My Actifit Report Card: February 4 2025: Field of Dreams

Yesterday, I went running at my local park and decided to do some interval training around the baseball / softball field hence the Field of Dreams reference.

My goal was to sprint and lap and then jog a lap. This proved to be much more ambitious than I had surmised as I was left fairly winded before I would even reach the last corner towards the curved section. During the run, I felt my times were fairly mediocre in terms of pace. As it would turn out, I would end up running my fastest 5k that I have tracked on my Galaxy Watch so there's that which is nice.

During and after this run, I learned a couple of vital things that I was not aware. First, I was taught that running on concrete can cause chinsplints so I generally try to run on softer surfaces such as grass when possible. What I did not know is this contributes to slower speeds so actually my times may have been even better had I been running on a track for example. It should be intuitive when you think about it. The surface area is less uniform and the foots contact may be less consistent as a result. I still will generally opt for softer surfaces but I'm gonna give myself a bit more levity in regards to pace / time.

The second thing I learned is about VO₂ Max. Let's just say it hasn't been looking great but there's a catch. After some research, I discovered to get an accurate VO₂ Max reading that you must run at least 4 kilometers and (here's the clincher) it should be on a flat surface. I would say that was the case for most of the run that is until the last mile stretch which includes a pretty hefty hill. That being said, I don't know for certain how skewed my results had been but I think I will try a track run in order to get a more accurate reading in the near future. This will be most likely next week as I had a certain park in mind for this Thursday.

Trash Pickup

In keeping with the previous theme of my pre-40s run series of 2025, it's time to take out the trash! 🚮

*Removed Smirnoff beverage that someone had fashioned as an impromptu tree ornament"

Empty plastic bottle? Not on my watch!

Random paper? We don't know if perhaps there was a secret message written in invisible ink.🤔

Now we will never know! 👋

It was a good run. Put in 4 miles and then walked a mile. Here are the stats:

I will leave you with this image of the sunset.

Thanks for stopping by ✌️
This report was published via Actifit app (Android | iOS). Check out the original version here on actifit.io

04/02/2025

17271

Jogging, Running