Category: Training Reports &amp; Diet

Summary of this week’s activities

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).

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Total
10K Run	10K Run	01	10K Run	10K Run	04	05	40.0 km
16150	14976	7974	16298	16125	0	0	71,523
80.8 kg	79.6 kg	79.6 kg	80.3 kg	80.5 kg	81.2 kg	80.9 kg

VO2Max and weekly totals

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.

2020 Training Week 7 (22/06/2020 to 28/06/2020)

June 28, 2020November 21, 2022 ~ Ryan Montazer

My weekly totals

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).

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Total
22	10K Run	10K Run	25	10K Run	10K Run	28	40.0 km
12271	16406	15756	5400	16500	16459	16966	99,758
81.5 kg	80.9 kg	81.7 kg	80.4 kg	81.1 kg	81.3 kg	80.8 kg

About my weekly mileage

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.

2020 Training Week 6 (15/06/2020 to 21/06/2020)

June 21, 2020November 21, 2022 ~ Ryan Montazer

My weekly totals

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).

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Total
10K Run	16	10K Run	10K Run	19	10K Run	10K Run	50.0 km
16263	7397	15763	16059	10523	16572	21517	104,094
82.2 kg	81.8 kg	82.7 kg	82.3 kg	81.8 kg	82.3 kg	82.3 kg

About my weekly mileage

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.

2020 Training Week 5 (08/06/2020 to 14/06/2020)

June 14, 2020November 21, 2022 ~ Ryan Montazer

My weekly totals

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).

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Total
08	10K Run	10K Run	11	4K Run	13	10K Run	33.8 km
5,650	16,232	16,997	10,715	16,195	18,479	17110	101,378
83.8 kg	83.2 kg	83.5 kg	82.3 kg	83.9 kg	84.0 kg	83.2 kg

About my weekly mileage

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.

2020 Training Week 4 (01/06/2020 to 07/06/2020)

June 7, 2020November 21, 2022 ~ Ryan Montazer

My weekly totals

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).

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Total
5K Run	5K Run	03	04	10K Run	10K Run	07	30.0 km
10,615	10,605	14,254	0	15,718	16,147	12,879	80,218
83.8 kg	83.3 kg	84.3 kg	83.2 kg	83.6 kg	83.8 kg	83.6 kg

About my weekly mileage

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.

2020 Training Week 3 (25/05/2020 to 31/05/2020)

May 31, 2020November 21, 2022 ~ Ryan Montazer

My weekly totals

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).

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Total
5K Run	5K Run	5K Run	5K Run	29	5K Run	5K Run	30.2 km
16,762	15,270	18,351	18,243	10,402	14,933	18,345	112,306
85.4 kg	85.4 kg	85.2 kg	84.4 kg	84.1 kg	84.4 kg	84.4 kg

About my weekly mileage

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.

2020 Training Week 2 (18/05/2020 to 24/05/2020)

May 24, 2020November 21, 2022 ~ Ryan Montazer

My weekly totals

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)

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Total
5K Run	19	5K Run	5K Run	5K Run	5K Run	24	25.0 km
15,345	15,157	15,173	9,109	19,638	9,527	16,165	100,114
85.9 kg	85.9 kg	86.1 kg	86.8 kg	85.9 kg	85.9 kg	85.4 kg

About my weekly mileage

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.

2020 Training Week 1 (11/05/2020 to 17/05/2020)

May 17, 2020November 21, 2022 ~ Ryan Montazer

My weekly totals

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).

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Total
5K Run	5K Run	5K Run	14	5K Run	5K Run	5K Run	30.3 km
11,457	13,857	14,897	15,758	16,331	15,460	15,463	103,223
87.5 kg	88.1 kg	87.6 kg	87.6 kg	86.9 kg	87.1 kg	86.3 kg

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.

