TornadoAllie

Let's do this!

Epic Quest = Enrich relationships with the people I love. 1. Run a 5k in less than 45 minutes with my husband. My parents-in-law are also training to run a 5k for this challenge, so we can encourage each other and share ideas about training. My husband and I will train together, and we plan to run 2-3 times per week to build up our stamina and increase our distance to be able to run a 5k race before this challenge is over. (2 STA, 2 STR) 2. Complete a 6-week Marriage Fitness Program designed by my husband BigBen. We are happy, but are always looking for ways to enrich our marriage by learning new skills, having new adventures, and learning new ways to show our love for each other. (3 CHA, 1 WIS) 3. Learn to play three songs with my electric guitar by the end of this six week challenge. My husband is working on the same three songs, and is learning the bass parts for each song, and my father-in-law is working on the drum parts for each song. In six weeks, we should be able to jam! (3 DEX) Life Quest = Change TV time to workout time. Anytime I watch a TV show or movie at home during this challenge, I will spend at least half of the air time doing bodyweight workouts. (3 STR, 1 WIS) **I'm in the off-season for roller derby now, so I'm trying to find other ways to stay fit during the break. This is my third NF challenge. Bring it on!

Oops, I forgot to assign points with my final grades. Here they are: Goal #1 = +3 CON (out of 3 possible) Goal #2 = +3 STA +2 STR (out of 3 and 2 possible) Goal #3 = +2 CHA (out of 3 possible) Goal #4 = +2 WIS (out of 4 possible)

Final assessment: Goal #1 (eat a full serving of fruits/veggies with every meal) = A. This was a pretty easy habit to establish and keep up with. I had about three days total in the challenge where I didn't meet my daily goal, but overall I got <90% success, so I have earned myself an A for this one. Physically, I have been feeling great with the results of making fruits and veggies a consistent part of my diet. Less abdominal distress, no energy crashes, and I'm making sure my family is getting more consistent fruits and veggies, too! Goal #2 (skate 30 fast laps around a roller derby track in less than 6 minutes) = A. I accomplished this in Week 2 of the challenge when I skated 30 laps in 5 minutes 46 seconds, wahoo! I had made a follow-up goal of skating 50 laps in less than 10 minutes, but I haven't been able to test myself on that at my normal derby practices. Lately, my league has been focusing a lot more on skate skills, and not so much on endurance drills. So, even though I haven't been able to test myself on my follow-up goal yet, I still earned an A for my original goal. Sa-weeet! Goal #3 (plan a partner workout each week to exercise with my husband) = C. I planned four partner workouts with my awesomely willing workout buddy for this challenge. I was two workouts shy of my goal, so I dropped two grades to earn myself a C. Goal #4 (read 10 chapters from the scriptures and one article from a Church publication each week) = D. In the past six weeks, I have read 30 chapters and 3 articles, so I am at exactly 50% of my target numbers. I give myself a D because although I was way short of my goal of 60 chapters and 6 articles, I can't say that I failed completely because in striving to reach my goal, I read and studied my scriptures almost daily. This is a huge improvement over where I was at before this challenge started. If I can keep up my current pace of 1 chapter per day, then I'll be headed in the right direction! Okay, phew! Challenge #2 complete. I definitely lost a lot of momentum somewhere around Week 4 as far as posting and checking in with this NF forum. I was still mindful of my goals, though. I love that we can set goals here that make us stretch farther than we are accustomed to doing. Even if we don't quite reach our goals, we are still striving and stretching ourselves, and that is good for the mind, body, and soul!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY this week FoxZ!!!

I think a lot of us are losing steam with our goals. Try to push through this Week 4/5 blah-ness, and reenergize yourself. Your friends will try to help!

It's always good to have something to work toward, whether it's the next NF challenge, or a competition. Good for you! And good luck with those papers. I did a thesis project for my Master's degree, and yes there are a LOT of papers to write. I feel your pain... from one procrastinator to another!

