July 2026

July turned out to be a busier month than I probably had any right to expect, with 60 activities and just over 41 hours of moving around in one way or another. The split was fairly typical of where my training sits right now — 13 HIIT sessions (the Morning HIIT routine is becoming a stubborn habit, which I suppose is the point), 16 runs covering just under 84km at an average pace of 5:56 per kilometre, and a frankly enormous 31 walks totalling nearly 142km. The runs are where it gets mildly interesting: three achievements and a PR in there somewhere, which either means I'm getting fitter or the bar was embarrassingly low to begin with. Average heart rate across the runs was sitting at 150 bpm, which tells me I'm working hard enough without completely falling apart, so I'll take that.

So comparing back to June, the improvement is fairly obvious on paper — 60 activities versus 47, 2,483 minutes versus 1,892, and the walking in particular jumped from 102km to nearly 142km. Some of that is simply down to it being July and the mornings being light enough that getting outside doesn't feel like a punishment (the British summer occasionally earns its keep). The running pace ticked up slightly too, from 6:04 to 5:56 per kilometre, which is encouraging without being something I'd want to get too excited about. The question now is whether I can carry this kind of volume into August without life — or my knees — having other ideas.

Summary generated by Claude