Just like that, January is over… as usual it seemed like a long month, but the days are getting longer again and Spring is probably just around the corner.

I added up all of my mileages towards the end of the month, and managed to round up most distances to a nice round number.

Here’s what I did:

Running – 35 miles / 7 runs
Cycling – 25 miles / 3 spin
Strength – 6 times / 3 hours
Swimming – 31,500m / 19.6 miles / 11 swims
Walking – 30 miles
= 109.6 miles

Nearly 110 miles, but working from home, running less, swimming more and not commuting has had a knock on the distances.

It all adds up to a good balanced amount of exercise though. And hopefully once spring arrives we’ll get out for some more walks, either after work or at the weekends.

Swimming has been good this month with the following completed:

50m pool x 4 swims
= 11,600m / 232 x 50m lengths

25m pool x 7 swims
= 19,900m / 786 x 25m lengths

= 31,500m / 1,018 lengths

All following the swim smooth sessions, technique, threshold, speed and moving onto endurance soon, with a couple of time trials included too.

I ran 7 times, so sticking to my 1-2 times a week, on a Wednesday and a Saturday… running some on my own and making plans to run with others for some company too.

I did just over Steps 204,000, or about 6,000 steps daily. Again, it’s impacted by all of the changes is activity above…

I used to do between 350-450,000 steps a month (between 11-15k a day)… but I’m still doing a similar amount of exercise (with more swimming / bike etc).

Talking of the bike; that’s one thing I did less of, just 3 sessions in the month. It’s the one thing I dropped when I needed more rest, which is fine. Although I did try a ‘moving meeting’ at work… where I cycled, but I prefer to get my exercise in first thing before work.

My sleep has been good – 8:48 hours sleep on average per night. Long may that continue, although I woke early today… and decided to get up.

One thing I managed to get done in January was filming of my swimming. I’ll wait until I speak to the coach I work with before I do a more details analysis on here, but it gives me some things to work on and hopefully improve.

There’s an app you can use called Mr Smooth (and for £1.79 you get all the features). It shows you the ideal swim position in the water; so I’ll work towards that hopefully.

Other than that in January, I’ve planned a trip to go and see my Dad and my step mum and my friend and her daughter (February), and I’ve settled back into work, with my desk set up just right.

Housey things – we got new blinds…

Oh and I got my car valeted too… a wee treat to make it feel like a brand new car again… since I’m driving in it a little bit more than I used to.

And I flew my kite on the last weekend of the month, which was great fun, at Bellahouston.

I also treated myself to an apple AirTag for my keys, with a gift card from my old work. I maybe didn’t need it but it’s a good thing to have to make sure I never lose my keys.

Last things last, here’s my training from last week:

And here’s my plan for this week:

I finish with a nice pic of my rotation in front crawl!

I just need to work on my kick (less splash, more efficiency – probably moving to a 2 beat kick), and probably my arm entry too (to improve my overall position in the water)… but we will see what feedback the coach has too.