Training Diary Nov 12th - 18th.

Monday Nov 12th. HRV=74. Green

A good start to the week and makes me think I made the right decision yesterday.  Lunchtime run of 10K which doubled up as a *MAF test (Maximum Aerobic Function) and the result showed my Aerobic fitness is down on what it was when last tested.  Had an opportunity to run again and made the most of a free 45 minutes by running a steady 10K.

Plan for tomorrow is an early strength session of mainly squats and a lunchtime or evening recovery run.

Tuesday Nov 13th. HRV=72. White

Early morning strength session consisting of 5 sets of 3 (1 ¼)Squats with 50Kg and 5 sets of 3 Strict Press with 37.5Kg.  A big increase from last week and I’m now back on track with my strength work.  Evening recovery run started ok but started to feel a bit nauseous after less than 3K.  Decreased the effort but shortly after climbing a hill at 8K I had to stop and threw up.  Felt ok almost immediately but thought it best to walk rest of way.  Appetite suppressed and a bad finish to a good day.

My plan for tomorrow has changed from running a 5K race to marshalling at the race instead.  No definite run planned and I’ll take what I can get.

Wednesday Nov 14th. HRV=63.2  White

Expected a low result after last night but apart from that I’m feeling ok.  Lunchtime recovery run of 8K keeping my HR below 130bpm, feeling good.  Busy night ahead as Senior Marshal for the Mark Pollock ‘Run in the Dark’ 5K & 10K.

Plan for tomorrow is an early strength session of Power Clean & Deadlifting and a lunchtime run of 8-10K or a running commute home depending on how I feel.

Thursday Nov 15th. HRV=74.5 White

Late night before an early morning and was tired getting out of bed.  This is the time when having a definite session planned makes all the difference as it stopped me from hitting the snooze button.  Early morning strength session consisting of  3*3 Power Clean @ 42.5Kg and 3*3 Deadlift @ 80Kg alternating with a set of max chin ups.  Tried a heavier weight with the Power Clean but couldn’t get it.  Have the DOMS since Tuesday and can feel a knot in my left calf.  Lunchtime recovery / easy run of 4K to loosen out the legs and followed that with an easy to steady 10K

Plan for tomorrow is a lunchtime meeting with the ‘Black Ice Race Team’ followed by recovery paced run to part 3 of a coaching course after work (same as last week).

Friday Nov 16th. HRV=67 White

Lunchtime meeting regarding the Siberian Black Ice Race.  Easy paced run of 40 minutes to part 3 of coaching course.  Spent 2-hrs outdoors doing running drills and getting cold.  Had an offer of a lift home and took it.

Plan for tomorrow is same as last week with a 1hr run to part 4 of my coaching course and might run home depending on how I feel.

Saturday Nov 17th. HRV=73 White

As planned with an easy paced run to and from my coaching course.

Plan for tomorrow is an early start for a 65K run along the Royal Canal from Mullingar to Leixlip.

Sunday Nov 18th. HRV=71 White

Up at 3am for a drive to Mullingar to run 65K back along the canal.  Run went as planned and finished without any issues.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/244443109

Weekly Summary

Blue line is starting to curve upwards again and I’m starting to feel like I’m getting back on form.

Plan for next week is to get back into a regular routine and include some speedwork to prepare for a possible 10K cross 

Siberian Black Ice Race minus 105 days.

Finished off the week with a long run along the Royal Canal starting from Mullingar and finishing as it passed through Leixlip.

ithlete HRV Training Diary 5 – 11 Nov

Monday Nov 05th. HRV=76

Normal training will resume. Couldn’t make it to my strength session so I altered my run plan to make the most of the available time. Recovery run of 5K followed by a later Tempo Run of 13K with the middle 10K in under 40 minutes. Took a while to warm up as I’m starting to feel the drop in air temperature but once I got going it felt great. Could have kept going but once I hit TE 4 (Training Effect) on my Suunto Heart Rate Monitor I took the foot off the accelerator and cruised home. The higher the TE then the longer the recovery and because I want to train tomorrow there’s nothing to be gained from doing more than I need to.

Plan for tomorrow is an early strength session of mainly squats and the run will be time dependent.

Tuesday Nov 06th. HRV=74

A slight drop since yesterday but It’s higher than expected after the intensity of yesterday’s run which I’m happy with. Strength Session consisted on 5 sets of 3 (1 ¼)Squats with 40Kg and 5 sets of 3 Strict Press with 30Kg. This is a slight reduction in lifted weight but sometimes you need to take a step back before going forward. No time for a run as life got in the way.

Plan for tomorrow is a lunchtime run followed by a running commute home.

Wednesday Nov 07th. HRV=72

Change of plan today as my wife & daughter are both sick and I had to leave work early. Barely managed to get out for a run and made the most of an available hour with a Tempo Run similar to Monday while my son was training.

Plan for tomorrow is a lunchtime strength session of mainly Power Clean and an evening running commute home. Hoping I don’t get sick..

Thursday Nov 08th. HRV=60 Amber

Expected after yesterday’s run but didn’t think it would be so low. Lunchtime strength session of 3*3 Power Clean @ 42.5Kg and 5*3 Deadlift @ 80Kg. Really liking the Power Clean but still haven’t got the hang of it.  Running commute home at recovery pace because of low HRV score and finished off the evening with 2hrs coaching which gave me the opportunity to do some stretching. The low score has me wondering if I’ve caught the bug that my wife and daughter have.

Provisional plan for tomorrow is a recovery paced run to part 1 of a coaching course after work. Luckily the course is being held at a venue that I pass on my way home.

Friday Nov 09th. HRV=74 White

Signs of recovery. Easy paced run of 40 minutes to part 1 of coaching course. Spent 2-hrs outdoors doing running drills and getting cold. Had an offer of a lift home and took it.

Plan for tomorrow is a 1hr run to part 2 of my coaching course and might run home depending on how I feel.

Saturday Nov 10th. HRV=76 White

As planned with an easy paced run too and from my coaching course. Spent most of the day outdoors and wasn’t properly dressed for the cold. Didn’t have enough to eat during the day and by the time I got home I was starving. Ate mostly junk before going out for a few drinks.

Plan for tomorrow is a medium long run off approx 2hrs. Intensity will depend on HRV result and I’ll follow a flattish route to focus on leg turnover and speed rather than just strength.

Sunday Nov 11th. HRV= 55 Amber

Totally unexpected even after last night as I still got to bed before midnight and had a lie in. Probably should have taken a full day of rest but found it hard not to run and went for a disciplined 40 minute recovery run keeping my HR under 120 bpm.

Weekly Summary

Not a great week but I’ve made the most of my available time and could really feel the difference when I went back to the Gym after missing last week’s sessions.

I’ve started to add a training load to my daily results and would have used this function previously but forgot about it. My method of calculating the TL (Training Load) is by using TE (Training Effect) from my prioritised daily run session. TE is measured on a scale of 1.0-5.0 and for my TL I have TE 5.0 =100 so I’d record a  TE of 3.2 as 64.  For training I use a Suunto T6D & Garmin 610 both of which measure TE. http://www.suunto.com/global/sports/fitness-and-endurance/Training-terminology/training-effect

Plan for next week is to get back on track and increase my long run distance to 60K following on from the Marathon.

For further information check out my ithlete case study.

ithlete HRV Training Diary 29 Oct – 4 Nov

Marathon Day Monday Oct 29th. HRV=62 Amber

Not unusual and I’m putting this down to pre race nerves. I’m not racing today but instead I have the responsibility of running as the sub 3hr30 pace maker with the brief being to finish within 30 seconds of 3:29.30.

As you can see from my Garmin data  here the Marathon went as planned and I finished in 3:29.17.

Provisional plan for tomorrow is an easy run of 10-20K.

Tuesday Oct 30th. HRV=87 Amber

Even though the HRV score is high it came with an Amber warning so I decided to err on the side of caution and change my original plan to an early recovery run of 4K followed by a second easy run of 10K.

Provisional plan for tomorrow is an interval session of 6*400 M in 72-74 seconds to work on my speed ahead of a 5K on Nov 14th. This will of course depend on my morning test result.

Wednesday Oct 31st. HRV=73 White

Seems like all is back to normal.  Weather not ideal for my interval session and didn’t hit my planned times for any of the 6 reps. Felt like quitting after 4 but I’ve had that feeling before and the trick is to not quit but recover. Finished the session and my times in seconds were 82, 78, 78, 76, 81 and 77.
Provisional plan for tomorrow is an easy to steady 10K depending on how I feel.

Thursday Nov 01st. HRV=65 Amber

Totally unexpected and I’m guessing it could be the wine I had last night? Took the morning off and a second test in the afternoon gave a HRV score of 80. Took this as a ticket to run and did an easy to steady 8K in the rain.
Provisional plan for tomorrow is a short recovery run / mid morning strength session and an easy 10K with 6*1 minute fast.

