The Year in Review

As is my custom, I find it helpful to reflect upon the good and the bad of 2020.  I start the year with goals; this post looks back at some of them and considers other factors we experienced this year.

I'll begin with the obvious: the pandemic that defined the year certainly upended a lot of these goals. Some were easier to meet as a result of lockdowns; others impossible. I found new hobbies and abandoned others. The disruptions meant nothing went as planned- but that's not always a bad thing.

Nutritional/Fitness

Weight loss was a big goal for me, so I weighed myself every day I had scale access. I started the year at 195.5 lbs and wanted to lose 20. I dropped 12 rather readily and maintained that level until the holidays (and colder weather), when I biked less and gained back a few. Some of that gain is muscle- I think- and I'm pleased with my overall fitness. As of this morning, I'm 187.5. Staying under 185 is doable and the max acceptable moving forward, with 180 as the goal. I think dropping under that would mean muscle loss.

Weight in 2020 (lbs)

The pandemic helped me up my overall workout totals. Though an achilles injury shelved my running for three months, I still got some decent miles in (and could do 2 miles in 14:00 and 3 in under 24). I discovered bicycling and enjoyed over 1,300 miles on the wonderful German bike trails. No six-pack yet, but lots of core workouts mean I see hints of one at times. Gyms were closed for about three months, which affected those gym totals, but I still hit the gym consistently when it was open. Overall, I did workouts on 268 days (out of 314 eligible- I rest on Sundays), meaning I worked out 85% of the days I could; not bad, especially with the injury.

I tracked push-ups this year and did 26,200 (personal best: 50 in a set; 100 over multiple sets in 5:03). I worked on pull-ups starting in autumn and can now do 13 pull-ups in a set. Looking back over recent years, this one was the best overall:

2014: 51 runs for 104.6 miles, 98 gym workouts
2015: 47 runs for 103.0 miles, 81 gym workouts, 5 soccer games, 5 PT sessions

2016: 98 runs for 205.8 miles, 115 gym workouts, 4 bike rides
2017: 77 runs for 203.9 miles, 111 gym workouts
2018: 44 runs for  78.2 miles, 107 gym workouts, 32 yardwork sessions
2019: 54 runs for 120.6 miles, 85 gym workouts, 26 'other' sessions (hikes, bike rides, moving, etc.)

2020: 94 runs for 180 miles, 83 gym workouts, 91 bike rides for 1310 miles

My diet wasn't the best, but I did have reasonable discipline until the holidays- though biking so much meant I had to frequent the German bakeries (you know, to make sure I was getting enough fuel). 

Financial
We started 2020 tracking spending exactly like we hoped, and doing a good analysis after each month to see where we could improve. Then came COVID, and many of our routines went out the window. But to be fair, we saved a good deal this year- there's not much to do in a lockdown. So we met some goals without the systematic budgeting we thought would be necessary. Still room for improvement, though. How do people budget 'easily' (without it dominating their time)?

Reading
It was a good reading year. I exceeded my goal of reading 50 books, made good progress on my German Reading List, kept my 'owned but unread' pile to a reasonably small number, and enjoyed a lot of authors new to me. My post here caps this year's book recommendations. 

Travel
Ha!  Whereas we hosted visitors for 28% of 2019 and traveled a good deal, 2020 brought it all to a screeching halt. We took the kids to the Black Forest (pics here, here and here) for a long weekend in the early Fall, and did a day trip into France while there, but that was it for foreign adventures. All was not lost, though- we explored the more local sights a fair deal, focusing on ruined castles that were easy to see while social distancing. (We even had a 'three castle day'.) I learned to delight in these less popular attractions; I love castle ruins. I think our favorites were Wertheim, Hohenstein, and Auerbach. Or Manderscheider Burgen. Or Runkel. Sheesh; I can't decide.

Fluency
My goals were to learn 5000 more German words (no idea if that happened), complete the DuoLingo German course (that did happen), and read 5 books auf Deutsch (I read a few). Still not fluent- and admittedly dejected about that- but I need immersion to get me over the hill here, and that's not going to happen in this pandemic. So I keep plugging away to maintain what I have (meeting the DuoLingo daily goal through review), but I have little hope of reaching my goals here.

Games
I wanted to host more game nights and play online games less this year. Again- ha! I did get a game night or two in before life shut down in March, which was nice. And I learned that a number of friends enjoy playing Magic: Arena, so I now have several monthly 'game dates' where a specified friend and I play each other on that platform and use Discord to chat while so doing. It's a lot of fun. Technology has been a wonderful aid in this time.

Personal Spending
I still spent too much this year, though I did a decent job tracking it, and I sold a few things to get back in the black. That needs to improve next year, though. I have too much that I don't use regularly, and spending plays into that.

Blogging
Blogging was consistent about the typical games, books, and movies. It continues to be an enjoyable hobby for me, perhaps even 'necessary' as my memory is so poor, and this helps me track things. In February, I started a second blog about my favorite card game, Magic: the Gathering. 

Parenting
I have no idea how to gauge parenting. I have a vague sense that we made some improvements this year, but much remains. The pandemic forced us to spend lots of time indoors and together, which was sometimes wonderful, sometimes crazy. 

Spiritual
My spiritual routine (prayer and scripture) was better this year- more meaningful and consistent. Early in the year, I finished some readings related to church leadership which were quite valuable. And I started being more intentional about teaching the family in these matters, though it was mostly ad hoc dinnertime discussions, and I need to be more structured and consistent about that.

Conclusion
2020 was certainly different than we expected. We were blessed with health and job, so we can't complain. I was happy to meet some fitness goals and improve spiritually. It was wonderful to discover German biking trails and explore local castle ruins. More than anything, though, we miss people. I hope fellowship can resume in 2021.