ohnonebraska

Nice! I've been to Düsseldorf several times and have some good friends there [well, mostly in Lörick, to be exact]. Great city.

Awesome "meet" numbers! PRs all over the place!!! And thank goodness you're going to a gym now where people don't think bosu balls are the answer to everything...!

Well...disappeared off the face of the NerdFitness earth, except for checking in on people I was following. I thought it would be easier to do this kind of thing over summer break, but it turns out trips, family meals, dinner parties, last-minute beach afternoons, trying to spend more time with the boyfriend, etc. tripped me up quite a bit [although I didn't feel too guilty about doing all those things - that's what summer is for!]. I'll be sticking with the rebels in the next challenge. Long-term consistency is and always has been a problem for me - I start doing something regularly and it's awesome, but then I can't do it once or twice and everything kind of unravels. This will be a big focus in the next challenge. I also stopped being so productive once I let the 3+2 slide. I need to bring it back - although I won't be sharing it on here every day, because it's boring for everyone else! But I think it really helps me a lot to have specific things to work on each day so I don't feel so overwhelmed that I don't do anything. I'll start it up again this week already, but I'll continue into the next challenge for another shot at the kettlebell... I've started to get my shit together again in the last week or so, now that roller derby has started up again and I'm able to get to the gym four times a week now that we're not traveling anymore [and now that I'm over that cold!]. Things can only go uphill from here! Here's to my next [third] first challenge being my last first challenge so I can rejoin the warriors after it...!

Um...I would say you're definitely doing lots of things right! You did amazing work in this challenge!

Auuuuuuuuuuuuusgezeichnet! You were completely and totally awesome in this challenge!

Nice PRs!!! And Marzamemi looks beautiful.

I don't actually usually use it, either. Ha, something to strive for in the next challenge!

What a knob.

Ha - generally I'm a little sad that my boyfriend really isn't interested in my lifting at all, but I guess it's at least nice that I don't have to deal with mansplaining from him. Nice that it turned into an interesting new program for you, though! I hope you keep enjoying it. WPC Worlds are in Prague in late October this year. I won't be able to make it, but a bunch of people from my gym are driving there from Portugal in two vans...woo, road trip!

You appear to be kicking ass! I was also told to widen my stance for the squat when I started at the PL gym - and they told me to do sumo deadlift. It's really weird at first, isn't it?!? They also told me to do mixed grip on the deadlifts pretty much all the time, but yesterday I used normal grip for some light Romanian deadlifts, and my grip was giving out way before the rest of me - so I think I really need to work on that. Interested to see how the farmer's walks and so on help you!

Then work that knee! Sounds like you're doing well, considering. I've also been struggling with doing everything I wanted to do what with trips and everything. I thought it would be easier in the summer, but apparently not! Did you manage to get your exercise in over the last week?

Seeeeeriously, it's a ridiculous time to get a cold! But now I just have a bit of a lingering cough and should hopefully be over that, too, after a few more nights of good sleep. I hope yours disappears soon, too! Definitely enjoyed my rest day! But what with sleeping in and then going to my boyfriend's mom's for dinner, I only managed to get the main three tasks done, not the bonus ones [i could potentially stay up later again to get them done, but I need to start fixing my sleep schedule a bit]. Still at 7 bonus points. There's 18 days left in the challenge, and I still need 14 more bonus points to get to 21, so I'm starting to cut it close. We'll be spending a few days out of town visiting my boyfriend's family early next week, so I'm not sure how I'll handle that. I won't take away bonus points for those days if I don't get three tasks done, but I'm also not sure I'll have the time/resources [won't have much internet access, not bringing my skates, won't have lifting stuff, will be spending lots of time with family] to do five tasks and get bonus points, either. I do want to get a fair bit into re-reading a book for my thesis, though, so maybe I'll just set a goal for that each day, at least. Tomorrow's 3+2: 1. Yoga. 2. Lift. 3. Hour of cleaning. A. Hour on miscellaneous tasks. B. Read next two sections. [sorry everything's so repetitive! That's just how things are at the moment.]

Oh, Cort, I have that, too - if I'm just sitting there with what feels to me like a neutral face, people ask me what's wrong. I think there's some YouTube video referring to it as "bitchy resting face". Vixen, I definitely hope the creepazoid backs off - or, better, that you don't even have to deal with him again.

Bleagh, gym creeps and work crap - sorry about all that. BUT you're doing amazing! As a chronic procrastinator, I would just like to especially say how incredibly impressed I was when you said something like "I had assignments due today but I turned them all in last week"...I'm pretty sure I've never said anything like that in my life! Excellent work! I'm excited to hear how the coaching session goes!

Nooooo, the sickness! Get better soon!!! And congratulations on your promotion! Aaaaand nice work on getting to the gym AND kicking ass once you got there, despite the snot!

Yeap, I want those shrimp. And the chin exercises are brilliant. And nice work at the gym! But..."lift eventually"? Why not lift right away?!? Sorry if I missed something about this earlier...but especially if you have the owner of the place helping you out, it'd be great to take advantage of that and have him start showing you how to lift properly. Just a thought!

