Running monthly totals:

Miles run: 250.4 miles (14.5 fewer miles than July)

Weekly average: 56.54 miles

Days run: 31 out of 31

Calories burned during run: 35,600 kcal (that’s 10 lb if 3500 kcal = 1 lb)

Run time: 46 hr 30 min (90 min per day average)

Monthly averages and superlatives:

Average speed per mile: 11:08 per mile (17 sec faster than July)

Average stride rate: 161 steps per minute (same as July)

Average heart rate during run: 138 beats per minute (4 bpm more than July)

Longest run: August 6 – 16 miles

Shortest run: 19 out of 31 runs this month were 7 miles, 7 is the current minimum: 7 miles. 

Fastest run: August 2 – 9:26/mile, 10 miles (this run set my new 10 miles and 15K PRs)

Slowest run (not counting hill repeats): August 11 – 12:35/mile.

Fastest mile: August 15 – Mile 7 at 8:51.

Fastest strides: August 2 – strides: 170 steps per minute.

Slowest strides (not counting hill repeats): August 11 – 154 per minute.

Total ascent: 11,550 ft. (down 1,743  from  July)

Non-run monthly stats:

Total distance (running + walking): 307.7 miles (up 0.1 from July) 

Average distance per day: 9.92 miles (same as July)

Total steps: 573,850 steps

Average steps per day: 18,511 (down 1,103 from July) 

Average resting heart rate: 55 bpm (same as July)

Lowest resting heart rate: August 11 – 48 bpm (down 3 bpm from lowest in July – this is the lowest recorded daily average since I got my watch in August 2016)

Highest resting heart rate:  August 19 – 59 bpm (down 5 from highest in July). 

Swimming monthly totals:

Distance swum: 537 laps/26,850 yards/15.3 miles (~2.6 miles more than July)  

Average per swim session: 48.8 laps/2,440 yards/ 1.39 miles

Days swum: 11 out of 31 (2 more days than July – this seems like a good volume – I think for balance and not overdoing it for now I should aim for 9-11 days/month swimming)

Swim time: 9 hr 45 min (53 min per swim session)

Average pace: 2:11/100 yards (This is 22 seconds faster than July.  This includes lots of kickboard laps, breast, back, etc.  At some point I will try to calculate what my average freestyle pace is – I’m guessing it is around 1:48-1:56/100 yards.)

Favorite stroke:  Backstroke has slowly re-emerged as my favorite stroke (it used to be a long time ago).  2^nd place: a surprising “underwater dolphin kick” portion of fly.  Not the above water part, but my lung capacity seems to be increasing and now I’m underwater dolphin kicking my way to two-thirds/three-quarters the length of the pool.

August monthly thoughts:

1.)  I had my yearly endocrinologist check-up on August 10^th.  The good news is there is no sign of thyroid cancer in my body, and we are keeping thyroid hormone at the same level. 

I suspect based on heart rate data and subtle increases in fatigue, that I’m mildly undermedicated with thyroid hormone, but, I’m going to be happy that we did not decrease my thyroid hormone dose because my heart rate and blood pressure, both of which soar when I’m anxious, were high in the doctors office.

2.)  Distance and elevation gain were lower this month compared to July.  That’s fine.  August also seemed a lot hotter than July and I should be happy I’m still getting in 7 miles a day right now.

My average speed this month is the fastest it’s been in a long time (2014? 2011? A long time.)  This is from the heart rate training, getting my heart rate up a bit on easy runs. 

3.) Heart rate training seems to be working?

I decided to make a spreadsheet of pace per mile (in miles per hour this time, it’s easier to input into the spreadsheet) and heart rate per mile and plotted it here. This is every mile in August 2020 and every mile in August 2021. In general, I’m running faster than I was this time last year, and my heart is working about the same (or a little bit harder on the faster runs).

Checking in with my New Year, New Running Goals.

1.)  I continue to be fully vaccinated, until early December I guess, at which point I will get a booster if one is made available to me. 

I keep hearing about more and more people getting breakthrough infections and unvaccinated people getting very sick.  The only time I don’t wear a mask indoors in public is swimming at the gym (or lifting weights, which hasn’t happened all that often this month).  I don’t go to the stores that often, even with a mask.  I don’t know if the continuing threat is adding to my general anxiety levels, but, it’s certainly not helping.

2.)  I got an email this month that the one race I might have run in if I had bothered to sign up for it – the Air Force Marathon which takes place late in September – has been moved to virtual.  A part of me would love to run a race with other people, especially to capitalize on my new 5K and 10K speed I’ve been working on all year.  A bigger part of me is not ready to be in a large group of people.

3.)  I ran with my niece on August 1. 

4.)  I’m swimming.  I love swimming.

5.)  Strength training has fallen off a bit this month.  I’m still strength training and still want to strength train every 3-4 days, but frequently this month I’ve been either too busy (with what? I don’t know.  Swimming and running?) or too tired (from what?  Swimming and running).  Am I losing muscle tone?  I don’t know.  I’ve also bumped up the amount of weight I can lift on several different arm workouts… so I’ll give this a mixed grade.  Definitely room for improvement on how often I lift weights, but great job putting in the effort when lifting.

6.) August was slightly worse than July in terms of stretching.  I’d love to get back into a stretch every day routine, but if one thing is going to fall off my running, swimming, strength training, and stretching plate, it’s going to be the stretching.

7.) Crosstraining – Running, swimming, and strength training is a lot right now. 

Audiobook round-up, August 2021

Note: I increased my listening speed in July from 1.4X to 1.8X.  Sometime in August, I increased the speed to 2.0x (which is the maximum the Overdrive app on my phone allows).  This means I’m getting through audiobooks slightly faster.  I’m currently 30 hours in to James Michener’s Hawaii, with a little over 20 hours left, but I’ve been listening to other books at the same time.

I finished 14 audiobooks this month, most of those non-fiction books, which I find easier to pay attention to while running.

Fiction:

This is How You Lose the Time War – Amal El-Mohtar

Our Woman in Moscow – Beatriz Williams

Non-fiction:

Siege: Trump Under Fire – Michael Wolff

Sometimes Amazing Things Happen: Heartbreak and Hope on the Bellevue Hospital Psychiatric Prison Ward – Elizabeth Ford

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running – Haruki Murakami

Chasing the Thrill: Obsession, Death, and Glory in America’s Most Extraordinary Treasure Hunt – Daniel Barbarisi

Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons – Kris Newby

Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness – Peter Godfrey-Smith

Beloved Beasts: Fighting for Life in an Age of Extinction – Michelle Nijhuis

Paradise: One Town’s Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire – Lizzie Johnson

Killers of the Flower Moon – David Grann

Isaac’s Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History – Erik Larson

Madhouse at the End of the Earth: The Belgica’s Journey into the Dark Antarctic Night – Julian Sancton

Ageless: The New Science of Getting Older without Getting Old – Andrew Steele

Weight, weight fluctuate/thyroid meds

Current thyroid medication: 137.5 mcg levothyroxine (T4) daily, 10 mcg liothyronine (T3) split up into 5 mcg twice a day (started August 11, 2020). 

Current weight:  163.7 lb  (up 0.4 from end of July) 

Weight January 1, 2021: 163.3  lb

Weight change since Jan 1, 2021: +0.4 lb

Previous month: July 2021

Next month: September 2021