Exercising: 2024 review

2024 was the 5th year in a row I’ve been exercising daily. This is my review post of my exercising year 2024, similar to the summaries I wrote for 2023, 2022, 2021 and 2020.


2024 didn’t feel particularly remarkable but looking at the raw numbers it was a year with a lot more of almost everything sport. Compared to 2023, I did a lot more jogging (+200%), a little less biking (-8%). I’ve worked out everyday except on 26 September (I walked over 7 km, my Apple Watch logged 32 minutes of exercise and I stood during 19 hours that day, but I had no time for an actual workout as I was busy at work in Anaheim, California: we held the 30th anniversary celebration of the World Wide Web Consortium).

I purchased a new e-mountain bike last Summer (the same one I purchased last year!) and it lives at my father’s house.

Sport tracking applications

I am currently subscribed to several sports apps: Sports Tracker by Suunto (29,99€/year), Komoot (59,99€/year), Strava (59,99€/year) and Apple Fitness+ (79,99€/year), but have already cancelled the subscription for the last two.

Come next July at renewal, I will either ditch Strava completely or go without a paying account. For the same price, Komoot actually does map audio guidance. And Sports Tracker by Suunto is a lot more usable when it comes to finding or sorting workouts. Strava is good for me only to see friend’s pretty photos.

As to Apple Fitness+ I find it extremely expensive and the emphasis on Apple Music is annoying. I would rather sort on activity types (e.g., upper or lower body) than on Latino grooves or pop music. I would like an option to lower the music volume or increase the trainer’s voice. Also the library of saved workouts is at rock bottom and you have to scroll a long time to get to it. Finally, some workouts expire after a while so you can’t access them anymore. Do not recommend!

Raw numbers

Comparison between 2023 and 2024

Highlights of 2024:

  • 543h of exercise (22.5 full days)
  • 617 workouts (1.7/day)
  • 2132 km on feet (5.8/day)
  • Ran over 280 km –4 times more than last year (6/week)
  • Cycled 2762 km –26 fewer kilometers than last year! (230/month)

Monthly challenges

This year again I earned all of the monthly challenges suggested by my Apple Watch. They are determined based on recent activities and are meant to either keep you at the same level or elevate you a bit, so that at the end of the year you have at least maintained if not improved your fitness.

  • 7x walking workouts
  • 14x 85 min exercise
  • 14x walk/run 4.45 km
  • 6x walking workouts
  • 14x walk/run 4.66 km
  • 14x 781 kcal
  • 14x walk/run 5.37 km
  • 11x double “move”
  • 14x walk/run 6.08 km
  • 10x double “move”
  • 14x walk/run 5.09 km
  • 14x 542 kcal

New gear

Me next to a brand new Nakamura eSummit 950s (picture by my brother)

Non-car commutes

As a personal choice and preference, I don’t usually drive to where I want to exercise, I usually start from home, or where I am. Last year I did drive a few times to reach a meeting point and this year I didn’t, although I did ride my bike a few times to Daniel’s place or somewhere else and he drove us elsewhere, further high, loading our bikes in his van.

156 out of 617 workouts this year were me running, walking or cycling instead of driving.

This represents 104 hours (out of the total of 480), and amounts to 985 kilometers! In 2024, I biked to and from the office 3 times and drove once (I usually work from home).

For comparison, in 2023 I had 55 non-car commutes, covered 620 km and it took me 31 hours.

Car usage

I drove about 6700 km in 2023 (130km/week on average) and bought 355 liters of gasoline (7 tanks).

I drove three times to La Creuse. In early May with my brother and father after my mum died, then in July alone to spend a few weeks with my dad, and once more in October with my brother to close our mother’s estate.

Activity maps

Work took me to Hiroshima, Japan again last April and to Anaheim, CA, USA for the first time in September. I also spent several weeks at my dad’s in the Spring, Summer and Fall. So I have several activity maps for 2024!

