First, let’s review summary of this week’s training: weekly mileage 40.02 km, weekly steps 99’758 (14’251 steps daily average), total weight loss so far 6.7 kg and this week’s weight loss 1.5 kg.
About my weight loss
In regards to my weight loss, I am happy that I made my weekly goal of 1 kg/week and even a bit more. My total weight loss so far (6.7 kg) is also pretty close to what I desired (7.0 kg). In fact in the middle of the week on Thursday (25/06), I made my desired weight loss for the the end of the week by losing 7.1 kg but again for some temporary reasons I gained back a bit of that weight loss.
As I mentioned last week, I was a bit concerned about my diet on week 7 because last year at the beginning of week 7, I burned out due to my strict diet and had a week of rest. Fortunately this year by taking more reasonable steps, I successfully made my goal for up to the end of week 7. Based on my last year’s experience, after passing week 7, my weight loss journey should be OK up to the end of week 10 so I expect to have an easy/moderate job for losing weight for the next three weeks, but let’s see what will happen in practice.
Summary of this week’s activities
First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 4 run activities in this week. On Tuesday (23/06) I had a 10K run with the following averages: (10.01 K, 5:36 min/km, 167 bpm, 25m elevation gain). On Wednesday (24/06) I had a 10K run with the following averages: (10.01 K, 5:26 min/km, 173 bpm, 22m elevation gain). On Friday (26/06) I had a 10K run with the following averages: (10.00 K, 5:54 min/km, 145 bpm, 28m elevation gain). On Saturday (27/06) I had a 10K run with the following averages: (10.00 K, 5:50 min/km, 163 bpm, 30m elevation gain).
Starting from June 5 2020, I changed my training plan to two 10K runs one day rest. I had difficulty to keep up with the new plan for the first week because of getting injured and being tired, but since June 14 2020, I have been successfully committed with the plan and my average weekly mileage increased from 28 km to 47 km since that time. Therefore it’s my second week that I have stayed with the new plan and I have to continue with this plan for at least two more weeks before I make any changes to it.
VO2Max and Comparing activities to see my improvement
My VO2Max this week in my (Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday) activities were (49, 49, 50, 50) ml/kg/min respectively. In order to see my improvement this week, I want to compare two activities, one on Friday 26/06 which was (10.00 K, 5:54 min/km, 145 bpm, 28m elevation gain) and the other on Wednesday 10/06 which was (10.01 K, 6:18 min/km, 145 bpm, 24m elevation gain).
As we can see, all factors of both runs (my effort, distance and terrain) are the same and the only factor which varies in those two runs is the average pace. I had 00:24 min/km improvement which is a 7.55% improvement in 16 days that I am pretty happy about it.
My lactate threshold pace and heart rate
On Wednesday (24/06), my watch updated my lactate threshold pace (5:25 min/km) and my lactate threshold heart rate (175 bpm).
About individual runs
This Wednesday (24/06) was the first day in the new session that I had my run with just a T-shirt because the weather was warm enough. On Friday and Saturday runs, I was trying to have my 10K runs with average pace 6:00 min/km because I wanted to save my energy for a hard effort 10K run next week i.e. a run with average heart rate 178 bpm or so. I also had a notable improvement in my running cadence on Saturday’s run where I was successfully able to have my average cadence over 180 spm for all of the 10 laps of the run.
First, let’s review summary of this week’s training: weekly mileage 50.02 km, weekly steps 104,094 (14871 steps daily average), total weight loss so far 5.2 kg and this week’s weight loss 0.9 kg.
About my weight loss
In regards to my weight loss, 0.9kg for this week is pretty OK and close to my 1 kg weekly weight loss goal. Also my total weight loss this week is at least 5.7 kg, as on Tuesday and Friday this week, my total weight loss was 5.7kg but for some reason immediately after both of those days, I was gaining weight. Those gain weights are mainly due to body water, full stomach or other short term factors so I don’t care about them. I have seen it a lot that my body weight would decrease suddenly. For example this Monday, I suddenly lost 1kg compared to the day before that.
My weight loss for the first 6 weeks was pretty straightforward, but my last year experience tells me that the second 6 weeks is way more challenging so I am mentally making myself ready for that. As a reminder I have to say that I was looking at the first 6 weeks of my diet as a long term project, so I didn’t push myself that much. Therefore if I start getting not appropriate results in the second 6 weeks, I am ready to push myself a little bit more. In anyways, lets see what will happen in the future.
Summary of this week’s activities
First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 5 run activities in this week. On Monday (15/06) I had a 10K run with the following averages: (10.00 K, 5:41 min/km, 163 bpm, 15m elevation gain). On Wednesday (17/06) I had a 10K run with the following averages: (10.01 K, 5:21 min/km, 178 bpm, 28m elevation gain). On Thursday (18/06) I had a 10K run with the following averages: (10.00 K, 5:42 min/km, 161 bpm, 20m elevation gain). On Saturday (20/06) I had a 10K run with the following averages: (10.00 K, 5:56 min/km, 148 bpm, 19m elevation gain). On Sunday (21/06) I had a 10K run with the following averages: (10.01 K, 5:54 min/km, 171 bpm, 57m elevation gain).
This week, my weekly mileage was 50.02 km which was the highest weekly mileage in my new set of 2020 trainings. However I switched to the new training plan of two days 10K run and one day rest, but due to getting injured and being tired, I couldn’t complete my desired training plan last week. I have increased my weekly mileage by 47.7% this week compared to last week.
That was a safe movement because I stayed on the 30K weekly mileage long enough (five consecutive weeks) and at the same time I kept my total activities (my total weekly steps) constant (always around 100,000 steps). That means my body just changed the way it was burning calories from walking to running.
VO2Max and comparing activities to see my improvement
My VO2Max this week in my (Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday) runs were (48, 47, 48, 50, 48) ml/kg/min respectively. In order to see my improvement, I want to compare my activity on 17/06 i.e. (10.01 K, 5:21 min/km, 178 bpm, 28m elevation gain) with my other activity on 05/06 i.e. (10.00 K, 5:33 min/km, 179 bpm, 29m elevation gain).
As we can see, all of the features of those two runs are the same (distance, my effort and terrain) except my pace. I had 00:12 min/km i.e. 3.6% improvement in 12 days which is pretty impressive. Indeed I had reduced my 10K time by 01:52 min in 12 days which is pretty good. I am really happy about it for two reasons, first because I am getting close to 10K sub 50 min. record and second I am doing it while I am still very overweight.
