Category: health

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.

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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

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.

New gear

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)

Strava running & biking statistics

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

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

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.

New gear

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

Year in sport 2023 (Strava)

More graphs