October saw five more doctor visits (regular appointments and laser treatments) and five physiotherapy appointments. Fortunately, this led to a marked improvement of the achilles tendon; although I still need to be careful not to attempt too much too soon (I might actually have done just that on one track training at the end of the month).
Road, trail and track running: I’ve returned to regular club trainings, and have been able to join the sprint group on most of their sessions. In total, I’ve done 9 club trainings (every Tuesday and Thursday of the month). Towards the end of the month, I even did 3 sprint sessions on the track (although with less volume or speed than in my better days). Doing track trainings comes at a price, however: I had to eliminate pretty much all other running during the week to allow me to recover. If I want to have a day off from running after every serious track session, that leaves me with just three quality days per week. And coincidentally, that leads me to the third category of running: hill climbs on trails. I did 3 sessions at the Saarschleife in neighboring Germany (one session each weekend I was at home), running from the Saar river to the Cloef viewpoint. Over the course of the month, I progressed from running and walking up once each, to running up twice, to running up two times followed by a walk up. 30km on road/trails, 1500m of elevation gain.
Walking: Not much to report. Clocked 42km and 631m of elevation, or pretty much the same as September.
Cycling: Did 7 outings, most of which were on my lunch break and therefore limited to 1 hour or less. This looks to be the best way to get some cycling in during winter. With the sun now setting by the time I’m off work, at least this way I get to ride in daylight and during the warmest time of the day. 129km and 6h03, 1550m of elevation. Distance and time-wise that’s half of September, but with running on the upswing I’ll take what I can get.
Total time outside: 17h54
Average body weight: 82.55kg. Body fat 15.13%. Not that different from September. Staying stable is better than rising, but I wouldn’t mind dropping a few kilos.