.7 kg of weight in this run compared to my last run three weeks ago (75.7 kg vs 77.4 kg). Other than those everything was good in my run. For me, the most important feature of running these days is it’s impact on my mental health (particularly because of being in quarantine time). I noticed that in the three weeks that I didn’t run and concluded that running would help me stay on top of my mental health. If I stop running I won’t be on top anymore. So I’m very glad that I resumed my training. Also it’s interesting that in just 3 weeks of rest, I totally forgot about importance of my running goal for myself. That means if you want to improve in your running goal you have to stick on it both mentally and in practice (by doing the runs)
On Wednesday (09/09): True ave pace: 6:27 min/km, true distance: 13.76 km, My watch didn’t work properly this time. Last time I ran 5 times around the trail of hope for 11.47 km. This time I ran 6 times around the trail of hope and it should be 11.47×6/5 km =13.76 km but it was just 10.68 km in my watch. So the true distance is 13.76 km and the true pace is 88.75/13.76 =6:27 min/km. I still do not know why I am getting that slow because in the past I could easily run 13K with average pace around 5:30 min/km and average HR around 150 bpm (Look at the google sheets data) But right now in the new terrain (with 0.65 % incline) and with average HR around 150 bpm, I can just run with average pace around 6:30 min/km. Also remember that I am slightly lighter compared to the past (1.7kg). Time will explain it the best but there were two factors which had impacted on my performance: the new terrain and the gap in my training. The impact of the gap in my performance would quickly disappear and I can easily find the impact of the new terrain in my running pace by having a few of my future runs in a track and field. (There is a track and field in the Central Park with limited working hours that I can have a few of my runs there) I don’t know if my watch would work properly in the Central park in future or I would have the same GPS issue like today, but because of the fresh environment and also because of the hills in the terrain, I rather run in the Central park trails compared to track and field but my decision greatly depends on other factors which I mentioned them above. I also want to mention that one of the main reasons that I decided to have three weeks of rest in my training was because I wanted to make sure I can have a complete 10-12 weeks of training all in a row when I resumed my training. Right now I guess my body is ready for that. I also want to mention that I am roughly following the easiest 8K-10K training plan in the “Faster Road Racing” book of Pete Pfitzinger.
On Friday (11/09): Back on the track and field and fortunately it was a happy run today. After a long time that I planned to have early morning runs, finally I made it this time. Everything is perfect with the Central park track and field except it’s (public) working hours which is just M-F 7:30am-2:30pm and it’s closed on the weekends. Let me mention the positive points of running on the track compared to running on the trails of Central park. The first advantage is there is no dust on the track and therefore after the run your shoes and clothes are still clean. The second advantage is better GPS connection (poor connection on the trails because of the tall trees) and as a result your pace is again reasonable (like past before the break) and you can monitor your progress way better. This last advantage (being able to monitor your progress) matters a lot to me and therefore I am going to have my Sunday run on the Killarney track as the Central park track is closed (no run on the trail anymore at least in mean time)
On Sunday (13/09): I was tired so I couldn’t have my run earlier today but I finally made it late at 7pm. I am happy that I did the long run of the week after three weeks of rest. Due to the fires of California and Washington, the weather condition in Vancouver today was as bad as you could hardly see 100-150 meters ahead of yourself. Other than that things were OK in this run and no more update about it.
This is the report of the fourth month of my 2020 weight loss journey. It includes the original data for each day (my weight in kg, my weight in lbs, my BMI and my total daily steps) plus three charts.
This is the report of the third month of my 2020 weight loss journey. It includes the original data for each day (my weight in kg, my weight in lbs, my BMI and my total daily steps) plus three charts.
This is the report of the second month of my 2020 weight loss journey. It includes the original data for each day (my weight in kg, my weight in lbs, my BMI and my total daily steps) plus three charts.
This is the report of the first month of my 2020 weight loss journey. It includes the original data for each day (my weight in kg, my weight in lbs, my BMI and my total daily steps) plus three charts.
My 2019 weight loss journey was my first ever diet journey so everything related to weight loss was new to me. After I finished my diet in 2019, I thought my job was finished and I would stay on that desired weight forever. Therefore I didn’t monitor my diet and started to gain weight. There were two main factors which made the situation worse, my busy schedule at my job and the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020. As you can find in the below table, I exactly gained 17kg (37.4 lbs) in 8.5 months after a 12.8 kg (28.2 lbs) weight loss journey which is still unbelievable for me. I didn’t lose my motivation and decided to start my second weight loss journey. In the following posts, I will share the details of my 2020 weight loss journey plus a summary of my entire 2020 diet journey.
First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 5 run activities this week. On Monday (10/08) I had a 16K run with the following averages: (16.01 K, 5:23 min/km, 163 bpm, 36m elevation gain). On Tuesday (11/08) I had an 11K run with the following averages: (11.01 K, 6:01 min/km, 130 bpm, 25m elevation gain). On Thursday (13/08) I had an 11K run with the following averages: (11.01 K, 5:18 min/km, 138 bpm, 25m elevation gain). On Friday (14/08) I had a speed 8×600 run with the following averages: (15.00 K, 6:31 min/km, 152 bpm, 29m elevation gain). On Sunday (16/08) I had a 14K run with the following averages: (14.01 K, 5:30 min/km, 171 bpm, 48m elevation gain).
My VO2Max this week in my (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Sunday) activities were (55, 55, 55, 55, 54) ml/kg/min respectively. My weekly totals this week were 67.0 km run and 105,205 steps. Total weight loss so far was 10.1 kg and this week’s weight loss was 0.4 kg.
About my weight loss
In regards to my weight loss this week, I have to mention that my lowest weight during the week happened on Saturday (77.0 kg) so my actual total weight loss for the entire 12 weeks is 10.5 kg. That means I’m 3.5 kg behind the schedule (1 kg/week) and my total goal achievement is 75.0 %.
About individual runs
On Friday (14/08): Ave. Interval time 2:15.96 , ave. Interval pace : 3:46.6 min/km.
First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 3 run activities this week. On Tuesday (04/08) I had a speed 12×400 run with the following averages: (16.61 K, 6:55 min/km, 144 bpm, 35m elevation gain). On Thursday (06/08) I had a 14K run with the following averages: (14.01 K, 5:27 min/km, 148 bpm, 21m elevation gain). On Friday (07/08) I had a 00K run with the following averages: (13.01 K, 5:08 min/km, 152 bpm, 33m elevation gain).
My VO2Max this week in my (Tuesday, Thursday, Friday) activities were (55, 55, 56) ml/kg/min respectively. My weekly totals this week were 43.6 km run and 78,609 steps. Total weight loss so far was 9.7 kg and this week’s weight loss was 0.9 kg.
About my weight loss
In regards to my weight loss this week, I have to mention that my lowest weight during the week happened on Friday (77.1 kg) so my actual total weight loss for the entire 13 weeks is 10.4 kg. That means I’m 2.6 kg behind the schedule (1 kg/week) and my total goal achievement is 80.0 %. Also it was the first week since the beginning of my diet that I stopped using the Slimfast supplements because it wasn’t useful for me anymore. I used it for 12 weeks and it helped me drop 8.8 kg.
About individual runs
On Tuesday (04/08): Average interval pace: 3:51.1 min/km, Average interval time: 1:32.44, The first week to have intervals after 12 weeks. Didnt want to go for strides which might cause me injury due to my history of injury from my strides. Must use cream after training and shower. Got a new max heart rate of 192 bpm.
First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 4 run activities this week. On Tuesday (28/07) I had a 10K run with the following averages: (10.01 K, 5:23 min/km, 145 bpm, 24m elevation gain). On Thursday (30/07) I had a 13K run with the following averages: (13.01 K, 5:42 min/km, 154 bpm, 20m elevation gain). On Friday (31/07) I had a tempo 13K run with the following averages: (13.01 K, 5:17 min/km, 163 bpm, 65m elevation gain). On Sunday (02/08) I had a 16K run with the following averages: (16.01 K, 5:29 min/km, 153 bpm, 67m elevation gain).
My VO2Max this week in my (Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Sunday) activities were (55, 55, 54, 55) ml/kg/min respectively. My weekly totals this week were 52.0 km run and 94,693 steps. Total weight loss so far was 8.8 kg and this week’s weight loss was 0.7 kg.
About my weight loss
In regards to my weight loss this week, I have to mention that my lowest weight during the week happened on Saturday (78.4 kg) so my actual total weight loss for the entire 12 weeks is 9.1 kg. That means I’m 2.9 kg behind the schedule (1 kg/week) and my total goal achievement is 75.8 %.
First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 4 run activities this week. On Tuesday (21/07) I had an 11K run with the following averages: (11.01 K, 5:17 min/km, 161 bpm, 47m elevation gain). On Wednesday (22/07) I had a 13K run with the following averages: (13.01 K, 5:39 min/km, 160 bpm, 85m elevation gain). On Friday (24/07) I had a tempo 11K run with the following averages: (11.01 K, 5:09 min/km, 159 bpm, 41m elevation gain). On Sunday (26/07) I had a 14K run with the following averages: (14.00 K, 5:29 min/km, 158 bpm, 21m elevation gain).
My VO2Max this week in my (Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday) activities were (53, 52, 54, 54) ml/kg/min respectively. My weekly totals this week were 49.0 km run and 106,248 steps. Total weight loss so far 8.1 kg and this week’s weight loss -0.4 kg (gaining 0.4 kg).
About my weight loss
In regards to my weight loss this week, my weekly weight loss was -0.4 kg (gaining 0.4 kg weight) and more important than that my total weight loss was 8.1 kg. I have to mention that my lowest weight during the week happened on Saturday (78.9 kg) so my actual total weight loss for the entire 11 weeks is 8.6 kg. That means I’m 2.4 kg behind the schedule (1 kg/week) and my total goal achievement is 78.2 %.
About individual runs
On Tuesday (21/07): I resumed my training after a week of rest and I am very happy about it. I was able to run today injury free which was a great pleasure for me. I didn’t have any problems during the run today. I am also very happy about my new running VO2Max which is 53. I washed my heart rate monitor properly before the run so the measured heart rate and VO2Max should be accurate. The other thing that I want to mention today is about my training plan. I switched my training plan to “faster road racing training plan for 10-12K training” but without the intervals. I got the idea of postponing the intervals for after 12 weeks from this article. Looking back at my improvement in the first 9 weeks makes me extremely happy. I lost 8.5kg in 10 weeks and during the 9 weeks of training I almost made a sub 50min 10K run which is very promising to me. I was doing a lot of calculations about my improvement in the second and third 9 weeks trainings and was thinking if I can improve 5 min of my 10K time during each period which means making a 10K sub 40min run in 30 weeks (~8 months) from the start point which would be very good. Anyways I’m not going to overthink about it because it’s a long way from now and everything can happen by that time. I just want to focus on training smart, losing another 8.5 kg of weight in next 10 weeks and improving my 10K run time during the same period of time. I also want to mention that this run was my longest run in the past 3.5 years because all of my long runs in that period of time was at most 10K . I am again happy about it too. After the run when I got home, I did a few stretches with my foam roller and my gym ball which helped my muscles a lot !
On Wednesday (22/07): A bit of pain in my left knee since the beginning of the run.
First, let’s review my activities during this period of time. I had 6 run activities these two weeks. On Monday (06/07) I had a 10K run with the following averages: (10.01 K, 5:57 min/km, 155 bpm, 48m elevation gain). On Tuesday (07/07) I had a 10K run with the following averages: (10.00 K, 6:13 min/km, 144 bpm, 42m elevation gain). On Thursday (09/07) I had a 10K run with the following averages: (10.01 K, 5:35 min/km, 173 bpm, 30m elevation gain). On Friday (10/07) I had a 10K run with the following averages: (10.01 K, 5:53 min/km, 150 bpm, 27m elevation gain). On Sunday (12/07) I had a 10K run with the following averages: (10.01 K, 5:42 min/km, 144 bpm, 23m elevation gain). On Monday (13/07) I had a 10K run with the following averages: (10.00 K, 5:31 min/km, 162 bpm, 12m elevation gain).
My VO2Max this week in my (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Sunday, Monday) activities were (50, 51, 49, 50, 51, 51) ml/kg/min respectively. My weekly totals week 9 were 50.0 km run and 118,039 steps. Total weight loss up to the end of week 9 was 8.3 kg and week 9’s weight loss was 1.7 kg. My weekly totals week 10 were 10.0 km run and 71,238 steps. Total weight loss up to the end of week 10 was 8.5 kg and week 10’s weight loss was 0.2 kg.
About my weight loss
In regards to my weight loss in week 9, I successfully made my goal of 1 kg/week but what matters more than my weekly weight loss is my total weight loss because there was an inaccuracy in my body weight last Sunday and my weekly weight loss is defined as the difference in my weight in two consecutive Sundays. I also want to mention that my lowest weight during the week happened on Sunday so 8.3 kg is my actual total weight loss for this week. That means I am 0.7 kg behind the schedule (1 kg/week) and my goal achievement during these 9 weeks is 92.2 % which is not bad.
In regards to my weight loss in week 10, my weekly weight loss was 0.2 kg and more important than that my total weight loss was 8.5 kg. I have to mention that my lowest weight during the week happened on Sunday so 8.5 kg is my actual total weight loss for the entire 10 weeks. That means I’m 1.5 kg behind the schedule (1 kg/week) and my total goal achievement is 85 %.
About individual runs
On Tuesday (07/07): Pain since the beginning but not as severe as forcing me to stop running. Pace always between 6:00 to 6:30 min/km
On Thursday (09/07): LT pace: 5:22 min/km, LT heart rate: 178 bpm. First half was a very OK run, I was feeling 80% recovered and didn’t feel any restriction for the paces that I was running with. Therefore I decided to have a run with an average heart rate of 173 bpm or so to have the fast run of my week. For some reason I had a very high average heart rate in my first half of the run. In the second half of the run I burned out and I also felt more pain in my legs in the place of my injury, so I had to significantly reduce my pace.
