Activity Details in Google Sheets

Activity Schedule in Google Docs

Summary of activities

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).

VO2Max and total mileage

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 !!!

Activity Details in Google Sheets

Activity Schedule in Google Docs

Summary of activities

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).

VO2Max and weekly mileage

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)

Activity Details in Google Sheets

Activity Schedule in Google Docs

Summary of this week’s activities

First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 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).

VO2Max and weekly mileage

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.

Activity Details in Google Sheets

Activity Schedule in Google Docs

Summary of this week’s activities

First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 4 run activities 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).

VO2Max and weekly mileage

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.

Activity Details in Google Sheets

Activity Schedule in Google Docs

Summary of this week’s activities

First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 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).

VO2Max and weekly mileage

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.

Activity Details in Google Sheets

Activity Schedule in Google Docs

Summary of this week’s activities

First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 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).

VO2Max and weekly mileage

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.

Activity Details in Google Sheets

Activity Schedule in Google Docs

Summary of this week’s activities

First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 4 run activities 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).

VO2Max and weekly mileage

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

Activity Details in Google Sheets

Activity Schedule in Google Docs

Summary of this week’s activities

First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 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).

VO2Max and weekly mileage

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!

Activity Details in Google Sheets

Activity Schedule in Google Docs

Summary of this week’s activities

First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 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).

VO2Max and weekly mileage

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.

Activity Details in Google Sheets

Activity Schedule in Google Docs

Summary of my activities

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).

VO2Max and weekly mileage

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.

Activity Details in Google Sheets

Activity Schedule in Google Docs

Summary of my activities

First, let’s review my activities. I had 4 run activities in this extended week. On Monday (20/04) I had an 8K easy run with the following averages: (8.00 K, 5:29 min/km, 148 bpm, 56m elevation gain). On Saturday (25/04) I had a 7.5K easy run with the following averages: (7.51 K, 5:06 min/km, 169 bpm, 48m elevation gain). On Sunday (26/04) I had a 25K long run with the following averages: (25.00 K, 4:59 min/km, 173 bpm, 53m elevation gain). On Tuesday (28/04) I had a 4K easy run with the following averages: (4.45 K, 6:00 min/km, 135 bpm, 23m elevation gain).

VO2Max and weekly mileage

My VO2Max this week plus in my (Monday, Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday) activities were (51, 51, 51, 51) ml/kg/min respectively. Also my total mileage during this period of time was 44.9 km run.

About individual runs

On Saturday (25/04): I was very busy and I missed four days. I’m not sure how to calculate how much my physical fitness have been dropped because of these four days rest, but I am going to ask it from a coach foresure.

Activity Details in Google Sheets

Activity Schedule in Google Docs

Summary of this week’s activities

First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 6 run activities in this week. On Monday (06/04) I had a 13K easy run with the following averages: (13.39 K, 5:09 min/km, 152 bpm, 80m elevation gain). On Tuesday (07/04) I had a speed run 9×600 with the following averages: (15.07 K, 5:51 min/km, 150 bpm, 57m elevation gain). On Thursday (09/04) I had a 15K run (tempo 8K) with the following averages: (15.02 K, 4:57 min/km, 161 bpm, 65m elevation gain). On Friday (10/04) I had a 7K easy run with the following averages: (7.00 K, 5:00 min/km, N/A bpm, N/A m elevation gain). On Saturday (11/04) I had a 10K easy run with the following averages: (10.14 K, 5:09 min/km, 159 bpm, 62m elevation gain). On Sunday (12/04) I had a 16K long run (tempo 12K) with the following averages: (16.00 K, 4:50 min/km, 162 bpm, 80m elevation gain).

VO2Max and weekly mileage

My VO2Max this week in my (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday) activities were (50, 50, 52, N/A, 52, 52) ml/kg/min respectively. Also my weekly mileage this week was 76.6 km run.

