Reflections on 2024: Exercise
In 2017 I started running. It taught me the importance of regular exercise for my physical and emotional well-being.
A year ago, I stepped away from competitive running. Competitive, in this context, meaning competing with myself in an effort to beat my previous personal bests. Years without improvement eventually got to me. I could no longer suffer the constant cycle of doing everything to smash through the plateau, only to have my efforts derailed by illness.
The physical demands of marathon running are probably ill paired with two children in daycare. The near constant exposure to bugs of all kinds will derail the best laid training plans. Yet I somehow seemed to get the worst of it every single time. What caused my kids a cough and maybe a few days of illness would break me completely. Bugs would linger for weeks, setting my fitness back months.
At last came a point where I no longer had a choice. The mental strain of always fearing the next round of illness left me a worse version of myself. A worse father and a worse husband. Much as I loved the thrill of race day after a well executed training block, it was no longer worth the sacrifice.
New goals
While I was moving on from running, I was adamant to retain the lessons it taught me. Exercise and physical activity is essential for me to function properly. My forced spells away from running only reinforced that lesson. But there's a healthy dosage to all things, even running.
Personal bests off the table, I had to find new goals. As I'm no spring chicken, nor getting any younger, I decided to take a long, hard look at myself. In a mirror. To nobody's surprise, there was room for improvement. Although I could run a decent 10k, there was not much resemblance to the Platonic ideal of male physique. Which has meaning beyond vanity: A well-balanced physique is a sign of vitality, health and vigour.
With my last few years of immune-deficient misery in mind, what could be more natural than now aiming for health and wellness? I decided to eschew dreams of peak performance, and instead start working on crafting a balanced body. To combine endurance and strength in a way that will let me feel better in and about my body.
To achieve this I needed to start lifting things to become stronger and keep my endurance from declining too much. Let's look at how I did.
The numbers
I spent 238 hours working out in 2024.
That's a decline of 115 hours compared to my yearly average for the four preceding years.
More interesting than the absolute numbers is the mix of activities that it comprises. Did it change significantly compared to previous years, or did I just run less?
Endurance
For the period 2018-2023 I averaged 332 hours of yearly running across 330 runs.
In 2024 I spent 125 hours running 180 times.
My average yearly mileage from 2018-2023 was 4135 kilometres.
In 2024 I managed 1431 kilometres.
Average run duration decreased from 60 minutes in 2018-2023 to 41 minutes in 2024. Distance average per run dropped from 12.5 kilometres to 7.9 kilometres. Which means average pace slowed from 4 minutes 49 seconds per kilometre (7:45 per mile) to 5 minutes 13 seconds per kilometre (8:24 per mile).
Phew! I guess that's what retirement looks like.
Apart from running, I did 12 elliptical sessions (5.5 hours), 9 cross country skiing sessions (11 hours) and 3 big backpack mountain hikes (8.5 hours). Before my "retirement" I did next to nothing other than running.
Strength training
In 2023 I did 23 strength training sessions, for a total of 15.5 hours.
In 2024 that increased to 88 hours across 100 sessions. Progress!
I should note that all of those sessions in 2023 happened after “retiring" from running. The sum total of my strength training over the preceding decade before that amounted to a few hours of bodyweight exercise to try and help with an overload injury to my knee that kept me away from running every so often.
More than just progress. It's a lifestyle change.
My strength training sessions are fairly simple and repetitive. Squats and pull-ups to begin with. I then try to cover the upper body with a push and a pull exercise for chest and shoulders. Lastly, I end it with some abdomen exercises like crunches or leg lifts. Nothing special, but for the first half of the year it was enough to progress and become stronger on all accounts.
Learnings for the future
Balance is good
I've been positively surprised at how well I've preserved my running fitness despite the reduced training load. My current approach to endurance training is probably healthier than I have been doing the previous years.
Ideally, I would like to be more diverse in the activities I do. But it's hard to match the ease and simplicity of running. You just lace up and get out. Everything else has a significantly higher bar. Cross country skiing is my favourite activity, but it's rare that we have the conditions for it outside the door. Roller skiing just isn't the same. Elliptical and the rower (probably, never tried) are decent alternatives to the treadmill. I prefer being outdoors, though. Road biking is probably enjoyable. It's just, you know, cars. And, seeing as I don't have a pressing death wish, that's off the table. (Also, I dislike the snobby gear and accessories culture that seems to permeate road biking communities.)
All told, though, I think I've found a decent balance and that my current level of training is enough to reap the bulk of the benefits from cardiovascular exercise.
My body can't handle much more
During fall marathon season I missed the thrill of the start line. So much, in fact, that I decided to give it another go. Instead of running as much as I had been doing, I wanted to try and see what I could do if I optimised just 50 kilometres per week.
Although the time commitment wouldn't increase too much, it meant upping the load significantly by adding more and longer structured workouts. Getting back the grind, up at 5 AM and chasing some goals again felt good!
I lasted about two weeks before I got sick. It took me more than two weeks to shake the bug and get fit enough to exercise again.
At this point I had to accept that my body can't handle the kind of training necessary to chase any types of running goals.
But, I want to push a little more
My new role at work led to less room for working out over the summer. As lifting requires the most effort on my end, it instantly suffered. Since then, I've had no progress. Instead, I've only tried to stop the decay by covering all exercises at least once per week, twice if I could squeeze it in.
Although my physique has changed quite a bit thanks to my forays in the gym (and at home), and I'm much stronger all around, I'm still not quite where I want to be in terms of strength.
One of my goals for 2025 will be to figure out how to structure my days so that I can consistently get in three strength sessions per week. I think that will be enough to push me on a bit more, so that when I eventually plateau on that load, I'll be happy to switch to maintenance.