September 2019

September was, by any measure, a significant step up from recent months. Forty-three activities totalling just over 18 hours of moving around — which sounds impressive until you realise that 30 of those were runs, many of them clearly labelled "Hotel run," which tells its own story about where I was spending my time. The bulk of that was the RED January challenge — except apparently I was doing it in September, which is either very forward planning or a sign that I've lost track of what month it is (the latter, almost certainly). One hundred and sixty-two kilometres of running across the month, averaging 5:24 per kilometre, plus a handful of bike commutes, three pool swims, and a couple of HIIT sessions thrown in to make me feel like a well-rounded human being.

So, compared to August, the contrast is fairly stark. Thirteen activities and just under seven hours versus forty-three activities and just over eighteen — which is either a remarkable burst of motivation or evidence that I had rather a lot of hotel gyms and early mornings to fill. August was quiet, a mix of holiday runs, the odd swim, and a commute or two, with the kind of pace you'd associate with someone easing gently back into things after summer. September clearly flipped a switch, whether that was the cooling weather, the creeping guilt of a streak to maintain, or simply the diary forcing the issue. The question now, as the mornings get darker and the enthusiasm for outdoor miles traditionally begins its seasonal decline, is whether any of this sticks.

Summary generated by Claude