My lactate threshold pace and heart rate
On Wednesday (17/06), my watch updated my lactate threshold pace (5:25 min/km) and my lactate threshold heart rate (175 bpm). Again on Sunday (21.06), it updated my lactate threshold pace (5:31 min/km) and my lactate threshold heart rate (174 bpm).
About individual runs
After my hard effort Wednesday’s run (ave. heart rate 178 bpm), I still had a relatively fast run on Thursday (ave. pace 5:42 min/km ave heart rate 161 bpm) but after Thursday, I was really tired on both Saturday’s and Sunday’s runs. Fortunately, I did both of them in under 60 minutes without too much effort.
Experiencing “Cardiovascular Drift”
As I explained in my Sunday’s run (21/06) here, on Sunday, I experienced something strange called “Cardiovascular Drift”. That’s what I haven’t experienced during all of my 4000+ km runs so far and therefore I am a bit concerned about it. I am going to see a physician in this regards and I’ll update this post after that in future.
Update: I talked to a physician over a virtual care talk the day after. He told me if it happened again contact us but for one time we cannot do anything. I also asked him if I can resume my training after 48 hours of rest and he said yes. Like always talking to doctors is not helpful that much, but I just wanted to do it in order to make sure I am on the safe side.
First, let’s review summary of this week’s training: weekly mileage 33.87 km, weekly steps 101378 (14483 steps daily average), total weight loss so far 4.3 kg and this week’s weight loss 0.4 kg.
About my weight loss
About the weight loss, I am pretty disappointed with the result as up to Thursday (11/06), my total weight loss and this week weight loss was 5.2kg and 1.3kg respectively, but after that it worked reversely and I was gaining weight instead of losing it, however my training, daily steps and my diet was the same as before. I guess it’s a temporary negative change and in long term the result would be as desired.
Summary of this week’s activities
First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 4 run activities in this week. On Tuesday (09/06) I had a 10K run with the following averages: (10.02 K, 5:53 min/km, 161 bpm, 13m elevation gain). On Wednesday (10/06) I had a 10K run with the following averages: (10.01 K, 6:18 min/km, 145 bpm, 24m elevation gain). On Friday (12/06) I had an incomplete 4K run with the following averages: (3.83 K, 5:22 min/km, 159 bpm, 23m elevation gain). I stopped the run due to a severe pain I felt in the very upper part of my left leg. On Sunday (14/06) I had a 10K run with the following averages: (10.01 K, 6:14 min/km, 169 bpm, 63m elevation gain).
My weekly mileage this week was 33.87 km, almost the same as my past four weeks’ weekly mileage. This is very good that I stayed on the 30K weekly mileage for five consecutive weeks particularly because I’m at the beginning of my new set of trainings and that would reduce the chance of getting injured. Lots of the time people would go too far at the beginning of their trainings and that would cause them to get injured.
VO2Max and comparing activities to see my improvement
My VO2Max this week in my (Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday) activities were (49, 49, 49, 47) ml/kg/min respectively. Also this is the first week (together with the two 10K runs of last week) that I am measuring my heart rate using Garmin’s HRM Run heart rate monitor, not my Fenix 3 HR wrist heart rate monitor. While usually there is a 10-15 beats per minute difference between those two measurements (obviously the HRM Run measurement is more accurate), it’s not reasonable to compare activities of this week with past four weeks’ activities. Another reason that I can’t compare activities of this week with any of the first four weeks’ activities is the fact that in the first four weeks, I had 5K runs where this week I had 10K runs so it’s not straightforward to compare those kind of activities with each other.
My lactate threshold pace and heart rate
On Tuesday (09/06), My watch updated my lactate threshold pace (5:28 min/km) and my lactate threshold heart rate (172 bpm).
About my injury on Friday
I got injured on Friday (12/06) so to be on the safe side I took Saturday off (instead I had 14+km of walk i.e. 18479 steps) and then resumed my training with a very slow pace on Sunday.
Now let me explain my injury. On Friday, I was supposed to have a 10K run and I started it good. Fortunately now I am able to keep my cadence around 180 spm no matter what my pace is. After the first km of run when my pace was 5:34 min/km, I noticed in order to improve my pace, I should increase my stride length. I did it and it was OK up to the end of the 4th km when I suddenly had to stop running due to a severe pain I felt in the very upper part of my left leg.
After searching about it, I found that it was possibly my “Obturator Muscles”. To find more about it, you can see the following youtube video:
At first I thought it’s about my bone but later during the day (and the day after) I noticed it might be my muscle. On Saturday, I felt much more comfortable compared to Friday.
The problem of increasing my running stride length
As I explained above, my main problem on Friday was about increasing my running stride length that I guess in my opinion, I did it too harsh. I took two steps back and now I try to improve it very gradually. Fortunately my other running dynamics specifically my running cadence is pretty good in different paces but I still have to work on it when I am tired during the run.
My injury and my run on Sunday
Fortunately on Sunday, my injury was way better than Friday in a way that I was able to complete the 10K run, but not a totally comfortable run. About my injury, the pain moved first to the inner part of my thigh and then to the top front part of my thigh. During the run particularly at the beginning, I was just able to take very short strides, therefore my pace in the first few laps was too high compared to the rest of the run.
During all of this run, due to the limitation that I had in my stride length, I was just focusing on my cadence and that’s why my total ave. cadence was 178 spm which is very good. After the first three laps, my stride length gradually and slowly got longer and therefore my pace slowly decreased from around 6:30 min/km in the first half of the run to around 6:10 min/km (or a bit faster) in the second half of the run.
After the run, I didn’t do my regular stretchings due to my injury. Also the overall difficulty of my run (how I felt) was 4/10 but T.E. was 4.6 and ave. heart rate was 169 bpm. They were both unreasonably high to me.
I am trying to cope with the new changes that I made in my daily training plan (increasing daily and weekly mileage) but that takes time and my body requires time to cope with the new changes.
First, let’s review summary of this week’s training: weekly mileage 30.01 km, weekly steps 80218 (11460 steps daily average), total weight loss so far 3.9 kg and this week’s weight loss 0.8 kg.
About my weight loss
About my weight loss, I guess 0.8 kg for a week is pretty close to my 1 kg/week goal plan even though my weight loss in the middle of the week on Thursday was 1.2 kg but after that my body weight increased a little bit.
