Running notes · Aug 12, 2026
I stopped treating every run like a performance review
Two similar runs gave me a bad score and a useful clue. The difference was the question I asked when I opened the data.
The spreadsheet with shoes
My first instinct with any new activity is to measure it. Running gave me pace, distance, heart rate, cadence, zones, and weekly totals. My brain kept trying to turn the whole thing into a spreadsheet with shoes.
Soon every run had to prove something. I would finish, open the data, and start the performance review. A slower pace looked like a bad result. A high heart rate looked like poor preparation. Even an ordinary run could leave me feeling that I had failed an exam nobody had asked me to take.
A run the spreadsheet would fail
On July 15, I covered 2.44 kilometres in 18:46, at 7'40"/km, with an average heart rate of 159 bpm. Only about 12 percent of the run landed in Zones 1–2. By the numbers I had been chasing, it wasn't an easy run.
Most of it still felt hard. For a short stretch, though, I stopped thinking about work, pace, and whether I was doing running correctly. I noticed my feet landing, the sweat on my face, the sun, and the breeze. During the slow walk afterward, completely drenched, I felt surprisingly relaxed.
The comparison I almost missed
On July 13, I had run a similar distance at 8'02"/km with an average heart rate of 163 bpm. Two days later I went slightly farther, ran faster, and finished with a lower average heart rate. The change was small, but it matched what I had felt while running.
Technically, the July 15 run still wasn't easy. Beside the July 13 run, it showed that the same kind of effort was becoming a little less hostile.
A smaller performance review
I still open the data after a run. Now I start with a similar distance or the last few runs in the same range. I check what moved and whether the change matches what I felt outside.
This is also what I want Health Run to remember for me. A single result can look disappointing on its own. Put it beside my recent runs and it may show that the heart rate cost a little less or the same distance felt more manageable.
That 2.44-kilometre run still wasn't easy. On the walk afterward, I didn't feel as if I had failed it.