On Friday (10/07): Expectation pace vs what happened . The same as what happened to my walk the day after .
On Sunday (12/07): Purchased a firm roller yesterday, worked a little bit with that and it was extremely helpful for my injury. I didn’t want to go too fast so I decided to go with 5:45 min/km, the first run I was working with ave pace and it perfectly worked for me , all paces were in the range 5:45 +/- 00:10 min/km and average pace was 5:42 min/km.
On Monday (13/07): Less comfortable than the run before .
First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 4 run activities this week. On Monday (29/06) I had a 10K run with the following averages: (10.01 K, 5:46 min/km, 164 bpm, 55m elevation gain). On Tuesday (30/06) I had a 10K run with the following averages: (10.01 K, 5:02 min/km, 169 bpm, 50m elevation gain). On Thursday (02/07) I had a 10K run with the following averages: (10.01 K, 5:51 min/km, 139 bpm, 47m elevation gain). On Friday (03/07) I had a 10K run with the following averages: (10.02 K, 5:44 min/km, 160 bpm, 33m elevation gain).
My VO2Max this week in my (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday) activities were (50, 51, 52, 51) ml/kg/min respectively. My weekly totals this week were 40.0 km run and 71,523 steps. Total weight loss so far 6.6 kg and this week’s weight loss -0.1 kg (gaining 0.1 kg).
About my weight loss
In regards to my weight loss, in the middle of the week on Wednesday my weight was 79.6 kg which means a total weight loss of 7.9 kg and this week’s weight loss of 1.2 kg which was pretty satisfying. For some reason after that, I gained 1.3 kg of weight in just 4 days without having any change in my diet or exercise. That is high likely a temporary weight gain due to my water weight (extra water being held in my body) or having full stomach at the time of weighing myself.
First, let’s review summary of this week’s training: weekly mileage 40.02 km, weekly steps 99’758 (14’251 steps daily average), total weight loss so far 6.7 kg and this week’s weight loss 1.5 kg.
About my weight loss
In regards to my weight loss, I am happy that I made my weekly goal of 1 kg/week and even a bit more. My total weight loss so far (6.7 kg) is also pretty close to what I desired (7.0 kg). In fact in the middle of the week on Thursday (25/06), I made my desired weight loss for the the end of the week by losing 7.1 kg but again for some temporary reasons I gained back a bit of that weight loss.
As I mentioned last week, I was a bit concerned about my diet on week 7 because last year at the beginning of week 7, I burned out due to my strict diet and had a week of rest. Fortunately this year by taking more reasonable steps, I successfully made my goal for up to the end of week 7. Based on my last year’s experience, after passing week 7, my weight loss journey should be OK up to the end of week 10 so I expect to have an easy/moderate job for losing weight for the next three weeks, but let’s see what will happen in practice.
Summary of this week’s activities
First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 4 run activities in this week. On Tuesday (23/06) I had a 10K run with the following averages: (10.01 K, 5:36 min/km, 167 bpm, 25m elevation gain). On Wednesday (24/06) I had a 10K run with the following averages: (10.01 K, 5:26 min/km, 173 bpm, 22m elevation gain). On Friday (26/06) I had a 10K run with the following averages: (10.00 K, 5:54 min/km, 145 bpm, 28m elevation gain). On Saturday (27/06) I had a 10K run with the following averages: (10.00 K, 5:50 min/km, 163 bpm, 30m elevation gain).
Starting from June 5 2020, I changed my training plan to two 10K runs one day rest. I had difficulty to keep up with the new plan for the first week because of getting injured and being tired, but since June 14 2020, I have been successfully committed with the plan and my average weekly mileage increased from 28 km to 47 km since that time. Therefore it’s my second week that I have stayed with the new plan and I have to continue with this plan for at least two more weeks before I make any changes to it.
VO2Max and Comparing activities to see my improvement
My VO2Max this week in my (Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday) activities were (49, 49, 50, 50) ml/kg/min respectively. In order to see my improvement this week, I want to compare two activities, one on Friday 26/06 which was (10.00 K, 5:54 min/km, 145 bpm, 28m elevation gain) and the other on Wednesday 10/06 which was (10.01 K, 6:18 min/km, 145 bpm, 24m elevation gain).
As we can see, all factors of both runs (my effort, distance and terrain) are the same and the only factor which varies in those two runs is the average pace. I had 00:24 min/km improvement which is a 7.55% improvement in 16 days that I am pretty happy about it.
My lactate threshold pace and heart rate
On Wednesday (24/06), my watch updated my lactate threshold pace (5:25 min/km) and my lactate threshold heart rate (175 bpm).
About individual runs
This Wednesday (24/06) was the first day in the new session that I had my run with just a T-shirt because the weather was warm enough. On Friday and Saturday runs, I was trying to have my 10K runs with average pace 6:00 min/km because I wanted to save my energy for a hard effort 10K run next week i.e. a run with average heart rate 178 bpm or so. I also had a notable improvement in my running cadence on Saturday’s run where I was successfully able to have my average cadence over 180 spm for all of the 10 laps of the run.
First, let’s review summary of this week’s training: weekly mileage 50.02 km, weekly steps 104,094 (14871 steps daily average), total weight loss so far 5.2 kg and this week’s weight loss 0.9 kg.
About my weight loss
In regards to my weight loss, 0.9kg for this week is pretty OK and close to my 1 kg weekly weight loss goal. Also my total weight loss this week is at least 5.7 kg, as on Tuesday and Friday this week, my total weight loss was 5.7kg but for some reason immediately after both of those days, I was gaining weight. Those gain weights are mainly due to body water, full stomach or other short term factors so I don’t care about them. I have seen it a lot that my body weight would decrease suddenly. For example this Monday, I suddenly lost 1kg compared to the day before that.
My weight loss for the first 6 weeks was pretty straightforward, but my last year experience tells me that the second 6 weeks is way more challenging so I am mentally making myself ready for that. As a reminder I have to say that I was looking at the first 6 weeks of my diet as a long term project, so I didn’t push myself that much. Therefore if I start getting not appropriate results in the second 6 weeks, I am ready to push myself a little bit more. In anyways, lets see what will happen in the future.
Summary of this week’s activities
First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 5 run activities in this week. On Monday (15/06) I had a 10K run with the following averages: (10.00 K, 5:41 min/km, 163 bpm, 15m elevation gain). On Wednesday (17/06) I had a 10K run with the following averages: (10.01 K, 5:21 min/km, 178 bpm, 28m elevation gain). On Thursday (18/06) I had a 10K run with the following averages: (10.00 K, 5:42 min/km, 161 bpm, 20m elevation gain). On Saturday (20/06) I had a 10K run with the following averages: (10.00 K, 5:56 min/km, 148 bpm, 19m elevation gain). On Sunday (21/06) I had a 10K run with the following averages: (10.01 K, 5:54 min/km, 171 bpm, 57m elevation gain).
This week, my weekly mileage was 50.02 km which was the highest weekly mileage in my new set of 2020 trainings. However I switched to the new training plan of two days 10K run and one day rest, but due to getting injured and being tired, I couldn’t complete my desired training plan last week. I have increased my weekly mileage by 47.7% this week compared to last week.
That was a safe movement because I stayed on the 30K weekly mileage long enough (five consecutive weeks) and at the same time I kept my total activities (my total weekly steps) constant (always around 100,000 steps). That means my body just changed the way it was burning calories from walking to running.
VO2Max and comparing activities to see my improvement
My VO2Max this week in my (Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday) runs were (48, 47, 48, 50, 48) ml/kg/min respectively. In order to see my improvement, I want to compare my activity on 17/06 i.e. (10.01 K, 5:21 min/km, 178 bpm, 28m elevation gain) with my other activity on 05/06 i.e. (10.00 K, 5:33 min/km, 179 bpm, 29m elevation gain).
As we can see, all of the features of those two runs are the same (distance, my effort and terrain) except my pace. I had 00:12 min/km i.e. 3.6% improvement in 12 days which is pretty impressive. Indeed I had reduced my 10K time by 01:52 min in 12 days which is pretty good. I am really happy about it for two reasons, first because I am getting close to 10K sub 50 min. record and second I am doing it while I am still very overweight.
My lactate threshold pace and heart rate
On Wednesday (17/06), my watch updated my lactate threshold pace (5:25 min/km) and my lactate threshold heart rate (175 bpm). Again on Sunday (21.06), it updated my lactate threshold pace (5:31 min/km) and my lactate threshold heart rate (174 bpm).
About individual runs
After my hard effort Wednesday’s run (ave. heart rate 178 bpm), I still had a relatively fast run on Thursday (ave. pace 5:42 min/km ave heart rate 161 bpm) but after Thursday, I was really tired on both Saturday’s and Sunday’s runs. Fortunately, I did both of them in under 60 minutes without too much effort.
Experiencing “Cardiovascular Drift”
As I explained in my Sunday’s run (21/06) here, on Sunday, I experienced something strange called “Cardiovascular Drift”. That’s what I haven’t experienced during all of my 4000+ km runs so far and therefore I am a bit concerned about it. I am going to see a physician in this regards and I’ll update this post after that in future.
Update: I talked to a physician over a virtual care talk the day after. He told me if it happened again contact us but for one time we cannot do anything. I also asked him if I can resume my training after 48 hours of rest and he said yes. Like always talking to doctors is not helpful that much, but I just wanted to do it in order to make sure I am on the safe side.
First, let’s review summary of this week’s training: weekly mileage 33.87 km, weekly steps 101378 (14483 steps daily average), total weight loss so far 4.3 kg and this week’s weight loss 0.4 kg.
About my weight loss
About the weight loss, I am pretty disappointed with the result as up to Thursday (11/06), my total weight loss and this week weight loss was 5.2kg and 1.3kg respectively, but after that it worked reversely and I was gaining weight instead of losing it, however my training, daily steps and my diet was the same as before. I guess it’s a temporary negative change and in long term the result would be as desired.
Summary of this week’s activities
First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 4 run activities in this week. On Tuesday (09/06) I had a 10K run with the following averages: (10.02 K, 5:53 min/km, 161 bpm, 13m elevation gain). On Wednesday (10/06) I had a 10K run with the following averages: (10.01 K, 6:18 min/km, 145 bpm, 24m elevation gain). On Friday (12/06) I had an incomplete 4K run with the following averages: (3.83 K, 5:22 min/km, 159 bpm, 23m elevation gain). I stopped the run due to a severe pain I felt in the very upper part of my left leg. On Sunday (14/06) I had a 10K run with the following averages: (10.01 K, 6:14 min/km, 169 bpm, 63m elevation gain).
My weekly mileage this week was 33.87 km, almost the same as my past four weeks’ weekly mileage. This is very good that I stayed on the 30K weekly mileage for five consecutive weeks particularly because I’m at the beginning of my new set of trainings and that would reduce the chance of getting injured. Lots of the time people would go too far at the beginning of their trainings and that would cause them to get injured.
VO2Max and comparing activities to see my improvement
My VO2Max this week in my (Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday) activities were (49, 49, 49, 47) ml/kg/min respectively. Also this is the first week (together with the two 10K runs of last week) that I am measuring my heart rate using Garmin’s HRM Run heart rate monitor, not my Fenix 3 HR wrist heart rate monitor. While usually there is a 10-15 beats per minute difference between those two measurements (obviously the HRM Run measurement is more accurate), it’s not reasonable to compare activities of this week with past four weeks’ activities. Another reason that I can’t compare activities of this week with any of the first four weeks’ activities is the fact that in the first four weeks, I had 5K runs where this week I had 10K runs so it’s not straightforward to compare those kind of activities with each other.
My lactate threshold pace and heart rate
On Tuesday (09/06), My watch updated my lactate threshold pace (5:28 min/km) and my lactate threshold heart rate (172 bpm).
About my injury on Friday
I got injured on Friday (12/06) so to be on the safe side I took Saturday off (instead I had 14+km of walk i.e. 18479 steps) and then resumed my training with a very slow pace on Sunday.
Now let me explain my injury. On Friday, I was supposed to have a 10K run and I started it good. Fortunately now I am able to keep my cadence around 180 spm no matter what my pace is. After the first km of run when my pace was 5:34 min/km, I noticed in order to improve my pace, I should increase my stride length. I did it and it was OK up to the end of the 4th km when I suddenly had to stop running due to a severe pain I felt in the very upper part of my left leg.
After searching about it, I found that it was possibly my “Obturator Muscles”. To find more about it, you can see the following youtube video:
At first I thought it’s about my bone but later during the day (and the day after) I noticed it might be my muscle. On Saturday, I felt much more comfortable compared to Friday.
The problem of increasing my running stride length
As I explained above, my main problem on Friday was about increasing my running stride length that I guess in my opinion, I did it too harsh. I took two steps back and now I try to improve it very gradually. Fortunately my other running dynamics specifically my running cadence is pretty good in different paces but I still have to work on it when I am tired during the run.
My injury and my run on Sunday
Fortunately on Sunday, my injury was way better than Friday in a way that I was able to complete the 10K run, but not a totally comfortable run. About my injury, the pain moved first to the inner part of my thigh and then to the top front part of my thigh. During the run particularly at the beginning, I was just able to take very short strides, therefore my pace in the first few laps was too high compared to the rest of the run.
During all of this run, due to the limitation that I had in my stride length, I was just focusing on my cadence and that’s why my total ave. cadence was 178 spm which is very good. After the first three laps, my stride length gradually and slowly got longer and therefore my pace slowly decreased from around 6:30 min/km in the first half of the run to around 6:10 min/km (or a bit faster) in the second half of the run.
