As is tradition, we’ll start by reviewing last year’s goals. (Just for the record, this year’s post is late because we went to China over New Years).
2024 Goal Review
Read 20+ books: F. I might finish one more before the end of the year, but per Goodreads I’ve only finished nine so far, so any way you slice it that’s an F. Mostly due to bedtime habits I will (again) attempt to fix this year.
Cover 2,000+ human powered miles: A+. Thanks to following a proper training plan for most of the year, and also because I was focused on gravel biking and XC MTB (where the miles come a little easier), I absolutely obliterated this goal, with 4,212 total miles logged over 346 hours of exercise. The miles number is admittedly fuzzy, as a lot of them are indoor-trainer miles, but I suspect that if anything TrainerRoad is underestimating miles covered.
I also achieved my sub-goal of finishing top-five at Mountain Mayhem. I finished first place (tied), with the maximum possible number of points.
Improve my diet permanently: D+. I did improve my diet somewhat, but not as much as I would have liked/hoped, and the late-night snacking is still an issue.
Maintain a regular strength workout routine: F. I have followed a couple different strength routines throughout the year, but “regular” would be a stretch. I’ve really struggled to find something that fits, time-wise and energy-wise, in with the on-the-bike training I’m doing.
Find some queer community: F. I failed to do this, not much more to really say about it.
Add a valuable skill to my resume: B. I’m going to count this as my analytical and coding skills have grown significantly over the past year. Technically, that’s not really a new skill for the resume, but it’s meaningful progress.
I also had a few bonus goals for 2024, so let’s grade those on a pass/fail scale real quick:
- Master ten chords on guitar: fail. My guitar is still broken.
- Stand during meetings under 1 hour: fail. I did this for a while and then stopped.
- Learn new carpentry skills: pass. Not that I took any courses, but I did get better and made a nicer desk organizer.
- Finish a few short stories: pass. I finished one, at least. We’ll count it.
- Stop sleeping with headphones on: fail. I still do this. I know it’s not the healthiest thing but it has felt like I have bigger fish to fry.
2025 Goals
Read 20+ books. Pretty self-explanatory. My plan to do better this year is to make a habit of reading before bed during the week. I also got an eReader for Christmas that will make reading while traveling easier.
Cover 5,000 human-powered miles. I broke 4,000 this year, so 5,000 seems like the next logical step, and doable given that I’ll probably be doing even more gravel riding this year.
Figure out how to make a positive impact with cycling/racing. I have a plan to create a sort of “UNsponsored” team that supports local ME causes like Maine Needs, but I need to start executing on that… quickly.
Build something cool with wood. Self-explanatory. I’d like to take a course or something on furniture-making in particular.
Find or build some queer community. Not sure how I’m going to do this; I may be able to combine it with the bike thing in some way.
Bonus goals:
- Place top 10 in a bike race
- Take some kind of woodworking course
- Increase our emergency and investment funds by 20%
- Ship a big, impressive project at work
Charlie Custer 