About individual runs

On Monday (06/04): I was supposed to have this 13K run yesterday, but even after getting out to have the run, I noticed that my six pack abs are so weak that I am not able to start running, So I postponed it to today. I guess the problem with six pack abs and stomach muscles is the “Athletic Pubalgia” or “Sport Hernia” that I was talking about it in past. There are certain exercises to avoid/improve this injury. The other fact is I also noticed that maybe 5:00 min/km pace is a bit fast for the easy runs, while based on Hanson’s method and while my Marathon goal is about 3:25hours , ave pace for easy runs should be 1-2 min/mile slower than the ave marathon pace. In my case the ave pace should be 5:25-6:00 min/km. This is important to modify my easy run pace particularly cause I’m sure with 5:00 min/km I would have some issues with my runs at the pick of my training (when I have 80+ km/week runs) . As the first step in this run, I was trying to run a bit easier and my ave pace is 5:09 min/km. I also want to mention in the past week , I was so tired during the week after my runs which might have multiple reasons (I was running fast or because of starting sos workouts)

On Tuesday (07/04): First it was supposed to be a 8×600 speed run but I had an extra one by mistake. It is two days (today and yesterday) that the watch is being restarted at somepoint about 5km. For the 400m recovery, like the way you were training in running room, just have easy walk i.e. HR=100-110 bpm, I was trying to jog for the recovery time i.e. HR~150bpm and it didn’t work (low power for the actual speed workouts) I was also stretching after the whole workout which was EXTREMELY useful (much less abs and right side stomach pain compared to last time, although I still have a little bit of pain in the location of right side HT) Finally I really need to find a good place for the interval training before I start the workout. While I had a shift for the 13k easy run (I did it on Monday instead of Sunday) so I missed the 4 mile easy run of Monday, therefore for the warm up-cool down I had 7k run instead of 2 mile, and i just need to have 2.6k extra run (9k run on Friday) to compensate the whole thing. I went through the intervals and find out I was doing good, desired time for 600m was 2:33 and I was completing almost all of them faster than that (except the second interval were there was an issue with my watch and it was restarted)

On Thursday (09/04): Awesome :D:D:D 3.5k warm up and cool down each. I still have the tempo runs at 4:40 min/km which should be 4:51 min/km. I guess I’ll modify it for long distance tempo runs i.e. 8,9,10 mile tempo runs. Also be careful about dehydration cause you had this problem in past. Have enough water during the day.

On Friday (10/04): Again after finishing the activity when I press the stop button, my watch was restarted and when I saved the activity and tried to upload it to garmin connect it didn’t work and in fact the workout haven’t been saved.

On Sunday (12/04): It was a long run, but I made it a fast tempo run for the first 12K (Ave. Pace 4:40 min/km) and a cool down run for the remaining 4K run (Ave Pace 5:09min/km) I had a busy week with a total mileage of 76.62km because of shifting a 13k run from last Sunday to this Monday. Still feeling good with this plan which means my pace is not too high, otherwise I would feel tired. The other positive point is about performance of my heart while my weekly average heart rate for my activities is 158 bpm, much less than a few weeks ago which was up to 170 bpm. Also my Max HR is about 176bpm while it used to be about 190 bpm which was not good and I had heart issue a couple of times due to high Max HR.

Activity Details in Google Sheets

Activity Schedule in Google Docs

Summary of this week’s activities

First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 5 run activities in this week. On Monday (30/03) I had a 7K easy run with the following averages: (7.03 K, 5:01 min/km, 166 bpm, 47m elevation gain). On Tuesday (31/03) I had an 8K tempo run with the following averages: ( 8.01 K, 4:41 min/km, 172 bpm, 37m elevation gain). On Wednesday (01/04) I had a 13K easy run with the following averages: (12.83 K, 5:04 min/km, 161 bpm, 87m elevation gain). On Friday (03/04) I had an easy 2K run with the following averages: (2.46 K, 4:51 min/km, 159 bpm, 25m elevation gain) and a speed run 12×400 with the following averages: ( 13.69 K, 6:25 min/km, 141 bpm, 66m elevation gain). On Saturday (04/04) I had a 7K easy run with the following averages: (7.01 K, 5:00 min/km, 158 bpm, 32m elevation gain).

VO2Max and weekly mileage

My VO2Max this week in my (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday) activities were (50, 50, NA, 50, 50) ml/kg/min respectively. Also my weekly mileage this week was 51.0 km run.