2019 Diet Report Summary

Below is the summary of my 2019 weight loss journey:

Starting Date	05/07/2019
Starting Weight	83.3 kg
Starting Weight	183.5 lbs
Starting BMI	27.2
Ending Date	08/30/2019
Ending Weight	70.5 kg
Ending Weight	155.3 lbs
Ending BMI	23.0
Total Duration	116 days/17 weeks
Total Weight Loss	12.8 kg
Total Weight Loss	28.2 lbs
Average Weekly Weight Loss	0.772 kg/week
Average Weekly Weight Loss	1.701 lbs/week

2019 Diet Report Month 4

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.

Day	Time	Weight (kg)	Weight (lb)	BMI	Steps
Friday	08/30/2019	70.5	155.3	23	22,327
Thursday	08/29/2019	70.8	155.9	23.1	21,434
Wednesday	08/28/2019	71.1	156.6	23.2	20,242
Tuesday	08/27/2019	71.2	156.8	23.2	23,099
Monday	08/26/2019	72	158.6	23.5	11,880
Sunday	08/25/2019	72	158.6	23.5	23,937
Saturday	08/24/2019	72.2	159.0	23.6	22,406
Friday	08/23/2019	72.5	159.7	23.7	24,501
Thursday	08/22/2019	72.4	159.5	23.6	21,837
Wednesday	08/21/2019	72.7	160.1	23.7	25,829
Tuesday	08/20/2019	72.5	159.7	23.7	26,488
Monday	08/19/2019	72.2	159.0	23.6	13,663
Sunday	08/18/2019	72.7	160.1	23.7	41,866
Saturday	08/17/2019	72.41	159.5	23.6	9,010
Friday	08/16/2019	72.41	159.5	23.6	15,207
Thursday	08/15/2019	72.4	159.5	23.6	9,455
Wednesday	08/14/2019	72.8	160.4	23.8	28,141
Tuesday	08/13/2019	73	160.8	23.8	23,817
Monday	08/12/2019	73.31	161.5	23.9	13,451
Sunday	08/11/2019	73.31	161.5	23.9	9,178
Saturday	08/10/2019	73.31	161.5	23.9	17,626
Friday	08/09/2019	73.3	161.5	23.9	13,223
Thursday	08/08/2019	72.8	160.4	23.8	13,233
Wednesday	08/07/2019	73	160.8	23.8	12,727
Tuesday	08/06/2019	73.4	161.7	24	16,970
Monday	08/05/2019	73.9	162.8	24.1	23,939

2019 Diet Report Month 3

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.

Day	Time	Weight (kg)	Weight (lb)	BMI	Steps
Sunday	08/04/2019	73.5	161.9	24	16,112
Saturday	08/03/2019	72.9	160.6	23.8	12,180
Friday	08/02/2019	72.9	160.6	23.8	14,738
Thursday	08/01/2019	73.2	161.2	23.9	14,942
Wednesday	07/31/2019	73.1	161.0	23.9	21,197
Tuesday	07/30/2019	73.4	161.7	24	21,334
Monday	07/29/2019	73.4	161.7	24	22,323
Sunday	07/28/2019	75	165.2	24.5	30,498
Saturday	07/27/2019	74.4	163.9	24.3	26,595
Friday	07/26/2019	74	163.0	24.2	22,758
Thursday	07/25/2019	73.7	162.3	24.1	20,857
Wednesday	07/24/2019	73.9	162.8	24.1	28,412
Tuesday	07/23/2019	74.2	163.4	24.2	12,955
Monday	07/22/2019	74.4	163.9	24.3	9,312
Sunday	07/21/2019	73.7	162.3	24.1	26,206
Saturday	07/20/2019	74.5	164.1	24.3	24,743
Friday	07/19/2019	74.9	165.0	24.5	9,589
Thursday	07/18/2019	75	165.2	24.5	26,276
Wednesday	07/17/2019	75.1	165.4	24.5	11,132
Tuesday	07/16/2019	74.2	163.4	24.2	17,555
Monday	07/15/2019	74.5	164.1	24.3	16,604
Sunday	07/14/2019	74.5	164.1	24.3	27,275
Saturday	07/13/2019	74.9	165.0	24.5	22,055
Friday	07/12/2019	74.5	164.1	24.3	22,344
Thursday	07/11/2019	74.9	165.0	24.5	17,913
Wednesday	07/10/2019	75.4	166.1	24.6	20,670
Tuesday	07/09/2019	75.3	165.9	24.6	22,939
Monday	07/08/2019	75.8	167.0	24.8	9,810
Sunday	07/07/2019	75.9	167.2	24.8	29,005
Saturday	07/06/2019	76.2	167.8	24.9	21,337

2019 Diet Report Month 2

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.

