My Training Graphs

Graph of My Wakeup Heart Rate

My wakeup heart rate (HR) is elevated when I'm tired. I can be tired from overtraining or from lack of sleep. The actual-values curve shows my HR on a day by day basis. The trend line, a seven-day moving average, shows the change in my HR over time. The relationship between the trend curve and the actual curve can be used as a gage of my body condition. If the actual curve is below the trend curve, I'm more rested than I was during the previous seven days. When the actual curve crosses above the trend, I'm tired and need more rest.

Another important observation to make is whether the actual curve is more or less steady or is flip flopping between higher and lower values. When I'm rested, the curve is more or less steady with smaller variations.

On May 19, 2021 I was in a serious auto accident. After four weeks in intensive care I had to learn to walk again. While I was in the intensive care unit of the hospital, my HR was in triple digits. During 10 days of hospital therapy, my HR dropped to the high 90s. During a month of home therapy after I left the hospital, my HR came down even further. After I completed the home therapy, I began my running, doing 1/8 mile the first day. As I recover from the accident and regain my strength, my HR is continuing to decrease, and it is now close to its value before the accident. This confirms my belief that HR is a good indicator of my body condition.

My goal in graphing my wakeup HR was to show that wakeup HR is a good indicator of ones body condition. My graph shows that my wakeup HR increases with lack of sleep, colds, and surgery. My wakeup decreases with proper sleep and with consistent running. The graph shows that 9 months after I left the hospital, my wakeup HR was not quite down to the level it was before the accident, indicating that I still didn't have the energy level I had before the accident.

I've reached my goal for making the graph, and I'm not updating the graph any more.

Graph of My Training Distance

I'm following the 10% rule in my training. Every week or so, I add approximately 10% to the distance of my training runs. I stay at the new level until I feel comfortable with it. Since I'm running three times a week, I increase my distance every 3 - 6 runs, depending how I feel.

When my distance reached 6 miles, I added a fourth day. The fourth day is a light day. When it reaches 50% of my heavy days, I'll add another light day, for 5 running days per week. When the 5th day reaches 50% of my heavy runs, I'll begin my marathon training by increasing one of my heavy days out to 15 miles. The other heavy days will be increased to 8 or 9 miles, and the light days will follow at 50% of the two shorter heavy days.

On May 19, 2021 I was in a serious automobile accident. After 4 1/2 weeks in a hospital bed, my leg muscles had weakened to the point where I couldn't stand up much less walk. I was in hospital therapy for 1 1/2 weeks. During that time I progressed from a wheel chair to a walker, to a cane, and finally to walking by myself. When I left the hospital I could walk pretty good, but I needed a banister to go up and down stairs--the problem was both balance and muscle strength. I received home therapy for a month that focused on strengthening my legs and improving my balance. When I finished that therapy I was able to traverse stairs without using a banister.

During the month of home therapy, my wife and I walked about a mile several times. My first run was on August 12, 2004 and I did 1/8 mile at a slow jog. I was pretty tired at the end. I'm documenting in my blog my progress in running longer distances. I'm being careful to not overdo it.

The purpose of this graph is to illustrate the heavy/light and 10% rules of running. I've reached that goal, and I'm not updating the graph any more.

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