“Month in review” posts keep me accountable. At least that’s the theory.
January wasn’t a remarkable month. I had some health issues (a stomach bug that impacted me for the majority of a week) and the indoor track competitions I did turned out to be less than stellar as far as absolute performances are concerned.
Track running: Just like in December,there was a clear focus on track this month. I did 7 track sessions (3 indoors, 4 outdoors). Furthermore, I competed in 3 competitions, spread out over 4 days and with a total of 5 races (3x 60m, 2x 200m). My times were less than stellar – so far, my 2017 bests are 7″58 on the 60m and 24″06 on the 200m. That’s considerably slower than last year. The plan for the upcoming months is to still focus on sprints a couple of times a week, but to increase my time&effort in the longer distances.
Road and trail running: I got out 5 times in January for a total of 45.6km with 1562m of ascent. The highpoint of the month was during our vacation in Fuerteventura, when I ran and power-hiked to the top of Pico de la Zarza, the highest mountain of the island. The 14.8km round trip was a lot more volume than I’ve done in any individual session recently; and it was slower than most past attempts. But overall, it’s reassuring that I can still do a 1+ hour all-out effort with relative ease.
Walking: Walking and hiking stats were still disappointingly low. I walked a mere 26km in January, with a minimalist 304m of elevation gained. I could do a lot better here if I re-implemented a routine of longer lunch walks.
Cycling: None. With temperatures below freezing on a lot of days and track competitions to prepare, it’s easy to find excuses. I still hope to restart doing some lunch rides in February, and ultimately build up my form to support 50m round-trip work commutes as the days grow longer in spring.
Weight training: Once again, almost nothing. I tracked one session, on January 31st. It’s easy to read books that talk about creating fitness (weight training) habits, but it’s harder to implement all of that when most days you get home from work and your only thought is grabbing dinner and calling it a day.
Total time outside: 14h26. Or in other words, less than half an hour per day.
Average body weight: 80.81kg. Body fat 14.91%. At least something improved this month. Of course being ill (and not eating for a day and a half) had some immediate impact on body weight, but I also restarted some healthy habits (counting calories at least some of the time, eating less fast food and unhealthy snacks). The end result was an average weight that was 1.6kg below the December number, and a small improvement (-0.56%) in body fat as well.