March by the numbers
Welcome to this month’s edition of By The Numbers, where I break down data from my watch and training log to reflect on the past month.
Each month, I track a few simple metrics—average sleep, daily steps, and total workouts. I’ve been doing this consistently for over two years, and it’s become one of the most useful tools I have for spotting trends, holding myself accountable, and fine-tuning habits. I highly recommend building a practice like this into your own routine.
Let’s get into it.
Steps
Total: 299,066
Daily Average: 9,647
Less than January (somehow) and more than February. Big spike coming for April as I continue ramping up for the Big A 50k.
Sleep
Average Sleep Score: 80
Average Duration: 6 hours 52 minutes
Feeling good about my sleep lately. Getting to bed at the right time. My HRV has been tanked for most of the month, but that actually makes sense. I’ve been ramping up the workouts and pushing it a bit more. And I learned a lot about how HRV affects me last year. Since sleep was good, my resting heart rate was normal and I would wake up with the desire to train, I would. If I wasn’t sleeping well, or my resting HR was also creeping up, I would make more adjustments. HRV reflects how well your nervous system is adapting to stress and recovery—and since my ramping up training, my body is under more stress. So it actually makes sense.
Wokrouts
Total: 22
Runs: 9
Gym: 10
Bike/Ergs: 3
A good month of training! I have been more consistent with my lifting and I’m feeling strong because of it. I kind of always feel like I’m falling behind with strength training, but a big part of this practice is to fact check what I think, and I’m doing all right. I was consistent with the trapbar deadlift. Did the Ergathon and all 3 CrossFit Open workouts and went on my longest run in months. A highly varied month of fitness.
Final Thoughts
I was learn a thing or two when I do this monthly reflection, which is why I always encourage you to build a similar practice. It’s an easy way to check in and see how you’re doing and where you may be able to improve. Thanks for reading!
—Justin Miner