Summary of this week’s activities
First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 4 run activities in this week. On Monday (01/06) I had a 5K run with the following averages: (5.00 K, 5:24 min/km, 155 bpm, 17m elevation gain). On Tuesday (02/06) I had a 5K run with the following averages: (5.01 K, 5:16 min/km, 157 bpm, 16m elevation gain). On Friday (05/06) I had a 10K run with the following averages: (10.00 K, 5:33 min/km, 179 bpm, 29m elevation gain). On Saturday (06/06) I had a 10K run with the following averages: (10.00 K, 5:46 min/km, 167 bpm, 48m elevation gain).
My weekly mileage this week was 30.01 K which was the same weekly mileage as what I had in the first three weeks. It’s very good to stay long enough on 30K weekly mileage (at least four weeks) because it would help me avoid getting injured due to overtraining.
VO2Max and comparing activities to see my improvement
My VO2Max calculated by my watch’s wrist heart rate monitor on Monday and Tuesday was 51 and 52 ml/kg/min respectively where my VO2Max calculated by the Garmin’s HRM Run heart rate monitor on Friday and Saturday was 50 and 49 ml/kg/min respectively. I definitely trust more on the VO2Max calculated by the HRM Run heart rate monitor as it’s more accurate.
In order to see my improvement this week, I want to compare my activity on 01/06 with the following averages: (5.00 K, 5:24 min/km, 155 bpm, 17m elevation gain) with my activity on 23/05 with the following averages: (5.01 K, 5:29 min/km, 153 bpm, 48m elevation gain). My effort in both of those runs were almost the same and they were both 5K runs. I guess the faster pace in the first run (5:24 min/km vs 5:29 min/km) would balance the harder terrain in the second run (17m elevation gain vs 48m elevation gain). Therefore I would consider the performance of both activities the same i.e. no significant improvement in my runs during the past 9 days.
As we all know running improvement comes in sudden, we train for weeks with possibly no significant improvement in our paces and all of a sudden we see a jump in our speed.
My lactate threshold pace and heart rate
On Friday (05/06) after wearing my HRM Run heart rate monitor, my watch automatically recognized my lactate threshold pace (5:19 min/km) and lactate threshold heart rate (170 bpm). Later, on Saturday (06/06), my watch updated those numbers to the following amounts: lactate threshold pace 5:25 min/km and lactate threshold heart rate 172 bpm.
About my overtraining last week
Recently I experienced a little bit of overtraining and I felt it first last Sunday (31/05) when my mind didn’t want to go for the 6K downtown walk. Due to the understanding of my body, that’s the early symptom of overtraining. That day I did the walk because socially, I really needed to go downtown as I haven’t been in public places for a complete week (since last weekend) due to the pandemic.
The reason for my overtraining was obvious. In the past few weeks, I took about 100’000 steps each week but last week I increased it by 12% to 112’306 steps. (My total weekly steps reflects how active I was during the week because it contains both my running and walking activities) Also I guess after the first three weeks of trainings, my body needed a little bit of rest so I listened to my body.
As a result, I didn’t have daily walks of Monday (01/06) and Tuesday (02/06) (decreased my daily steps just to 10’615 and 10’605 steps respectively for those days) and on Thursday (04/06) I was as tired as I even didn’t get out of home and was mainly sleeping during the day. I resumed my normal training from Friday but anyways my weekly steps for this week dropped to 80’218 steps which had a 20% decrease compared to normal weeks.
Increasing length of my daily runs to 10K
Starting from this Friday, I made another big change in my training plan and it was increasing my daily runs from 5K to 10K. I stayed on 5K runs for almost 4 weeks and I felt it’s the right time to go to the next level of training.
First, let’s review summary of this week’s training: weekly mileage 30.22 km, weekly steps 112306 (16044 steps daily average), total weight loss so far 3.1 kg and this week’s weight loss 1.0 kg.
About my weight loss
In regards to my weight loss, I made the 1 kg/week as desired but it could be a bit even better as I lost 1 kg on Thursday but after that my weight remained the same.
Summary of this week’s activities
First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 6 run activities in this week. On Monday (25/05) I had a 5K run with the following averages: (5.03 K, 5:22 min/km, 160 bpm, 24m elevation gain). On Tuesday (26/05) I had a 5K run with the following averages: (5.16 K, 5:35 min/km, 153 bpm, 21m elevation gain). There was an inaccuracy with the GPS of my watch for this run. It was a 5.00K run not a 5.16K run, therefore the true average pace was 5:45 min/km. I explained the issue in the activity notes on my Garmin’s website. On Wednesday (27/05) I had a 5K run with the following averages: (5.00 K, 5:12 min/km, 169 bpm, 20m elevation gain). On Thursday (28/05) I had a 5K run with the following averages: (5.01 K, 5:30 min/km, 165 bpm, 11m elevation gain). On Saturday (30/05) I had a 5K run with the following averages: (5.01 K, 5:35 min/km, 157 bpm, 21m elevation gain). On Sunday (31/05) I had a 5K run with the following averages: (5.01 K, 5:17 min/km, 162 bpm, 15m elevation gain).
My weekly mileage this week was 30.22 K and it was almost the same weekly mileage as what I had in the first two weeks of training. I have to stay long enough (at least four weeks) on this weekly mileage before changing it to a higher one to avoid any sort of injury caused by overtraining.
VO2Max and comparing my activities to see my improvement
My VO2Max this week calculated by my watch’s wrist heart rate monitor in my (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday) activities were (49, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50) ml/kg/min respectively. In order to see my improvement this week, I want to compare my activity on 27/05 with the following averages (5.00 K, 5:12 min/km, 169 bpm, 20m elevation gain) with my activity on 16/05 with the following averages: (5.01 K, 5:44 min/km, 170 bpm, 15m elevation gain). All of the features of both runs i.e. distance, my effort and terrain were the same with each other except my pace. I had 00:32 min/km i.e. 9.3% improvement in 11 days which is really promising.
My commitment to my training plan
A positive point that I want to mention in regards to my trainings so far, is about my commitment to it. Past three weeks, I had a schedule of four days training and one day off and fortunately I made it all for the entire three weeks, which is very promising.
First, let’s review summary of this week’s training: weekly mileage 25.05 km, weekly steps 100’114 (14302 steps daily average), total weight loss so far 2.1 kg and this week’s weight loss 0.9 kg.
About my weight loss
About my weight loss, I almost made my goal of 1 kg/week so I am happy about it. I was looking at my 2016 training google sheets data, and I noticed back in my prime those days (fall 2016 up to October second 2016) my weight was varying between 65-67 kg. That means if I want to get back to my prime and even faster than that, I have to lose over 20 kg of weight and get stable on that.