After the run, I didn’t do my regular stretchings due to my injury. Also the overall difficulty of my run (how I felt) was 4/10 but T.E. was 4.6 and ave. heart rate was 169 bpm. They were both unreasonably high to me.
I am trying to cope with the new changes that I made in my daily training plan (increasing daily and weekly mileage) but that takes time and my body requires time to cope with the new changes.
First, let’s review summary of this week’s training: weekly mileage 30.01 km, weekly steps 80218 (11460 steps daily average), total weight loss so far 3.9 kg and this week’s weight loss 0.8 kg.
About my weight loss
About my weight loss, I guess 0.8 kg for a week is pretty close to my 1 kg/week goal plan even though my weight loss in the middle of the week on Thursday was 1.2 kg but after that my body weight increased a little bit.
Summary of this week’s activities
First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 4 run activities in this week. On Monday (01/06) I had a 5K run with the following averages: (5.00 K, 5:24 min/km, 155 bpm, 17m elevation gain). On Tuesday (02/06) I had a 5K run with the following averages: (5.01 K, 5:16 min/km, 157 bpm, 16m elevation gain). On Friday (05/06) I had a 10K run with the following averages: (10.00 K, 5:33 min/km, 179 bpm, 29m elevation gain). On Saturday (06/06) I had a 10K run with the following averages: (10.00 K, 5:46 min/km, 167 bpm, 48m elevation gain).
My weekly mileage this week was 30.01 K which was the same weekly mileage as what I had in the first three weeks. It’s very good to stay long enough on 30K weekly mileage (at least four weeks) because it would help me avoid getting injured due to overtraining.
VO2Max and comparing activities to see my improvement
My VO2Max calculated by my watch’s wrist heart rate monitor on Monday and Tuesday was 51 and 52 ml/kg/min respectively where my VO2Max calculated by the Garmin’s HRM Run heart rate monitor on Friday and Saturday was 50 and 49 ml/kg/min respectively. I definitely trust more on the VO2Max calculated by the HRM Run heart rate monitor as it’s more accurate.
In order to see my improvement this week, I want to compare my activity on 01/06 with the following averages: (5.00 K, 5:24 min/km, 155 bpm, 17m elevation gain) with my activity on 23/05 with the following averages: (5.01 K, 5:29 min/km, 153 bpm, 48m elevation gain). My effort in both of those runs were almost the same and they were both 5K runs. I guess the faster pace in the first run (5:24 min/km vs 5:29 min/km) would balance the harder terrain in the second run (17m elevation gain vs 48m elevation gain). Therefore I would consider the performance of both activities the same i.e. no significant improvement in my runs during the past 9 days.
As we all know running improvement comes in sudden, we train for weeks with possibly no significant improvement in our paces and all of a sudden we see a jump in our speed.
My lactate threshold pace and heart rate
On Friday (05/06) after wearing my HRM Run heart rate monitor, my watch automatically recognized my lactate threshold pace (5:19 min/km) and lactate threshold heart rate (170 bpm). Later, on Saturday (06/06), my watch updated those numbers to the following amounts: lactate threshold pace 5:25 min/km and lactate threshold heart rate 172 bpm.
About my overtraining last week
Recently I experienced a little bit of overtraining and I felt it first last Sunday (31/05) when my mind didn’t want to go for the 6K downtown walk. Due to the understanding of my body, that’s the early symptom of overtraining. That day I did the walk because socially, I really needed to go downtown as I haven’t been in public places for a complete week (since last weekend) due to the pandemic.
The reason for my overtraining was obvious. In the past few weeks, I took about 100’000 steps each week but last week I increased it by 12% to 112’306 steps. (My total weekly steps reflects how active I was during the week because it contains both my running and walking activities) Also I guess after the first three weeks of trainings, my body needed a little bit of rest so I listened to my body.
As a result, I didn’t have daily walks of Monday (01/06) and Tuesday (02/06) (decreased my daily steps just to 10’615 and 10’605 steps respectively for those days) and on Thursday (04/06) I was as tired as I even didn’t get out of home and was mainly sleeping during the day. I resumed my normal training from Friday but anyways my weekly steps for this week dropped to 80’218 steps which had a 20% decrease compared to normal weeks.
Increasing length of my daily runs to 10K
Starting from this Friday, I made another big change in my training plan and it was increasing my daily runs from 5K to 10K. I stayed on 5K runs for almost 4 weeks and I felt it’s the right time to go to the next level of training.
First, let’s review summary of this week’s training: weekly mileage 30.22 km, weekly steps 112306 (16044 steps daily average), total weight loss so far 3.1 kg and this week’s weight loss 1.0 kg.
About my weight loss
In regards to my weight loss, I made the 1 kg/week as desired but it could be a bit even better as I lost 1 kg on Thursday but after that my weight remained the same.
Summary of this week’s activities
First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 6 run activities in this week. On Monday (25/05) I had a 5K run with the following averages: (5.03 K, 5:22 min/km, 160 bpm, 24m elevation gain). On Tuesday (26/05) I had a 5K run with the following averages: (5.16 K, 5:35 min/km, 153 bpm, 21m elevation gain). There was an inaccuracy with the GPS of my watch for this run. It was a 5.00K run not a 5.16K run, therefore the true average pace was 5:45 min/km. I explained the issue in the activity notes on my Garmin’s website. On Wednesday (27/05) I had a 5K run with the following averages: (5.00 K, 5:12 min/km, 169 bpm, 20m elevation gain). On Thursday (28/05) I had a 5K run with the following averages: (5.01 K, 5:30 min/km, 165 bpm, 11m elevation gain). On Saturday (30/05) I had a 5K run with the following averages: (5.01 K, 5:35 min/km, 157 bpm, 21m elevation gain). On Sunday (31/05) I had a 5K run with the following averages: (5.01 K, 5:17 min/km, 162 bpm, 15m elevation gain).
My weekly mileage this week was 30.22 K and it was almost the same weekly mileage as what I had in the first two weeks of training. I have to stay long enough (at least four weeks) on this weekly mileage before changing it to a higher one to avoid any sort of injury caused by overtraining.
VO2Max and comparing my activities to see my improvement
My VO2Max this week calculated by my watch’s wrist heart rate monitor in my (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday) activities were (49, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50) ml/kg/min respectively. In order to see my improvement this week, I want to compare my activity on 27/05 with the following averages (5.00 K, 5:12 min/km, 169 bpm, 20m elevation gain) with my activity on 16/05 with the following averages: (5.01 K, 5:44 min/km, 170 bpm, 15m elevation gain). All of the features of both runs i.e. distance, my effort and terrain were the same with each other except my pace. I had 00:32 min/km i.e. 9.3% improvement in 11 days which is really promising.
My commitment to my training plan
A positive point that I want to mention in regards to my trainings so far, is about my commitment to it. Past three weeks, I had a schedule of four days training and one day off and fortunately I made it all for the entire three weeks, which is very promising.
First, let’s review summary of this week’s training: weekly mileage 25.05 km, weekly steps 100’114 (14302 steps daily average), total weight loss so far 2.1 kg and this week’s weight loss 0.9 kg.
About my weight loss
About my weight loss, I almost made my goal of 1 kg/week so I am happy about it. I was looking at my 2016 training google sheets data, and I noticed back in my prime those days (fall 2016 up to October second 2016) my weight was varying between 65-67 kg. That means if I want to get back to my prime and even faster than that, I have to lose over 20 kg of weight and get stable on that.
That’s not possible if I look at the weight loss process as a short term project. If everything goes perfect and I lose one kg per week, in the best scenario I would make my goal in 20 weeks and after that I have to get stable in that weight (not like last year that I gained back all what I lost and even 4kg more). Saying all of that, I want to remind myself that my new lifestyle (diet plus training) is my new normal for a long period of time.
Summary of this week’s activities
First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 5 run activities in this week. On Monday (18/05) I had a 5K run with the following averages: (5.01 K, 6:06 min/km, 170 bpm, 15m elevation gain). On Wednesday (20/05) I had a 5K run with the following averages: (5.01 K, 5:39 min/km, 175 bpm, 24m elevation gain). On Thursday (21/05) I had a 5K run with the following averages: (5.01 K, 5:37 min/km, 122 bpm, 12m elevation gain). Of course the average heart rate calculated by my Garmin watch’s wrist heart rate monitor was not accurate (122 bpm doesn’t mean anything). On Friday (22/05) I had a 5K run with the following averages: (5.01 K, 5:34 min/km, 166 bpm, 13m elevation gain). On Saturday (23/05) I had a 5K run with the following averages: (5.01 K, 5:29 min/km, 153 bpm, 48m elevation gain)
My weekly mileage this week was 25.05 K which was as desired. My training plan is four 5K runs one day rest and I had two days rest this week. Therefore my weekly mileage decreased to 25.05 K this week compared to last week’s 30.37 K weekly mileage. They are all good and I have to stay on this plan for at least four weeks before increasing my weekly mileage to avoid any sort of injury cause by over training.
VO2Max and comparing activities to see my improvement
My VO2Max this week calculated by my watch’s wrist heart rate monitor in my (Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday) activities were (44, 44, NA, 46, 48) ml/kg/min respectively. In order to see my improvement this week, I want to compare my activity on 22/05 with the following averages: (5.01 K, 5:34 min/km, 166 bpm, 13m elevation gain) with my activity on 17/05 with the following averages: (5.01 K, 6:15 min/km, 166 bpm, 17m elevation gain).
As we can see, all features of both runs i.e. distance, my effort and terrain are the same except my pace. I had 00:41 min/km i.e. 10.9% improvement in 5 days which is pretty good. Usually that huge improvement in such a short period of time just happens at the beginning of our training where our body hasn’t achieved it’s full potential yet.
First, let’s review summary of this week’s training: weekly mileage 30.37 km, weekly steps 103223 (14746 steps daily average), total weight loss so far 1.2 kg and this week’s weight loss 1.2 kg.
Summary of this week’s activities
First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 6 run activities in this week. On Monday (11/05) I had a 5K run with the following averages: (5.32 K, 8:17 min/km, 147 bpm, 83m elevation gain). On Tuesday (12/05) I had a 5K run with the following averages: (5.01 K, 6:24 min/km, 159 bpm, 20m elevation gain). On Wednesday (13/05) I had a 5K run with the following averages: (5.01 K, 6:13 min/km, 165 bpm, 18m elevation gain). On Friday (15/05) I had a 5K run with the following averages: (5.01 K, 6:19 min/km, 154 bpm, 22m elevation gain). On Saturday (16/05) I had a 5K run with the following averages: (5.01 K, 5:44 min/km, 170 bpm, 15m elevation gain). On Sunday (17/05) I had a 5K run with the following averages: (5.01 K , 6:15 min/km, 166 bpm, 17m elevation gain).
About my running and weight loss goals this summer
This summer, I set up a goal of losing 1 kg/week of my body weight through running activities and I made it in the first week. The difference between my losing weight this year and last year is in my exercises i.e. running vs walking.
2019 weight loss project: weight loss through walking
Last summer, I planned to get back to running but in the first step, I decided to lose weight because I was overweight and I didn’t know if it’s possible to start training while you are overweight. Also based on what I had read before, I thought it’s hard to lose weight through running activities.
I googled “running and lose weight” right now and at least two of the first few articles (this and this) are clearly indicating that running alone is not the best option for losing weight. Also I can remember from 2016 when I was close to my prime, that I took a break during my trainings to lose weight through dieting and walking a lot for better performance.
Why walking and not running
About the question of why walking and not running: the short answer for me was when you are running, you would burn calories faster and you would get hungry faster too and it works less effective for losing weight to run compared to walking.
Although my answer was not very scientific, anyways I had that impression in my mind, that walking works better for losing weight compared to running and therefore I decided to work with “diet and walking” rather than “diet and running”.
Therefore in a very difficult diet (it was my fist diet ever) during 18 weeks, I lost 12.5 kg (27.5 lb). After that difficult first step, my motivation for running decreased a lot. I tried to run a few times but I didn’t see a huge difference in my performance before and after losing weight. I also got busy with my job so I totally forgot about running.
While preparing for running was my main reason for losing weight, I didn’t take care of my weight after I stopped thinking about running and in my mind, I didn’t believe I was going to gain a lot of weight if I stopped caring about my weight and my diet. What happened in practice was totally different.
After I stopped my diet on 09/09/2019 until I again decided to get back to training and diet this week, I gained all what I lost in summer 2019, and even 4.2 kg more. In fact, on 07/05/2019 (beginning of my 2019 diet) I was 83.3 kg and on 10/05/2020 (beginning of my 2020 diet) I was 87.5 kg.
My 2020 goal: running and weight loss
This year, the story is totally different. My absolute first priority is getting back to my physical fitness and I know it takes a long time to gain back the physical fitness I lost during the past three years. I still don’t know how much it would work to lose weight with diet and running, but even if it’s not the most effective way for losing weight, I chose this over diet and walking because this time, running is the main factor for me not losing weight.
Getting advice of a qualified exercise professional
Having all of that in my mind, I gave a call to 811 to talk to a qualified exercise professional to advise me about a training plan. I have read a lot of books about different training plans but none of them is applicable for me because I am very slow right now. In terms of numbers, my last four 10K run times were 70, 69, 67, 68 minutes.
After talking to a qualified exercise professional, he told me that I am overthinking about this matter. He said it’s better just to start training and I also have to be careful about not getting injured by overtraining because I have been away from running for a long time. Due to my long distance walks of last year, I knew my body is OK with having 100’000 weekly steps. Therefore I set that as a constraint in my trainings, for beginning no more than 100’000 weekly steps.
building my training plan with 5K runs
I started my trainings with 5K runs and had it for four consecutive days. On the fifth day I felt that I needed one day rest and therefore I built my training plan this way: four day 5K runs and one day rest. I would continue with this training plan until I see I need to change it.
