September 2020

Month in review

Running: 131.6km / 2382m elev / 13:33:32 total time

Walking: 93.79km / 1841m elev / 19:39:53 total time

Cycling: 323.50km / 2812m elev / 11:31:43 total time

Total time outside: 44h45

Average weight: 82.1kg / Average Body Fat: 15.6%

September was a marked improvement over August, at least as far as running and walking/hiking was concerned. Having the first two weeks of the month off work helped with the amount of time I was able to spend outside (a whopping 45 hours!), and as a consequence I walked/hiked on 19 days of the month and ran on 15. With a renewed focus on my feet, and bad weather towards the end of the month cycling took a hit, however; I ended up only cycling on 7 days (4 of which were work commute days where I clocked about 60km each). All this movement contributed to losing a bit of weight and body fat.

August 2020

Month in review

Running: 28.37km / 444m elev / 2:47:40 total time

Walking: 22.60km / 309m elev / 3:44:14 total time

Cycling: 416.19km / 4120m elev / 18:54:07 total time

Total time outside: 25h26

Average weight: 82.8kg / Average Body Fat: 16.3%

Well, those are the cold hard numbers. My fitness has gone down a lot in 2020, and my body composition has suffered. The silver lining over the past couple of months has been an increase in cycling kilometers; but that in itself has not been enough to revert the trend.

Month in review: April 2017

Month in review

April was mostly a good month, but I might have wished for a better final week. I caught some kind of bug and ended up weak and tired, which meant I took six full days off running.

Track&field: Only 7 training sessions this month, a little over half of what I did in March. Clearly, even though I spent one week of April on a training camp with track athletes, my main focus this month was hill training. I recorded 36.5km during track activities, with quite a bit of mileage doubling as road kilometers (during warm-up).

Road and trail running: April continued the trend I set in March: it was a solid month. I clocked 149km on the trails and roads, and with the help of some hills in Lanzarote I managed to record my highest vertical ever in a month, at just over 6000m of elevation.  Over half of the month’s total was achieved during a single week in Lanzarote, where I did a lot of repeats of Penas del Chache, the highpoint of the island.

Cycling: The month started off well, but then during the second half I didn’t touch any bike. Still, I clocked 6h17 in the saddle, and drove 159km during 5 separate outings (3 on the road bike, 2 on the mountain bike). I recorded 1375m of vertical. All these numbers are significantly lower than those in March, but I guess that’s indicative of where my priorities are right now.

Walking: Speaking of priorities, walking wasn’t either. 32km with 568m of elevation gain. A slight improvement from March, but nothing worth writing home about.

Weight training: The coach had us do one bodyweight session while in Lanzarote. But other than that, I didn’t touch any iron during all of April.

Total time outside: 41h10. Almost identical to March.

Body composition: I notice some improvement. 79.89kg average (down 0.8kg since March), body fat 14.12% (down 0.5%). This is the leanest I’ve been in April since I started tracking these numbers daily in 2011. My April average was 2kg lighter than the same time last year; and 1kg lighter than 2015. For whatever that’s worth.

Month in review: March 2017

Month in review

March was a high-volume month, and I’m quite happy with the majority of the training efforts even though I wish I had had some more energy during a handful. I set a new personal record for calories burned within a month (a highly imprecise number, granted): 26,415.

Track&field: March was a solid month as far as the number of track training sessions was concerned: 12. Nine of these were with the club, and 3 were indoors at the national team training. The numbers seem quite solid, but there were a few sessions were I could clearly feel the fatigue in my legs.

Road and trail running: On the running front, March was similarly solid. I clocked 134km and 4500m of elevation. I did 7 lunch runs, 4 hill runs and 2 trail runs. I didn’t race at all in February. However, the increased volume and quality of my outings has brought a marked improvement. I did one lunch run with sub 5min/km pace and some restraint as to effort spent – that’s a pace that I barely reached the previous month while racing a 9.4km race.

Cycling: Finally, some decent weather. This allowed me to take the bikes out on 9 different days. One of them was a commute to and from work, for a cumulative 38.5km day. Most other outings were during my lunch break, where work requirements kinda dictate that the effort cannot be more than about an hour, or 20-30km. In total, I spent 10h20 in the saddle, for 238km of distance and 2800m of vertical.

Walking: Not a priority with all the other things going on. 25km with 423m of elevation.

Weight training: None. I know, I know.

Total time outside: 40h45. Easily beat the 1h/day average I set myself as a target last month.

Body composition: 80.68kg. Body fat 14.60%. Down about half a kg from February, but body fat remains almost unchanged (-0.15%). Definitely some improvement, but I’m still not eating as healthily as I could/should.