That’s not possible if I look at the weight loss process as a short term project. If everything goes perfect and I lose one kg per week, in the best scenario I would make my goal in 20 weeks and after that I have to get stable in that weight (not like last year that I gained back all what I lost and even 4kg more). Saying all of that, I want to remind myself that my new lifestyle (diet plus training) is my new normal for a long period of time.
Summary of this week’s activities
First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 5 run activities in this week. On Monday (18/05) I had a 5K run with the following averages: (5.01 K, 6:06 min/km, 170 bpm, 15m elevation gain). On Wednesday (20/05) I had a 5K run with the following averages: (5.01 K, 5:39 min/km, 175 bpm, 24m elevation gain). On Thursday (21/05) I had a 5K run with the following averages: (5.01 K, 5:37 min/km, 122 bpm, 12m elevation gain). Of course the average heart rate calculated by my Garmin watch’s wrist heart rate monitor was not accurate (122 bpm doesn’t mean anything). On Friday (22/05) I had a 5K run with the following averages: (5.01 K, 5:34 min/km, 166 bpm, 13m elevation gain). On Saturday (23/05) I had a 5K run with the following averages: (5.01 K, 5:29 min/km, 153 bpm, 48m elevation gain)
My weekly mileage this week was 25.05 K which was as desired. My training plan is four 5K runs one day rest and I had two days rest this week. Therefore my weekly mileage decreased to 25.05 K this week compared to last week’s 30.37 K weekly mileage. They are all good and I have to stay on this plan for at least four weeks before increasing my weekly mileage to avoid any sort of injury cause by over training.
VO2Max and comparing activities to see my improvement
My VO2Max this week calculated by my watch’s wrist heart rate monitor in my (Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday) activities were (44, 44, NA, 46, 48) ml/kg/min respectively. In order to see my improvement this week, I want to compare my activity on 22/05 with the following averages: (5.01 K, 5:34 min/km, 166 bpm, 13m elevation gain) with my activity on 17/05 with the following averages: (5.01 K, 6:15 min/km, 166 bpm, 17m elevation gain).
As we can see, all features of both runs i.e. distance, my effort and terrain are the same except my pace. I had 00:41 min/km i.e. 10.9% improvement in 5 days which is pretty good. Usually that huge improvement in such a short period of time just happens at the beginning of our training where our body hasn’t achieved it’s full potential yet.
First, let’s review summary of this week’s training: weekly mileage 30.37 km, weekly steps 103223 (14746 steps daily average), total weight loss so far 1.2 kg and this week’s weight loss 1.2 kg.
Summary of this week’s activities
First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 6 run activities in this week. On Monday (11/05) I had a 5K run with the following averages: (5.32 K, 8:17 min/km, 147 bpm, 83m elevation gain). On Tuesday (12/05) I had a 5K run with the following averages: (5.01 K, 6:24 min/km, 159 bpm, 20m elevation gain). On Wednesday (13/05) I had a 5K run with the following averages: (5.01 K, 6:13 min/km, 165 bpm, 18m elevation gain). On Friday (15/05) I had a 5K run with the following averages: (5.01 K, 6:19 min/km, 154 bpm, 22m elevation gain). On Saturday (16/05) I had a 5K run with the following averages: (5.01 K, 5:44 min/km, 170 bpm, 15m elevation gain). On Sunday (17/05) I had a 5K run with the following averages: (5.01 K , 6:15 min/km, 166 bpm, 17m elevation gain).
About my running and weight loss goals this summer
This summer, I set up a goal of losing 1 kg/week of my body weight through running activities and I made it in the first week. The difference between my losing weight this year and last year is in my exercises i.e. running vs walking.
2019 weight loss project: weight loss through walking
Last summer, I planned to get back to running but in the first step, I decided to lose weight because I was overweight and I didn’t know if it’s possible to start training while you are overweight. Also based on what I had read before, I thought it’s hard to lose weight through running activities.
I googled “running and lose weight” right now and at least two of the first few articles (this and this) are clearly indicating that running alone is not the best option for losing weight. Also I can remember from 2016 when I was close to my prime, that I took a break during my trainings to lose weight through dieting and walking a lot for better performance.
Why walking and not running
About the question of why walking and not running: the short answer for me was when you are running, you would burn calories faster and you would get hungry faster too and it works less effective for losing weight to run compared to walking.
Although my answer was not very scientific, anyways I had that impression in my mind, that walking works better for losing weight compared to running and therefore I decided to work with “diet and walking” rather than “diet and running”.
Therefore in a very difficult diet (it was my fist diet ever) during 18 weeks, I lost 12.5 kg (27.5 lb). After that difficult first step, my motivation for running decreased a lot. I tried to run a few times but I didn’t see a huge difference in my performance before and after losing weight. I also got busy with my job so I totally forgot about running.
While preparing for running was my main reason for losing weight, I didn’t take care of my weight after I stopped thinking about running and in my mind, I didn’t believe I was going to gain a lot of weight if I stopped caring about my weight and my diet. What happened in practice was totally different.
After I stopped my diet on 09/09/2019 until I again decided to get back to training and diet this week, I gained all what I lost in summer 2019, and even 4.2 kg more. In fact, on 07/05/2019 (beginning of my 2019 diet) I was 83.3 kg and on 10/05/2020 (beginning of my 2020 diet) I was 87.5 kg.
My 2020 goal: running and weight loss
This year, the story is totally different. My absolute first priority is getting back to my physical fitness and I know it takes a long time to gain back the physical fitness I lost during the past three years. I still don’t know how much it would work to lose weight with diet and running, but even if it’s not the most effective way for losing weight, I chose this over diet and walking because this time, running is the main factor for me not losing weight.
Getting advice of a qualified exercise professional
Having all of that in my mind, I gave a call to 811 to talk to a qualified exercise professional to advise me about a training plan. I have read a lot of books about different training plans but none of them is applicable for me because I am very slow right now. In terms of numbers, my last four 10K run times were 70, 69, 67, 68 minutes.
After talking to a qualified exercise professional, he told me that I am overthinking about this matter. He said it’s better just to start training and I also have to be careful about not getting injured by overtraining because I have been away from running for a long time. Due to my long distance walks of last year, I knew my body is OK with having 100’000 weekly steps. Therefore I set that as a constraint in my trainings, for beginning no more than 100’000 weekly steps.
building my training plan with 5K runs
I started my trainings with 5K runs and had it for four consecutive days. On the fifth day I felt that I needed one day rest and therefore I built my training plan this way: four day 5K runs and one day rest. I would continue with this training plan until I see I need to change it.