This is the report of the fourth month of my 2019 weight loss journey. It includes the original data for each day (my weight in kg, my weight in lbs, my BMI and my total daily steps) plus three charts.
This is the report of the third month of my 2019 weight loss journey. It includes the original data for each day (my weight in kg, my weight in lbs, my BMI and my total daily steps) plus three charts.
This is the report of the second month of my 2019 weight loss journey. It includes the original data for each day (my weight in kg, my weight in lbs, my BMI and my total daily steps) plus three charts.
This is the report of the first month of my 2019 weight loss journey. It includes the original data for each day (my weight in kg, my weight in lbs, my BMI and my total daily steps) plus three charts.
On May 7th 2019, I decided to go on a diet mainly because I wanted to start running but I was too overweight for it. In fact, right before I started my diet, I had three 10K runs on April 29 2019 , April 30 2019 and May 7 2019 and my corresponding running time for each of them was 1:10:08 , 1:08:48 and 1:07:05 respectively. The running times were so disappointing as I didn’t even think about starting a 10K training plan.
In fact the slowest 10K training plan in one of my favorite books “Running: The Complete Guide to Building Your Running Program” By “John Stanton” was 10K 60 minutes training plan and in my case I wasn’t sure if that training plan is applicable to me or not because I was too slow at that time.
Later on, I noticed that the American Olympian “Jeff Galloway” in his book “Galloway’s 5K and 10K Running” has even introduced a 10K 1:19′:00” training plan but anyways I wasn’t interested in starting such a slow training plan. As an alternative, I decided to first reduce my weight and then start my running through an appropriate training plan.
I was 65-67 kg (143-147 lbs) when I was in my running prime in 2016 and on May 7 2019 I was 83.3 kg (183.5 lbs). Therefore as my diet goal, I decided to drop 16 kg (35 lbs) of my weight. I have to mention this was my first ever diet and therefore I had no idea about weight loss and anything related to it. Therefore as my first question, I asked myself how long would it take to achieve my ideal goal, so I started doing the math.
As it is well known like in this article, the average woman needs to eat about 2,000 calories per day and the average man needs to eat about 2,500 calories per day to maintain weight. If you consume anything less than that you would start losing weight.
Now the question is how many calories you need to burn to lose one pound of fat. As you can find in another article of healthline.com available here, one pound of body fat contains about 3500 calories.
As we all know, exercise can be a lot helpful in losing weight. As a former runner, I had two favorite options for my exercises: running and walking. I have read in several articles in the past, that when you are running you shouldn’t expect to lose weight that much. Even now that I googled “running and lose weight”, I found some articles like this , where they explain why running is not the best option for losing weight.
On the other hand, I can remember when I was training in 2016, I took certain breaks during my training to lose more weight through diet and walking. In general, I had the impression that walking works better for me for losing weight compared to running. Therefore I chose walking for my exercise in my weight loss journey.
The immediate question that appears here is how many calories do you burn in each walk. As it is mentioned in this article and it’s somehow obvious, your weight, pace ,terrain and genetics would impact on your burning calories. I start with pace and terrain.
I decided to have my daily walks starting from home approximately in Yonge and Sheppard in North York Toronto, walking all the way down to south in Yonge street. I also decided to have my daily walks with an average of at least 2 hours a day. Having that in mind, I measured a very long 16K walk on that path at my regular pace (or a little bit faster) with my Garmin Fenix 3 HR watch.
My watch already considered my weight, and the terrain, pace and genetics factors in this walk was approximately the same as my other walks. The duration of this walk was 2:41′:36” and the burned calories calculated by my watch was 626 C. Therefore it was a safe estimate to assume during a 2 hours walk in the same path I would burn as much as 2.0/(2+41/60)*626=465 calories.
I also decided to be tough on myself and just consume around 1000 calories a day which means starving during my diet time. Now let’s calculate how long it would take with that plan to lose 16 Kg of my body weight. My body approximately requires 2500 calories a day for maintaining my weight plus 465 calories for my 2 hours walk which is 2965 calories per day. I was eating approximately 1000 calories a day and therefore burning the rest of 1965 calories each day.
Since one pound (454 gr) of fat is 3500 calories, in each day I was burning 1965/3500*454gr =254 gr of my body fat and therefore in each week I was burning 7*0.254=1.784~1.8 kg of my body fat. Therefore, to be on the safe side, one can estimate my weekly burning body fat by 1.5 Kg. and therefore it would take me 11 weeks to lose 16 Kg (35 lbs) of my weight. This was an introduction to my 2019 weight loss journey. In the next posts, I will share the report of each month of my 2019 diet plus a summary of my entire weight loss journey.
In the last four weeks of 2016 training, I had unorganized, naked (without watch) training. Below is the summary of my training for that period of time:
First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 3 run activities in this week. On Tuesday (27/09) I had a 16K steady run with the following averages: (16.01 K, 4:39 min/km, 160 bpm, 2m elevation gain). On Thursday (29/09) I had a warm up run with the following averages: (3.01 K, 4:29 min/km, 162 bpm, 0m elevation gain) and a 13K tempo run with the following averages: (13.00 K, 4:12 min/km, 179 bpm, 0m elevation gain). On Sunday (02/10) I had a 30K long run with the following averages: (30.01 K, 4:47 min/km, 156 bpm, 1m elevation gain).
My VO2Max this week in my (Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday) activities were (58, 58, 59) ml/kg/min respectively. Also my weekly mileage this week was 62.0 km run.
About individual runs
On Sunday (02/10): After 30k long runs always use your HT, I got that lesson since last year!!!
First, let’s review my activities during these two weeks. I had 6 run activities in this period of time. On Friday (16/09) I had a 26K long run with the following averages: (26.01 K, 4:52 min/km, 158 bpm, 61m elevation gain). On Monday (19/09) I had a 16K steady run with the following averages: (16.01 K, 4:44 min/km, N/A bpm, 17m elevation gain). On Tuesday (20/09) I had a 16K steady run with the following averages: (16.01 K, 4:43 min/km, 162 bpm, 99m elevation gain). On Thursday (22/09) I had a warm up run with the following averages: (3.09 K, 4:40 min/km, 161 bpm, 9m elevation gain) and a 13K tempo run with the following averages: (13.00 K, 4:13 min/km, 184 bpm, 33m elevation gain). On Saturday (24/09) I had a speed run 15×400 with the following averages: (14.17 K, 5:03 min/km, 155 bpm, 13m elevation gain). On Sunday (25/09) I had a 20K long run with the following averages: (20.01 K, 5:15 min/km, 142 bpm, 50m elevation gain).
My VO2Max these two week in my (16/09, 19/09, 20/09, 22/09. 24/09. 25/09) activities were (57, N/A, 58, 57, 57, 57) ml/kg/min respectively. Also my weekly mileage in the first week was 26.0 km run and in the second week was 82.3 km run.
About individual runs
On Friday (16/09): VO2Max 57, water 300ml after 15,20 , 11-13 mafsale rast , 13 be bad left knee, 23 be bad ostokhane birooni right leg, First increase speed by heart rate , then adjust pace again by speed not heart rate (HR is too fast) after 25 maybe hit the wall, idea is the same like having rest after two weeks in past , maybe I should run slightly slower or with lower mileage or whatever, but in general one week rest is not something serious,
On Monday (19/09): Forgot to have my HR monitor because I washed my arm baned separately … My guess was true and the reason of my back ache was my shoes ,my first run with my new saucony iso shoes. I just wanted to do the steady run no matter what and fortunately I was able to make it . Successfully adjusting my pace right on 4:44 min/km as I wanted.
On Tuesday (20/09): VO2Max 58, Pain in my left knee in 16km, today was the first day I was feeling maybe Im just 6 months away from my goal Wanted to go for speed but my back was still not 100% good for speed run. Thinking about what is the best way to make my goal or maybe modify my plan, maybe I need to read more the fast road racing book to be able to change the plan.
On Thursday (22/09): VO2Max 57, Talked to a coach and helped me alot with my questions: 1-continue the plan and switch to 38 instead of 40: it’s ok to jump to the new plan without finishing the old plan and 2-actually it’s not mandatory to go for a race after each training cycle, you might need to go for a race a few weeks before your actuall marathon race as a check up point 3-how to continue the long runs, should I start it from the begining of the new training plan or I can continue with the long runs that I am training with it right now: it’s ok to continue with your current long runs as far as they are oscilating 4- How much should I worry about training for full while my training plan is just 10K: as far as you have the long weekly runs (2+ hours runs) you shouldn’t be worried about it cause training elements of both are the same, I am partially agreed with that cause I know and I’ve read that training elements of both my current 10K training plan and for example Hanson’s marathon training plan are literally the same (mine is a bit tougher cause the steady and long runs have more rigorous pace compared to Hanson’s plan) , but I am not agreed with that in the sense that once you are training with eaither of those training plans, you would able to complete the marathon with the tempo pace in your training plan. 5- I also asked how often should I rest during my training where I lost the answer during our conversation and anyways it’s not my concern right now. It was awesome to see elite runners today.
On Saturday (24/09): Couldn’t continue after 7 period, should increase recovery time in each period.
On Sunday (25/09): I was considering to have it with the easiest possible pace just to do it instead of having a rest and what I had in my mind was 5:30min/km for the pace , but when I started the run I really couldn’t do it with avg. pace slower than 5:15min/km, that was like walking for me and I didn’t force myself to run slower than that.
First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 3 run activities in this week. On Monday (05/09) I had a 26K long run with the following averages: (26.01 K, 5:11 min/km, 155 bpm, 44m elevation gain). On Thursday (08/09) I had a speed run 4×1200 with the following averages: (13.40 K, 5:38 min/km, 154 bpm, 52m elevation gain). On Friday (09/09) I had a 16K steady run with the following averages: (16.00 K, 4:45 min/km, 158 bpm, 39m elevation gain).
My VO2Max this week in my (Monday, Thursday, Friday) activities were (56, 55, 56) ml/kg/min respectively. Also my weekly mileage this week was 55.4 km run.
About individual runs
On Thursday (08/09): It was an ok run, fast intervals , Average speed of intervals: 3:41 min/km.
First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 3 run activities in this week. On Wednesday (31/08) I had a 16K steady run with the following averages: (16.20 K, 4:58 min/km, 161 bpm, 89m elevation gain). On Thursday (01/09) I had a 5K easy run with the following averages: (4.92 K, 4:56 min/km, 140 bpm, 31m elevation gain). On Friday (02/09) I had a warm up run with the following averages: (3.01 K, 4:45 min/km, 150 bpm, 4m elevation gain) and a 13K tempo run with the following averages: (13.01 K, 4:21 min/km, 171 bpm, 5m elevation gain).
My VO2Max this week in my (Wednesday, Thursday, Friday) activities were (51, 51, 55) ml/kg/min respectively. Also my weekly mileage this week was 37.1 km run.
First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 5 run activities in this week. On Monday (22/08) I had a 26K long run with the following averages: (26.01 K, 5:11 min/km, 163 bpm, 101m elevation gain). On Wednesday (24/08) I had a 4K easy run with the following averages: (3.91 K, 5:07 min/km, 152 bpm, 27m elevation gain). On Thursday (25/08) I had a speed run 400,800,1200,1600 with the following averages: (9.10 K, 5:29 min/km, 156 bpm, 35m elevation gain). On Friday (26/08) I had a 16K steady run with the following averages: (16.01 K, 4:52 min/km, 161 bpm, 81m elevation gain). On Sunday (28/08) I had a 19K steady run with the following averages: (19.01 K, 5:06 min/km, 159 bpm, 94m elevation gain).
My VO2Max this week in my (Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Sunday) activities were (50, 50, 50, 51, 51) ml/kg/min respectively. Also my weekly mileage this week was 74.0 km run.
First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 3 run activities in this week. On Monday (15/08) I had an 11K steady run with the following averages: (11.09 K, 4:55 min/km, 157 bpm, 89m elevation gain). On Thursday (18/08) I had a speed run 4×1200 with the following averages: (15.82 K, 5:10 min/km, 154 bpm, 92m elevation gain). On Saturday (20/08) I had a warm up run with the following averages: (3.00 K, 5:17 min/km, 157 bpm, 46m elevation gain) and a 13K tempo run with the following averages: (13.01 K, 4:26 min/km, 187 bpm, 16m elevation gain).
My VO2Max this week in my (Monday, Thursday, Saturday) activities were (49, 50, 50) ml/kg/min respectively. Also my weekly mileage this week was 42.9 km run.
About individual runs
On Monday (15/08): What is my steady pace? it’s faster than 4:58 and slower than 4:45. I should ask about steady pace in terms of my heart rate zones. your weight is the key factor that you are able to happily have steady run around 4:45-4:50 , keep it low and be super careful about your callories. Typically someone with your weight and your weekly mileage needs 2400-3000 calories a day but for you I know 2000 is really good enough, you might gain weight for anything more than that. After the intense acyivity of yesterday 22k run with training effect 4.8 , I had about 2800 callories (it included sugar cause my blood pressure dropped although there is absolutely no sugar in my daily diet but it was a must yesterday) and now I blame myself for the extra 800 calories cause I feel it was too much. instead today I try to have just about 1000 callories by having a lot of vegetable to make sure I wont gain weight. I know how hard it is to drop weight while you are training and also impact of your weight on your speed and I dont want to get into that trouble.
On Thursday (18/08): Avg interval pace 3:49 min/km and it was the right pace for today could be a bit faster but as a lesson from past, I try not to increase my speed for speed workouts and instead try to make them harder using Hanson’s advanced speed workouts.