About individual runs

On Monday (30/03): Starting a happy week by winning an argue that I had with my friend a few weeks ago about a technical running question. The argue was a bit challenging and that’s why even a few weeks after that, I am pretty happy to see I was in the winning position. He was claiming that the professional 100m runners can easily complete the marathon faster than me right at the moment and without any kind of training. I simply told him that your potential running ability is just a function of VO2max and obviously their VO2Max is much higher than mine, but in order to achieve your potential and complete the marathon in a good timely manner, you have to train based on a Marathon training plan. He emphasized that training schedule of professionals for even 100m is good enough and I told him not, based on a couple of simple reasons such as the first time you wanna complete a 20+km and 30+km run in your life, you would hit the wall and you would have some difficulties to complete the job. Anyways, today I was asking a coach about the issue and she simply told me that right at the moment and without any specific training, they might not even able to complete the marathon injury free and I was like I had won the lottery Yeeeees 🙂

On Tuesday (31/03): Tempo runs are coming and it brings more happiness 🙂 the faster you run (injury free) the happier you are. Based on Hanson’s Marathon training, tempo and speed runs would start after five weeks of preparation with a total of 145km run in a certain schedule. In the first five weeks, I was running 169km but not as exactly as I was supposed to run, but at the beginning of the the sixth week, I am totally ready to follow up Hunson’s training schedule.
With 3:25:00 hours goal for the marathon, my pace for tempo runs should be 4:51 min/km. However while Garmin watch has 1% inaccuracy and also regarding the fact that I chose 3:25:00 in a way to avoid injury during the training and be in the safe side , for the tempo runs I decided to run with the average pace 4:45 min/km based on what my watch shows (unless something happens and I wont able to continue with that pace).
Today’s run was pretty OK and I didn’t feel any pressure on myself of any kind during/after the run and the ave pace was 4:41 min/km (30 seconds faster in 38 min compared to the schedule) .

On Wednesday (01/04): Starting long distance runs which would boost the strength of my legs & knees. The very strong wind today was literally acting like hills. Also at the end of the run due to low battery issue, my watch was dead and therfore there is a bit of inaccuracy in the data shown here (D=13k, Ave pace=5:00 min/km) As of this week, my weekly mileage would increase by 60-70 % and the main deal here is my nutrition. The problem is like always, I have very poor appetite and I can hardly eat enough calories that I need during the day (I also have to drink a lot of water). To have a better idea of my nutrition now, I usually eat once or twice a day! My friend was asking a marathoner three days ago and he told him it’s a big deal and if I really can’t eat good enough, the solution is to use the clif bars (exactly what I did today) The other issue is in the first few weeks that I would adapt to have 60+km weekly mileage, I might feel a bit tired which is pretty OK and the issue would be resolved in a few weeks. The other thing is, as long distance runs would start and the program would be more serious, I really need to have a strict schedule for the daily runs and also a strict routin for the daily life, For example the best time to have the long distance runs is at the weekend not during the week (cause you would be so tired that day) Finally the last thing is, I really have to use the HT all day long when my activities get tougher.

On Friday (03/04) 2K run: It was supposed to be the speed workout but due to some issue in creating the workout in my watch and also problem in adjusting the speed, I stoped the run and restarted a new speed run. Speed runs have a 2k warm up and a 2k cool down and in between you would have the interval training which at this time, it’s a 400m speed run and a 400m recovery repeated for 12 times.

On Friday (03/04) speed run: In this speed run, I had 2 issues , the first one is the question: whats is the right pace for the speed workouts and the second issue is again the problem that I had about the sport hernia. Regarding the first question, While I wanna complete the Marathon in 3:25 hours, for the speed workouts I should run 800m in 3:25min or equivalently 400m in 1:43min . When I was doing this workout as you can see, I completed almost all 400m in about 1:30min. I have to wait and see if that’s the right pace for all other speed workouts, then I have to modify my marathon goal (just a little bit). The other serious issue that I had in this run is, even by using HT, at the speed workouts, I have too much pressure on the lower part of my stomach (which is possibly sport hernia) and I have to seriously visit a sport doctor about this issue. Fortunately it just happens at the speed workouts and for the easy, tempo and long runs I have no issue and pain in the lower part of my stomach.

On Saturday (04/04): After the speed run of yesterday, I feel I need to have stretch exercises after my runs to release the muscles of my legs. No issue in this run.

Activity Details in Google Sheets

Activity Schedule in Google Docs

Summary of this week’s activities

First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 4 run activities in this week. On Tuesday (24/03) I had a 10 K tempo run with the following averages: (10.01K, 4:50 min/km, 177 bpm, 45m elevation gain). On Thursday (26/03) I had a 7K tempo run with the following averages: (7.01 K, 4:52 min/km, 168 bpm, 57m elevation gain). On Friday (27/03) I had a 10K easy run with the following averages: (10.00 K, 4:58 min/km, 163 bpm, 65m elevation gain). On Saturday (28/03) I had an 8K easy run with the following averages: (8.03 K, 5:00 min/km, 167 bpm, 40m elevation gain).