Week 4 Assessment: Goal #1 = B. I faltered once this week with my serving of fruits & veggies with every meal. On my daughter's second birthday this past week, my eating schedule was way off and the day included a lunch of a baklava sundae and half a gyro from a Greek festival, and for dinner I ate the rest of my gyro followed by birthday cake and ice cream. A fun day, but NOT sustainable. I am back on track with healthy, balanced meals now. Whew! Goal #2 = DONE! I completed my goal of skating 30 laps in less than 6 minutes in Week #2. Now I am trying for a follow up goal of 50 laps in 10 minutes or less. I am continuing to build my stamina with on- and off-skates workouts at my roller derby practices. I only made it to one practice last week due to a killer sore throat one night, and then my daughter's birthday festivities on the weekend. Goal #3 = ongoing/miss. I did not plan well this week, and my husband and I were not able to do our partner work out. So far we have done 3, and need to get 6 or more to earn an A for this goal at the end of the 6-week challenge. Goal #4 = C. Seven chapters, 0 articles. I did pretty well at reading at least one chapter in my scriptures each night before bed, but didn't make it to my goal of 10 for the week. For articles, I just didn't get to any this week. Last week I got an A for this goal (my first!), and I think I did better then because I didn't let myself lie down while reading, and I used Sunday to look up articles written by my Church's leaders/apostles. This week I read lying down in bed, and just couldn't stay awake long enough to read more than a chapter each night. I really need to get 2 chapters most nights to avoid getting behind. Overall, after 4 weeks I have read 20 chapters and 2 articles, so I'm halfway to where I should be at this point. Next week I plan to keep putting my scriptures under my pillow as a reminder, and I will sit up in bed while I read so I won't fall asleep so easily. Okay, so that's where I'm at. I feel like I've lost some momentum for posting and updating in Nerd Fitness, but I am definitely still working on my goals and I will try to do better at updating and checking in with all my friends here. Thanks for checking in with me!

Aaaahhhh! Here is my really late Week 3 Assessment: Goal #1 = A. Still doing good on having at least one serving of fruits and/or veggies with every meal. Goal #2 = DONE! I completed my goal of skating 30 laps in less than 6 minutes in Week #2. Now I am trying for a follow up goal of 50 laps in 10 minutes or less. I am continuing to build my stamina with on- and off-skates workouts at my roller derby practices. Goal #3 = ongoing/A. Partner work out, check. My husband is very awesome! Goal #4 = A. This has been my toughest goal to follow through with, but this week I finally get an "A" for reading my scriptures. I followed my plan from Week 2 of putting my scriptures under my pillow each morning when I make my bed so that I would notice and read them before tinkering with my iPod or going to sleep each night. I read at least one chapter from my scriptures every night and got to my goal of reading 10 chapters for the week plus an article from a Church publication. I actually read two articles this week! (Walking in Circles, by Dieter F. Uchtdorf and Marriage: Watch and Learn, by L. Whitney Clayton) It feels really good to get an A on this one; it's a goal I want to continue with for a long, long time.

How did Week Two go for you?

It's great that you're seeing results with how your stamina has increased and noticing that clothes are fitting better. Keep up the good work! Oh, and that zip line adventure sounds amazing! Good for you!!

Good progress so far this week. Keep up the good work!

Good progress this week. I'm impressed that you are doing pull-ups. They are hard, and you're doing great!! I have tried and tried, but can't do better than a half pull-up or one decent negative pull-up.

Yikes, that hard hit to the jaw sounds scary. I hope you're feeling better today.

Finkzilla, I love reading your updates! I'm glad to hear that while you're at your current job you've made the choice to not be bitter and mad at everyone. You'll find a better job soon. Good luck!

Thanks for the tip! I'm a little sporadic with how often I check my emails, or do anything online, though. I think for now I'll try the book-under-the-pillow way of reminding myself, and see how it goes this week. So far, it's working pretty well. I have read 4 chapters so far this week.

Ruth, it is so awesome to find so many other derby girls in this forum! Best of luck to you in your 6-week challenge, and with your skills test later this year. To answer your question about how I'm trying to increase my speed, I learned recently how to skate the track more efficiently, and it has really helped me increase my speed and avoid muscle cramping. I now skate fast laps so that my path around the oval track is as close to a circle as possible. So I skate the apexes right along the inside line, but then swing all the way out to skim the outside line at about the half-way point of the straight-away, then cross-over to come back into the inside line of the next apex. I used to just try to hug the inside line around the whole track because it seemed like the shortest path. And it probably is, but the problem for me was that I would have to slow down too much at the apexes and eventually my quads would start to cramp up from the tight turns. Skating the track as a circle has really helped me avoid these problems.