First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 5 run activities in this week. On Monday (08/08) I had a 12K easy run with the following averages: (12.10 K, 5:35 min/km, 146 bpm, 88m elevation gain). On Tuesday (09/08) I had a 19K easy run with the following averages: (19.16 K, 5:16 min/km, 153 bpm, 91m elevation gain). On Wednesday (10/08) I had an 11K steady run with the following averages: (11.11 K, 5:06 min/km, 164 bpm, 95m elevation gain). On Friday (12/08) I had a warm up run with the following averages: (2.00 K, 5:06 min/km, 151 bpm, 6m elevation gain) and an 8K tempo run with the following averages: (8.01 K, 4:30 min/km, 188 bpm, 17m elevation gain). On Sunday (14/08) I had a 22K steady run (fast) with the following averages: (22.01 K, 4:52 min/km, 165 bpm, 93m elevation gain).
My VO2Max this week in my (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday) activities were (50, 50, 49, 49, 49) ml/kg/min respectively. Also my weekly mileage this week was 74.3 km run.
About individual runs
On Monday (08/08): Still having backache like yesterday in the sense that I couldn’t run fast. I try to have an appropriate weekly mileage this week and make myself ready to jump into 10K sub 40 training from next week. that’s a 12 week plan but I would start it from the middle, not sure about the details yet but there are three very positive points this time compared to 8 weeks ago that I started my training. First I have a clear training plan (John Stanton 10K sub 40 training plan), second my weight is ideal, it was almost impossible to drop weight while training or to improve with inappropriate weight. The third one is being physically much more fit compared to last time and being ready to attack sub 40. My general plan Is first to achieve sub 40 in less than 8 weeks (thats why I had two weeks rest) then a short rest and attack 10K 38 min with the same training plan In 12 weeks (thats a taugh part) again a rest and finally attack sub three hour marathon with a half marathon race In between as a check point. (38,1:25:00,3:00:00) for (10k, half, full) are In the same curve.I decided to have a 12k today and instead go for a 19K run tomorrow cause I didnt go for 16+K runs in the new set of my trainings since 8 weeks ago.
I decided to take a rest so from 23/07/2016 to 04/08/2016 I had rest and I didn’t have any trainings except 2 SUP trips during that period of time. On Tuesday (26/07) I had a SUP trip (The inflatable paddle board didn’t work properly). On Wednesday (27/07) I had a SUP trip for the second night of 2016 Vancouver fireworks.
Summary of this week’s activities
First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 2 run activities in this week. On Friday (05/08) I had a warm up run with the following averages: (2.06 K, 4:51 min/km, 138 bpm, 7m elevation gain) and an 8K steady run with the following averages: (8.01 K, 5:02 min/km, 163 bpm, 11m elevation gain). On Sunday (07/08) I had a 16K easy run with the following averages: (16.00 K, 5:41 min/km, 159 bpm, 94m elevation gain).
My VO2Max this week in my (Friday, Sunday) activities were (50, 50) ml/kg/min respectively. Also my weekly mileage this week was 26.0 km run.
About individual runs
On Friday (05/08): Pain in my left knee after 7km , very intense at the end of 8 km. possible reason is dropping weight and weaker muscles or running too fast after two weeks off.
On Sunday (07/08): I had backache in a way that I couldn’t have a steady 4:58 run. I also had pain in the lower right side of my stomach (the very low part) that I decided to stop running at 8K , but later I decided to slow down the pace and complete the 16K run which worked. The other issue is about the pain in my knee last time. I wasn’t sure if it’s because of dropping weight or because of running fast, while I didn’t have any knee issue this time it’s likely that it was just because of inadjusted running pace. It’s good to have it for my records as a possible cause of knee injury.
First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 4 run activities in this week. On Monday (18/07) I had a 13K easy run with the following averages: (13.52 K, 5:09 min/km, 160 bpm, 90m elevation gain). On Tuesday (19/07) I had a 16K easy run (failed speed workout) with the following averages: (16.21 K, 5:59 min/km, 143 bpm, 76m elevation gain). On Thursday (21/07) I had a 13K easy run with the following averages: (13.03 K, 5:05 min/km, 150 bpm, 91m elevation gain). On Friday (22/07) I had a 12K run (tempo 6K) with the following averages: (12.06 K, 4:45 min/km, 168 bpm, 92m elevation gain).
My VO2Max this week in my (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday) activities were (50, 49, 50, 50) ml/kg/min respectively. Also my weekly mileage this week was 54.8 km run.
First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 6 run activities in this week. On Monday (11/07) I had a 16K easy run with the following averages: (16.01 K, 5:13 min/km, 157 bpm, 94m elevation gain). On Tuesday (12/07) I had a hills training 10×200 with the following averages: (10.13 K, 6:22 min/km, 149 bpm, 215m elevation gain). On Wednesday (13/07) I had a 5K easy run with the following averages: (5.26 K, 5:27 min/km, 147 bpm, 47m elevation gain) and a 6K easy run with the following averages: (6.15 K, 5:43 min/km, 139 bpm, 69m elevation gain). On Saturday (16/07) I had a 16K easy run with the following averages: (16.55 K, 5:11 min/km, 168 bpm, 96m elevation gain). On Sunday (17/07) I had a 16K easy run with the following averages: (16.04 K, 5:14 min/km, 163 bpm, 98m elevation gain).
My VO2Max this week in my (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday) activities were (51, 50, 50, 50, 50) ml/kg/min respectively. Also my weekly mileage this week was 70.1 km run.
First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 5 run and 2 swim activities in this week. On Monday (04/07) I had a 3K easy run with the following averages: (3.01 K, 5:27 min/km, 146 bpm, 28m elevation gain) together with a 3K swim with average pace 2:19 min/100m. On Tuesday (05/07) I had a 3K easy run with the following averages: (3.01 K, 5:55 min/km, 136 bpm, 27m elevation gain) together with a 300m swim with average pace 2:12 min/100m. On Wednesday (06/07) I had a 15K easy run with the following averages: (15.01 K, 5:20 min/km, 154 bpm, 39m elevation gain). On Thursday (07/07) I had a 15K easy run with the following averages: (15.41 K, 5:34 min/km, 148 bpm, 107m elevation gain). On Sunday (10/07) I had a 16K easy run with the following averages: (16.00 K, 5:04 min/km, 163 bpm, 89m elevation gain).
My VO2Max this week in my (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday) activities were (51, 51, 51, 51, 51) ml/kg/min respectively. Also my weekly mileage this week was 52.4 km run and 3.3 km swim.
About individual activities
Monday run activity (04/07): It was an OK short run, I knew that I would able to run today, but it was hard to believe cause my little toe was extremely painful yesterday. I thought maybe it’s a good time to go for a long distance swim today, cause it wouldn’t affect my run and I am extremely happy to have a 3K long swim after awhile.
First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 6 run and 4 swim activities in this week. On Monday (27/06) I had a 15K easy run with the following averages: (15.16 K, 5:59 min/km, 133 bpm, 38m elevation gain). On Tuesday (28/06) I had a speed run 4×1200 with the following averages: (13.57 K, 5:42 min/km, 143 bpm, 45m elevation gain). On Wednesday (29/06) I had 15K easy run with the following averages: (15.23 K, 5:18 min/km, 153 bpm, 40m elevation gain) and a 300m swim with average pace 2:04 min/100m. On Thursday (30/06) I had a speed run 4×1200 with the following averages: (13.40 K, 5:40 min/km, 157 bpm, 44m elevation gain) and a 500m swim with average pace min/100m. On Friday (01/07) I had 15K easy run with the following averages: (15.02 K, 5:58 min/km, 144 bpm, 36m elevation gain) and a 400m swim with average pace 2:13 min/100m. On Sunday (03/07) I had 3K easy run with the following averages: (2.69 K, 10:54 min/km, 91 bpm, 30m elevation gain) and a 2K swim with average pace 2:23 min/100m.
My VO2Max this week in my (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Sunday) activities were (51, 51, 51, 51, 51, N/A) ml/kg/min respectively. Also my weekly mileage this week was 75.0 km run and 3.2 km swim.
About individual runs
On Monday (27/06): backpack through the entire run. 10 min Hot tub, 10 min Sauna. I was trying to have this run with the easiest possible pace in order to have enough energy to do the Tempo/Speed workouts of this week while keeping my weekly mileage. I have to be careful about dehydration by having enough water during the day (3-4 liters a day) and I also need to monitor my sleep and nutrition.
On Tuesday (28/06): 10 min Hot tub 5 min Sauna, Stretch later after run (in the pool, I should do it earlier). In the first interval, I was confused with the data screen of the workout in my watch (it wasn’t the same with what I had in my last speed workout), so I thought the watch doesn’t work properly and I just decided to complete a 12K easy run, after the first interval when the watch told me it’s recovery time I found that this is the way that it works, so technically it was a 3.5×1200 cause I had an easy run in the second part of the first interval. Again I was sleeping too much last not cause my body really needed that and when I scaled myself this morning I noticed that I gained weight 1-2 kg (I can’t exactly say how much did I gain weight cause there is a 1kg difference between my upper and lower weight). I was also surprised why I didn’t realize that before specially during my SOS workouts past couple of days. The reason was not clear to me and I was still thinking about it till I found it when I was in the way back home. Usually the imbalanced sleep/nutrition is the very first symptom of increasing intensity of workouts. In past, I was experiencing that immediately after I was increasing my weekly mileage and I was expecting that to happen 12 days ago as I mentioned this in the comment of this activity https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1214504547 . Usually when you experience overeating, you would gain weight. Apparently my body was feeling OK with the 90km weekly mileage but as soon as I added the SOS workouts to my weekly plan, the reaction of my body was oversleeping and overeating. Now I feel better when I know the reason of my imbalanced sleep/weight, I know that it’s temporarily and it would be back to normal in 7-10 days, but as a result of professional training, I try to lose weight mainly by not eating high calory foods until I feel that my body is adapted to the situaion.
Wednesday run activity (29/06): 2Kg backpack through the entire run. 10 min Hot tub 5 min Sauna. I immediately changed my diet by cutting off fat and sugar (even from my coffee and tea) and I’m gradually trying to change my diet to high protein-low calory foods to drop a couple of pounds. Im trying to drop 3.5Kg from what I scaled myself yesterday within 2-3 weeks. That’s what I was training with it last year. Fortunately my body would drop weight as easy as it gain it but it’s more difficult to do it without losing your strength while you are training. Finally my middle toe’s nail (left foot) was as lose as I took it out completely, now I feel more comfortable.
Wednesday swim activity (29/06): At the beginning of my marathon training, I added a 1km of daily swim to my schedule cause I thought 20 min of swimming won’t impact my daily training. Later I found in practice that it’s too much so I decreased it to 500m swim with a slower pace and then I finally decided to cut it off. Now again I’m trying to resume my swimming and at this point I feel that I’m OK with 200m-300m lap swimming per day or at least a few days a week. Past few days when I was in the pool just for pool exercises and not for swimming , gradually I started to feel strange with swimming and after awhile I was so reluctant to go for swim which is very bad, as a triathlete I really need to be comfortable with swimming all the time. I guess I need to clarify about the reasons of my daily swim here. I have three reasons for my daily swim based on it’s priority which are as following: the first one is for it’s advantage for my muscles both because it release stress from my muscles and also it activate my upper body muscles which are both awesome. The second reason is because it makes me happy for the rest of the day , even if it’s as short as a 300m lap swimming. Finally because it also prepare me for ironman triathlon race but that’s something that I never want to think about it at this moment. Preparing for a sub 3 hour marathon takes such a focus and mentality from me that I really dont want to (and I also can’t) think about anything else such as a traithlon race. The reminder for my daily swim is, it should be slow.I dont know why whenever I get into water I want to swim fast which usually won’t last more than a few minutes.
Thursday run activity (30/06): 10 min Hot tub, 5 min Sauna, Stretch after swim and Sauna (again I forgot to stretch right after the run) It was a very tough activity in a hot and sunny day along the busy sea wall. I experienced a new Max HR in the new set of my training which was 196 bpm. and it totally explains how hard was the workout today, I was totally wet after the run. In general it was a good speed run but at this point, I am not going to have more than two Speed (SOS) workouts per week cause I actually can not do it. Usually it’s recommended to slow down the pace in hot days or basically just train early in the morning during summer but I was busy this morning and I couldn’t do it in the morning so I had to run in the afternoon. Fortunately tomorrow is a holiday (it’s Canada day and congratulations to everyone:) ) and I can resume my regular morning training from tomorrow.
Thursday swim activity (30/06): Breathing every other cycle in an easy paced swim. Length lane was closed so I had to swim along the width. I don’t know why width swimming is much faster than length swimming. My ave. pace today was 1:50 min/100m and I am sure if it was a length swim it would be something around 2:10-2:15 min/100m
Friday run activity (01/07): 2Kg backpack through the entire run. My both knees are improving, first my right knee then the left one.
Friday swim activity (01/07): Breathing every other cycle. It was such a nice day that I got creative and find a theory to explain why I burned out from swimming in my daily schedule and what’s the right amount of swimming for my training plan, it’s all about the 10% rule. So far and before the new level of my training, the highest level of weekly workout that my body used to it was 8 hours weekly workout.Therefore based on the 10% rule, whenever I wanted to increase that level of training, I shouldn’t increase it more than 10% of 8 hours (8 hours and 48 min) and in a safe training plan, I should stay on 8 hours weekly workout at least for 4 weeks. 10% of 8hours weekly workout is equals to 48 min and with my regular swimming pace which is 2:10 min/100m , it is equals to 2.2Km weekly swim. So in a safe training plan I should add swimming to my weekly plan after week 4 and with a 360m (2.2km/6) daily swim. When I look at my excel analyze file, I can see that I burned out from swimming on July 22nd which is in week 2 of my training when the ratio of my swimming over my running was over 20% for a week. That totally make sense cause first I shouldn’t add swimming to my plan from week one and second my weekly swim shouldn’t be over than 10% of my weekly run where in my case it was 20%. Based on the above calculations, a 2.2Km weekly swim (360m daily swim) is safe for my training plan, and therefore I created a new colum in my excel analyze file for the ratio of my weekly swim over my weekly run and in future it shouldn’t be over 10%. I really got excited with the new discovery that I had today, good job!
