August Update on 2026 Fitness Goals

As you know if you follow this blog, I generally give a monthly update on my fitness / Strava goals. I'm sure no one besides myself really cares, but I figure sharing these publicly give me a little extra motivation because of the extra accountability.

Plus, from time to time I'll look at older updates just to see where I was in the past.

In previous years, my goals have been mostly around cycling, but starting this year, I've started running as well.

If you're interested, You can always track these workouts on Strava. 

So far, I'm tracking pretty well to my 2026 Fitness goals, although a couple of aches and pains (not quite injuries) do seem to be slowing me down a bit (at least on running).

My 2026 Fitness / Activity Goals are:

1. #MetricCenturyEveryMonth
   As of July 2021, I've cycled at least one Metric Century every month, and this month was no exception. This is 61 straight months (over 5 years) I've done this. 
   
   
2. #7000MilesIn2026
   This is significantly lower than my #8200MilesIn2025 goal, but I figure with the running, 7,000 miles is still a big cycling number. As of the end of August, I have logged 4,692 miles for the year. 
   
   
3. #13EverestsIn2026
   Also significantly lower than the #16EverestsIn2025 because of the added running goals. My goal is to climb 13 x 29,032 = 377,416 feet on the bike. At the end of last month, I've logged 245,461 feet climbed on my bikes. This is over 8 "Everests".
   
   
4. #Run700Miles2026
   700 miles is just under 100km per month. With my Half Marathon (see #5) training, I'm ahead of this pace with just over 513 miles so far this year. I am still fighting "runners knee", and I slowed down quite a bit towards the end of the month. I'm probably not going to run much in September because of the Great Cycle Challenge, I'll probably not run much. But I'm far enough ahead that I'm still on track. 
   
   
5. Run a Half Marathon
   CHECK ✅
   I finished my Runna Half Marathon plan and completed the Platte River Half Marathon in mid-May. I even ran the Half Marathon faster than planned and blew away my 2:20 goal.
   
   
6. VO₂ Max > 44 ml/kg/min
   CHECK ✅
   As measured by my Garmin Watch, I started the year as 42 ml/kg/min. Right now, I hit 45 last month for most of the month. That is good enough for me to say I've hit this goal. 
   
   
7. 15 Stone
   At my heaviest, I was over 260lbs. I've been as low as 214 last year and this year I started at 221. This month, I sort of ignored this goal. 15 Stone is 210 lbs, which would be lighter than I've been since my early college days. I'm "ok" on this, but it will get more and more difficult. 

I am finally catching up to the "daily tracking lines" on my yearly cycling goals. With a huge cycling month coming up, next month I'll be all green here.

Month		Miles		YTD			Elevation		YTD
January		500		500	-94		28,741		28,741		-3,235
February		454		955	-177		23,250		51,991		-9,015
March		470		1,424	-301		25,481		77,472		-15,588
April		576		2,001	-300		31,463		108,935		-15,150
May		659		2,660	-236		32,319		141,254		-14,880
June		659		3,318	-153		33,347		174,601		-12,500
July		650		3,969	-59		33,398		207,999		-9,145
August		723		4,692	+32		37,462		245,451		-5,806
September		...		...	.		...		...		.
October		...		...	.		...		...		.
November		...		...	.		...		...		.
December		...		...	.		...		...		.

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