Friday Nov 02nd. HRV=63 Red

Plan changed! Cancelled both runs and did an easier than usual strength session consisting of 400M Row, 21 Kettle Bell swings (12Kg) and 12* TRX upright rowing repeated 3 times after warm up.
Provisional plan for tomorrow is a 1hr recovery run before breakfast and if HRV shows recovery then I’ll add a 1hr Tempo run in the afternoon / evening.

Saturday Nov 03rd. HRV=64 White

Although it showed a slight increase I thought it best to rest today.  There’s no point having the technology if all you do is look at it rather than use it.

Provisional plan for tomorrow is a long run from road to trail to include some hill repeats.  Intensity will depend on HRV result but I’ll run regardless as part of the session is coaching.

Sunday Nov 04th HRV=69

Showing signs of recovery so today went as planned.  After a long warm up I ran Hill Reps of 6*1 minute fast with 1 minute recovery and after a short break I repeated the session at a lower intensity.

Plan for tomorrow is a lunchtime strength session followed by an evening running commute to a meeting with Athletics Ireland and then a run home.

Weekly Summary

Blue line is still dipping slightly and maybe I haven’t fully recovered from how I was feeling last week. The week started off well with the Dublin Marathon but apart from that it wasn’t great.  I had the week off work as the kids were on midterm break but rather than being a week of rest I was out of my usual routine and my diet and sleep suffered which I think has shown up in my HRV scores.  I’m not looking forward to going back to work but I am looking forward to getting back into a regular routine.

ithlete HRV Training Diary 22-28 October

Monday 22^nd October:  HRV = 74

Higher than expected after 3 back to back steady runs and less than adequate recovery over the weekend.  Lunchtime strength session of mostly squats and the lifted weight has increased by 2.5Kg per rep.  Had a Team meeting after work regarding the Black Ice Race and then a running commute home of 20K which wasn’t very enjoyable.  I’d forgotten what it was like to run alongside busy roads in the dark.

Provisional plan for tomorrow is an early strength session of mostly Power Clean and an evening Tempo run making the most of a free hour while my daughter is at training.  My gym session starts at 8am and I’m wondering if it would be counterproductive to run the 20k to the gym?

Tuesday 23^rd October: HRV= 74

Again higher than expected after yesterday’s sessions.  Early Gym session which consisted of Power Clean (5 sets of 3 reps at 45Kg), Strict Press (4 sets of 3 reps at 35Kg) and some core work.  Slight increase in my lifted weight and I felt it.  Almost a repeat of last week and just barely managed to fit in a run.  It was late when I got out and had to settle for an easy 5K using a head torch.

Plan for tomorrow is provisionally a lunchtime recovery paced run followed by a running commute home at my Marathon pacing pace and then.

Wednesday 24^th October: HRV=69 Amber

Wasn’t expecting this and decided to skip the lunchtime run and instead of my longer commute home I ran a shorter local run of 12K  keeping my HR below 130bpm.

Provisional plan for tomorrow is an early strength session of mostly Deadlifting and my HRV score will determine whether I run or rest.

Thursday 25^th October: HRV=65.5 Red

Even though I got Amber yesterday I wasn’t expecting this as I feel fine but this is why I measure my HRV as it gives an advance warning.  Plan for today has changed.  I’ll still do my Gym session but won’t run.  It’s too close to the Marathon to take chances.

Strength Session of 5*3 Deadlift at 60Kg and 3* 10 Squats at 40Kg with some core work.

Friday 26^th October: HRV=73

Back to normal but HR seems a bit high so I’ll proceed with caution.

Plan for weekend is undecided and will depend on HRV and muscle fatigue.  I’ll only do what I can recover from as I want to be on form for the Marathon on Monday.

Saturday 27^th October: HRV=73.5

Heart Rate back to normal.  Took it easy today as I had too much to do including a visit to the Marathon expo to collect my race number.  Ran 6K at easy pace with 6*1 minute fast.  Clocks go back tonight and I’m looking forward to the lie in.

Sunday 28^st October: HRV=76

The signs are good for tomorrow and I now wish I was racing it.  Was asked to run with 2 lads today doing 6 Marathons in 6 days for the Alzheimer’s Society and because of my lie in I ended up running a bit longer than planned.  30K with 6* 1 minute fast to loosen out my legs before meeting the lads.  Back to the expo today to meet some friends.

ithlete HRV Summary

A slight dip in my blue (base) line this week and because I know it’s not training related I expect it’s an early warning of a cold / flu.  After getting the Red line on Thursday I adjusted my training because the added responsibility of pacing the Marathon on Monday means I’m committed to run regardless of how I feel. Judging by my HRV result of 76 on Sunday it would seem that I made the right adjustment to my training midweek.

For further information check out my ithlete case study.