On Sunday (03/07): It was an easy run/walk cause since last night I cannot even walk properly due to taking out the corn of my little toe (left leg). Awhile ago I had a blister in my little toe, I drained it in order to be able to run and it grow up larger the day after and I again drained it. Usually in that situation a corn will grow up in the position of that blister and it would remain there untill you take it out from the root (I have previously experienced this and I knew I can clean the surface of the corn which would make me ready to run but again after awhile I would have the same problem and apparently in the background the corn would get deeper but I’m not sure about the latter one) Having that in my mind, I decided to take out the corn from the root and since it was a bit deep, I cannot walk properly since last night. In my previous experience where the corn was deeper, I was able to run 36 hours after taking the corn out. I had an easy 3K run/walk ( I was running till I found that it’s absolutely impossible to run so I walked the rest of it) just to have an active (running) day and then in order to keep the weekly hours of my training, I had a 2K swim afterwards. I also had 14500 steps during the day which was a good step to make myself ready for my next run sooner. In general it was a very positive day which mentally prepared me that no matter what, I’ll continue my training and swimming is the best cross training for runners and triathletes.
First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 6 run and 2 swim activities in this week. On Monday (20/06) I had a 13K run (tempo 6K) with the following averages: (13.00 K, 5:07 min/km, 153 bpm, 29m elevation gain). On Tuesday (21/06) I had a 15K easy run with the following averages: (15.40 K, 5:13 min/km, 153 bpm, 36m elevation gain) and a 1K swim with average pace 2:09 min/100m. On Wednesday (22/06) I had a 15K easy run with the following averages: (15.13 K, 5:15 min/km, 151 bpm, 36m elevation gain) and a 500m swim with average pace 2:19 min/100m. On Thursday (23/06) I had a speed run 6×800 with the following averages: (15.20 K, 5:31 min/km, 148 bpm, 41m elevation gain). On Friday (24/06) I had a 12K easy run with the following averages: (12.14 K, 5:37 min/km, 142 bpm, 37m elevation gain). On Sunday (26/06) I had a 20K long run with the following averages: (20.01 K, 5:10 min/km, 156 bpm, 62m elevation gain).
My VO2Max this week in my (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Sunday) activities were (50, 50, 51, 51, 51, 51) ml/kg/min respectively. Also my weekly total this week was 90.8 km run and 1.5 km swim.
About individual runs
On Monday (20/06): Finally I shifted my training time to early morning. I decided to have a tempo run today and like always with 3.5K warm up and cool down each. I didn’t have a good idea about my pace for the tempo run at this level of my training so I just started to run and the only thing that I did was increasing my cadence. After 2K I looked at my watch and I noticed that ave. pace is 4:33 min/km so I decided to have the entire 10K tempo run around that pace. I successfully completed a 6K tempo run with that pace and after that I decided to finish the tempo run cause I was tired. This workout gave me a better idea about the appropriate pace I should train with right now. When I look at my Lap Ave. Cadence I can see that it’s (187,190,188) spm which is much higher than 180 spm.Unfortunately I forgot to add Ave. Lap Cadence to data screen of my watch and therefore I couldn’t keep it around 180 spm , hopefully next time. The final issue is my swim after the run. It’s almost impossible to train properly for the SOS workouts when you have a backpack with yourself and therefore I couldn’t have my swim after this run, I have to find a solution for this problem.
Tuesday run activity (21/06): 2Kg backpack through the entire run. The major improvement in this workout was improving my ave. running cadence to 178 spm which is pretty good. Also my heart is performing much better, Ave HR 153 bpm for ave. pace 5:13 min/km plus carrying a backpack.
Tuesday swim activity (21/06): Transition time: 17 min. 5 min pool stretching exercise , 10 min Hot tub, 5 min Sauna. When I swim after my training, my happiness is in a totally different level compared to the time that I can’t swim after my run.
Wednesday swim activity (22/06): Transition time: 23 min. Today for the first, I changed my swim breathing to every cycle instead of every other cycle and I significantly slow down my pace. The idea is I wanted to go for a speed run today but I wasn’t 100% sure this is the right time for this SOS workout after the tempo run the other day and I didn’t feel that it’s the right time neither. I was thinking if I slow down my swim, then it would be easier for my heart to do the speed workout tomorrow. 5min pool stretching exercise, 10 min Hot tub, 5 min Sauna.
On Thursday (23/06): In the first two speed intervals plus in the second Km of the cool down run, my heart was not comfortable with the run and it was hurting a bit (not sure if it was my heart, it was right under left side of my chess and the area around it). I see two possible reasons for that, one is because it was the first speed run of the season and my heart was not adapted to the situation and the evidence for that is because I didn’t have that problem in the next four intervals. The other reason is becuase of the intensity of my trainings. Past 7 days I was training 87 km run plus 4km swim where two of the runs were Tempo/Speed and three of the swims were relatively fast, as a result my body needed to sleep a lot last night for the recovery of my trainings. I have already made an adjustment in my training yesterday by slowing down my swimming pace and the immediate second adjustment is to temporarily stop swimming and also slow down the easy runs in a way that my weekly ave. pace and weekly ave. HR would decrease a bit. I would still go to pool everyday right after my run just for pool stretching and also using the Hot tub and Sauna which would be very useful for releasing the stress from my muscles and also making me very fresh for the rest of the day, but I wont swim to see how things would happen in future. As soon as things were settled down, I might gradually resume swimming too. Today: 10 min Hot tub, 5 min Sauna. I also want to mention that I planned to complete the speed run with the ave. pace 4:00 min/km that I succeefully did it. (Check out the update in the comment of next activity)
On Friday (24/06): 2Kg backpack through the entire run. 10 min Hot tub 5 min Sauna. Now I can say that possibly the pain in the left side of my chess is just a muscle pain and it’s not about my heart cause I had the same pain sometimes during the day in the right side of my chess. I also double checked my heart rate during my speed run in my recent workout compared to the last time I had speed run with the same speed and I actually found that my heart works better this time compared to the last time. This time my Max/Ave heart rate during the intervals was (179,178,181,181,184,186) bpm and (172,172,171,172,176,176) bpm respectively and the last time I had a “4×1200-400 recovery” speed run on Oct. 7th 2015 here: https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1151438278 my Max/Ave heart rate was (187,188,187,189) bpm and (181,181,179,181)bpm respectively, to be fair and complete in the comparisson my Ave. pace in the intervals this time vs last time is (4:01,4:04,4:02,4:03,3:51,4:00) min/km vs (3:54,3:52,3:55,3:55) min/km. Anyways I made an adjustment in my training plan and that looks to me pretty positive and I guess it was necessary.
On Sunday (26/06): 25 min Hot tub, 10 min Sauna (Later in the afternoon)
First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 5 run and 5 swim activities in this week. On Monday (13/06) I had a 12K easy run with the following averages: (12.10 K, 5:30 min/km, 158 bpm, 60m elevation gain) and a 1K swim with average pace 2:09 min/100m. On Wednesday (15/06) I had a 15K easy run with the following averages: (15.21 K, 5:14 min/km, 162 bpm, 39m elevation gain) and a 1K swim with average pace 2:12 min/100m. On Thursday (16/06) I had a 15K easy run with the following averages: (15.01 K, 5:07 min/km, 160 bpm, 34m elevation gain) and a 1K swim with average pace 2:11 min/100m. On Friday (17/06) I had a 16K run with the following averages: (16.27 K, 4:58 min/km, 169 bpm, 49m elevation gain) and a 1K swim with average pace 2:18 min/100m. On Saturday (18/06) I had an 11K easy run with the following averages: (11.23 K, 5:12 min/km, 157 bpm, 34m elevation gain) and a 500m swim with average pace 2:11 min/100m.
My VO2Max this week in my (Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday) activities were (48, 48, 49, 49, 49) ml/kg/min respectively. Also my weekly total this week was 69.8 km run plus 4.5 km swim.
About individual activities
Monday run activity (13/06): 2Kg backpack through the entire run.
Monday swim activity (13/06): Transition time: 11 min. I was pretty comfortable in my breathing (for swimming) after the long run and like always I was breathing in the entire swim every other cycle. I had a good improvement in my swimming technique (I’ll explain it later with a youtube video here) For a few days I was struggling in running and swimming at the same time cause some of my muscles are not active in one sport which is active in the other and it would take awhile to activate all necessary muscles. It seems that I’m almost comfortable now. In the swimming part I was mainly using my hands rather than my legs so the running part didn’t affect the swimming part that much and when I look at my overal pace it certify it as well (ave pace 2:09 min/100m almost the same as my general ave pace for swimming) I am still struggling with my lower backache but it’s getting much better by the exercises that I do in the pool and at home with my gym ball. In general I’m trying to approach 80 km weekly mileage by adjusting my pace (running with whatever pace that I feel comfortable with it) and then I’ll add the speed/hills workouts to improve my strength and speed.
Wednesday run activity (15/06): 2Kg backpack through the entire run. The very first symptom of increasing my weekly mileage is overeating, that’s the way my body reacts to it and I am aware of it. Past two days I was hungry all the time and I was eating as much as I could. Apparently things are back to normal today.
Wednesday swim activity (15/06): Transition time: 15 min. The water was warm (like indoor pool) and it was awesome to swim in an open pool when one side is stanley park and the other side is ocean. However, it was windy and cold outside and I had to immediately get out of pool when my swimming was done. The swimmers in the fast lane of second beach pool are very fast. I prefer to swim here when it’s very warm and I don’t want to exercise after my swimming in the pool or use the whirling pool.
Thursday run activity (16/06): Blister in my left little toe. 2Kg backpack through the entire run.
Friday run activity (17/06): 2Kg backpack through the entire run like always. I was feeling my left shoe is very tight for me because of the blister in my little toe (I drained the blister yesterday but it grow up in the same position, this time much larger). My thighs are still pretty heavy and I am not sure about the reason. Finally I reached the 80 km weekly mileage. I’ve heard from multiple resources that 6 months of training with 80 km weekly mileage included lots of hills/speed workouts is required for a sub three hour marathon. Gradually I’ll add the speed/hills workout to my plan but I still do not have a week by week plan for my training. I have to contact my connections to have a better idea about it.
Friday swim activity (17/06): Transition time: 16min. After the hard running workout today, my legs where as tired in swimming as I even couldn’t push the wall after each length and I was just using my hands.
Saturday run activity (18/06): 2Kg backpack through the entire run. Blister in the middle finger of my left foot.
First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 5 run and 2 swim activities in this week. On Thursday (09/06) I had a 3K easy run with the following averages: (3.00 K, 5:24 min/km, N/A bpm, 28m elevation gain), a 500m swim with average pace 2:08 min/100m and another 3K easy run with the following averages: (3.54 K, 5:20 min/km, 161 bpm, 32m elevation gain). On Friday (10/06) I had a 10K easy run with the following averages: (10.64 K, 5:07 min/km, 166 bpm, 98m elevation gain). On Saturday (11/06) I had a 10K easy run with the following averages: (10.50 K, 5:30 min/km, 160 bpm, 91m elevation gain). On Sunday (12/06) I had a 10K easy run with the following averages: (10.51 K, 5:41 min/km, 151 bpm, 99m elevation gain) and a 500m swim with average pace 2:05 min/100m.
My VO2Max this week in my (Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday) activities were (49, 49, 48, 48) ml/kg/min respectively. Also my weekly total this week was 38.2 km run plus 1.0 km swim.
First, let’s review my activities during these three weeks. I had 7 swim and 5 run activities in this period of time. On Wednesday (18/05) I had a 1K swim with average pace 2:15 min/100m. On Friday (20/05) I had a 2K swim with average pace 2:16 min/100m. On Sunday (22/05) I had a 2K swim with average pace 2:12 min/100m plus a fast 50m swim with average pace 1:31 min/100m. On Thursday (26/05) I had a 2K easy run with the following averages (2.45K, 5:23 min/km). On Saturday (28/05) I had a 2K swim with average pace 2:09 min/100m. On Sunday (29/05) I had a 2K swim with average pace 2:11 min/100m and a 3K easy run with the following averages: (3.03 K, 6:03 min/km). On Monday (30/05) I had a 2K easy run with the following averages: (2.60 K, 5:56 min/km). On Wednesday (01/06) I had a 2K easy run with the following averages: (2.55 K , 5:22 min/km), a 2K swim with average pace 2:11 min/100m and a 3K easy run with the following averages: (2.92 K, 5:15 min/km). My weekly total in week 3 was 5.1 km swim, in week 4 was 4.0 km swim plus 5.4 km run and in week 5 was 2.0 km swim plus 8.0 km run.
On Wednesday (01/06): Transition time: 17 min, a bit uncomfortable in my breathing in the run after my swimming. Should definitely monitor my heart rate in all possible activities in future and have a plan to adjust it (usually keeping it around 150 bpm unless it’s an intense activity)
First, let’s review my activities during these two week. I had 5 swim and 2 paddle boarding activities in this period of time. On Thursday (05/05) I had a 600m swim with average pace 2:10 min/100m. On Sunday (08/05) I had a 2K swim with average pace 2:15 min/100m. On Tuesday (10/05) I had a 2K swim with average pace 2:12 min/100m. On Wednesday (11/05) I had a 2K swim with average pace 2:09 min/100m. On Thursday (12/05) I had a 2K swim with average pace 2:07 min/100m. On Saturday (14/05) I had a paddle boarding trip in Kitsilano. On Sunday (15/05) I had a paddle boarding trip in False Creek and English Bay. My weekly total in week 1 was 2.6 km swimming and in week 2 was 6.0 km swimming plus two paddle boarding trips.