VO2Max and weekly mileage

My VO2Max this week in my (Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday) activities were (48, 48, 50, 50) ml/kg/min respectively. Also my weekly mileage this week was 35.0 km run.

About individual runs

On Tuesday (24/03): 10k run and still a little bit of heart (chest) issue after run, I guess I should specifically monitor a couple of factors including my heart rate! right ht pain

On Thursday (26/03): Just a 7k run and was afraid of continuing due to heart issue which is strange while vo2max is still 48. I might start trying long distance runs gradually with reletively high pace (about 5:30 and strictly dont increase it) The positive point of the run is to incrase your heart rate at low speed by increasing cadence , then adjust the speed up to the point that you feel comfortable. In my current situation, I should possibly adjust my overall speed before the run and depend on the distance that I want to run. no ht pain

On Friday (27/03): Look at the average heart rate to see if you’ll gonna have heart issue! I guess below 170bpm is the comfort zone. Monitor it in the main screen instead of total run time! Ave HR 163 and a very comfortable run ! vo2max back to 50 , good improvement !

On Saturday (28/03): This time , I was monitoring my heart rate in the main screen and was trying to adjust the speed accordingly. In the first 5K heart rate was up to 168bpm which was a bit too much and therefore my pace was relatively low 4:51 min/km. In the second half I decided to slow down my heart rate and increase the pace. The pace was up to 5:14 min/km but I am not sure why the ave. hr is still 167bpm. I have previously seen some non professional training schedules who were working just with heart zones and distances and now I have a better idea about the idea of those training plans. Everything was OK in this run.

Activity Details in Google Sheets

Activity Schedule in Google Docs

Summary of this week’s activities

First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 3 run and 1 swim activities in this week. On Tuesday (17/03) I had a 3K easy run with the following averages: (3.29 K, 4:39 min/km, 162 bpm, 23m elevation gain). On Friday (20/03) I had a 1.5 km swim with the average pace min/100m. On Saturday (21/03) I had a 10K easy run with the following averages: (10.00 K, 5:04 min/km, 179 bpm, 31m elevation gain). On Sunday (22/03) I had a 7K tempo run with the following averages: (7.36 K, 4:52 min/km, 180 bpm, 74m elevation gain).

VO2Max and weekly mileage

My VO2Max this week in my (Tuesday, Saturday, Sunday) activities were (48, 48, 48) ml/kg/min respectively. Also my weekly mileage this week was 20.6 km run and 1.5 km swim.

About individual activities

On Tuesday (17/03): Poor signal. Due to a couple of changes in my routine, I couldn’t have my runs in the morning and while I didn’t wanna have it with full stomach I missed a few runs past days. I forced myself to have a run today in any condition and thats why I was running just a few kilometers (I had nothing till 5pm before the run) No heart problem after a few days rest.

On Friday (20/03): Very relaxed swim to celebrate Norouz and cool down my mind!

On Saturday (21/03): Pain in my left knee constantly in the second half. analyze decrease 6% decrease in your ability!

On Sunday (22/03): mention the reason you missed a few lessons ,explain three kind of injury and the fact that it’s nature of training and improving ! heart issue ? doesn’t matter , it was a very heavy rain! right ht pain

Activity Details in Google Sheets

Activity Schedule in Google Docs

Summary of this week’s activities

First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 3 run activities in this week. On Monday (09/03) I had a 10K easy run with the following averages: (10.00 K, 4:53 min/km, 174 bpm, 34m elevation gain). On Thursday (12/03) I had a 5K easy run with the following averages: (5.01 K, 4:56 min/km, 176 bpm, 31m elevation gain). On Friday (13/03) I had a 5K easy run with the following averages: (5.00 K, 4:52 min/km, 173 bpm, 29m elevation gain)

VO2Max and weekly mileage

My VO2Max this week in my (Monday, Thursday, Friday) activities were (48, 48, 48) ml/kg/min respectively. Also my weekly mileage this week was 20.0 km run.

About individual runs

On Monday (09/03): Easy runs are getting better as the average pace decreased to 4:53 min/km with less effort compared to past (training effect 4.8) The only issue I had in the run was a little bit of pain in my left knee in the last 2km of the run and it seems to me that’s a symptom of improving my knees strength. Also vo2 max is also improving now it’s 48 ml/kg/min, better than 46 that I started two weeks ago and far away from 53 that I was in my prime a few months ago.

