Fitness Results 2018 – Year in Review

Almost every year since I started my latest fitness journey in 2011, I have written up a year in review to analyze what I have achieved and set goals for the next year. This past year has been a rough one for me in many respects. While I am happy with my new job and all the benefits that my new location in New Jersey affords, I have slacked off rather badly in the fitness realm and am at a weight I have not seen since 2012. A number of factors have contributed to this including: stress, mental health, unfamiliar environment, and the move in general. However, I have now been here over a year and am setting my sights on 2019, along with looking back at what I have learned about my fitness in 2018.

I have been tracking my fitness results since 2011 using a variety of apps & programs, most recently Map My Fitness, Strava and  FitBit. Each one has its benefits and drawbacks, however, I will be continuing to use all three in 2019. Feel free to friend me on any of them. I also have a post from several years ago where I talk about fitness and weight loss in general: Fitness, Body Image, BMI & Health

Weight
As mentioned, I have not been happy with my status throughout the year, which has been one of almost continual gain. Not a huge amount of gain, but enough to be an issue and certainly pushing me further away from my preferred zone (175-190). My highest month was October and I have since been trending very slowly downward again. On a monthly average the progress is less than a pound a month, so really it is negliable. (At least I am not gaining anymore which is the first step.) Getting back to my preferred range is a major focus for the new year, and I look forward to seeing my weight trendline.

A look at my actual statistics for 2018:

84 – Total workouts for 2018
I had planned on doing at least 100 workouts, but life did not cooperate this year and I came up a bit short of that modest goal. This year was the fewest workouts I’ve had since I started keeping track back in 2011. Regardless, 84 is a lot better than 0 and I have been pushing forward in several areas, August-October were especially strong with half of my workouts being contained in those three months. Overall I worked out 23% of the year, so almost every fourth day. In the coming year, I know this number will go higher, as I make fitness one of my primary focuses.

58 – P90X Workouts

I finally started getting back into my P90X routine in October and have been trying to step things up and plan to do as many as possible until biking season starts up again. While I haven’t been doing any of their recommended plans, I have been doing a mix of the different workouts, with the focus being on upper body strength. During the first few months of the new year, I will work on going through at least one cycle of the program. It always is a nice boost to all areas of my fitness.

26 – Bike Rides

In total, I rode only 542 miles this year, but with just 26 rides that works out to about 21 miles a ride, which I feel is a good number. Biking in New Jersey has been a change from what I was used to in Ohio. There really are not trails like there are in Ohio (ok there are some, but really short paths of 7 miles at most) so most riding is done on the shoulder, or the occasional bike lane when riding in certain beach communities. I have two main biking start points (which are fairly obvious on my Strava map), one near my home, which is pretty rural but has access to several bays and waterfronts which I enjoy. Most of the roads are flat, but not too varied in scenery. The other is near my work where I drive myself to either Northfield (start of a 7-mile path) or to the middle of the bridge on the way to Ocean City. Due to a lack of hills, I make do with bridges, which seem to always have a headwind regardless of direction. The best thing about these rides are the views, including the many expanses of water and plenty of beaches along the Atlantic.

In addition to my two standard locations, I have explored some other areas, primarily on the shoreline, including doing a couple of 40+ mile rides such as Brigantine to Cape May and the circumference of LBI. I have come across quite a few group rides which look very interesting, but I still have not joined one yet. Top on my list is the Five Boroughs ride through NYC and the ride from Downtown Philly to Ocean City. I also plan on exploring even more of the area from my bike, including Philly & NYC.

See Strava Heat Map: Greg Simerlink Biking Heat Map

 
0 – Runs
Nothing, not even a treadmill this year. How lame is that? This will be corrected with at least a few runs in 2019 and possibly my first mud run in three years.

General Activity
There are many chances to get activity locally. With both NYC & Philadelphia being close by there is a lot of walking to be done while seeing all of the amazing sights. Also, our house has a lot of trees and quite a bit of yard maintenance is required. Overall, I would much rather ride or lift than do yard care since I like to sweat and get my heart rate up while targeting specific muscle groups. I’m sure I will be doing plenty of yard work this coming year, but I don’t want to be trapped by my yard.

Feel free to follow me on any of the apps listed at the top of the post…see you on the trails!