My Big-Number Fitness Goals for 2025
I have a friend who sets outrageous physical challenges every year for himself to complete. One year, it was to do twenty 12-hour outdoor activity burns. Another, it was to do a bunch of “Everests”, which is to bike, hike, or ski repeated laps of some local hill enough times to reach the equivalent height of Mt. Everest (29,032 feet) in one go. Another, it was to climb 365,000 feet in the year.
I’ve always found his challenges to be inspiring, and I like catching up with him to see what activities he’s doing to reach his goals. Usually, there’s a bit of a scramble at the end of the year to catch up to the quota.
This year, I’m following his lead and setting one for myself. Well, three of them, actually. But I’ll be pretty happy if I can get one or two done.
#1: Run 365 miles. A mile a day, on average. To be honest, I sort-of had this goal last year, too. But a couple injuries kept me from running as consistently as I wanted and I only ran 193 miles. I’m working on preventative measures so that doesn’t happen again this year.
#2: Climb 182,500 feet in elevation. Or 500 feet per day in any activity, but it must be in a dedicated workout. So just everyday walking around doesn’t count. This one’s gonna be a little tougher. I did a little over 117,000 feet in 2024, so 182,500 is about a 33% increase.1 Lots of hiking, backcountry skiing, rock and ice climbing, biking, and trail running is in my future this year!
#3: Climb 5.10 trad. I love rock climbing, and I can climb decently difficult routes within the relative safety of top roping and sport climbing. But trad climbing, where you place your own protection in the rock as you climb, is a whole other head game. I spend enough time guiding for beginner climbers that I haven’t had to push myself in the last few years, and my trajectory at working up the difficulty grades has stagnated somewhat. I got in a few 5.8 trad climbs this year. But at 5.10, the possibilities for really cool climbs opens way up. I haven’t jumped two grades in a year before, so this will take some concerted effort to feel strong and comfortable enough to do it safely.
Beyond those specific goals, I’d like to generally get stronger with more muscle definition, and place more focus on stretching and flexibility this year. If I can make it through the Fitness+ yoga workouts without tipping over or feeling wildly out of place, I’ll call that a success.
I’m building out my 2025 theme of Small Improvements. And I say small improvements to my body and outdoor adventure stats totally count.
What theme are you working toward this year? Let me know! 💌 | 💬
2024 Totals
For completeness’s sake, here are the rest of my fitness stats from 2024, as shared by — what else? — the handy Fitness Stats app.
Update: Inspired by Pratik, here are my walking stats from Pedometer++, which I think are interesting in their own way. I dunno why the counts are different from Fitness Stats! 🤷♂️
I’d love to get to 1,000 feet per day, but figure I should start with something more attainable.↩︎