First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 5 run and 2 swim activities in this week. On Monday (04/07) I had a 3K easy run with the following averages: (3.01 K, 5:27 min/km, 146 bpm, 28m elevation gain) together with a 3K swim with average pace 2:19 min/100m. On Tuesday (05/07) I had a 3K easy run with the following averages: (3.01 K, 5:55 min/km, 136 bpm, 27m elevation gain) together with a 300m swim with average pace 2:12 min/100m. On Wednesday (06/07) I had a 15K easy run with the following averages: (15.01 K, 5:20 min/km, 154 bpm, 39m elevation gain). On Thursday (07/07) I had a 15K easy run with the following averages: (15.41 K, 5:34 min/km, 148 bpm, 107m elevation gain). On Sunday (10/07) I had a 16K easy run with the following averages: (16.00 K, 5:04 min/km, 163 bpm, 89m elevation gain).
My VO2Max this week in my (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday) activities were (51, 51, 51, 51, 51) ml/kg/min respectively. Also my weekly mileage this week was 52.4 km run and 3.3 km swim.
About individual activities
Monday run activity (04/07): It was an OK short run, I knew that I would able to run today, but it was hard to believe cause my little toe was extremely painful yesterday. I thought maybe it’s a good time to go for a long distance swim today, cause it wouldn’t affect my run and I am extremely happy to have a 3K long swim after awhile.
First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 6 run and 4 swim activities in this week. On Monday (27/06) I had a 15K easy run with the following averages: (15.16 K, 5:59 min/km, 133 bpm, 38m elevation gain). On Tuesday (28/06) I had a speed run 4×1200 with the following averages: (13.57 K, 5:42 min/km, 143 bpm, 45m elevation gain). On Wednesday (29/06) I had 15K easy run with the following averages: (15.23 K, 5:18 min/km, 153 bpm, 40m elevation gain) and a 300m swim with average pace 2:04 min/100m. On Thursday (30/06) I had a speed run 4×1200 with the following averages: (13.40 K, 5:40 min/km, 157 bpm, 44m elevation gain) and a 500m swim with average pace min/100m. On Friday (01/07) I had 15K easy run with the following averages: (15.02 K, 5:58 min/km, 144 bpm, 36m elevation gain) and a 400m swim with average pace 2:13 min/100m. On Sunday (03/07) I had 3K easy run with the following averages: (2.69 K, 10:54 min/km, 91 bpm, 30m elevation gain) and a 2K swim with average pace 2:23 min/100m.
My VO2Max this week in my (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Sunday) activities were (51, 51, 51, 51, 51, N/A) ml/kg/min respectively. Also my weekly mileage this week was 75.0 km run and 3.2 km swim.
About individual runs
On Monday (27/06): backpack through the entire run. 10 min Hot tub, 10 min Sauna. I was trying to have this run with the easiest possible pace in order to have enough energy to do the Tempo/Speed workouts of this week while keeping my weekly mileage. I have to be careful about dehydration by having enough water during the day (3-4 liters a day) and I also need to monitor my sleep and nutrition.
On Tuesday (28/06): 10 min Hot tub 5 min Sauna, Stretch later after run (in the pool, I should do it earlier). In the first interval, I was confused with the data screen of the workout in my watch (it wasn’t the same with what I had in my last speed workout), so I thought the watch doesn’t work properly and I just decided to complete a 12K easy run, after the first interval when the watch told me it’s recovery time I found that this is the way that it works, so technically it was a 3.5×1200 cause I had an easy run in the second part of the first interval. Again I was sleeping too much last not cause my body really needed that and when I scaled myself this morning I noticed that I gained weight 1-2 kg (I can’t exactly say how much did I gain weight cause there is a 1kg difference between my upper and lower weight). I was also surprised why I didn’t realize that before specially during my SOS workouts past couple of days. The reason was not clear to me and I was still thinking about it till I found it when I was in the way back home. Usually the imbalanced sleep/nutrition is the very first symptom of increasing intensity of workouts. In past, I was experiencing that immediately after I was increasing my weekly mileage and I was expecting that to happen 12 days ago as I mentioned this in the comment of this activity https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1214504547 . Usually when you experience overeating, you would gain weight. Apparently my body was feeling OK with the 90km weekly mileage but as soon as I added the SOS workouts to my weekly plan, the reaction of my body was oversleeping and overeating. Now I feel better when I know the reason of my imbalanced sleep/weight, I know that it’s temporarily and it would be back to normal in 7-10 days, but as a result of professional training, I try to lose weight mainly by not eating high calory foods until I feel that my body is adapted to the situaion.
Wednesday run activity (29/06): 2Kg backpack through the entire run. 10 min Hot tub 5 min Sauna. I immediately changed my diet by cutting off fat and sugar (even from my coffee and tea) and I’m gradually trying to change my diet to high protein-low calory foods to drop a couple of pounds. Im trying to drop 3.5Kg from what I scaled myself yesterday within 2-3 weeks. That’s what I was training with it last year. Fortunately my body would drop weight as easy as it gain it but it’s more difficult to do it without losing your strength while you are training. Finally my middle toe’s nail (left foot) was as lose as I took it out completely, now I feel more comfortable.
Wednesday swim activity (29/06): At the beginning of my marathon training, I added a 1km of daily swim to my schedule cause I thought 20 min of swimming won’t impact my daily training. Later I found in practice that it’s too much so I decreased it to 500m swim with a slower pace and then I finally decided to cut it off. Now again I’m trying to resume my swimming and at this point I feel that I’m OK with 200m-300m lap swimming per day or at least a few days a week. Past few days when I was in the pool just for pool exercises and not for swimming , gradually I started to feel strange with swimming and after awhile I was so reluctant to go for swim which is very bad, as a triathlete I really need to be comfortable with swimming all the time. I guess I need to clarify about the reasons of my daily swim here. I have three reasons for my daily swim based on it’s priority which are as following: the first one is for it’s advantage for my muscles both because it release stress from my muscles and also it activate my upper body muscles which are both awesome. The second reason is because it makes me happy for the rest of the day , even if it’s as short as a 300m lap swimming. Finally because it also prepare me for ironman triathlon race but that’s something that I never want to think about it at this moment. Preparing for a sub 3 hour marathon takes such a focus and mentality from me that I really dont want to (and I also can’t) think about anything else such as a traithlon race. The reminder for my daily swim is, it should be slow.I dont know why whenever I get into water I want to swim fast which usually won’t last more than a few minutes.