Week Two assessment: Goal #1 = A. I have been really mindful of eating at least one full serving of fruits or veggies with each meal. I'm doing good on this. Goal #2 = DONE!!! I followed my plan for asking a derby coach for help with timing my fast laps, and I have now accomplished my goal of skating 30 laps in under 6 minutes. My time was 5 minutes, 46 seconds, wahoo! I have really increased my endurance and improved my skating stride since I last tested myself on fast laps several weeks ago. Goal #3 = ongoing/A. My husband and I did our partner workout again this week. It can be a bit tricky to finish our sets without our two little ones distracting us, but we just have to laugh at the funny situations our life brings us, and do what we can to achieve our goals. We had fun with it this past week! Goal #4 = D. I am still struggling with reading my scriptures regularly. I read 3 chapters last week. It's better than nothing, but I'm still not making it to the 10 chapters per week that I ought to be able to do. For Week 3, I will amend my plan a bit. I will plan to read at least one chapter each night instead of having appointed reading days; I would like to make this a daily habit, like it used to be for me. Each morning when I make my bed, I will place my scriptures under my pillow so that when I get into bed in the evening, I will have a very noticeable reminder to read my scriptures before going to sleep for the night. Also, I will read sitting up instead of lying down to avoid premature drowsiness. I am aiming for straight A's for Week 3.

Yesterday I went on a 2.5 mile hike up a mountain side, carrying my 2-yr old the whole time. That 20 extra pounds was a bit rough, but we had a fun time!

Check out heroicimagination.org This site is all about imagining what you would do in different situations. If you've thought through your response to a dangerous, awkward, or intimidating situation ahead of time, you're more likely to follow through with a brave/heroic response when that scenario actually presents itself. It's a pretty cool site.

Fink, I'm the same way - I only think of the really brave or clever responses long after the moment where it would have been useful. Just use this experience as a learning tool and motivation for being more decisive/assertive next time you're in a situation like that.

You've got a lot going on, but here you are still reporting your progress and keeping your goals in mind. That's really, really good! Just keep working at those papers and do what you can with the other goals. You'll be okay. Have a fun trip!

Ha! This is funny - our head coach (Diva DemolisHer) met Joy at a bootcamp in NZ recently, and is in the middle of arranging for Joy to come back for a special bootcamp here in our hometown! So I'll be meeting her in September!!!! There's a picture of the bus-back on our Facebook page - just a couple of posts down if you want to see https://www.facebook.com/dunedinderby I am trying to get all the NZ leagues talking about marketing, so we can compare notes around what works and what doesn't (I work in marketing and video so kind of into it) I LOVE the bus advertising, wow! Thanks for the link to the picture; I want to share this with my league. That's awesome that you will meet Joy in September. She's great. What a small derby world!

Oh, how frustrating. What did you end up doing with your evening? Stay strong Finkzilla! P.S. If you or anyone in your league is interested, my league (High Altitude Roller Derby / H.A.R.D.) is hosting a boot camp here in Flagstaff on July 12th & 13th with some All-Star coaches: Joy Collision, Atomatrix, and On Da Sly. It will be amazing! We are inviting all leagues in the Southwest region.

Foxz, I know what you mean about learning a lot about yourself. For me, I'm a soft-spoken mother of two, and trying out for a roller derby team was super intimidating. But now when I'm on the track, there is a whole different side of me that surfaces. And I'm not talking about becoming super aggressive or mean. Rather, I just feel more confident, strong, attractive, and totally rockin' awesome! I don't know how else to put it. I have been playing roller derby for only 9 months, but I can tell you that it is a sport that transforms you both physically and mentally. I felt like an outsider and in awe of the more experienced skaters for about 3-4 months. But gradually I began to see myself as part of the team. Now I can honestly say that I am in the best physical condition of my life, and I have never felt more confident and strong. Okay, I'll stop gushing about roller derby now. Back to the 6-week challenge!