On Thursday (12/03): About this run it was pretty ok, but Im not sure what was the reason it was so hard for me while T.E.=3.8, D=5km. Past two day my heart was hurting a bit for a couple of times and the reason seems clear to me.
Last week, I was breaking the fundamental rule of running which is continuity. Usually in running (and possibly in any other sport or professional activity) you shouldn’t change any factor over 10% while trying to increase your potentials. In case that you are in the preparation period to achieve your previously obtained potentials, you might increase your activity up to 50-60 % if you’ve stayed long enough in the previous stage.
In my case, I suddenly change my weekly mileage from 27.02km the other week to 66.27km last week (145% increase) and I was continuing with the same rate this week. The result is obvious, too much pressure on your heart. I emphasize it’s not about I can’t get that much weekly mileage, it’s about rate of change. The appropriate rate of change is 16,24,34,34,39,62 km and mine was 25,27,66 km ! Now I’m one step back and I’ll try to have about 30-40 km weekly mileage this week for the adjustment.

On Friday (13/03): My heart was hurting yesterday even after a very relaxed run. No sudden change man!

Activity Details in Google Sheets

Activity Schedule in Google Docs

Summary of this week’s activities

First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 6 run activities in this week. On Monday (02/03) I had a 10K easy run with the following averages: (10.37 K, 5:15 min/km, 173 bpm, 35m elevation gain). On Tuesday (03/03) I had a 6K easy run with the following averages: (6.01 K, 4:38 min/km, 162 bpm, 16m elevation gain). On Wednesday (04/03) I had a 10K easy run with the following averages: (10.02 K, 5:09 min/km, 178 bpm, 48m elevation gain). On Thursday (05/03) I had an 8K easy run with the following averages: (8.23K, 5:18 min/km, 165 bpm, 27m elevation gain). On Saturday (07/03) I had a 25K run/hike with the following averages: (25.64 K, 9:23 min/km, 124 bpm, 573m elevation gain). On Sunday (08/03) I had a 6K easy run with the following averages: (6.00 K, 5:03 min/km, 168 bpm, 29m elevation gain).

VO2Max and weekly mileage

My VO2Max this week in my (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday) activities were (46, 46, 46, 47, 47, 47) ml/kg/min respectively. Also my weekly mileage this week was 66.2 km run.

About individual runs

On Monday (02/03): Difficulty in adjusting cadence at low speeds (pace higher than 5:15 min/km) which is pretty normal. HT

On Tuesday (03/03): Very poor signal.

On Wednesday (04/03): Decreased pace by 0:06 min/km (compared to last workout) and had much more flexibility in adjusting cadence, however still need more concentration to run exactly around 180 spm. No issue in the run. HT

On Thursday (05/03): Good run, no issue!

On Saturday (07/03): The most difficult part was to navigate the trail while running and thanks for Garmin compass who helped me find the trail in Stanley park up to lions gate bridge. After that it was a bit tricky to find the initial point of the trail along the capilano river. Thus I was forced to walk from that point up to the grouse grind cause there were a couple of two ways in the trail and you had to find the right path on the map.

Activity Details in Google Sheets

Activity Schedule in Google Docs

Summary of this week’s activities

First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 3 run activities in this week. On Monday (23/02) I had a 10K easy run with the following averages: (10.00 K, 5:13 min/km, 183 bpm, 46m elevation gain). On Tuesday (24/02) I had a 7K easy run with the following averages: (7.02 K, 5:36 min/km, 173 bpm, 30m elevation gain). On Thursday (26/02) I had a 10K easy run with the following averages: (10.00 K, 5:15 min/km, 173 bpm, 50m elevation gain).

VO2Max and weekly mileage

My VO2Max this week in my (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday) activities were (46, 45, 46) ml/kg/min respectively. Also my weekly mileage in this week was 27.0 km run. 

About individual runs

On Monday (23/02): Pain in my knee in the second half. Decreased the speed.

On Tuesday (24/02): Left knee is still not ready, it seems to me the best way to improve it is by having multiple adjusted easy runs. The other factor is I guess I am 1-2 pounds overweight compared to my ideal running weight. It would be resolved within a week or two.

On Thursday (26/02): No pain