Winnie83

Fellow Adventurers, After a retreat of 6 weeks, I'm back for my second challenge. So, last challenge got me a job (big whoohoo!!!) and an epic fail (I didn't touch my guitar at all). This challenge will set that straight. My new goals are: 1: Being able to do 3x5 chin ups. I started with chin ups instead of pull ups, because my new work out buddy (this very cool calisthenic chick who's also a mother of two), recommended to start with chin ups as they are easier and do inverse pull ups next to that. At the moment I'm able to do 3x3 chin ups and 3x10 inverse pull ups, but I'll leave the inverse pull ups for what they are right now and focus on the chin ups. My main problem is that excitement and then anxiety takes a hold on my when doing chin ups. I'm still not used to being strong, so every time I do a chin up, my mind goes "Wow, I can't believe I'm actually able to do this. Take it easy, don't force it!". I really need to get a hold on that voice (I call her Navi, wink, wink) to be able to level up. Any tips are welcome ). 2: Being able to do 10 push ups. Here Navi also has a hold on me. She let's me add one more rep every week untill she get's to excited. At the moment I'm at 5 push ups, so I figured 10 should be a nice goal for 6 weeks and keep Navi calm. 3: I'm not sure if I should be write this goal down too as it won't be effective untill after 4 weeks in the challenge, so as a compensation I have 5 instead of 4 goals. This goal is to join the kettlebell class that starts in july at my gym. I wanted to add something new and challenging to my current workout and as I hear all these great things about kettlebell work-outs I figured that would be it. Does anybody have any experience with kettlebell workouts? I would love to hear your stories. 4: Correct my last epic fail: learn to play Dust in the Wind on my guitar. Enough said. Just do it. Practice will be on Friday, Sunday and Monday. 5: I have this idea in my head to start my own pratice. I thought Navi was only talking to me when in the gym, but here she has some saying too. I already talked to my friends who own their own business, but the problem is, that they didn't needed financing from the bank to start. I will need that and that is the part that scares me. But still, I want to take step one and finish writing a business plan. I want to start a psychology practice (I'm a neuropsychologist) that is more into prevention next to treatment. Happy to hear any tips and recommendations. Well, let the games begin and good luck to everyone.

It was great participating in my first challenge and I learned a lot from it. It was too bad I didn't had enough time to do all the side quests, though. One of the major reasons that I couldn't was because of my goal nr 4, which was one of the most important one's to me, but also the most time consuming one. These were my goals and accomplishments: 1) Run a 5k in 25 minutes --> mission accomplished! On april 1st (no prank) I ran a 10K run with the running club and found myself to be at exactly 25 minutes when reaching the 5K sign. I must admit, after the post of the first challenge to rethink our goals, it made me doubt reaching this goal. I've always run the 5K in 28-30 minutes and I started to think this was my threshold. Finding out it wasn't makes me motivated to join in for the half marathon in Octobre. But that is of later concern . This gives me a grade A and 5 STA points. 2) Squat and deadlift 1 ½ times my weight and arm excersises should be lifting ½ my weight according to the Stronglift 5x5 schedule at the end of the 6 weeks --> My deadlift is 70kg ( I weigh 62.5 kg) and my squat is for now stuck on 45kg. Benchpress is a meager 25kg. The reasons are versatile. For the squats and deadlift: I took priority in improving technique over moving to fast and adding more weight with bad technique. For the arm excersises: it sounds a bit silly, but it's a confidence thing. I think I can lift more, but because I'm training by myself, I'm the only one in my head telling me to take it easy or I'll hurt myself. So for the next challenge I think I will have to try to find a form of confidence booster to enhance my upper body strength training. This gives me a grade D and 2 STR points. 3)As I already transitioned to the Paleo lifestyle beginning this year, I already cleaned up my diet. I still have to track my fluids intake, as I tend not to drink enough water/tea. So the goal would be to drink ½ liter of water at each meal apart from what I drink in between meals --> I think for 3/4 of the times I did drink enough, but there were days I didn't even make it to one liter. Maybe now that the sun is coming out it will be better. Either way, it was a good thing to set this goal and actively monitor my fluids intake. This gives me a grade C and 3 CON points. 4) Get rid of my dead end job and find a better one--> my most important goal. I don't know yet what the outcome is, actually. During the challenge I had about 4 job interviews and after the last one I got a call from my old internship supervisor for a job. We are rouding things up this or next week and then I could say I attained this goal. Ofcourse, it is certain the job is mine, I have no competitors, but still, I want a signed contract to finish this goal satisfactoraly. This gives me a grade A and 3 WIS and 2 CHA points. 5) Finally learn how to play Dust in the Wind on my guitar--> epic fail. I only touched my guitar in the first two weeks starting this challenge and that was absolutely not enough to learn to play the song. I'm taking this challenge with me to the second challenge round for a re-try. This gives me a grade F and a sad smiley .

