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.