Sunday, October 11, 2020

August and September: Quick reviews for posterity

I'm doing my best to stay as healthy and sane as possible during this pandemic. I am doing a bit more training and walking the dogs more than usual, and work has been pretty busy lately, so anything that isn't essential has been being neglected. Housecleaning for sure, but also this blog. So although I'm a little late to the party to review August and September, I'm doing it anyway so I can look back and see what the heck I was up to.

August was a great month overall. Running was steady. I rode my bike outside three times and had pretty high-for-me biking volume overall. I was pretty consistent with my weight lifting and pre-hab. I did yoga once a week and swam a bunch of times in my outdoor pool. My overall training volume was pretty big.

September was a good month overall. I hit 100+ miles of running for the first time since May, which was a pleasant surprise to see, partially due to my adding in one extra easy runs to most weeks. Biking wasn't quite as good, since I got a flat both times I rode outside, but I still logged 250 miles in the saddle total. I ran and biked an almost-equal amount of time, right around 17 hours for both. Weights and yoga kind of fell off and, sadly, I swam for the last time in my outdoor pool before it closed for the season. Training volume wasn't quite as big, but still solid.

Other than training, I tried to make the most out of the end of summer. We saw both sets of parents for outdoor barbecues and celebrated a friend's birthday with an outdoor dinner. I put in some solid work hours at our side business. We supported a few local restaurants with takeout and I tried a new recipe or two. I had a few evenings where I did nothing. I walked the dogs, a lot. I tried not to ruminate on the things I was missing.

I tend to beat myself up a bit when I don't have a "perfect" week of training but with no races coming up and the future in flux, I'm happy I'm keeping up any kind of routine. If nothing else, it's keeping me in shape and letting me have some semblance of normalcy during this time.

August by volume.

August was:

Bike: 8 trainer rides and 108 miles of outdoor rides, for about 18:41 total.

Run: 11 runs, all outside, for 64.5 miles total in just a hair less than 11 hours.

Weights: 8 sessions including 4 heavy/body sessions, 2 online barre classes, and 2 videos, for about 9:50

Swim: 9 sessions for 16,000 meters (10 miles) in about 7:16.

PT: 11 sessions in about 6:25.

Yoga: 5 sessions in about 1:25.

Total: 55 sessions in about 54:37, a darn good month for me.

September by volume.

September was:

Run: 15 runs, all outside, for 101.7 miles in about 17:08.

Bike: 10 trainer rides and 51 outdoor miles for just a sliver less than 17 hours.

Weights: 4 sessions that included 2 heavy/body, one online barre, and one video for about 5 hours.

PT: 10 sessions in about 4:30.

Swim: 4 sessions for 6400 meters in about 2:48.

Yoga: 2 times for 35 minutes.

Total: 47 sessions in about 46:53, still a good month for me.

Running mileage for the last year has looked like this:

And biking hour-age for the last year looks like this:

I'm pretty happy with this. I am hoping running continues to feel good enough that I can keep hitting 100 miles. I realize hitting any number is arbitrary, but I like having a solid number to shoot for, for the month. 

I don't expect to do too much if any more outdoor biking for the rest of the year, but when the weather turns I am ready with my Trainer Road subscription. I'm pretty bad about doing more than 3 rides per week, but maybe this will be my year. What else will I have to do this winter?

I also want to use the colder weather as motivation to keep on my PT, weights, and yoga. I don't know if I'll be able to swim, or feel comfortable swimming, indoors over the winter. If I can, great, but I'm not planning on it.

I feel like October is going well so far, and I hope to end it just as well as I did for August and September. 



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