Day	Time	Weight (kg)	Weight (lb)	BMI	Steps
Friday	07/05/2019	76.6	168.7	25	22,711
Thursday	07/04/2019	76.6	168.7	25	23,127
Wednesday	07/03/2019	77.3	170.3	25.2	28,130
Tuesday	07/02/2019	77	169.6	25.1	21,639
Monday	07/01/2019	76.6	168.7	25	19,828
Sunday	06/30/2019	76.7	168.9	25	31,091
Saturday	06/29/2019	76.9	169.4	25.1	22,049
Friday	06/28/2019	77.4	170.5	25.3	34,943
Thursday	06/27/2019	77.71	171.2	25.4	18,290
Wednesday	06/26/2019	77.7	171.1	25.4	14,688
Tuesday	06/25/2019	77.61	170.9	25.3	17,959
Monday	06/24/2019	77.61	170.9	25.3	21,010
Sunday	06/23/2019	77.61	170.9	25.3	12,033
Saturday	06/22/2019	77.61	170.9	25.3	4,473
Friday	06/21/2019	77.61	170.9	25.3	11,613
Thursday	06/20/2019	77.61	170.9	25.3	10,438
Wednesday	06/19/2019	77.6	170.9	25.3	17,873
Tuesday	06/18/2019	77.6	170.9	25.3	8,182
Monday	06/17/2019	77.3	170.3	25.2	19,007
Sunday	06/16/2019	77.8	171.4	25.4	24,428
Saturday	06/15/2019	79	174.0	25.8	385
Friday	06/14/2019	78.3	172.5	25.6	2,747
Thursday	06/13/2019	76.9	169.4	25.1	33,188
Wednesday	06/12/2019	76.9	169.4	25.1	13,264
Tuesday	06/11/2019	77.1	169.8	25.2	12,925
Monday	06/10/2019	77.2	170.0	25.2	11,738
Sunday	06/09/2019	77.4	170.5	25.3	9,168
Saturday	06/08/2019	77.7	171.1	25.4	29,542
Friday	06/07/2019	77.5	170.7	25.3	18,556
Thursday	06/06/2019	79.1	174.2	25.8	9,855

2019 Diet Report Month 1

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.

Day	Date	Weight (kg)	Weight (lbs)	BMI	Steps
Wednesday	06/05/2019	78.3	172.5	25.6	9,337
Tuesday	06/04/2019	78.3	172.5	25.6	16,630
Monday	06/03/2019	78.4	172.7	25.6	10,391
Sunday	06/02/2019	78.2	172.2	25.5	27,040
Saturday	06/01/2019	78.6	173.1	25.7	23,055
Friday	05/31/2019	78.7	173.3	25.7	11,018
Thursday	05/30/2019	79	174.0	25.8	30,105
Wednesday	05/29/2019	79.1	174.2	25.8	22,618
Tuesday	05/28/2019	79.4	174.9	25.9	7,035
Monday	05/27/2019	79.7	175.6	26.0	27,724
Sunday	05/26/2019	79.7	175.6	26.0	24,890
Saturday	05/25/2019	80.7	177.8	26.4	12,209
Friday	05/24/2019	80.4	177.1	26.3	20,956
Thursday	05/23/2019	80.7	177.8	26.4	9,658
Wednesday	05/22/2019	80.5	177.3	26.3	24,600
Tuesday	05/21/2019	80.6	177.5	26.3	24,674
Monday	05/20/2019	81.5	179.5	26.6	13,161
Sunday	05/19/2019	82	180.6	26.8	23,608
Saturday	05/18/2019	82.2	181.1	26.8	17,717
Friday	05/17/2019	81.8	180.2	26.7	13,321
Thursday	05/16/2019	81.6	179.7	26.6	21,607
Wednesday	05/15/2019	82.4	181.5	26.9	23,247
Tuesday	05/14/2019	82.9	182.6	27.1	17,863
Monday	05/13/2019	83.8	184.6	27.4	7
Sunday	05/12/2019	82.2	181.1	26.8	10,617
Saturday	05/11/2019	82.5	181.7	26.9	31,023
Friday	05/10/2019	82.8	182.4	27.0	13,402
Thursday	05/09/2019	82.8	182.4	27.0	4,329
Wednesday	05/08/2019	83	182.8	27.1	11,294
Tuesday	05/07/2019	83.3	183.5	27.2	35,672

