In last week’s entry I started pondering on the idea of leaning in to discomfort. And so, this week I aimed to do just that. It wasn’t always fun to start but every single time it paid off hugely, emotionally. In fact, how glad I was to do something seemed directly proportional to how little I wanted to do it.

This week we’ll start off with my average mood ratings for the week. On average in the early part of October they were hovering in the low 6/9 range. During the past two weeks, these have gone up to nearly 7/9. My motivation has also increased to almost 8/9. I’m more focused and excited about getting things done at work.

There may be a couple of factors at play. The first is that my “distracting time” on the computer and phone is down to about an average of 30 min or less per day – down from 90-120 minutes in early October and 120-180 minutes in August. Looking at this data surprises even me – and I was there doing it! At the same time my coffee consumption is edging back up from a solid 2 cups/day to now around 3.

As for leaning into discomfort, this has been an excellent week for this starting with running. I really didn’t want to run during the week and had a hard time meeting my twice weekly goal. Still, on Thursday, I promised myself I would get out and run no matter what. It took me almost an hour to get ready after work (which is surprisingly low) like a petulant toddler. Once outside, I made a promise to myself I’d give it my best shot. I put on my a playlist to keep my pace where I wanted it and set out:

It was hard. Any time I thought of slowing or even walking, I would ask myself if it was necessary. Was I worried about injury or discomfort? If I wasn’t worried about injury, I’d keep or even increase the pace. In the end I wanted to slow 3-4 times but never for good reason – and so the only stops I made were those enforced by traffic signals. As a result I had my best speed of any run since I resumed running. I’m feeling equally resistant to running later today.

Cycling was actually really good this week. I pre-packed for Monday’s ride and the weather was reasonably good so it was a totally uneventful ride. Friday, however, was fantastic. I got out just before dawn. It was a little above freezing and there were no other cyclists out. Here’s what those other cyclists missed out on.

When I got to work I felt energized after my shower and enjoyed a cup of coffee and had one of my most productive days in recent memory. Part way through the day I decided I had a bit of energy to spare and plotted out an extra long route home – about twice the normal distance.

After all that, I got home only a little later than had I taken public transit home. Except on this day I was able to get three hours and almost 60 kilometres of cycling in. Even after all that I had loads of time to relax and spend time with my family. (Thanks to past-Todd for making lots of rajma chawal for dinner the night before – enough for more tonight).

I’m definitely not up to my summer ride distances (riding 180 km in one day in July certainly makes that tough to attain these short fall days) but you can see things have increased a ton. I’ve already nearly matched my cycling distance for last month in just a few days.

How we frame things can also be incredibly important. Right now there’s a policy at work requiring in-office presence four days a week. Most of those days I would not have opportunities to interact with others for more than a few minutes. It felt so pointless to have hours of my private time taken away from me to sit alone.

But these past few weeks, I’ve reframed this. In the new year I want to do longer rides and possibly some randonneuring with rides of 300km or more. To do this I need to get more fit and have more base training hours in the saddle. Now, with this goal, I am able to fit in 40-60 or more kilometres/day of riding thanks to the fact that I have an office with shower and towel service at the other side of town. This, along with the satisfaction of having figured out how to ride in colder weather, is likely responsible for my better mood.

You can tell my mood has improved and my focus has changed. Weeks ago I was talking a lot about the cold weather and short days. These days I’m never cold when riding, and while the days are short, there’s something about riding or running in the dark, particularly on trails. I will, however, need to re-evaluate this as time goes on. Depending on how the weather goes, how much precipitation we get and how well the roads are cleared, I will need to adjust. Best case will likely wearing more layers and riding on mostly dry roads. If we get lots of snow and ice I’ll have to decide whether to ride indoors or pick up a pair of studded snow tires.

Just like last time I did this, I’m finding that at least one of my mood “levers” is physical activity. I do wonder about others, though. Will “distracting activity” prove to be a controlling factor? Or how about reading? I suspect sleep will also prove important, though I still haven’t sorted that out since the start of daylight saving time and as a result have been losing about an hour of sleep on average, waking up at 4:00 AM nearly every day.

So for next week I’m aiming for three days of bike commuting – one of which will include a longer route home. I’ll also fit in at least two days of running. I may do more, but this will be the minimum.

How about you? How are you managing with the transition to colder weather and shorter days.