I went to see my grandmother today and took her for a bike ride. She didn't learn to ride a bike untill after retirement, so I've never seen her do it. We had so much fun .

This is such a cool challenge! I have 3 runs planned this week (Wednesday, Friday and Sunday), so I'll join the battle!

Hi Brutesquad, It would be really helpfull if you could get the cover letter! It sounds like the missing link to my job applications. I'm doing both interval and endurance runs. The interval runs are indeed helping with building up the overall speed during the runs. I signed up for all the contest runs every Sunday this month to have an extra drive. Besides that I do 2 interval runs and one endurance run during the week. So, about the short rest you mention when you hit a plateau, do you mean you give it a rest for a few days and not train that area, or do you stick with the same weight for a few days? Because now I've done the latter and will be trying to lift heavier starting today. What do you recommend?

Hey Brutesquad, Thanx for the encouragement. I especially needed it the day before yesterday when I thought I hit a plateau on overhead press. When I look back at it, I think I was just freaking out, because I never lifted that heavy and started doubting myself. This always happen when I do upper body excersises. I'm going to try again today, though. My 5K time at the moment is 28-29 minutes, so I thought 3 minutes off should be reasonable in 6 weeks. About the job goal, in March new vacancies are up for the job I really, really want (a traineeship to become a health care psychologist), so the goal is to update my cover letter in such a way that they will have to hire me. It is measurable in 6 weeks, because the end of the interviews is one week before the end of the 6 week challenge. Now, I'm off to the gym

(I know I already posted this, but I didn't put in the right title for the challenge, so here it is again Hello fellow Adventurers, I'm Winnie. I’ve been running off and on for 4 years now, that means I run from February ‘till the end of October when all the fun runs are. Last year I have been tormented by a lot of sport injuries, which lead to me not getting to participate in every run I wanted to. Still, I ran the 16.1K Dam to Dam run (a famous run in the Netherlands) better than expected (1.37 in stead of the desired 1.30, but better than the first time of 1.48). This was at the end of September last year and I haven’t been running until 2 weeks now, because I wanted to be entirely sport injury free for this year. So far the introduction to my first goal in the six week challenge. The other thing is that I keep on finding excuses not to train my real problem area, namely my upper body strength. This will be my major goal this year, next to loosing the Pooh bear pouch. I started the Stronglift 5x5 program 2 weeks ago and plan to sticking it out for the total of the 12 weeks the program lasts and after that, we’ll see. So my goals for coming 6 week challenge are: - Run a 5k in 25 minutes - Squat and deadlift 1 ½ times my weight and arm excerises should be lifting ½ my weight according to the Stronglift 5x5 schedule at the end of the 6 weeks. - As I already transitioned to the Paleo lifestyle beginning this year, I already cleaned up my diet. I still have to track my fluids intake, as I tend not to drink enough water/tea. So the goal would be to drink ½ liter of water at each meal apart from what I drink in between meals. - Get rid of my dead end job and find a better one - Finally learn how to play Dust in the Wind on my guitar Stats: 1.71meters tall, currently 62.9kg, 31.2% body fat. Ready to achieve goals and good luck to everyone!

Hello fellow Adventurers, I'm Winnie (the Pooh ). I’ve been running off and on for 4 years now, that means I run from February ‘till the end of October when all the fun runs are. Last year I have been tormented by a lot of sport injuries, which lead to me not getting to participate in every run I wanted to. Still, I ran the 16.1K Dam to Dam run (a famous run in the Netherlands) better than expected (1.37 in stead of the desired 1.30, but better than the first time of 1.48). This was at the end of September last year and I haven’t been running until 2 weeks now, because I wanted to be entirely sport injury free for this year. So far the introduction to my first goal in the six week challenge. The other thing is that I keep on finding excuses not to train my real problem area, namely my upper body strength. This will be my major goal this year, next to loosing the Pooh bear pouch. I started the Stronglift 5x5 program 2 weeks ago and plan to sticking it out for the total of the 12 weeks the program lasts and after that, we’ll see. So my goals for coming 6 week challenge are: - Run a 5k in 25 minutes - Squat and deadlift 1 ½ times my weight and arm excerises should be lifting ½ my weight according to the Stronglift 5x5 schedule at the end of the 6 weeks. - As I already transitioned to the Paleo lifestyle beginning this year, I already cleaned up my diet. I still have to track my fluids intake, as I tend not to drink enough water/tea. So the goal would be to drink ½ liter of water at each meal apart from what I drink in between meals. - Get rid of my dead end job and find a better one - Finally learn how to play Dust in the Wind on my guitar Stats: 1.71meters tall, currently 62.9kg, 31.2% body fat. Ready to achieve goals and good luck to everyone!