Thursday run activity (30/06): 10 min Hot tub, 5 min Sauna, Stretch after swim and Sauna (again I forgot to stretch right after the run) It was a very tough activity in a hot and sunny day along the busy sea wall. I experienced a new Max HR in the new set of my training which was 196 bpm. and it totally explains how hard was the workout today, I was totally wet after the run. In general it was a good speed run but at this point, I am not going to have more than two Speed (SOS) workouts per week cause I actually can not do it. Usually it’s recommended to slow down the pace in hot days or basically just train early in the morning during summer but I was busy this morning and I couldn’t do it in the morning so I had to run in the afternoon. Fortunately tomorrow is a holiday (it’s Canada day and congratulations to everyone:) ) and I can resume my regular morning training from tomorrow.
Thursday swim activity (30/06): Breathing every other cycle in an easy paced swim. Length lane was closed so I had to swim along the width. I don’t know why width swimming is much faster than length swimming. My ave. pace today was 1:50 min/100m and I am sure if it was a length swim it would be something around 2:10-2:15 min/100m
Friday run activity (01/07): 2Kg backpack through the entire run. My both knees are improving, first my right knee then the left one.
Friday swim activity (01/07): Breathing every other cycle. It was such a nice day that I got creative and find a theory to explain why I burned out from swimming in my daily schedule and what’s the right amount of swimming for my training plan, it’s all about the 10% rule. So far and before the new level of my training, the highest level of weekly workout that my body used to it was 8 hours weekly workout.Therefore based on the 10% rule, whenever I wanted to increase that level of training, I shouldn’t increase it more than 10% of 8 hours (8 hours and 48 min) and in a safe training plan, I should stay on 8 hours weekly workout at least for 4 weeks. 10% of 8hours weekly workout is equals to 48 min and with my regular swimming pace which is 2:10 min/100m , it is equals to 2.2Km weekly swim. So in a safe training plan I should add swimming to my weekly plan after week 4 and with a 360m (2.2km/6) daily swim. When I look at my excel analyze file, I can see that I burned out from swimming on July 22nd which is in week 2 of my training when the ratio of my swimming over my running was over 20% for a week. That totally make sense cause first I shouldn’t add swimming to my plan from week one and second my weekly swim shouldn’t be over than 10% of my weekly run where in my case it was 20%. Based on the above calculations, a 2.2Km weekly swim (360m daily swim) is safe for my training plan, and therefore I created a new colum in my excel analyze file for the ratio of my weekly swim over my weekly run and in future it shouldn’t be over 10%. I really got excited with the new discovery that I had today, good job!
On Sunday (03/07): It was an easy run/walk cause since last night I cannot even walk properly due to taking out the corn of my little toe (left leg). Awhile ago I had a blister in my little toe, I drained it in order to be able to run and it grow up larger the day after and I again drained it. Usually in that situation a corn will grow up in the position of that blister and it would remain there untill you take it out from the root (I have previously experienced this and I knew I can clean the surface of the corn which would make me ready to run but again after awhile I would have the same problem and apparently in the background the corn would get deeper but I’m not sure about the latter one) Having that in my mind, I decided to take out the corn from the root and since it was a bit deep, I cannot walk properly since last night. In my previous experience where the corn was deeper, I was able to run 36 hours after taking the corn out. I had an easy 3K run/walk ( I was running till I found that it’s absolutely impossible to run so I walked the rest of it) just to have an active (running) day and then in order to keep the weekly hours of my training, I had a 2K swim afterwards. I also had 14500 steps during the day which was a good step to make myself ready for my next run sooner. In general it was a very positive day which mentally prepared me that no matter what, I’ll continue my training and swimming is the best cross training for runners and triathletes.
First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 6 run and 2 swim activities in this week. On Monday (20/06) I had a 13K run (tempo 6K) with the following averages: (13.00 K, 5:07 min/km, 153 bpm, 29m elevation gain). On Tuesday (21/06) I had a 15K easy run with the following averages: (15.40 K, 5:13 min/km, 153 bpm, 36m elevation gain) and a 1K swim with average pace 2:09 min/100m. On Wednesday (22/06) I had a 15K easy run with the following averages: (15.13 K, 5:15 min/km, 151 bpm, 36m elevation gain) and a 500m swim with average pace 2:19 min/100m. On Thursday (23/06) I had a speed run 6×800 with the following averages: (15.20 K, 5:31 min/km, 148 bpm, 41m elevation gain). On Friday (24/06) I had a 12K easy run with the following averages: (12.14 K, 5:37 min/km, 142 bpm, 37m elevation gain). On Sunday (26/06) I had a 20K long run with the following averages: (20.01 K, 5:10 min/km, 156 bpm, 62m elevation gain).
My VO2Max this week in my (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Sunday) activities were (50, 50, 51, 51, 51, 51) ml/kg/min respectively. Also my weekly total this week was 90.8 km run and 1.5 km swim.
About individual runs
On Monday (20/06): Finally I shifted my training time to early morning. I decided to have a tempo run today and like always with 3.5K warm up and cool down each. I didn’t have a good idea about my pace for the tempo run at this level of my training so I just started to run and the only thing that I did was increasing my cadence. After 2K I looked at my watch and I noticed that ave. pace is 4:33 min/km so I decided to have the entire 10K tempo run around that pace. I successfully completed a 6K tempo run with that pace and after that I decided to finish the tempo run cause I was tired. This workout gave me a better idea about the appropriate pace I should train with right now. When I look at my Lap Ave. Cadence I can see that it’s (187,190,188) spm which is much higher than 180 spm.Unfortunately I forgot to add Ave. Lap Cadence to data screen of my watch and therefore I couldn’t keep it around 180 spm , hopefully next time. The final issue is my swim after the run. It’s almost impossible to train properly for the SOS workouts when you have a backpack with yourself and therefore I couldn’t have my swim after this run, I have to find a solution for this problem.
Tuesday run activity (21/06): 2Kg backpack through the entire run. The major improvement in this workout was improving my ave. running cadence to 178 spm which is pretty good. Also my heart is performing much better, Ave HR 153 bpm for ave. pace 5:13 min/km plus carrying a backpack.
Tuesday swim activity (21/06): Transition time: 17 min. 5 min pool stretching exercise , 10 min Hot tub, 5 min Sauna. When I swim after my training, my happiness is in a totally different level compared to the time that I can’t swim after my run.
