Happy New Year! My Goals for 2024

I haven’t spent a ton of time setting goals for the coming year. I do like to make use of the new year to set some goals, but I also don’t make too much of a big deal out of them. The new year is a good opportunity to reflect on what I want to happen moving forward, but I also believe it’s important to hold your goals somewhat loosely and adjust if they start to lead to unhealthy behaviors or conflict with some of your larger values and priorities.

Now that I’ve completely removed the impact of goal setting, here are the goals I have in mind for 2024 as I head into the year.

Run One Easy Mile Every Day

I want to run one easy mile every day. I had a 48 day run streak in 2023 and a 52 day run streak in 2022. In 2024 I want to run as many days as possible, with the ultimate goal of logging one easy mile every day of the year.

I have two motivations with this goal: consistency and conditioning.

The consistency piece is pretty self-explanatory. I want to run consistently and making it a daily habit has consistency baked right in.

The conditioning piece requires a little explanation. During my 48 day run streak last year I basically alternated between one super easy mile one day and then an actual run ranging from 6 to 16 miles on the following day. What I found is that the easy mile, run at a truly pure easy shuffle pace (11-12 min pace), actually seemed to aid in my recovery and leg health. I don’t know why this happened, my theory at a very high level is that one super easy mile did just enough to stimulate blood flow to all the various nooks and crannies of my legs while not adding a meaningful amount of impact or stress resulting in a net-positive impact.

In 2024 I want to put that theory to the test by running one super easy mile every day. To be clear, I will also run longer than one mile sometimes, but I want to start every day and every run with one super easy shuffle pace mile.

Run 1300 Miles

In 2023 I ran 1173 miles. That comes out to an average of 22.6 miles per week. However, I also spent a very good chunk of the year injured.

In 2023, between January and March I averaged over 150 miles per month, or about 35 miles per week, which would have totaled 1800 miles if I had been able to maintain that rate all year long. On the other hand, I averaged fewer than 20 miles per week during six different months in 2023 due to a variety of injuries.

In 2024 I want to run consistently, thus my daily easy mile goal. I’m tempted to pair that with an ambitious volume goal of say 2000 miles. The truth is that if I could stay healthy I don’t think I’d have any problem running 40 miles per week, or 2000 miles per year. However, staying healthy has proven to be a tricky nut for me to crack. So my mileage goal for the year is conservative: 25 miles per week x 52 weeks = 1300 miles.

20 Consecutive Clean Pull-Ups

Over the last few months I’ve gotten into pull-ups. I’ve incorporated them as one of the cornerstones of my strength program and I believe they’ve made me a lot stronger. I have a complicated relationship with pull-ups.

I have a lot of respect for the pull-up. Completing even a single pull-up is not easy and requires decent baseline upper body strength. Completing any significant number of pull-ups, say a single set of 6 to 8 clean overhand pull-ups, puts you somewhere in the upper percentiles of the total population in terms of overall upper body strength and endurance.

I kind of hate pull-ups. They’re hard. Doing a set of pull-ups is not easy and is uncomfortable. Pull-ups are an exercise I enjoy having completed. I’m not sure I ever really enjoy doing them.

I kind of love pull-ups. There’s some empowering about being able to move your entire bodyweight through space using just your arms. Pull-ups hit most of your upper body in a single movement that links various major muscle groups and forces them to work in a coordinated fashion. They’re fantastic for building strength and endurance and they are one of the purest measures of upper body strength and endurance.

A month or two back I maxed out on pull-ups. I managed to complete 17, though I’d say really only 13 or 14 of those were clean. The last few had a decent amount of kicking to get my chin up above the bar. Getting to 20 clean pull-ups feels like a reach goal that’s attainable but will require focused training and consistency. I won’t get there by accident.

Read One Book Per Month

My youngest daughter was born back in 2021. In the 12 months before my daughter’s birth I read about 20 books. I’ve only read a handful of books since.

In 2023 I want to get back to reading, starting with Comedy Sex God by Pete Holmes. I have several others already on my bookshelf that I’ve accumulated since my daughter was born, and in 2023 I want to get through this pile and then some.