Health, Wellness & Adventures

The most rewarding part of 2024 was putting health front and center. I’d overtaxed myself with a demanding job and running a startup. So I made some changes. I returned to yoga and got serious about biking. Over time, I made gains in the gym and started mixing up rides, runs and swims. Other highlights include:  a week-long functional anatomy workshop at Love Story Yoga and a 3-day silent meditation retreat with Big Heart City.

WORKOUTS

Sessions	Hours	Miles
460	504	2521
~8.8 sessions per week	~9.7 hours per week	~48.5 miles per week
~1.3 sessions per day	~1.4 hours per day	~6.9 miles per day

HOURS BY EXERCISE TYPE

PRs

Longest Ride	Biggest Climb	Heaviest Lift
70 miles	1,465 ft	275 lbs
China Camp	Pantoll / Mt Tam	Deadlift

2024 was my “year of the bike”. Biking wasn’t just exercise; it was therapy, exploration and freedom. I logged 2,500+ miles, averaging ~7 miles per day. I made friends with hills, gaining a thigh-burning 84,707 feet of total elevation.

• 1400 miles (55%) were long weekend rides exploring Marin, the SF Peninsula and the South Bay. My favorite rides were Paradise Loop, San Bruno Mountain, Skyline Boulevard and the Bay Trail.

• 917 miles (45%) were commuting. I cut back on ride-sharing services and fell in love with San Francisco all over again. My top local rides were: Presidio, Great Highway and Twin Peaks.

Languages

I completed intro Hindi on Duolingo – and can now stumble through the basics like “mujhe sone jana hai” (I have to go to sleep). Also dusted off my Spanish to complete/test out of all available Spanish learning content, achieving “advanced proficiency”. ¿Quién lo creería? 

Spanish	Hindi
CEFR level C1	1207 lessons

Books

I got through an unprecedented 50 books this year — favorites included:

• Trust by Hernan Diaz (Stories within stories, a matryoshka doll.)
  
• Venomous Lumpsucker by Ned Beaumont (Dark humor, oddball scifi and climate change.)
  
• Breath by James Nestor (Your lungs will thank you.)

WHAT I READ IN 2024 (Fiction vs Nonfiction)

Looking Ahead

In 2025 I want to maintain momentum on these habits/projects and pursue new avenues for growth and adventure. I hope the same for you. What are you most excited about? Let me know any way I can support your goals this year.

Wishing you health, happiness and a bit of wonder in 2025!

—
Peter

Recommendations

Books

Most available for free as audiobooks via SFPL / images link to publisher’s website for full review

Novel	Short Stories	Science Fiction
Trust by Hernan Diaz“Luminous… Masterful… The drama lies in trying to puzzle out where Diaz will take you next, what’s been hidden, and why.”The New Yorker	Fortune Smiles by Adam Johnson“Remarkable… Adam Johnson is one of America’s greatest living writers.”The Huffington Post	Venomous Lumpsucker by Ned Beaumont“A madcap adventure story set in a dystopian world ravaged by climate change.” Variety
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES’S 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21ST CENTURY	WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARDA NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK	WINNER OF THE 2023 ARTHUR C. CLARKE AWARD

Climate	Politics	Psychology
California Burning by Katherine Blunt“Diligent reporting and a clear focus make this a must-read for anyone interested in the future of energy.”Publisher’s Weekly	The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff “As we grope in the darkness trying to grasp the contours of our digital era, [Ms. Zuboff] shines a searing light on how this latest revolution is transforming our economy, politics, society and lives.” Financial Times	The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb“One of the twelve most influential books since World War II”The Sunday Times
NATIONAL BESTSELLER	NEW YORK TIMES: NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR FINANCIAL TIMES: BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR	36 WEEKS ON THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER LIST

Popular Science	Biography	History
Breathby James Nestor“A welcome, invigorating user’s manual for the respiratory system.” Kirkus Reviews	Dilla Time by Dan Charnas“An ambitious, dynamic biography… that fully captures the subject’s ingenuity, originality, and musical genius.” Kirkus Reviews	The Wide Wide Sea by Hampton Sides“[T]hrilling and superbly-crafted” Wall Street Journal
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2020 BY NPR	NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER	NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW “10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR” (2024)

Shows

Netflix

Beef 8.0/10 IMDB	The Diplomat 8.0/10 IMDB	Warrior 8.4/10 IMDB

Amazon

Mr and Mrs Smith 7.0/10 IMDB	The Peripheral 7.5/10 IMDB	The English 7.8/10 IMDB

All 50 Books

Fiction (22)

1. Trust by Hernan Diaz
2. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
3. Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan
4. The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty
5. Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason
6. Less by Andrew Sean Greer
7. The Overstory by Richard Powers
8. Victory City by Salman Rushdie
9. Trilogy by Jon Fosse
10. The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara

Short Stories

1. Fortune Smiles by Adam Johnson
2. Bliss Montage by Ling Ma
3. The Afterlife and Other Stories by John Updike

Science Fiction

1. Venomous Lumpsucker by Ned Beaumont
2. The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu (Adapted for TV: Three Body Problem, Netflix)
3. Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson
4. The Anomaly by Hervé Le Tellier
5. Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang (Adapted for film:  Arrival) 
6. The Peripheral by William Gibson (Adapted for TV: The Peripheral, Amazon Prime)
7. Agency by William Gibson
8. The Dispossessed by Ursula K Le Guin 
9. The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson

Non-Fiction (28)

Climate 

1. California Burning by Katherine Blunt
2. Under a White Sky by Elizabeth Kolbert
3. Regeneration by Paul Hawkes
4. The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells
5. How Infrastructure Works by Deb Chachra
6. Cheaper, Faster, Better by Tom Steyers

Politics

1. The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff 
2. The Future is History by Masha Gessen
3. Legacy of Violence by Caroline Elkins

Psychology

1. The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
2. Mastery by Robert Greene 
3. Supercommunicators by Charles Duhigg
4. Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman
5. The Power of Strangers by Joe Keohane
6. Smarter, Faster, Better by Charles Duhigg

Popular Science

1. Breath by James Nestor
2. Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari 
3. An Immense World by Ed Yong
4. Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers by Robert Sapolsky
5. The Third Chimpanzee by Jared Diamond 
6. Why We Remember by Charan Ranganath

Biography

1. Dilla Time by Dan Charnas
2. Leonardo Da Vinci by Walter Isaacson
3. Barbarian Days by William Finnegan
4. Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman by James Fleck

History

1. The Wide Wide Sea by Hampton Sides
2. Collapse by Jared Diamond 
3. The Swerve by Stephen Greenblatt