Wednesday swim activity (22/06): Transition time: 23 min. Today for the first, I changed my swim breathing to every cycle instead of every other cycle and I significantly slow down my pace. The idea is I wanted to go for a speed run today but I wasn’t 100% sure this is the right time for this SOS workout after the tempo run the other day and I didn’t feel that it’s the right time neither. I was thinking if I slow down my swim, then it would be easier for my heart to do the speed workout tomorrow. 5min pool stretching exercise, 10 min Hot tub, 5 min Sauna.
On Thursday (23/06): In the first two speed intervals plus in the second Km of the cool down run, my heart was not comfortable with the run and it was hurting a bit (not sure if it was my heart, it was right under left side of my chess and the area around it). I see two possible reasons for that, one is because it was the first speed run of the season and my heart was not adapted to the situation and the evidence for that is because I didn’t have that problem in the next four intervals. The other reason is becuase of the intensity of my trainings. Past 7 days I was training 87 km run plus 4km swim where two of the runs were Tempo/Speed and three of the swims were relatively fast, as a result my body needed to sleep a lot last night for the recovery of my trainings. I have already made an adjustment in my training yesterday by slowing down my swimming pace and the immediate second adjustment is to temporarily stop swimming and also slow down the easy runs in a way that my weekly ave. pace and weekly ave. HR would decrease a bit. I would still go to pool everyday right after my run just for pool stretching and also using the Hot tub and Sauna which would be very useful for releasing the stress from my muscles and also making me very fresh for the rest of the day, but I wont swim to see how things would happen in future. As soon as things were settled down, I might gradually resume swimming too. Today: 10 min Hot tub, 5 min Sauna. I also want to mention that I planned to complete the speed run with the ave. pace 4:00 min/km that I succeefully did it. (Check out the update in the comment of next activity)
On Friday (24/06): 2Kg backpack through the entire run. 10 min Hot tub 5 min Sauna. Now I can say that possibly the pain in the left side of my chess is just a muscle pain and it’s not about my heart cause I had the same pain sometimes during the day in the right side of my chess. I also double checked my heart rate during my speed run in my recent workout compared to the last time I had speed run with the same speed and I actually found that my heart works better this time compared to the last time. This time my Max/Ave heart rate during the intervals was (179,178,181,181,184,186) bpm and (172,172,171,172,176,176) bpm respectively and the last time I had a “4×1200-400 recovery” speed run on Oct. 7th 2015 here: https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1151438278 my Max/Ave heart rate was (187,188,187,189) bpm and (181,181,179,181)bpm respectively, to be fair and complete in the comparisson my Ave. pace in the intervals this time vs last time is (4:01,4:04,4:02,4:03,3:51,4:00) min/km vs (3:54,3:52,3:55,3:55) min/km. Anyways I made an adjustment in my training plan and that looks to me pretty positive and I guess it was necessary.
On Sunday (26/06): 25 min Hot tub, 10 min Sauna (Later in the afternoon)
First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 5 run and 5 swim activities in this week. On Monday (13/06) I had a 12K easy run with the following averages: (12.10 K, 5:30 min/km, 158 bpm, 60m elevation gain) and a 1K swim with average pace 2:09 min/100m. On Wednesday (15/06) I had a 15K easy run with the following averages: (15.21 K, 5:14 min/km, 162 bpm, 39m elevation gain) and a 1K swim with average pace 2:12 min/100m. On Thursday (16/06) I had a 15K easy run with the following averages: (15.01 K, 5:07 min/km, 160 bpm, 34m elevation gain) and a 1K swim with average pace 2:11 min/100m. On Friday (17/06) I had a 16K run with the following averages: (16.27 K, 4:58 min/km, 169 bpm, 49m elevation gain) and a 1K swim with average pace 2:18 min/100m. On Saturday (18/06) I had an 11K easy run with the following averages: (11.23 K, 5:12 min/km, 157 bpm, 34m elevation gain) and a 500m swim with average pace 2:11 min/100m.
My VO2Max this week in my (Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday) activities were (48, 48, 49, 49, 49) ml/kg/min respectively. Also my weekly total this week was 69.8 km run plus 4.5 km swim.
About individual activities
Monday run activity (13/06): 2Kg backpack through the entire run.
Monday swim activity (13/06): Transition time: 11 min. I was pretty comfortable in my breathing (for swimming) after the long run and like always I was breathing in the entire swim every other cycle. I had a good improvement in my swimming technique (I’ll explain it later with a youtube video here) For a few days I was struggling in running and swimming at the same time cause some of my muscles are not active in one sport which is active in the other and it would take awhile to activate all necessary muscles. It seems that I’m almost comfortable now. In the swimming part I was mainly using my hands rather than my legs so the running part didn’t affect the swimming part that much and when I look at my overal pace it certify it as well (ave pace 2:09 min/100m almost the same as my general ave pace for swimming) I am still struggling with my lower backache but it’s getting much better by the exercises that I do in the pool and at home with my gym ball. In general I’m trying to approach 80 km weekly mileage by adjusting my pace (running with whatever pace that I feel comfortable with it) and then I’ll add the speed/hills workouts to improve my strength and speed.
Wednesday run activity (15/06): 2Kg backpack through the entire run. The very first symptom of increasing my weekly mileage is overeating, that’s the way my body reacts to it and I am aware of it. Past two days I was hungry all the time and I was eating as much as I could. Apparently things are back to normal today.
Wednesday swim activity (15/06): Transition time: 15 min. The water was warm (like indoor pool) and it was awesome to swim in an open pool when one side is stanley park and the other side is ocean. However, it was windy and cold outside and I had to immediately get out of pool when my swimming was done. The swimmers in the fast lane of second beach pool are very fast. I prefer to swim here when it’s very warm and I don’t want to exercise after my swimming in the pool or use the whirling pool.
Thursday run activity (16/06): Blister in my left little toe. 2Kg backpack through the entire run.
Friday run activity (17/06): 2Kg backpack through the entire run like always. I was feeling my left shoe is very tight for me because of the blister in my little toe (I drained the blister yesterday but it grow up in the same position, this time much larger). My thighs are still pretty heavy and I am not sure about the reason. Finally I reached the 80 km weekly mileage. I’ve heard from multiple resources that 6 months of training with 80 km weekly mileage included lots of hills/speed workouts is required for a sub three hour marathon. Gradually I’ll add the speed/hills workout to my plan but I still do not have a week by week plan for my training. I have to contact my connections to have a better idea about it.
