A New Year's Resolution (#370)

I sometimes talk about something other than accounting, if I think it might be of interest. So, I’ve timed this episode to be just prior to new year’s day, in case you want to try out my suggestion, and roll it into your new year’s resolutions.

The main problem with new year’s resolutions is that they almost never work. You might resolve to walk a bit further during the next year, or go to the gym, or maybe try to stop eating sweets. Good luck with that last one. I ate a couple of chocolates yesterday.

But. I’ve found something that works for me, and has been working for years, so I thought I’d pass it along. I set a target activity for a really stout piece of cardio work that going to happen sometime in the next year – probably in the second half of the year, which forces me to work towards it for months. And this is something that’s actually pretty exciting, and which requires a bit of a monetary investment to do it, so that I’m really locked into the project.

In order to achieve that target, I have to set up a series of training goals that really need to be met in every single month leading up to the event, or else I may not be able to do it. As an example, in 2024, my cardio target was to hike the Grand Canyon rim-to-rim, and to do it in October, when the temperatures are lower. This is not an easy target. You go down 5,500 vertical feet from the South Rim, hike 24 miles across, and go back up 6,500 vertical feet to reach the North Rim. And to make it even more challenging, there’s a shuttle that leaves the North Rim at two in the afternoon to bring you back around to your starting point, so you’ve got to complete the whole thing by 2 p.m., or else you’re pretty much screwed.

That’s a challenge. To train for it, I did a half marathon trail run in each month of 2024 leading up to the hike. And to train for each half marathon, I did a ten-mile trail run about every third or fourth day, on an ongoing basis. Which adds up to a lot of training. And on top of that, I decided to lose five pounds, since I didn’t want to be carrying any extra weight through the Grand Canyon. Now, normally, I have a hard time taking off weight. But when you’ve got a goal like that coming up, it really focuses the attention. So, yes, I lost the weight.

And in case you’re curious, I started from the South Rim at 2:30 in the morning with a headlamp, and finished at the North Rim nine hours and 42 minutes later. And got there in time for the shuttle.

In case you think this was a one-time event for me, no, not really. Let’s roll it back one year. In 2023, the target was the Laugavegur Trail, which runs from north to south in the backcountry of Iceland. If you look up any listing of the most iconic hiking trails in the world, you will definitely find it. The Laugavegur is 34 miles long, and the elevation gain is 7,000 feet. The usual approach is to take a bus from Reykjavik, which is the capital of Iceland, and which drops you off at the northern trailhead at about noon. Most people then take four days to backpack the trail, and they stay at huts along the way. At the south end of the trail, there’s another bus that takes you back to Reykjavik, and it leaves at 2 p.m. Though in this case, there’s also a late bus that departs about four hours after that.

I set a target of starting at the northern trailhead at noon, and catching the bus from the south trailhead at 2 p.m. the next day. So, 26 hours in total. That meant going ultralight with just enough equipment to camp out for one night. And to make things more interesting, there are a bunch of stream crossings to get through, and there have been a few drownings. The risk of drowning is really pretty low, but the crossings will slow you down.

The final score on this one was 24 and a half hours, trailhead to trailhead, and I got to the south end in time to catch the bus back.

So to prepare for the Laugavegur goal in 2023, I had the same intermediate goals of doing a half marathon trail run in every month, with lots of ten-milers to prepare for the half marathons. In fact, the half marathon goal has worked out so well that I’ve now done one in each of the last 103 consecutive months. And that streak is still going.

One problem that has come up over the years is a certain amount of wear and tear. But I’ve found that, if you stay on top of these issues, you can keep going. For example, I had a partial Achilles tendon tear a few years back. Well, there’s an electrical stimulation treatment that can heal the tendon. I had to take a few weeks off and go to the doctor’s office every few days for treatments, but it healed up, and I kept running. The main takeaway from that one was to do a very specific set of lower-leg stretches every single day. So that’s what I do, and the problem has never come back.

Or, here’s another one. I run on some very rough trails, and I was starting to roll my ankles all the time – which is not good. Well, there are strengthening exercises for your ankles that involve using a large rubber band. After a couple of weeks, I stopped rolling my ankles, and it’s never happened since.

In short, over the long term, there’s always going to be an injury, and you might be tempted to stop at that point. Instead, I suggest going to see a doctor immediately, and figuring out the options. With the proper therapy, you might be able to keep going, and actually come out of it with a better training regimen.

And, in case you’re curious, yes, I have another goal in mind for 2025, and it’s to climb the highest peak in Spain. I’m training for it now.

One more item – and call this one a pro tip, in case you plan to hike the Grand Canyon rim-to-rim. If you’re using a GPS to track your mileage, it doesn’t work so well on the north side of the Grand Canyon. The reason is that the trail goes through a slot canyon there, where your GPS has a hard time picking up satellite signals. I found that my GPS was off by almost two miles by the time I got to the North Rim. So, be aware.

And a final thought. If you’re not especially athletic right now, don’t go setting a new year’s resolution to do something that might kill you. A mid-range goal is perfectly acceptable. So if you set a goal and wake up at night, wondering what on earth you were thinking, that’s probably a bit too much of a stretch goal.

All right, one more thought. If the goals I’ve covered in this episode seem like a lot, just keep in mind that there’s always someone out there who is absolutely superhuman. For example, people also hike the Grand Canyon rim-to-rim-to-rim. Which is 48 miles and at least 12,000 vertical feet. And if you think that sounds crazy, the trail running speed record for the rim-to-rim-to-rim is five hours and 55 minutes. Don’t try to keep up with these people. Just set goals that work for you.