2019 Diet Report Introduction

Running and Swimming Activity Details in Google Sheets,

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.

2016 Training Summary (05/05/2016 to 11/11/2016)

November 11, 2016November 21, 2022 ~ Ryan Montazer

Totals: 1118.5 Km Running, 33.2 Km Swimming

Activity Schedule in Google Docs,

Photo Gallery

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Total
Easy 68 min	08/11	Easy 64 min	Easy 62 min	Easy 9 min	12/11	13/11	38.5 km Run
31/10	01/11	Easy 18 min	03/11	04/11	Easy 67 min	06/11	15.8 km Run
Steady 51 min	25/10	Steady 40 min	27/10	28/10	29/10	30/10	18.1 km Run
Steady 60 min	8 Steady runs (9K total)	Steady 27 min	20/10	Steady 81 min	22/10	Steady 63 min	56.8 km Run
10/10	11/10	12/10	13/10	14/10	Steady 1K	16/10	1.4 km Run
03/10	04/10	05/10	06/10	07/10	08/10	09/10	0.0 km Run
26/09	Steady 16K run	28/09	Warm up Tempo 13K	30/09	01/10	Long 30K run	62.0 km Run
Steady 16K run	Steady 16K run	21/09	Warm up Tempo 13K	23/09	Speed run 15×400	Long 20K run	82.3 km Run
12/09	13/09	14/09	15/09	Long 26K run	17/09	18/09	26.0 km Run
Long 26K	06/09	07/09	Speed 4×1200-400 walk	Steady 16K	10/09	11/09	55.4 km Run
29/08	30/08	Steady 16K	Easy 5K	Warm up Tempo 13K	03/09	04/09	37.1 km Run
Long 26K	23/08	Easy run	Speed 400,800,1200,1600	Steady 16K	27/08	Steady 19K	74.0 km Run
Steady 11K	16/08	17/08	Speed 4×1200-400 recovery	19/08	Warm up Tempo 13K	21/08	42.9 km Run
Easy 12K	Easy 19K	Steady 11K	11/08	Warm up Tempo 8K	13/08	Steady 22K (Fast)	74.3 km Run
Rest Week	Rest Week	Rest Week	Rest Week	Warm up Steady 8K	06/08	Easy 16K	26.0 km Run
Rest Week	SUP	SUP Fireworks	Rest Week	Rest Week	Rest Week	Rest Week	2 SUP trips
Easy 13K	Easy 16K (Failed Speed)	20/07	Easy 13K	Tempo 6K	Rest Week	Rest Week	54.8 km Run
Easy 16K	Hills Training 10×200	Easy 5K Easy 6K	14/07	15/07	Easy 16K	Easy 16K	70.1 km Run
Easy 3K 3K Swim	Easy 3K 300m Swim	Easy 15K	Easy 15K	08/07	09/07	Easy 16K	52.4 km Run3.3 km Swim
Easy 15K	Speed 4×1200-400 recovery	Easy 15K 300m Swim	Speed 4×1200-400 recovery 500m Swim	Easy 15K 400m Swim	02/07	Easy 3K 2K Swim	75.0 km Run3.2 km Swim
Tempo 6K	Easy 15K 1K Swim	Easy 15K 500m Swim	Speed 6×800-400 recovery	Easy 12K	25/06	Long 20K	90.8 km Run1.5 km Swim
Easy 12K 1K Swim	14/06	Easy 15K 1K Swim	Easy 15K 1K Swim	16K run 1K Swim	Easy 11K 500m Swim	19/06	69.8 km Run4.5 km Swim
06/06	07/06	08/06	Easy 3K 500m Swim Easy 3K	Easy 10K	Easy 10K	Easy 10K 500m Swim	38.2 km Run1.0 km Swim
Easy Run	31/05	Easy Run 2K Swim Easy Run	02/06	03/06	04/06	05/06	8.0 km Run2.0 km Swim
23/05	24/05	25/05	Easy Run	27/05	2K Swim	2K Swim Easy Run	5.4 km Run4.0 km Swim
16/05	17/05	1K Swim	19/05	2K Swim	21/05	2K Swim 50m Swim	5.1 km Swim
09/05	2K Swim	2K Swim	2K Swim	13/05	SUP	SUP	6.0 km Swim2 SUP trips
02/05	03/05	04/05	600m Swim	06/05	07/05	2K Swim	2.6 km Swim

