April by the numbers
Welcome to this month’s edition of By The Numbers, where I take a look at the data my watch collected throughout April. I break down things like step count, sleep, and total workouts. I’ve been doing this monthly reflection for over 18 months now, and it’s been a powerful tool for understanding my habits, routines, and areas where I can improve. I highly recommend building a practice like this for yourself.
Steps
Total: 304,384 steps
Daily average: 10,146 steps
Finally cracked a 10k step daily average month! I don’t think that’s happened since September or October. I’m currently running 3–4 times per week, and most of my steps are coming from those sessions. I expect this number to keep creeping up as my running volume increases — not to mention more time outside playing with the kids as the weather improves.
Sleep
Average duration: 7 hours, 3 minutes
Average sleep score: 80
Sleep duration is up by 8 minutes compared to last month, while the sleep score held steady. I even hit my highest sleep score ever this month — a 95 — after a solid 8-hour night.
In April, I ran into a stretch of low heart rate variability (HRV), which often signals that recovery is lagging. I was training hard, so it made sense. At first, I was annoyed — I felt good despite the warning. But the HRV trend was basically saying: “You’re going to feel it soon if you don’t start recovering now.”
And it was right. While I kept training and still felt decent performance-wise, I began to notice disruptions in my sleep — waking up during the night or far too early. In hindsight, I can see the connection. Next time my HRV starts dropping, I’m going to take it more seriously and prioritize rest and sleep to get ahead of the curve.
Workouts
Total: 34
6 SkiErg sessions
15 runs / running workouts
2 bike workouts
11 lifts
April was a solid month of training — even with 10 days of low HRV and a minor turf toe situation. The plan for May is to continue building run volume. The simplest way I’m doing that is by hitting the trails twice per week. In April, I was averaging once a week. Bumping that up will help increase frequency, vertical gain, and time on feet — all good prep for the Mount Washington Road Race.
Thanks for reading along. As always, I encourage you to create a monthly practice like this to reflect on your health, fitness, and habits. The data is only helpful if you use it — and these check-ins help me stay accountable and informed.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain