Back in January I wrote a post about my goals for the year, and then followed that up in July with a mid-year check-in, so here’s the obligatory end-of-year wrap-up post.

1. My first goal was to write 2 blog posts per month, which is a success! I even posted three separate times in July, so that must have been a banger of a month. As I noted in the mid-year check-in, many of these posts have come in juuuust under the deadline, posting the second blog post of the month on the very last day of the month more than half the time (including this very post). But I made it! There’s nothing like a ticking clock to amp up the motivation.

2. I wanted to do more adventuring this year, which was by far the lowest-hanging fruit on the list of goals. Between jumping in freezing lakes in Patagonia, rafting in the rain in Valdivia, taking my three best friends from Chile on a tour of some national parks in the US, and trekking through three countries in Europe with my parents, I think this is definitely a win for the year.

3. Double digit pullups! I was at 9.5 at the beginning of December and managed to get enough training in to make it to a solid ten before Christmas. Hopefully having an actual coach for climbing will help me keep up the strength work instead of just playing on the climbing wall as per usual.

4. This year I also wanted to maintain a gratitude journal, jotting down three things I’m thankful for each day. This didn’t happen every day or even most days, so I’ll have to think about why and whether it’s something I want to work on next year. The main goal is to focus less on the negatives in a day by remembering all the little things that go right, so maybe there’s a more sustainable way for me to do that.

5. Stretch more. We’ll give this one a low pass, maybe a C+. I mean, the foam roller and I are friends, but not besties. One of my Christmas gifts was a book on mobility for athletes, so I’m stoked about that and hoping to bring that motivation into the new year.

6. Bonus crossfit-related goals that I wrote about in July: muscle-ups, handstand walks, and 50 consecutive double-unders with a jumprope. I got my first bar muscle-up earlier this year which made me think I felt like a superhero and then unlocked a ring muscle-up near the end of the year, which upgraded that to actual superhero status. Handstand walks are also pretty solid nowadays, and I blew my double-under goal out of the water with 100 consecutive ones (during a workout, no less). I also managed to stick a monster box jump that I’m proud of, just 1.5 cm shy of a full meter.

August 2022. A bit of a strugglebus getting all the way up but me and my frog legs got there eventually!
98.5 cm in all its glory, with the obligatory celebration. I think I have a few more in reserve to make it all the way to a full meter.
November 2022. Dips have made progress since August, but it’s still exciting every time.
Video is slowed down a bit so you can see the rope passing twice under my feet every time, hence the name double-under.

I’m happy with this year’s results, particularly the double-digit pullups which have been a goal of mine for forever, and the ring muscle-up that makes me feel so cool every time (even though it’s a relatively common skill in the crossfit world). I’ll leave goals for next year to another post, I wouldn’t want to waste a perfectly good topic.