Sure, Strava has their year in sport, and it is getting more useful each year, but it’s kind of insufficient. It doesn’t reflect all you’ve done, or the life impacts (good and bad), or your goals. So, I exported my Garmin data and made my own.
Running
When thinking of my running year, my mind only stops with an injury. The shin splints-turned bone stress injury-turned compartment syndrome, if that’s what it was, started in May, and it’s only in January 2025 when I end the rehab runs. I need to remember outside of that I ran my first 5k in under 30 minutes, discovered I don’t like full sun weather and overly full races, and spent Wednesday nights running with some amazing, encouraging people.
Deep water running
Most people start deep water running to maintain fitness through an injury. I know I did. It was a recent addition to my schedule and one I’m surprised I like. It’s frustratingly slow and I could do workouts that don’t have me moving at all. But Garmin watches don’t track it well, and I’m a stats nerd so I’ll stay with 5 minute lengths of the 50m pool.
Cycling
Getting a pedal-assist electric bike was a game changer for injury recovery. In the last months of 2024, I rode my bike 40 times with an average speed of 17.5kph. It’s replacing my commute walks with a few cross-training longer runs thrown in.
The complete story
According to my Strava report, I had a wider range of activities than most. That seems weird. I had 6 activities and that doesn’t seem enough for runs and cross-training and strength work and recovery. What are others doing?
That said, some of my were brief. At the start of my leg injury I switched to the elliptical… once. I do NOT enjoy the elliptical. I also used breathwork to bring my heart rate down after some long runs, but didn’t make it a habit. I use the techniques, just not with the structure.
| Activity | Duration | Distance | Average duration |
| Running | 103:46:02 | 922.99km | 45:07 |
| Walking | 116:05:38 | 641.47km | 24:16 |
| Strength | 43:42:02 | 20:56 | |
| Cycling | 13:47 | ||
| Deep water running* | 3:27:12 | 1.965km | 34:32 |
| Pilates | 3:00:00 | 45:00 | |
| Breathwork | 1:57:00 | 5:32 | |
| Elliptical | 10:15 | 10:15 |
Hard things in 2025
It’s 5 days into my year of doing hard things. It’s enough in that I’m questioning my life choices and also realising my planned hard things will be done by the end of April.
The plan is:
- run the Ballarat Marathon with a goal to finish.
Yeah, that’s it. The race is April 27and my official training starts tomorrow with my final rehab run.
There are other things I’m doing too, like starting a new role with Transurban this week, but hard is subjective and while starting a new job is challenging and different, it’s doing customer comms. I’ve done it so much previously, I don’t count that as hard.
Later in the year, I’ll be running the 2XU Wellness Run half marathon because I deferred from 2024. I’ve also committed to Run for the Kids short course in early April.
Deep water running turned out fun and not as scary as all the forced pool time when I was a kid, so learning to swim might be my second hard thing. And we’ll see what else is added. I’ve got a whole year to decide.
The Running Marketer 
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