On Sunday (08/05): Right after 1800 meter swim, I had muscle cramp in the third and fourth fingers of my left foot, but anyways I finished the 2K swimming . That is really bad if something similar happen in the race day. VOWSA trainings would start at the end of May, so I have plenty of time to train in the pool before that.
On Tuesday (10/05): Finally my first training with my new watch Garmin Fenix 3. Only God knows how much do I love it. After two years of training with Fenix 2, it was the exact right time to upgrade it to Fenix 3. After 2K swimming with it and in the way that I was heading home, I was feeling that I am literally high. It was a super awesome day today, and it’s all about the new watch, Loooooooove every single second of training with it :)))))
On Thursday (12/05): Gradually I’m trying to work on my technique and my power which at the same time improve my time. Apparently I am still not that close to my balanced point (for 2K Lap swimming) because my time today was improved 30 seconds compare to yesterday (1.1%) and fortunately Avg strokes and Avg SWOLF are improving each time in past three days (31,30,29) Strokes/length and (97,95,93) respectively.
2015 Marathon Training (Feb-Nov 2015) Photo Gallery Training Excel Analyze File Training Calendar Part one of Training: Period: 23 Feb 2015- 28 Apr 2015 (9 weeks) Summary: 415.17 Km training Part two of Training: Hiking Period: 23 May 2015- 18 July 2015 (9 Weeks) Summary: 226.8 Km , elevation gain 7981 m Part Three of training: Period: 9 Aug 2015-20 Nov 2015 (15 Weeks) Summary: 725.44 km training, New Half Marathon Record: 1:35:59 (6 Sep 2015)
First, let’s review my activities during these four week. I had 7 run activities in these four weeks. On Saturday (31/10) I had a 5K easy run with the following averages: (5.00 K, 5:07 min/km, 154 bpm, 18m elevation gain). On Sunday (01/11) I had a 5K easy run with the following averages: (5.83 K, 5:15 min/km, 158 bpm, 81m elevation gain). On Thursday (12/11) I had a 10K easy run with the following averages: (10.82 K, 5:29 min/km, 153 bpm, 126m elevation gain). On Friday (13/11) I had a 11K easy run with the following averages: (11.10 K, 5:48 min/km, 150 bpm, 114m elevation gain). On Wednesday (18/11) I had a 7K easy run with the following averages: (7.63 K, 4:56 min/km, 163 bpm, 65m elevation gain). On Thursday (19/11) I had a 10K easy run with the following averages: (10.66 K, 5:12 min/km, 164 bpm, 103m elevation gain). On Friday (20/11) I had a 5K easy run with the following averages: (5.40 K, 5:15 min/km, 158 bpm, 48m elevation gain).
My VO2Max these four weeks in my (31/10, 01/11, 12/11, 13/11, 18/11, 19/11, 20/11) activities were (53, 52, 52, 52, 51, 51, 50) ml/kg/min respectively. Also my totals during this period of time was 56.4 km run.
About individual runs
On Saturday (31/10): Trying to get back to my running lifestyle, very busy with other stuffs and couldn’t get back to running. The other isuue is after 2 months of training hard and multiple injuries I couldn’t complete my marathon training plan as desired and I am a bit discouraged about my previous general plan to make the sub three hours marathon. I have to make a new plan and maybe the key idea would be to first work on my speed for a couple of months and then work on long distance runs for the final 12 weeks which would lead to the race day. I had a little bit of pain in my right knee during my run today.
On Thursday (12/11): At 7.36 K, in order to be able to complete the 10K run, I significantly slowed it down due to a pain that I had in my left knee . I resumed my training after a couple of days of rest mainly because I was busy with my job. I hope I would able to get back to my regular training from now on.
On Friday (13/11): A bit of left knee pain at 4.16K
On Wednesday (18/11): Had a couple of days rest due to my backache. I planned to have a 10K run but after 7K I stopped due to a little pain that I felt in my back. I was running 4×1.8=7.2 but the satellite didn’t work properly and it shows 7.63K.
On Friday (20/11): It was freezing outside, 0 C !!!
First, let’s review my activities. I had 3 run and 2 walk activities during this period of time. On Monday (12/10) I had a 13K walk. On Thursday (15/10) I had an 8K walk. On Monday (19/10) I had a 14K easy run with the following averages: (14.29 K, 5:24 min/km, 152 bpm, 99m elevation gain). On Tuesday (20/10) I had a 6K easy run with the following averages: (6.71 K, 5:13 min/km, 148 bpm, 19m elevation gain). On Friday (23/10) I had a 7K easy run with the following averages: (7.16 K, 4:56 min/km, 162 bpm, 71m elevation gain).
My week 20 VO2Max in my (Monday, Tuesday, Friday) activities were (52, 53, N/A) ml/kg/min respectively. Also my weekly mileage during this period of time was 28.1 km run.
About individual activities
On Monday (12/10): After Saturday injury, I am still not able to walk properly because of achilles tendon pain, however I got much better after this 13K walk and I’ll try to have long distance walks in order to recover faster and keep my body active while I am away from my regular training. Unfortunately again watch didn’t save the activity!
On Thursday (15/10) Still not able to walk properly! Changing my shoes was useful anyways!
On Monday (19/10): My first run after 8 days of injury, so happy to run and getting back to my regular lifestyle!
On Tuesday (20/10): I shouldn’t run with full stomach, it would gradually cause you serious problems. That’s one of the reason’s I emphasize to have very early morning training. I felt so heavy in the 7th kilometer that I prefered to stop running.
On Friday (23/10): I wasn’t comfortable to continue to run, feeling a bit heavy therefore I stopped. A bit of pain in my stomach (right side)
First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 5 run activities in this week. On Monday (05/10) I had a 2K easy run with the following averages: (1.88 K, 5:41 min/km, 138 bpm, 16m elevation gain). On Tuesday (06/10) I had a 13K easy run with the following averages: (13.10 K, 5:27 min/km, 141 bpm, 106m elevation gain). On Wednesday (07/10) I had a speed run 4×1200 with the following averages: (13.43 K, 5:20 min/km, 152 bpm, 167m elevation gain). On Friday (09/10) I had a 14K easy run with the following averages: (14.05 K, 6:07 min/km, 135 bpm, 153m elevation gain). On Saturday (10/10) I had a 32K long run with the following averages: (32.01 K, 5:25 min/km, 151 bpm, 106m elevation gain).
My VO2Max this week in my (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday) activities were (52, 52, 53, 52, N/A) ml/kg/min respectively. Also my weekly mileage this week was 74.4 km run.
About individual runs
On Monday (05/10): I had a corn in my little toe of my left foot and finally I took it out yesterday. It started from a couple of weeks ago where I had mutiple blisters in my little toe and each time I was puncturing them in order to be able to run for the next day, sometimes I was puncturing up to two blisters a day. From that position a corn started to grew up and finally after my long run on Saturday I noticed that it’s going to be too large, so I decided to take it out. On Saturday I made it as small as possible but there were still small tiny little parts of it available in my little toe. On Sunday I took the whole thing out my toe so there was a hole with the depth of maybe 2mm covering 80% of my whole toe. That issue caused me a little difficulty in walking and of course in running too. However I made my today run for two reasons, first to keep my daily routine and second to keep my body ready for the time that I would able to resume my full training.
On Tuesday (06/10): I am really surprised how fast the wound of my little toe (due to taking the corn of my left feet out) improved , in less that just 36 hours. This morning, I was still not able to walk properly, however the hole of my toe was totally covered yesterday and this morning my little toe had it’s regular shape. In the evening it was as good as I had an easy 13K run for my regular training.
On Wednesday (07/10): It was a heavy rain today and for the cool down I was running up to my house and immediately jumped into the bathroom to make sure I won’t get cold. Fortunately everything was good in that regards but the sad point is I forgot (or I actually couldn’t) stretch after the run. I was a bit uncomfortable in my next run on Friday (I can’t remember which muscle it was) and unfortunately after the long 32K Saturday run, I had a pain in my achilles tendon where I guess it might be related to not having stretch after this speed workout.
On Saturday (10/10): It was a very easy and relaxed run and I planed to finish it with the average pace 5:20-5:30 (34-44 sec/km easier than my marathon pace) where I successfully made it. I had one powerade drink (710cc) up to 16km and then two more water bottles for 16-24km and 24-32km mainly because of the location of water taps during the way (so I stoped two times about 40 seconds each). My body was a bit dehydrated past few days because of not drinking enough water and that’s why I was drinking too much water in this run. In a real race I should drink enough water past couple of days and the night before the race to make sure I won’t need too much water during the race. After the run I had achilles tendon pain in my left foot (related article: http://t.co/QP2seuCrMd) in a way that I wasn’t able to walk properly even in the next day. I also had depression for a few hours again for the third Saturday in a raw, another symptom of overtraining, fortunately it didn’t last more than a few hours plus insomnia after the long run like last week(related article: http://goo.gl/IKv78Z). Adjustment for overtraining: mix the long and tempo run in a single workout by increasing the warm up/cool down distances for the tempo run. (I read it in an article) That workout plus the speed run would be your sos workouts in a 80-90km weekly mileage training plan. I’m OK with the 80-90km weekly mileage but maybe not comfortable with having three heavy sos workouts in a week in my training plan that I made it for myself.
First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 4 run activities in this week. On Monday (28/09) I had a 10K easy run with the following averages: (10.08 K , 5:24 min/km, 155 bpm, 68m elevation gain). On Thursday (01/10) I had a 15K run (tempo 13.5K) with the following averages: (15.62 K, 4:57 min/km, 170 bpm, 41m elevation gain). On Saturday (03/10) I had a 35K long run with the following averages: (35.00 K , 4:59 min/km, N/A bpm, N/A elevation gain). On Sunday (04/10) I had a 2K easy run with the following averages: (1.8 K , 6:00 min/km, 122 bpm, 17m elevation gain).
My VO2Max this week in my (Monday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday) activities were (51, 53, N/A, 52) ml/kg/min respectively. Also my weekly mileage this week was 62.5 km run.
About individual runs
On Thursday (01/10): After the run, my heart was a little bit hurting maybe because of irregular training past couple of days. Don’t change your rhythmic suddenly as in the 5th kelometer, I suddenyl decided to increase my cadence from 172 to 180 and 182. It was succesful but for just one kilometer and then it again dropped down to 174 for 500m , I was again trying to increase it and now it was 178 for less than 1km where it finally droped down to 174 for 2.5 km and even below that afterwards. These sudden changes takes a lot of power and would totally disturb your run, so as you know, in future don’t decide to change important factors suddenly.
On Saturday (03/10): It was basically a confident run, the only 32+km long run that I wanted to have before the race and my plan was to run it fast to make myself more confident about my marathon goal. I successfully made it with the average pace 4:59 min/km and average HR 173 bpm which is pretty good. After 28km it was more mental rather than physical and after 31km it was really killing me. I lost my water bottle the night before so I didn’t have a good bottle for drinking during the race. Inappropriate drinking cause some temporary stomach pain during the race for me (similar to ones that I had summer 2014) There were tons of other excuses that I had during the race to stop running fast, but I ignored all of them and was able to successfully complete the run. Again after the race like last Saturday I got depression and it last for more than one complete day in a way that the day after this run I couldn’t mentally cope with a run over 2km. This is again an obvious symptom of overtraining because I was trying to get too much from my body in an unreasonable way. The key point here is to train in a regular bases but unfortunately sickness and small injuries disturb the weekly plan and I try to complete it in the remaining days of the week which makes the situation worse. The other point is I have to get a good idea of my marathon pace by the long tempo runs not with the speed or long runs or even race predictors. As a result I decided to set my marathon goal back to 3:20 which is consistence with my half marathon record and I’ll train for my tempo runs with the average pace 4:44 min/km not 4:41min/km. During the race up to 24 km, I completed 1L of powerade drink and had another half liter water up to the end of the race. I also had NB in this long hot run today.
On Sunday (04/10): After a very heavy workout yesterday, I just wanted to get out and have a very easy relaxed short run. The heavy 35km long run of yesterday with the average pace 4:59 had such a huge mental impact on my mind that I really couldn’t continue to run more than 2km today. The reason is because in the past 3 days I had two very heavy workouts, one long tempo and a fast long run. That’s overtraining and depression and insomnia were the two obvious symptoms of that for me yesterday.I had the exact same feeling last Saturday were I was pushing myself too much after getting back to run from my cold by running 47km in three days included a heavy long tempo run. These are all because of irregular training and the main cause of that was my cold that I had a few days rest for it and after that I emphasized to continue my regular training without being fully recovered from my cold, usually you shouldn’t immediately get back to your regular training after a cold and there is a transient time for that.
First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 3 run and 1 hike activities in this week. On Thursday (24/09) I had a 13K easy run with the following averages: (13.03 K, 5:47 min/km, 152 bpm, 112m elevation gain). On Friday (25/09) I had a 12.5K easy run with the following averages: (12.50 K, 5:45 min/km, N/A bpm, N/A elevation gain). On Saturday (26/09) I had a 22K run (tempo 15K) with the following averages: (22.00 K, 5:01 min/km, 169 bpm, 74m elevation gain). On Sunday (27/09) I had a Grouse Mountain BCMC hike with the following averages: (3.87 K, 28:25 min/km, 853m elevation gain) and the return trip with the following averages: (3.87 K, 4.3 kph).
