2020: The Stats

It almost feels silly to write this post this year. The Year of Our Lord Two Thousand and Twenty was, how do I put this – somewhat of an “off” year. Can’t quite put my finger on it, but there was something different about 2020. Just kind of a quirky year!

But I am writing this post anyway. First of all, I like consistency. I love stats. Also, it might be fun to look back at this post years from now and say, “Oh, right. That year.”

I wrote similar posts in 2018 and 2019 about my activity stats. Let’s see how 2020 compares!

Main Differences in 2020

• Just one in-person race (a 5K on March 1)
• Not as much running: I only spent six weeks training for a marathon before it was canceled (and I did not run the virtual event), and I did not run for about six months of the year because my stupid feet hurt
• On the upside, I did many more strength workouts in 2020

I’ll probably write another post about how my feet no longer hurt and why I think that is, but this post is for boring stats!

Ways I Track Activity

I track my activity much of the same way I did in 2019:

• Garmin: I’m still using the same Garmin Forerunner 630 I bought in November 2017. It records all of my runs, steps, and sleep data. I also record my weight and shoe mileage on the app. I only recently started noticing the battery draining faster than it did before: an 8-mile run drains it about as much as a marathon used to. So, as I begin increasing my mileage again, I’ll have to upgrade. I’ve also had to replace the band once. Otherwise, I love this watch.
• Strava: I like Strava for the social factor, as most of my running friends are on it and it’s fun when they give me kudos. My profile is private, so I don’t really use it for much more than record-keeping and giving and receiving kudos, the online equivalent of a hug.
• My own spreadsheet: I track data from all of my runs and workouts on the same Excel spreadsheet I’ve had since July 2018. I still love this method of record-keeping. It’s so helpful to have all of my data in one place. As an example, recently I was curious when I last ran more than 8 miles. I probably could have looked at my Garmin calendar to see this, but that would involve looking at each date one by one. Instead, I looked at the page on the spreadsheet from last year and saw the information instantly.
• MapMyRun: I used to use MapMyRun all the time but I don’t log in to this site anymore. However, I will visit it to get some of the following information.

In 2020, I:

• ran 557.21 miles (down from 1533 in 2019)
• burned 57,414 calories running
• spent 89 hours running
• ran 1 actual race
• ran 1 virtual race
• did 121 upper body workouts (up from 98 in 2019)
• did 117 lower body workouts (up from 63 in 2019)
• got into a swimming pool 4 times (all in January)

I was blown away by the increase in strength workouts until I remembered how little I ran in 2020 compared to the year before – about a third of the time and distance. Since I like to do something every day, this meant replacing runs with weights and being consistent about strength training in a way I wasn’t in 2019.

Interesting to note: I don’t think I was more muscular in 2020 compared to 2019. Or, if I was, I didn’t notice it. I was definitely heavier in 2020, but I’m pretty sure that was not all muscle.

The pool visits ended as I started marathon training, and then, of course, ended completely with the pandemic. Oh well. Swimming was fun while it lasted!

Age Group Comparisons

This is always fun for me. If I compare myself to anyone for any reason, it’s typically other women in my age group. I even did this at the dentist yesterday morning: after my cleaning, I asked the hygienist how my teeth compared to other 46-year-old women. I asked this because I am a mentally healthy, normal person. (She told me I was “awesome,” which I just took as meaning I am in the top 1% of teeth-havers.)

Here are some fun Garmin charts. Even with running a third of what I did in 2019, I still somehow ran farther than 90% of other Garmin users in my age group.

I spent more time running than 82% of my age group…

…and ran faster than the same percentage. This is surprising because I do not consider myself very fast. Although, based on the chart, this data includes walkers. So there’s that.

I am fairly certain that not only living in New York City but owning a dog in New York City gets me to walk a lot. No surprise here with how many steps I take per day.

Finally, I sleep about seven hours a night, so this tracks.

I’m still amazed at how long other people sleep. Unless they just take off their watches at night at Garmin thinks they’re sleeping, a strong possibility. Imagine, there are people out there not tracking every single thing?! Incredible. Kudos to them.

So there are my 2020 stats. I’m hoping that 2021 looks a little different, in more ways than one. I don’t usually write out my goals for the upcoming year, but what the heck.

In 2021, I’d like to:

• get vaccinated
• see a return to in-person races
• run more than 1500 miles
• be consistent about strength training
• train for a race (any race, it doesn’t matter the distance)

It’s hard to make predictions right now, but those are my main goals. I’ll think about signing up for a marathon again when things get back to normal.

Let’s see what happens.