2024 Year in Data - Health & Fitness

In 2023, I had established a bit of a revised relationship with running. I’d decided that it was much healthier mentally to approach it as stress relief and general fitness than to try to win races. Almost all of my metrics reflect that decreased emphasis in my life. I spent 77 hours running 519 miles across 177 days. My average run was only 2.8 miles long at 8 min. and 3 sec. per mile, burning 371 calories, gaining 88 feet of elevation, and maxing out my heart rate at 182 bpm.

My total distance ran is significantly lower than in 2023, despite increasing my training load in the fall. In previous years, which were also lower in distance than 2023, Strava’s relative effort score remained higher, but it decreased proportionally to my distance in 2024. This highlights my increase in casual runs and decrease in workouts in 2024. It is also tied to a significant decrease is elevation gain over the year (about a 50% decrease, tied to my relocation from Tennessee to Indiana). My average speed and distance stayed relatively consistent throughout the year, although they have an interesting inverse relationship with each other.

I also partook in 67 cross-training days, which combined with my running to an average of 5 days per week of working out. One of my goals was to increase my cross-training in 2024, so I consider increases in strength training, swimming, cycling, and yoga an accomplishment. Yoga has been a particularly regular part of my training schedule in the second half of the year. I’ve had significantly less soreness in my calves and shins in the second half of the year, which I attribute to this habit. I don’t look at Strava’s relative effort score for cross-training because it is less representative for those exercises.