Track colour key (a more contrasted colour indicates a more visited track)

  • Orange: cycling
  • Green: walking/hiking
  • Yellow: running

Year in sport 2024 (Strava)

Year in sport 2024 (Strava)

Strava running & biking statistics

Runs:

  • 1 per week on average
  • 25 minutes on average
  • 3 km per week on average
  • 60 runs in 2024
  • 32h in 2024
  • 278 km in 2024

Rides:

  • 2 per week on average
  • 3h per week on average
  • 42 km per week on average
  • 104 rides in 2024
  • 185h in 2024
  • 2712 km in 2024

Year in sport 2024 (Sports Tracker)

Sports Tracker’s simple visualisations show a calendar of the year where each activities is a coloured dots on each day (several activities are several ringed dots), and then tallies followed by the list from most to least time spent in a given activity. The last bit is a world map but it isn’t wide enough to show both Japan and California!

Apple Health graphs

2024 graphs
Exercise minutes: 2023 (80 min avg) , 2024 (89 min avg)
Active energy: 2023 (618 kcal avg), 2024 (659 kcal avg)
Workouts: 2023 (1h08 avg), 2024 (1h18 avg)
Walking + running distance: 2023 (4.7 km avg), 2024 (5.7 km avg)
Cycling distance: 2023 (34.4 km avg), 2024 (43.9 km avg)
Heart rate range: 2023 (33-173), 2024 (36-164)
Resting heart rate: 2023 (51 bpm), 2024 (55 bpm)
Weight: 2023 (63,12 kg avg), 2024 (62,97 kg avg)

Four years of daily exercise \o/

Somehow I missed the fourth anniversary, two weeks ago, of my exercising daily 🤷🏻 It’s probably become so much part of my life now that I don’t pay as much attention to the day it all started in 2020.

Calendar of the Fitness App for February and March 2020
After 8 March 2020, everyday I closed my activity rings and exercised daily.

That 8 March 2020, my Apple Watch suggested that it wasn’t too late if I wanted to earn the 2020 International Women’s Day challenge: all it took was a 20-minute walk! My dog in tow, I went for a walk. I earned my first “activity” badge. And this marked the start of my exercising daily.

I often joke that I exercise everyday otherwise if I stopped I wouldn’t take it up again. I think it’s true. But at the same time it really matters to me to be that person now. For most of my life I hated exercise and sports, and didn’t care at all for the benefits it brings. I am no longer that person.

I combine things in my life in a way that I can work out when I need to go somewhere (e.g., to run errands, go shopping, visit a friend, go to the doctor, etc.), and take photos which I really like. It takes time, so I plan for this in my work days or the weeks my kid is with me. But also, I combine working out with other things like listening to podcasts, catching up on social media, or watching TV series (my elliptical bike is in my room).

Exercising: 2023 review

2023 is the fourth year in a row I’ve been exercising daily. This is a review post of my exercising year 2023, similar to the summaries I wrote for 2022, 2021 and 2020.

2023 was another good year where I got a lot of fulfillment out of exercising. I’ve worked out everyday except 3 days, discovered new sports, purchased a new e-mountain bike (the one I would have purchased last year if it had been available!)

Raw numbers

Collage of three screenshots tallying exercising

Highlights of 2023:

  • 488h of exercise (= 20 days)
  • 509 workouts (1.4/day)
  • 1716 km on feet (4.7/day)
  • Walked under 300 km
  • Ran under 70 km
  • Cycled nearly 2800 km (233/month)

Monthly challenges

This year again I earned all of the monthly challenges suggested by my Apple Watch. They are determined based on recent activities and are meant to either keep you at the same level or elevate you a bit, so that at the end of the year you have improved your fitness.

  • 14x 4.08 km
  • 14x 67 min exercise
  • 5x double “move”
  • 27x close 3 rings
  • 14x 564 kcal
  • 4x outdoor cycling
  • 4x double “move”
  • 14x 613 kcal
  • 14x walk/run 3.95 km
  • 14x 80 min exercise
  • 10x double “move”
  • 14x walk/run 3.93 km

New gear

Me on my new e-mountain bike doing the peace sign. There is motion blur around me.
Me riding my Nakamura eSummit 950s (picture by Daniel Dardailler)
Screenshot of my furthest cycling activity: 67 km around Sophia Antipolis, Grasse, Auribeau.

My furthest cycling this year was on 15 December: 67 km (which my Apple Watch recorded as 69 km).

I rode with DanielD and Pascale around Valbonne and then continued solo for more time on the bike and followed the canal as much as I could from Plascassier to Peymeinade, and then headed around Mount Peygros and down to Auribeau, Pégomas and back home.