Friday swim activity (17/06): Transition time: 16min. After the hard running workout today, my legs where as tired in swimming as I even couldn’t push the wall after each length and I was just using my hands.
Saturday run activity (18/06): 2Kg backpack through the entire run. Blister in the middle finger of my left foot.
First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 5 run and 2 swim activities in this week. On Thursday (09/06) I had a 3K easy run with the following averages: (3.00 K, 5:24 min/km, N/A bpm, 28m elevation gain), a 500m swim with average pace 2:08 min/100m and another 3K easy run with the following averages: (3.54 K, 5:20 min/km, 161 bpm, 32m elevation gain). On Friday (10/06) I had a 10K easy run with the following averages: (10.64 K, 5:07 min/km, 166 bpm, 98m elevation gain). On Saturday (11/06) I had a 10K easy run with the following averages: (10.50 K, 5:30 min/km, 160 bpm, 91m elevation gain). On Sunday (12/06) I had a 10K easy run with the following averages: (10.51 K, 5:41 min/km, 151 bpm, 99m elevation gain) and a 500m swim with average pace 2:05 min/100m.
My VO2Max this week in my (Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday) activities were (49, 49, 48, 48) ml/kg/min respectively. Also my weekly total this week was 38.2 km run plus 1.0 km swim.
First, let’s review my activities during these three weeks. I had 7 swim and 5 run activities in this period of time. On Wednesday (18/05) I had a 1K swim with average pace 2:15 min/100m. On Friday (20/05) I had a 2K swim with average pace 2:16 min/100m. On Sunday (22/05) I had a 2K swim with average pace 2:12 min/100m plus a fast 50m swim with average pace 1:31 min/100m. On Thursday (26/05) I had a 2K easy run with the following averages (2.45K, 5:23 min/km). On Saturday (28/05) I had a 2K swim with average pace 2:09 min/100m. On Sunday (29/05) I had a 2K swim with average pace 2:11 min/100m and a 3K easy run with the following averages: (3.03 K, 6:03 min/km). On Monday (30/05) I had a 2K easy run with the following averages: (2.60 K, 5:56 min/km). On Wednesday (01/06) I had a 2K easy run with the following averages: (2.55 K , 5:22 min/km), a 2K swim with average pace 2:11 min/100m and a 3K easy run with the following averages: (2.92 K, 5:15 min/km). My weekly total in week 3 was 5.1 km swim, in week 4 was 4.0 km swim plus 5.4 km run and in week 5 was 2.0 km swim plus 8.0 km run.
On Wednesday (01/06): Transition time: 17 min, a bit uncomfortable in my breathing in the run after my swimming. Should definitely monitor my heart rate in all possible activities in future and have a plan to adjust it (usually keeping it around 150 bpm unless it’s an intense activity)
After 2 years of training with Fenix 2, it was the exact right time to upgrade it to Fenix 3. Love every second of training with it ;))))) Photo Gallery
2015 Marathon Training (Feb-Nov 2015) Photo Gallery Training Excel Analyze File Training Calendar Part one of Training: Period: 23 Feb 2015- 28 Apr 2015 (9 weeks) Summary: 415.17 Km training Part two of Training: Hiking Period: 23 May 2015- 18 July 2015 (9 Weeks) Summary: 226.8 Km , elevation gain 7981 m Part Three of training: Period: 9 Aug 2015-20 Nov 2015 (15 Weeks) Summary: 725.44 km training, New Half Marathon Record: 1:35:59 (6 Sep 2015)
First, let’s review my activities during this week. I had 5 run and 1 hike activities in this week. On Monday (31/08) I had a 12K long run with the following averages: (12.14 K, 4:52 min/km, 165 bpm, 127m elevation gain). On Wednesday (02/09) I had a speed run 8×600 with the following averages: (15.06 K, 5:13 min/km, 160 bpm, 61m elevation gain). On Thursday (03/09) I had a 9K easy run with the following averages: (9.03 K, 5:34 min/km, 144 bpm, 81m elevation gain). On Friday (04/09) I had a 11K run (tempo 8K) with the following averages: (11.00 K, 5:05 min/km, N/A bpm, N/A elevation gain). On Saturday (05/09) I had a 16K hike with the following averages: (16.16 K, 10:42 min/km, 77 bpm, 166m elevation gain). On Sunday (06/09) I had a 21K run (half Marathon race) with the following averages: (21.11 K, 4:33 min/km, 178 bpm, 64m elevation gain).
My VO2Max this week in my (Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday) activities were (51, 51, 51, N/A, 51, 52) ml/kg/min respectively. Also my weekly mileage this week was 68.3 km run and 16.1 km hike.
About individual runs
On Monday (31/08): 6am run in a windy, cold, rainy morning, but who cares, it’s my daily schedule! I should specifically work on my cadence as it’s still too low (175spm vs 180spm that it should be) I should put the priority of my run on monitoring cadence and adjust other factors (HR and speed) afterwards. Usually cadence would directly impact on both of HR and speed and if you keep speed steady and try to increase cadence then your Ave HR would definitely increase and also if you try to increase cadence while keeping HR steady it would definitely decrease your speed. That analyse is specifically important while in the last 10K-5K of the marathon you are extremely tired, you possibly won’t have a perfect run and you should know how to manage the situation. That’s what I still don’t know how to manage it!
On Thursday (03/09): As I am increasing the intensity of the SOS runs, it’s mandotory for me to have a very easy paced run for the easy run. Usually when I get out for a easy run I would start having a relaxed run run with ave. pace below 5:10-5:15. By experienced I’ve found that with that approach I would get too tired in a couple of weeks and therefore I would adjust the SOS workout. It’s also mentioned in the Hanson’s training schedule that easy runs should have a 5:30-6:30 pace, so based on my experiences I asjusted the easy run to the appropriate one after the 4th km. The other point is after the hard workout of yesterday, I had a very deep sleep last night as I was too tired, but it was interesting that during the day I didn’t feel tired at all. and finally mornings are getting colder and colder, but it’s just for the first min that you get out of home and during the running it doesn’t bother at all.
On Friday (04/09): Watch didn’t work!
On Sunday (06/09): My new Half-Marathon record. I guess the whole idea of training hard 80km/6 days a week is to keep yourself mentally prepared for the last 5k/10k of the half/full marathon to keep running with your desired pace and not to give up,cause everyone knows the real race just starts at the last kilometers.
The Journey of a Lifetime Learner 