Week 37: training and analysis — race week

Week 37 (7–13 Sep) was built around recovering from the flu and Saturday’s 10 km race. The race itself — Helsinki Midnight Run 2026 — got its own dedicated race report; here’s the whole week around it.

This week’s sessions

Day	Type	Duration	Distance	Pace	Avg / Max HR	Calories
Mon 7 Sep	Running	43.3 min	6.99 km	6:11 min/km (avg)*	158 / 184	589 kcal
Tue 8 Sep	Combo: Gym + Rowing + Running + Cycling	55.8 min	1.04 km†	–	137 / 160	516 kcal
Wed 9 Sep (evening 1)	Cycling	45.9 min	7.13 km	4:19 min/km	111 / 147	200 kcal
Wed 9 Sep (evening 2)	Cycling	81.8 min	19.47 km	3:43 min/km	127 / 151	559 kcal
Thu 10 Sep	Combo: Running + Walking	32.3 min	3.81 km†	–	141 / 166	297 kcal
Fri 11 Sep	Three light parts: Cycling + Walking/Rowing + Cycling	57.7 min	8.54 km†	–	108–119	419 kcal
Sat 12 Sep	Walking (warm-up)	23.6 min	1.61 km	14:40 min/km	106 / 124	109 kcal
Sat 12 Sep	Running — Helsinki Midnight Run 10 km	57.9 min	10.13 km	5:43 min/km	167 / 180	821 kcal
Sun 13 Sep	(recovery day, no session logged yet)

Weekly total (Mon–Sat): 398.3 min (about 6 h 38 min) of exercise, 58.72 km covered, 3,510 kcal of active energy burned — clearly heavier than week 36, fitting for a race week.

* Monday’s 6:11 min/km is the whole session’s average pace — the real structure (warm-up, a long tempo segment, a finishing surge) is broken down below. † A combo day’s distance is the sum of its parts.

Monday’s hard tempo + finishing surge

Monday’s run (43.3 min, 6.99 km) was the week’s hardest single non-race session. The second-by-second data reveals four phases:

Phase	Duration	Distance	Pace	Avg HR	Max HR
Warm-up	5.00 min	656 m	7:37 min/km	132	144
Tempo build	31.50 min	5,338 m	5:54 min/km	161	169
Late-run ease-off	4.25 min	519 m	8:11 min/km	154	162
Finishing kick	2.75 min	479 m	5:44 min/km	175	183

This was thus a long, near-threshold tempo segment ending in a finishing kick that reached near-max heart rate (183) — a hard stimulus right after the flu week, but one that turned out, in hindsight, to be a good predictor of Saturday’s race pace (see the race report).

Tuesday and Thursday: varied, lighter days

Tuesday’s four-part combo (41.8 min gym + 1.7 min rowing + 9.7 min running + 2.3 min cycling) was a clearly lighter load. Thursday held the planned sharpening session: two running segments (13 min and 8.8 min) with a walking break in between, and the second-by-second data reveals several short bursts at roughly 4:2x–4:3x min/km pace within them — in practice, exactly the 4–6 brisk 100-metre reps the plan called for.

Wednesday’s surprise cycling volume

The plan had marked Wednesday for “20–30 min easy walk or cycling, low heart rate.” What actually happened was two separate rides, totaling 127.7 minutes and 26.6 km — considerably more than the planned easy recovery day. Heart rate stayed moderate in both parts (average 111 and 127), so intensity wasn’t the issue, but the total duration was several times the plan, two days before Thursday’s sharpening session and three days before the race. Worth factoring into the next taper week’s planning.

Saturday: race day

Before the race there was a 23.6-minute warm-up walk (19:20–19:43) to the start area. The race itself — Helsinki Midnight Run 2026, 10 km — didn’t start until 21:12 (true to its name, an evening/night race). The full analysis of the result, pacing, and how the goal played out is in the dedicated race report.

Heart rate zones and recovery

• Resting heart rate varied between 55–68 bpm. The lowest value landed on Saturday morning (55) — measured before the evening race, not after.
• HRV (SDNN) declined steadily through the week: 49.9 (Mon) → 57.5 (Tue) → 51.3 (Wed) → 47.1 (Thu) → 43.5 (Fri) → 42.2 (Sat) → 43.0 (Sun) — a consistent, expected curve of accumulating load as the race week built toward Saturday’s peak effort.
• Steps were, as expected, highest on Saturday (21,925) thanks to the race and moving around it.

Heart rate and max heart rate, visually

Dark bar = average heart rate relative to a 90–180 bpm scale, vertical line = max heart rate. Monday's bar exceeds the scale — heart rate climbed genuinely close to max two days before the race.

In summary: week 37 came in heavier than planned overall (Wednesday’s extra cycling), but exactly the right elements — Monday’s hard tempo, Thursday’s sharpening, enough rest on Friday — landed in place before Saturday’s race. Next week’s program returns to a normal Hyrox rhythm after the race.

Follow the journey and training diary here at puhakka.org!