69 km, 5h15, 13 km/h average, 1265 m elevation.

Aside: car vs. bike usage

I drove 2800 km in 2023 (less than 50km/week on average) and bought 150 liters of fuel (3 tanks).

This year, out-of-the-ordinary drives included going to see Isabelle for a few days last Summer in her husband’s house in Vaucluse, and driving to Marseilles with my brother so we could attend the funeral of our father’s sister.

Instead of my car I used my bike 55 times in 2023 (equivalent to once a week on average), covered 620 km and it took me 31 hours.

That includes cycling to the office the 8 times I went there this year (I usually work from home), and cycling back and forth the 5 days of a mandatory training in Grasse last November.

Activity map

Screenshot of the area map showing in orange my cycling tracks, in green my walking tracks and in yellow my running tracks

This map of the area shows my tracks:

  • Orange: cycling
  • Green: walking/hiking
  • Yellow: running

Repeating tracks are indicated by a more contrasted colour.

Year in sport 2023 (Strava)

Collage of my year in sport 2023 showing the 362 days I've been active: every day but two days at the end of February and one day mid March.
2023 year in sport: days active
Collage showing that my top workout types are 30% and 13% yoga, HIIT, functional strength, flexibility, 18% walking and hiking, 14% cycling and 8% weight lifting. Total time of 417h and 31 minutes. Time broken down per month with the most activities in August with 48h and 45 minutes. Illustration that I am among the top 2% most active on Strava this year.
2023 year in sport: workouts and times
Collage showing a card for my longest activity: 69 km by eMTB which is 57.6% longer than my average. Total distance of 3243 km and this is broken down per month with the month with the furthest distance covered being November with 547 km. Total elevation of 55,832 meters, broken down per month with the highest achieved in November with 8,776 meters.
2023 year in sport: longest activity, distance and elevation

More graphs

Collage of the 2023 average per day Exercise minutes bar chart and comparison with 2022: 80 vs 113 min/day
Health graphs: exercise minutes
Collage of the 2023 average per day energy burning bar chart and comparison with 2022: 618 vs 747 kcal/day
Health graphs: active energy
Collage of the 2023 average per day workouts time bar chart: 1h9. Another snippets shows that I walked on average 4.7 km/day in 2023 vs. 8 km/day in 2022. Finally the last snippet shows that today I took 3,300 steps whereas I usually take 5,600.
Health graphs: workouts, distance on feet, steps
Two graphs: the 2023 average per day workouts time bar chart: 1h9 and the 2023 average per day cycling distance: 34.4 km.
Health graphs: workouts and cycling distance
Two graphs: the bar charts for the move, exercise and stand goals which show that the bars aren't varying by a big margin. The other graph is the weight: average of 63.12 kg for the year with min around 62 and max around 65.
Health graphs: activity, weight
Two graphs: heart rate ranging from 33 to 173 in 2023. The other graph is the resting heart rate one and shows an average at 51 bpm with max at 53 and min at 47.
Health graphs: heart

12 months of biking

Today marks 12 months of e-road cycling and e-mountain biking for me! and tomorrow will mark 12 months since I got my own eMTB (pictured below).

Dark grey electric mountain bike propped against a tree in the forest
Nakamura e-summit 950

3011 kilometers, shown in orange on the SportsTracker map!

Map of the area showing in various shades of orange the area I have covered on my eMTB. It goes as far as Fréjus and Roquebrune in the Var at the West, Mons, Caussols and Gréolières at the North and Saint-Laurent du Var at the East.
Map of the area showing in various shades of orange the area I have covered on my eMTB. It goes as far as Fréjus and Roquebrune in the Var at the West, Mons, Caussols and Gréolières at the North and Saint-Laurent du Var at the East.

Most of it was recreational but a lot of it was a substitute to driving for errands and commute, or to meet people.

I think (*) I have driven fewer kilometers than I cycled in the last year, as a result.

I enjoy myself biking way more than anything else. I’m not very good at it but I don’t care. I’m not very bad at it either!

Biking makes me happy and I look happy on a bike. I selected from the last 12 months a few pictures of me (taken mostly by my co-biker, former colleague and friend Daniel) that I like in particular.


(*) estimate of 2700-2900 km driven.