In September I had a good balance of training and rest, with about two weeks off work… I had a good break, but still got lots of training in.

Here’s what I did:

Walk 51 miles (20 out of 30 days)
Run 40 miles (9 times)
Swim 29km / 18 miles (10 times)
Cycle 4.2 miles (once)
Strength 1 hr 21 (2 times)

I also had 10 out of 30 days as rest (walk) days.

It was a similar amount of running, walking and swimming to the previous month, but I didn’t get into the gym as much. I’ll hopefully make a change to that in October.

When we’re on leave Fit Girl has this very healthy thing where she takes a proper break from training … giving her body a rest after consistent training when she’s not on leave.

I sort of go with it (but do the odd run or swim)… and what happens is I tend to always meet my apple activity goals (mainly through walking) when we’re on leave. She always meets hers. (See above, closed rings from 14-28 Sept – when we were on leave together). It’s good to have someone else to motivate you into healthy activity habits.

We had really good sleeps (and naps!) on leave… averaging about 10 hours sleep a night on leave. And as a result I felt nice and refreshed. Overall my sleep has been good (since my work has been good!). Long may it continue.

My weight is continuing to drop a little after I started 16:8 fasting in mid July. It’s plateaued a bit in the last week or two… but I have less routine with it. That’s probably the weight I should be now, having lost half a stone since mid July.

This was the sky early the first morning last week when we needed to get up to train before work. Autumn and dark morning skies are coming. 

Anyway, here’s the detail of the training I did in September. I keep a track of it in a draft email (and on Garmin):

I had a great time at the Brighton 10k, and kept up my swimming for the swim event on 18th.

Then we were on leave…

Then we started our leave and enjoyed nice forest walks and visits to friends.

We had wee adventures up in Pitlochry, near Aviemore, up in inverness, Beauly, Carrbridge and then also around Glasgow. It was a great couple of weeks off (even though we didn’t get to go abroad).

And of course I really enjoyed the go swim 3,000m event in Loch Morlich. It was ace.

The last week of our leave was back home, and so got 3 runs and 3 swims in and lots of walking. I finished the week off with a 2,500m swim at Lochan Spling in the Trossachs. Great fun.

Then the last week of September that was us back to normality. Back to work, nice and refreshed. I’ve got an idea of how I’ll change my training in autumn winter to include more strength training – doing a wee bit less running, but keeping the swimming up.

Other things that happened in September was I got my Glasgow Triathlon Club coaching tshirt. I’m coaching development swimmers on a Monday morning at Bishopbriggs, and trying out coaching kids on a Thursday at the Gorbals (but might not keep it up as I’m working enough I think!).

I bought and an reading this lovely book:

As mentioned, the darkness in the mornings and nights is here…

I got soaked the other morning on a wee run… thankfully my running jacket is waterproof.

But then with rain and low sun… comes rainbows…. Just in time for what would have been my Granny’s 106th birthday on the 22nd of September.

I got this one from my best friend … when her cute twin 3 year old boys got her to come out and see it.

Other things that happened in September include:

Me getting myself a cosy warm Zone 3 parka (dry robe) for after swims.

And this baby bath Turtle thermometer…to check the temperature of the water I swim in… in lochs. It was 16.4’C when swimming in Lochan Spling at the end of September. So not too bad.

And I also got welcomed into the bots!

Oh and here’s another rainbow Paul Clawson (Bella Harrier) sent me. He’s pacing a couple of runners for the virtual marathon – fellow Harrier Tania is one of them, who’s aiming for under 4 hours and she’s a very experienced runner so I think she’ll smash it.

Now the leaves are turning – see below our Virginia creeper turning red this week … and I’m looking forward to what autumn and winter bring.

I’ll post my training plan / idea for how I’ll train, soon.

I’m pleased to say with the change in work, I’m finally in a great place with everything and feeling very happy (even though the dark days of winter are coming!)