July 2022

So July was a fairly busy month by my standards — 45 activities and just over 37 hours of moving about in one way or another, which sounds more impressive than it probably was. The bulk of that was walking, 28 sessions covering 170 kilometres, which I'm choosing to count as training rather than just evidence that I own a dog. Running ticked along nicely too, with 10 runs totalling 55 kilometres at an average pace of 5:32 per kilometre, and somehow I managed 6 personal records in the process (the bar, clearly, was not set very high to begin with). I even dusted off the rowing machine four times and made one very brief acquaintance with the pool — six minutes and 200 metres, which is either a warm-up or a near-death experience depending on your perspective.

So comparing back to June, the activity count jumped from 35 to 45, and total minutes went from 1,734 up to 2,259, which I'd like to attribute to discipline and sunny summer mornings rather than just having more time on my hands. The running volume was broadly similar — a couple more kilometres, a couple more runs — though the elevation dropped slightly, suggesting I was finding flatter routes (or avoiding hills, same thing). The walking is where July really pulled away, adding nearly 40 kilometres and over 200 metres of extra climbing on June, which probably reflects the longer evenings and the fact that it's actually bearable to go outside in July without immediately regretting it. Going forward, the foundations are there; the question as always is whether I can keep the consistency going once the mornings start getting darker and the excuses start getting better.

Summary generated by Claude