Stayed up late to finish everything again, but...finished everything! 7 bonus points. Still felt really weak lifting, but I didn't sleep enough again. Today is a rest day - I already slept in, and I'm not going to skate or do any hilly bike rides or anything, so hopefully I'll be able to rock some squats and deadlifts tomorrow. Today's 3+2: 1. Walk to/from market and deposit money on the way. 2. Clean for at least an hour. 3. Spend at least an hour on miscellaneous tasks [e-mails, prepping tasks, etc.]. A. Yoga. B. Read next two sections.

Bam! 6 bonus points. Felt really weak lifting, though - probably a combination of skating and biking yesterday, not being totally over the cold, and not sleeping enough last night. An 85 kg standard deadlift [to get a badge on Fitocracy] was toooooough, with really ugly form [felt like it was all back] - even though I sumo deadlifted 100 kg with ease just the other week. Not sure whether it was because of the general feeling of weakness, or because sumo makes that much of a difference, or because I've forgotten how to standard deadlift...? Today's 3+2: 1. Lift. 2. Clean for at least an hour. 3. Deal with at least 5 e-mails. A. Foam roll. B. Read at least 50 pages.

Did everything yesterday! Met up with some people from the team for outdoor skating - the fog actually rolled in again while we were skating, but we kept going for a bit. I'm getting more used to outdoor skating - but after biking to the oceanside, skating for a good amount of time for the first time in a while, biking back on a hilly route, and carrying my bike up a few flights, my legs were jelly for a bit. 5 bonus points. Today's 3+2: 1. Lift!!! 2. Run errands - immigration office, deposit money, buy book for thesis. 3. Clean for at least an hour [shouldn't be a problem over the next couple of days - the boyfriend has declared them Big Cleaning Days]. A. Read at least 50 pages. B. Deal with at least 10 e-mails. === 1. Lift: C. Didn't lift at all, but it was mostly because of being miserably sick at the beginning of the week and then spending one day out kayaking and walking all day. Still, I could've squeezed in one or two quick sessions somewhere, even if it wouldn't have been on the right schedule or at my usual gym. 2. Skate: A. Skated outside twice. I'm supposed to do it three times a week, but because I started the week being sick, I'm allowing a miss. 3. Stretch: A-. Did yoga twice and foam rolled twice - although the foam rolling was two days in a row at the very end of the week. I need to spread it out more throughout the week. 4. Clean: A. I'm doing fairly well with doing all of my daily tasks, but I'm noticing that I'm already procrastinating more and more on them - last night I was foam rolling at 3:15 in the morning! That's silly. I need to work on that.

Hi! I'm not European myself - from the US - but I was an exchange student for a year near Graz, Austria, lived in Freiburg, Germany, for a few years, and have been in Porto, Portugal, for the last couple of years!

Hi! I'm following this because hooray, Germany [i lived in Freiburg for a few years], and because your food looks delicious, and because I'm a huge proponent of quitting smoking! As for the gym - gyms with huge men can definitely be awesome! I was going to a commercial gym when I first started lifting, and I just didn't really enjoy doing it there at all - they didn't have all the equipment I need, and most of the guys there were curlbros. I didn't really see anyone else doing deadlifts, squats, etc., so I didn't feel comfortable and I didn't feel like anyone there could help me if I had questions. So if you want to focus on weights, I would definitely suggest that you look for a gym with people who do more powerlifting and Olympic weightlifting. They're the ones who generally know what they're doing! Now I go to a powerlifting gym run by maybe the strongest guy in the country, so he's giving me a lot of tips and I lift with a group of people who are doing the same things I'm doing. I recommend it! You're doing awesome on your goals so far!

About an hour before I wanted to go skate, an intense fog rolled in, so it got pretty cold and damp. I figured that probably wouldn't be good weather for someone still getting over a cold to go do exercise in, so instead of skating I worked on reducing the "to read/watch later" links I have saved in an e-mail draft. With that change, I did all five things, which brings me up to 4 bonus points. Last night I slept a good nine and a half hours or so, and it was glorious. Still coughing a little, but I think this cold is definitely on its way out. Today's 3+2: 1. Finish proofreading and translating. 2. At least an hour cleaning. 3. Deal with at least 15 e-mails. A. Skate [soon, before any fog rolls in!]. B. Foam roll [probably not really necessary, since I just did it last night, but I have to get in the second time for this week still...].

No need to back off quite yet! In SL, at least, you don't deload until you've failed three times - so you've still got one more chance to nail it, if you want to follow that part of SL. Considering you're already up to four reps, I have a good feeling about your next attempt - eat well, sleep well, and attack that bench press!

Ugh, hope you feel better soon! I'm finally getting over my cold [still a bit of a cough], and I can't wait to go back to the gym on Monday! Take it easy and get well soon!

Knees are important - be nice to them!!! How'd your hectic week go?