October 2024

October was, by any reasonable measure, a quieter month than I'd been used to. 52 activities and just under 1,917 minutes of moving around — which sounds a lot until you realise a chunk of that is walking, and not the heroic fell-walking kind either, just 132 kilometres of what I'll generously call Afternoon Walks (22 of them, since apparently that's what I do now). The running dropped to 10 sessions covering 29.6 kilometres, all indoors, which at least means no excuses about the weather — just the treadmill, me, and my thoughts, which is as grim as it sounds. On the plus side, the rowing picked up nicely to 10 sessions against September's four, and my average heart rate on the rower was sitting at 152 bpm, so it wasn't exactly a gentle paddle.

So, compared to September, the drop-off is pretty stark — 69 activities down to 52, and active minutes falling from 2,816 to 1,917, which is the kind of decline that's hard to dress up. September was carrying some decent running momentum, with 109 kilometres across 19 runs and a couple of achievements to show for it, so October feels like the wheels came off a bit — autumn arriving, the mornings getting darker, and motivation doing what motivation tends to do this time of year. The pace actually improved slightly, from 5:43 down to 5:34 per kilometre, so there's something to hold onto there. The plan going forward is to lean into the rowing and HIIT through the winter and try not to let the running quietly disappear altogether, as it has a habit of doing.

Summary generated by Claude