2017

So 2017 is done then, and looking back at the numbers it's been a reasonably solid year — 143 activities and just shy of 3,952 minutes of moving about, which sounds impressive until you realise that's roughly 66 hours spread across twelve months (so, not exactly elite athlete territory). The big story is running, which absolutely dominated proceedings with 89 runs covering 457 kilometres — a fair chunk of which came with 3,555 metres of elevation, because apparently I enjoy hills now. I managed 32 personal records along the way, which I'll take, even if some of those were almost certainly set because I'd never bothered running a particular segment before. Cycling ticked along in the background with 53 rides and just under 250 kilometres, and there was one solitary rowing session in there too, which I think we can all agree is not a training programme so much as a cry for variety.

Comparing back to 2016 makes for interesting reading, and the picture is a bit mixed if I'm honest. The cycling fell off a cliff — 163 rides in 2016 down to 53 this year, and 672 kilometres down to just under 250 — which is a trend I probably need to reverse before the bike starts gathering dust in a meaningful way. The running, on the other hand, has come on considerably; nearly double the distance on last year's 238 kilometres, and my average pace has dropped from 7:42 per kilometre to 6:51, so the legs are clearly getting the message even if the brain is slow to catch up. So the direction of travel on running is genuinely encouraging, and the lesson going into 2018 is fairly obvious — keep the running momentum, and for goodness' sake get back on the bike.

Summary generated by Claude