Date: 1/30/21
Training Day: 8
Miles: 5 (long run)
Time: 49 min
Shoes: Brooks Adrenaline GTS 21
Weather: 30°F, windy with snow on and off
Strength Training: Back

How It Felt: After mile three I felt freaking fantastic! I felt like I could keep on running for miles and miles. It was also nice to get outside to see what my natural pace is instead of what I programmed into the treadmill. The back workout went alright, wasn’t too hard, wasn’t too easy. You know, run of the mill workout.

Commentary: The beginning of the run the wind froze me, well, froze my face. Once the path took me out of the wind, I felt better, but still not great. When my Fitbit told me I was only halfway I began to doubt whether long distance running was still for me. Then after about mile three that runner’s high kicked in, my body felt good, and I looked forward to knocking out a couple more miles.

Back in November I bought a Fitbit to keep track of my steps, heart rate, and to get a general idea of how active I was during the day. Then I discovered the Sleep Score feature and all the different metrics it provides. The stat I like the most is restoration because it shows how my sleeping heart rate (SHR) compares to my resting heart rate (RHR).

As I paid more attention to this restoration stat, I noticed that the night I drank alcohol my SHR was way above my RHR. This encouraged me to drink less so my body could restore itself more while I slept. Lately, I’ve noticed my SHR is consistently higher than my RHR, whether I drink alcohol or not. I attributed this to feeling a wee under the weather. Then it went back down to below RHR again. And last night it went back up. Hmm…

In an effort to uncover the cause of this mysterious SHR vs RHR conundrum, I plan to track EVERYTHING about my day. I’m talking food, drink, activities, feelings – EVERYTHING. Does this seem a little obsessive and unreasonable? Probably. But I’m a nerd, and shit like this is what I live for.

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