August 2016

So August was a quieter month than I'd have liked, 31 activities in total covering around 531 minutes of actual moving, split between 14 rides and 17 runs. The cycling came to just 65 kilometres, with a handful of Evening Rides that I suspect were more about enjoying what passed for a British summer evening than any serious training stimulus. On the running side I logged 42 kilometres across those 17 sessions, seven of which were on the treadmill (always a sign that something — weather, motivation, scheduling — has got in the way of getting outside), and I did manage to get to Parkrun at least once, which frankly deserves a small medal of its own given August's general track record.

Comparing that to July makes for slightly uncomfortable reading. Last month I put in 40 activities and 729 minutes, covering 94 kilometres on the bike and 55 kilometres running, so the drop across the board is pretty hard to ignore. My running pace did edge marginally forward — 7:41 per kilometre versus July's 7:46 — which is either genuine progress or statistical noise, and I genuinely couldn't tell you which. So the honest reflection is that August, despite being peak summer, somehow produced less rather than more, and if September is going to mean anything race-wise, I probably need to have a quiet word with myself about consistency before the dark mornings arrive and make the whole thing considerably worse.

Summary generated by Claude