I was hopeful that this was going to be a fairly good week since my project went live and we would be in maintenance mode for our warranty period. However, I had no such luck. For the most part, my work days were extremely long as usual, and from working over the weekend, I was mentally exhausted starting the week. This carried on throughout the week. As always though, I still push myself to do the best I can and modify my workout schedule where needed.

I saw some interesting heart rate trends, which I will cover in more detail below. The gist is that my average heart rate is dramatically different based on the time of day I run. I will continue to review my trends, but it’s clear that my mental stress weighs heavily on my runs, as well as the physical exhaustion from not getting enough sleep coupled with extremely long work days. Crossing my fingers that things will be better next week.

Monday 3/1

It was no surprise my week started off rough. Something always comes up the day after Go-Live weekend. So, as usual, I still didn’t get done work until late. I really wanted to run though, so I decided that instead of my Nike Run Club plan for a 4.5 mile endurance run, I would do my Tuesday speed workout of 4 x 500 meters. I decided to push myself a little and went at 7.4 mph. However, that was a bit much and I back down to 7.0 mph. It appears I was a bit more tired from my day than I thought. I still got it done and felt good.

To help cool down further, I did a 5 minute Apple Fitness+ workout, Mindful Cooldown with Gregg. As with all of the mindful cool down routines, it was very relaxing and felt really good. I could see yoga and mindful cool down routines as a 5 or more times a week routine in the near future.

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Tuesday 3/2

I was hoping to get my Monday 4.5 mile endurance run in today, but I wasn’t done work until even later. I still wanted to get in a decent workout, so I did a 65 minute trainer ride. I didn’t actually plan on riding this long, but I got lost in watching some good shows. Overall it was an awesome way to calm down from a rough day.

Wednesday 3/3

For my rest day, I did another trainer ride. I had wanted to do a strength routine, but another day finishing up work real late and I was too tired for almost anything. It was a struggle to even do my trainer ride. I still got it done though! I complete a 46 minute ride and although I was mentally doing a little better, my whole body was achy. I had considered doing some yoga, but I was too hungry and decided to get some dinner and get to bed.

Thursday 3/4

Today’s NRC workout called for a 7 x 200 meter speed workout. For a change, I had time to workout at lunch, so I had a bit more energy than usual. Since my overall mileage has been low lately, I decided I would try and fit in my Monday’s 4.5 mile endurance run. With my NTC warm-up and my 5 minute warm-up walk, I ended up only having enough time to get in 4 miles. However, I felt really good from the run and my heart rate was a lot closer to the range it used to be.

Based on the trends I have been seeing, my heart when I run in the afternoon or right after work (when I actually finish at 5pm) versus my typical later runs is dramatically different. For afternoon or right after work my HR for an endurance pace seems to be in the 120 BPM range. However, the same run but later at night would put me around 145-150 BPM. To clarify endurance for me, that means Galloway intervals of 2 minutes running at 6 mph, then 30 seconds walking at 3 mph. I am interested to see what my average HR looks like now once I can get back to a normal work schedule.

Friday 3/5

As with most Fridays, we did our house cleaning. Because of this, I did not do my NTC workout. I still got in a short 23 minute trainer ride to close my rings for Apple Health. My plan was to do some yoga, but cleaning took a bit longer than usual because of how late we started, so I didn’t even get to workout until after 11:30pm. Since we were not done cleaning yet when I went to work out, I just wanted to do something quick that would close my rings.

Saturday 3/6

The planned long run for today was 8.75 miles. However, I didn’t get my run in early and we had plans that night, so I only got in 6 miles. Despite ending early due to time, I was also having issues with my HR jumping around a lot. You can see in the HR chart that my walking intervals would drop down to around 100 BPM, but my running segments would then spike up immediately to the mid to upper 130’s. Based on what I saw with my Thursday run, it makes sense that working out later seems to impact my overall heart rate during the run. However, this sort of variance between the run/walk intervals was a lot more dramatic than usual, and I definitely felt it. Twice during the run I had to walk for not one, but two of my run intervals. Based on this trend, I am really going to try and start getting in my runs earlier.

Sunday 3/7

After my rough Sunday long run, I need to loosen things up but still work on building myself up. Therefore, I started off with my core strength routine. As usual, I did bar hang, push-ups, squats, Russian twists, and laying arm/leg extensions. My grip strength is still horrible, so I am considering adding some grip workouts in the future. Apple Fitness+ has been advertising quick core workouts, so I decided to try out Core with Sam, a 5 minute core workout. Overall, it was decent for only 5 minutes. However, it was more like a quick dynamic warm-up. I’ll probably not do anything that short for core. After that, I did a 10 minute yoga session. I did the Apple Fitness+ Yoga with Jessica workout and it was so nice. It focused on my legs and lower back, which were pretty tight from my Saturday long run. Finally, to shake out my legs I hopped onto the trainer for about 15 minutes. I went with a lower resistance but higher cadence.

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