Where I was at the end of the previous month, August 2019
Running target for 2019: 1092 kilometres
Total distance ran so far in 2019: 1013 kilometres
Recorded in my little tracking spreadsheet.
How September 2019 went
Goal: Go for a run five days every week. (Basically: Clock 20 runs in September.)
👎🏼 A difficult month to get out running (more to follow in the words). I ended up running 15 times.
Goal: Try some fartlek amongst the longer runs, hopefully once a week, but at least twice in September.
👍🏼 I had a couple of goes at fartlek.
Goal: If I can do 100 kilometres in September, I’d be happy.
👍🏼 I ran 136 kilometres, so 🙂. That’s brings up 1149 kilometres for the year so far, passing my 1092 target for the year.
Goal: Keep enjoying it!
👍🏼 I am!
The words
A difficult month to be consistent with my runs.
It wasn’t a terrible month for distance, knocking up 136 kilometres and for the week commencing 16 September I wracked up 55 kilometres.
My Strava log shows I ran every Sunday, at least 10 kilometres. And I ran 15 times, which is once every two days. But that’s not quite how it played out. The middle of the weeks were barren with not a single run on a Wednesday or Thursday. To balance this a little I’ve been climbing midweek every week, but it would have been nice to do a little more. Too many longer stretches with no runs, I could have done with more smaller bits and pieces here and there. A run every three days at worst would have been nice. Something to aim for for October!
I’ve been working away a bit, but in June, July and August I was too and managed to get in some decent amounts of running. I’ve had some tough weeks of work, but earlier this year I’d use running as an opportunity to make up for being sat at a desk or getting stuck in a mental rut.
The hotel I usually stay at when working away has a gym and treadmills, but I’ve shied away from them. At the start of the year treadmills had got my fitness up. Maybe I’ve gone too far into avoiding treadmills since I’ve focused on running outside. As October will roll on the nights will roll in earlier, so embracing the ‘mill needs to be a must.
Lots of highlights the month with lots of Discoveries:
- Starting the month with 10.18km in just under 54 minutes.
- A first trek along the River Aire once I got to Rodley. On a previous run I saw a path just after the bridge behind the Railway pub so I thought I’d have a gander. A cracking little trail to get onto!
- An explore of the woods to the north of Calverley.
- Going over the river Aire closer to home I had my first venture through Esholt Woods, through Yeadon discovering the cycle way, and back down to the woods.
- A first run across to and through Esholt, during a long lunch break.
- An after-work jaunt out towards Sunniside near Newcastle. Some nice road and track running (there’s loads of great tracks round Newcastle, a few seem to be over old rail routes). The last 20 minutes or so were in the pitch black, so I had my phone light on through its holder.
- Exploring the woods south of Calverley.
- A Sunday 20k-er, stitching together two loops I had tried, up to Yeadon through Esholt Woods then back down to the canal and out to Rodley and back along the Aire.
- Another combiner of loops, but this time cutting one loop down. And the second half I enjoyed running along the Aire, with the river running very high after the recent downpours. At one point the river was covering the path so I had to wade through. Also chance to give my new Nike Wildhorses out. Fun stuff!
I read an interview with Tom Evans saying not to swing your arms as much when going uphill, limiting the movement so your arms don’t go out in front of your chest. I tried it a few times in the second half of the month and combined with smaller strides my movement up hills seemed to feel better.
Actually, September seemed a bit more hilly than usual. Elevation was 1663m, which was well up on August (when I felt I’d done quite a bit of hill running upstate in New York, but didn’t seem to have). I don’t feel as shagged going up hills now than I did back in the first half of the year, which again feels like progress.
Looking to the future, I bagged a place on the Percy Pud 10k in Sheffield in early December. Maybe a race is what I need to focus me a little more.
I’ve also been dabbling in some yoga to see if it can free up my legs a little. My hamstrings feel tight a bit so I’ve been giving it a go. Thanks to James Boardwell who seemed to be reading my mind pointing me towards Run Better With Yoga.
Goals for October
Run three times a week, at least.
Run every other day if possible.
Run at least 100 kilometres. See if I can get close to that stretch goal of 1302 for the year.
Embrace the treadmill!
Enjoy it still!