It was 4am, the alarm on my Garmin was buzzing and I wasn't quite ready to open my eyes yet. I started to think about the day ahead of me, I knew there was a 5am track workout, an endurance spin class, a yoga session and an afternoon steady run on my training plan. I knew my kiddo had a math test and that he would be having a banana with honey along with scrambled eggs for breakfast. I knew that my wife would be taking a family member to a doctor’s appointment. I knew that there was coffee brewing because I could smell the aroma of the freshly ground beans........ It was time to open my eyes.

I looked at my Garmin,  the current temperature was 62F, perfect. The battery had 87% charge remaining, a happy surprise.  I looked over to the corner of my room, all of my running gear for the  morning run was ready to go, one less thing to worry about. Things were looking good: Let’s get this party started! I looked at my watch again, Body Battery 63……what, I looked again- yup it’s 63. If you’re not familiar with Garmin’s Body Battery feature, it’s a feature that uses a combination of heart rate variability, stress and activity to estimate a user’s energy reserves throughout the day. It’s designed to help you manage your personal energy resources around the clock, it means knowing when you are ready to benefit from a challenge and when taking it easy is the wise choice. 

I love running technology but learned that any single piece of data probably shouldn’t be used to make a decision. I began thinking about other data points that I had.

• I get plenty of sleep but the quality of that sleep isn’t very good so I’m in a constant state of experimentation to help make improvements.
• On a daily basis I drain my body battery down pretty low, often to the teens. 
• I perform my best when my body battery begins over 95.
• On a given night I can gain between 50 and 80 body battery points while sleeping.
• Knowing the workouts that I had on my plan for the day, if I started with a 63 I could get them done but would likely drain my body battery by the afternoon making it a challenge to complete the afternoon scheduled run.
• I knew that the next day, Friday,  I had a few light workouts on the plan and needed to start the day relatively charged if I wanted to preserve some charge and keep it high enough to begin Saturday morning over 95.
• I knew that my Saturday run was 19 miles- the long slow run on the weekend is my favorite run of the week. I knew that I didn't want to go into that run feeling low, work too hard on the run to get it done and end up resenting the run.

After processing all those thoughts, I knew that skipping the 5am scheduled track workout would be wise. I could sleep for a few more hours and pick up some more charge so that I could do a modified  run a bit later in the morning (The school tracks shut down to the public after 6:15am). I knew that great smelling cup of coffee would be there when I woke up and that I could structure the rest of my workouts in a way that let me use my existing charge but not drain it completely.

It worked, after sleeping for a few extra hours my body battery climbed to 80, that’s a 27% gain and I’ll take it. I shifted the 35 minute track workout to a 25 min Heart Rate Zone 4 Threshold run. I also dialed back the intensity during the endurance spin class to maintain some charge. I adjusted my afternoon steady run to a group run instead of going out solo (If you aren't doing group runs don't be afraid to give it a shot. Things are much easier when surrounded by like minded people). I went to bed a little earlier than normal on Thursday to set myself up on Friday morning.

When you're training, it's important to keep the bigger picture in mind and remember that every workout is a block of effort for the next workout to stack onto. It's also important to remain flexible and be in tune enough with your body to know what it needs.

If you're looking for coaching visit TrueZoneCoaching.com for information on our program.

Until next time, make it great!