My VO2Max this week in my (Thursday, Friday, Saturday) activities were (51, N/A, 50) ml/kg/min respectively. Also my weekly mileage in this week was 47.5 km run and 3.8 km hike.
About individual runs
On Thursday (24/09): It was my first run after five days rest for my cold and you can imagine how happy I’m about it. I finished my medication after seven complete days last night. Everything was good and something funny happened after the run. My hands were so tired and painful after the run just because of holding them up during the run and the reason seems clear to me. My entire body was so weak because of my cold and the medication that I took and the process of recovery for lower parts of my body was much faster than the upper part. Therefore, however I was so comfortable to have a 13K run, but after that my hands were as weak as it was a bit difficult for me to shift my right hand up and open the entrance door of the building with my keys!
On Friday (25/09): Again watch didn’t save the activity, It was restarted during the run. I restarted it, canceleled the current activity and sterted a new one, turned off the watch and again turned it on … none of them worked. I guess the key point is to have the watch fully charged (this time it was 40%) and also clear the memory all the time. One point that I forget to mention last time is about gaining wait immediately after you stop training for a few days. After my cold when I stoped training for about five days, I was gaining weight for about 3 pounds. That’s interesting to me and I found it multiple times. It’s not weired cause your body used to traing 70-80km/week and then you suddenly stop it for a few days, then you are welcome to gain weight. You can neglect the effect of your cold cause I experienced the same thing even when I wasn’t sick.
On Saturday (26/09): I was a bit anxious in my run today, partially because I was checking my watch too often, and the main reason for checking it is because I decided to have my splits every 3 kilometers (to make sure I’m running in the right pace every single moment) and because of the inaccuracy of the GPS in computing the average pace of a lap in the first kilometer, I had to check my watch and adjust my pace too often which was taking a lot of effort from me, both physically and mentally. Instead, when I decided just to listen to the rhythmic of my body, adjust my pace that way and run in the pace that I am more comfortable in it, I got the desired result for my tempo pace and I also had a very comfortable run. That method worked because I have already selected the right pace for my tempo runs and the whole experience shows the importance of having a good understanding of your current limitations, selecting the right pace for your goal, and also understanding your pace just by your body and without looking at your watch. Five seconds back the schedule in the entire 15km tempo run (70 min) was the result of my training today which is perfect. I also had depression for one or two days due to this heavy workout, that’s a symptom of overtraining and as a result I should adjust my tempo pace from 4:40 to 4:44 or my marathon goal from 3:17 to 3:20. 3:20 is consistence with my half-marathon record and like always I was trying to push myself too much by setting in 3:17 for my marathon goal.
First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 3 run activities in this week. On Tuesday (15/09) I had a speed run 4×1200 with the following averages: (13.43 K, 5:12 min/km, 158 bpm, 80m elevation gain). On Wednesday (16/09) I had an 8K easy run with the following averages: (8.01 K, 5:34 min/km, 148 bpm, 80m elevation gain). On Friday (18/09) I had a 20K long run with the following averages: (20.10 K, 5:45 min/km, N/A bpm, N/A elevation gain).
My VO2Max this week in my (Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday) activities were (N/A, 52, N/A) ml/kg/min respectively. Also my weekly mileage this week was 41.5 km run.
About individual runs
On Tuesday (15/09): One day recovery was good enough for my Sunday long run knee issue and I didn’t have any knee or other problems for today run. My body is adapted to 80km/w run but it’s still struggling for the recovery of 30+km long runs as I was a bit tired yesterday in the sense that I wasn’t fresh enough to run up the stairs and my brain sent a huge amount of negative impulse this morning which indicated I am still tired from last long run which wasn’t true and I was also a bit depressed. They were both my brain’s way of trying to get me to stop from having my regular workout. The first key point is to have the long runs with the right pace (1min/mile easier than the race goal) and also having regular 8 hours sleep after the workouts. This article was pretty useful in this matter: http://www.runnersworld.com/for-beginners-only/how-slow-should-my-long-runs-be
On Friday (18/09): Apparently the activity was not properly saved in my watch so I have to upload it manually here. I got cold yesterday so I couldn’t make the tempo run yesterday and instead today I had long 20k which has the same distance as the tempo run but with an slightly easier pace. One issue for my morning run when I am sick is, when I get up in the morning I am usually too weak because of my cold and it takes me more than an hour to get into the situation that I would able to run, that would disturb my daily plan. The other issue is, I would not go for the speed, tempo runs because I am a bit weak and also because of sweating a lot in those workouts usually in the rainy weather of Vancouver these days, I am really scared of having a bad cold after speed/tempo runs.The solution is to try to keep the weekly mileage around 80km/week having the long 30k runs in your plan and continue your regular plan after you got better from your cold.
First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 4 run activities in this week. On Tuesday (08/09) I had an 8K easy run with the following averages: (8.00 K, 6:07 min/km, 139 bpm, 68m elevation gain). On Wednesday (09/09) I had an 11K easy run with the following averages: (11.00 K, 6:35 min/km, 130 bpm, 123m elevation gain). On Thursday (10/09) I had a 5K tempo run with the following averages: (5.01 K, 4:54 min/km, 160 bpm, 36m elevation gain). On Sunday (13/09) I had a 30K long run with the following averages: (30.00 K, 5:05 min/km, 164 bpm, 199m elevation gain).
My VO2Max this week in my (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday) activities were (51, 51, 51, 51) ml/kg/min respectively. Also my weekly mileage this week was 54.0 km run.
About individual runs
On Tuesday (08/09): However I had a race on Sunday and I should rest for three days, but I have read in lots of different articles that complete rest may not be the best option if you wanna train immediately for another race and you might try to have easy runs in that period instead, that’s why today I had a very relaxed run with average pace 6:07 min/km Also after the race, I have a bit of pain in my lower left leg and the place of my previous injury 3.5 years ago. It’s not serious and I guess it should be OK by gradual training but I write it down here to have it for my records just in case.
On Thursday (10/09): I wanted to have my 13K Tempo run today but I was so tired and my legs were so heavy still from the race on Sunday that I decided to stop running at 5K. I thought if I complete the tempo 13K, then I have to sleep for the rest of the day. I was able to continue running up to 13K but not with the tempo pace , with a pace slightly easier like 5:00 min/km or 5:10 min/km.
The other issue is about the right spot that I can train for a long tempo run. Maybe the best place for me would be the sea wall , but anyways small environments like streets are not appropriate for long tempo runs and it’s also dangerous specially cause you want to run fast and you are also tired while crossing the street. However it was such a heavy workout for me today that I wasn’t able to complete but after that during my day, I feel so good and much better than yesterday and the day before. Maybe because the three recovery days of the race is gone. I have no backache today (compared to yesterday that I had a bit early after my workout) and much less pain in my legs.
On Sunday (13/09): It was a windy day along the sea wall especially up to lions gate bridge and it was acting almost like hills for runners, after that from lions gate to Coal Harbour and Canada place it was pretty warm, in general it was a pretty tough day. About my knee issue today, after 16km I felt my knees are improving by having a tiny small pain in both of them, after 22km the pain was more severe again in both of them and after 28 km , my left knee was hurting too much. Fortunately in all of the run, my knee condition didn’t slow me down even in the last 5 km I was running faster than my average and I really did a good job in it ( last 5k pace is 4:47,4:47,4:45,4:59,5:00 I decreased the speed in the last two km cause I found my average HR is 164 and I didn’t wanna push myself too much like a race to keep my pace remain high mainly because of the fear of having three days rest after the workout) I had 1.5 L water during the run (two water bottle) Mainly started drinking after 15km and finished the first bottle at 21st km. I had no other nutrition during the run. After the run, my knees were really hurting, but fortunately it didn’t disturb my sleep at night. Having one day rest after this run seems necessary to me mainly because of my knee condition
First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 5 run and 1 hike activities in this week. On Monday (31/08) I had a 12K long run with the following averages: (12.14 K, 4:52 min/km, 165 bpm, 127m elevation gain). On Wednesday (02/09) I had a speed run 8×600 with the following averages: (15.06 K, 5:13 min/km, 160 bpm, 61m elevation gain). On Thursday (03/09) I had a 9K easy run with the following averages: (9.03 K, 5:34 min/km, 144 bpm, 81m elevation gain). On Friday (04/09) I had a 11K run (tempo 8K) with the following averages: (11.00 K, 5:05 min/km, N/A bpm, N/A elevation gain). On Saturday (05/09) I had a 16K hike with the following averages: (16.16 K, 10:42 min/km, 77 bpm, 166m elevation gain). On Sunday (06/09) I had a 21K run (half Marathon race) with the following averages: (21.11 K, 4:33 min/km, 178 bpm, 64m elevation gain).
My VO2Max this week in my (Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday) activities were (51, 51, 51, N/A, 51, 52) ml/kg/min respectively. Also my weekly mileage this week was 68.3 km run and 16.1 km hike.
About individual runs
On Monday (31/08): 6am run in a windy, cold, rainy morning, but who cares, it’s my daily schedule! I should specifically work on my cadence as it’s still too low (175spm vs 180spm that it should be) I should put the priority of my run on monitoring cadence and adjust other factors (HR and speed) afterwards. Usually cadence would directly impact on both of HR and speed and if you keep speed steady and try to increase cadence then your Ave HR would definitely increase and also if you try to increase cadence while keeping HR steady it would definitely decrease your speed. That analyse is specifically important while in the last 10K-5K of the marathon you are extremely tired, you possibly won’t have a perfect run and you should know how to manage the situation. That’s what I still don’t know how to manage it!
On Thursday (03/09): As I am increasing the intensity of the SOS runs, it’s mandotory for me to have a very easy paced run for the easy run. Usually when I get out for a easy run I would start having a relaxed run run with ave. pace below 5:10-5:15. By experienced I’ve found that with that approach I would get too tired in a couple of weeks and therefore I would adjust the SOS workout. It’s also mentioned in the Hanson’s training schedule that easy runs should have a 5:30-6:30 pace, so based on my experiences I asjusted the easy run to the appropriate one after the 4th km. The other point is after the hard workout of yesterday, I had a very deep sleep last night as I was too tired, but it was interesting that during the day I didn’t feel tired at all. and finally mornings are getting colder and colder, but it’s just for the first min that you get out of home and during the running it doesn’t bother at all.
On Friday (04/09): Watch didn’t work!
On Sunday (06/09): My new Half-Marathon record. I guess the whole idea of training hard 80km/6 days a week is to keep yourself mentally prepared for the last 5k/10k of the half/full marathon to keep running with your desired pace and not to give up,cause everyone knows the real race just starts at the last kilometers.
First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 6 run activities in this week. On Monday (24/08) I had a 10K easy run with the following averages: (10.46 K, 5:02 min/km, 165 bpm, 53m elevation gain). On Tuesday (25/08) I had a 10K easy run with the following averages: (10.45 K, 5:03 min/km, 170 bpm, 59m elevation gain). On Wednesday (26/08) I had a 5K easy run with the following averages: (5.04 K, 5:24 min/km, 150 bpm, 49m elevation gain). On Thursday (27/08) I had a 13K long run with the following averages: (13.00 K, 5:01 min/km, 163 bpm, 59m elevation gain). On Friday (28/08) I had a 13K long run with the following averages: (13.17 K, 5:03 min/km, 161 bpm, 117m elevation gain). On Saturday (29/08) I had a 10K easy run with the following averages: (10.60 K, 5:04 min/km, 164 bpm, 217m elevation gain).
My VO2Max this week in my (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday) activities were (50, 50, 51, 50, 50, 50) ml/kg/min respectively. Also my weekly mileage this week was 62.7 km run.
About individual runs
On Thursday (27/08): Improve stride length and prevent future injuries with this hip-opener: http://goo.gl/R7CSYl
On Friday (28/08): Medium rain!
On Saturday (29/08): It was such a heavy rain that I couldn’t even keep my head up!
First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 3 run activities in this week. On Tuesday (18/08) I had a 10K easy run with the following averages: (10.00 K, 5:48 min/km, 153 bpm, 66m elevation gain). On Wednesday (19/08) I had a 10K easy run with the following averages: (10.44 K, 5:40 min/km, 152 bpm, 54m elevation gain). On Thursday (20/08) I had a 7K easy run with the following averages: (7.00 K, 5:22 min/km, 155 bpm, 27m elevation gain).
My VO2Max this week in my (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday) activities were (50, 50, 50) ml/kg/min respectively. Also my weekly mileage in this week was 27.4 km run.
First, let’s review my activities. I had 6 run and 1 hike activities during this period of time. On Sunday (09/08) I had a 5K easy run with the following averages: (5.00 K, 4:45 min/km, 172 bpm, 24m elevation gain). On Tuesday (11/08) I had a 5K easy run with the following averages: (5.00 K, 4:58 min/km, 181 bpm, 39m elevation gain). On Wednesday (12/08) I had a 5K easy run with the following averages: (5.00 K, 5:27 min/km, 164 bpm, 29m elevation gain). On Thursday (13/08) I had a 5K easy run with the following averages: (5.34 K, 5:09 min/km, 163 bpm, 24m elevation gain). On Friday (14/08) I had a 5K easy run with the following averages: (5.01 K, 4:39 min/km, 172 bpm, 29m elevation gain). On Saturday (15/08) I had a 10K easy run with the following averages: (10.00 K, 5:06 min/km, 160 bpm, 43m elevation gain). On Sunday (16/08) I had a 34.5K hike with the following averages: (34.50 K, 3.5 kph, 1941m elevation gain).
My VO2Max during this period of time in my (Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday) activities were (50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50) ml/kg/min respectively. Also my totals during this period of time was 35.3 km run and 34.5 km hike.