2016 Training Weeks 22-25 (15/10/2016 to 11/11/2016)

November 11, 2016November 21, 2022 ~ Ryan Montazer

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:

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Total
Easy 68 min	8	Easy 64 min	Easy 62 min	Easy 9 min	12	13	38.5 km Run
31	1	Easy 18 min	3	4	Easy 67 min	6	15.8 km Run
Steady 51 min	25	Steady 40 min	27	28	29	30	18.1 km Run
Steady 60 min	8 Steady runs (9K total)	Steady 27 min	20	Steady 81 min	22	Steady 63 min	56.8 km Run
10	11	12	13	14	Steady 1K	16	1.4 km Run

2016 Training Week 21 (26/09/2016 to 02/10/2016)

October 2, 2016November 21, 2022 ~ Ryan Montazer

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 (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).

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Total
26	Steady 16K run	28	Warm up Tempo 13K	30	1	Long 30K run	62.0 km Run

VO2Max and weekly mileage

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!!!

2016 Training Weeks 19-20 (12/09/2016 to 25/09/2016)

September 25, 2016November 21, 2022 ~ Ryan Montazer

Summary of activities

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).

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Total
Steady 16K run	Steady 16K run	21	Warm up Tempo 13K	23	Speed run 15×400	Long 20K run	82.3 km Run
12	13	14	15	Long 26K run	17	18	26.0 km Run

VO2Max and weekly mileage

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.

2016 Training Week 18 (05/09/2016 to 11/09/2016)

September 11, 2016November 21, 2022 ~ Ryan Montazer

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 (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).

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Total
Long 26K	6	7	Speed 4×1200-400 walk	Steady 16K	10	11	55.4 km Run

VO2Max and weekly mileage

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.

2016 Training Week 17 (29/08/2016 to 04/09/2016)

September 4, 2016November 21, 2022 ~ Ryan Montazer

Summary of this week’s activities

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).

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Total
29	30	Steady 16K	Easy 5K	Warm up Tempo 13K	3	4	37.1 km Run

VO2Max and weekly mileage

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.

2016 Training Week 16 (22/08/2016 to 28/08/2016)

August 28, 2016November 21, 2022 ~ Ryan Montazer

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 (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).

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Total
Long 26K	23	Easy run	Speed 400,800,1200,1600	Steady 16K	27	Steady 19K	74.0 km Run

VO2Max and weekly mileage

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.

2016 Training Week 15 (15/08/2016 to 21/08/2016)

August 21, 2016November 21, 2022 ~ Ryan Montazer

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 (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).

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Total
Steady 11K	16	17	Speed 4×1200-400 recovery	19	Warm up Tempo 13K	21	42.9 km Run

VO2Max and weekly mileage

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.

2016 Training Week 14 (08/08/2016 to 14/08/2016)

August 14, 2016November 21, 2022 ~ Ryan Montazer

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 (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).

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Total
Easy 12K	Easy 19K	Steady 11K	11	Warm up Tempo 8K	13	Steady 22K (Fast)	74.3 km Run

VO2Max and weekly mileage

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.

2016 Training Week 13 (01/08/2016 to 07/08/2016)

August 7, 2016November 21, 2022 ~ Ryan Montazer