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Day 04 Fuck you, stairs Did nothing towards my challenge goals yesterday between work, DOMS, and going to see Sweeney Todd. Which, by the way, was AWESOME. The DeVotchKa take was actually quite beautifully done and not at all jarring, and the music was still very very obviously Sondheim. There were many times throughout the performance when the actors were singing the songs flawlessly that I'm like, "Oh god dammit Sondheim, this is difficult stuff that only you could ever pull off and these actors are KILLING it wonderfully. " I'd recommend Denver-types to go buy tickets to this show immediately, but I think I read somewhere that it's sold out through the end of the run, which I'm not surprised about, because it was REALLY REALLY good!!! Today I'll try to do some sprints, even though my left thigh is still super DOMSy that I'm limping around. I'll take it easy and won't push myself too hard in lieu of this. Right now, stairs are my worst enemy, and of course yesterday was the day in which the elevators at work were under maintenance, arrrrrrrgh. I'll also be doing a lot of cleaning of the my bathrooms tonight and maybe practice the piano some. Scorecard: QUEST ONE: ENDURANCE TRAINING 1/2 cardio days per week QUEST TWO: BACK CONDITIONING 3/5 back stretches per week 3/5 back massage/foam rolling/heat therapy per week QUEST THREE: SMART SNACKING 0/8 non-freggie/non-protein snacks over four weeks LIFE QUEST: SPRING CLEANING 0.55/4 areas of apartment cleaned over four weeks SIDE QUEST: PIANO PRACTICE 34/240 minutes of piano practice over four weeks

These are the best days at work. Nothing went wrong, and there was enough to do without feeling overwhelmed but still feel productive. I'll very soon miss these days, I suspect, considering how busy we're about to get! I'm excited about the announcement too! Next year is going to be a pretty fun year, I just need to decide which of the shows outside the summer musical I'll actually be able to commit myself to and then start pulling together audition material for it all. Thanks!!!!! I'm hesitant to say much more than that until June, but yes, pretty much!! I was starting to worry I'd have to Mulan my way through theatre going forward, which would be extra difficult as I'm a soprano and I'm very, VERY feminine in personality and physical features, ahahahaha. About the only thing I have going for me that would help is that binding would be significantly less painful for me than most women??? lololol But for this particular show and especially this particular company, I can still just be me, a female actor who is studying swords and prefers that over dancing, which makes me super excited.

I've never tried supplements myself nor have I looked into the science of it, but I do believe that food is always the best source of whatever you need before and after a workout. And besides, a glass of cold chocolate milk after a hard workout sounds more enjoyable than a pill anyway. (And like Anim, if I ever need more of whatever vitamin or nutrients, I just research the foods that fit that requirement and start including more of them into my diet.)

Exercising is a wonderful thing for mental health. I know that when you tell people who struggle with mental health issues, they get annoyed because their mental health is preventing them from exercising -- which I 100% get, I've been there myself (I have depression -- and I phrase it like this because anymore I only sometimes suffer from it, but most of the time I'm just living with it), so I'm not the one to tell them they're wrong because I know exactly how they feel. But! It's also true that exercise and an improved diet is a great way to deal with mental health issues; while I still have bad days, they're far less frequent and they're very rarely nowhere near as bad as they used to be. So yay, I'm super glad to see that exercise is helping you out with your anxiety!

Day 03 I shouldn't spend as much time away from my theatre company as I do -- that changes in two weeks at least! Aside from my workout yesterday, it was a good day. Work was the perfect level of busy, and I managed to get a lot of things done prior to the meeting with my theatre company towards my goals. I will say that my back was being a new sort of bitch, but once I slapped an IcyHot patch on it, it calmed down considerably. It's feeling a ton better today, which tells me that I should do more isolated heat therapy. My left thigh DOMS are, as expected, a killer (tbh, my entire left side is DOMSy), and so aside from back conditioning and taking care of my quads, it's most likely going to be a rest day today. The meeting with the theatre company was nice. It's exciting to see the big strides we've made in the past year and where we're going next year. They even announced next season, and while I'm sworn to secrecy until it's publicized on June 4th, I will say this and ONLY this: right when I was fretting over my love for fencing and stage combat and what the hell kind of opportunities does an Asian-American actress with this skill set have in this country, let alone in Denver (never mind just actresses who sword-fight in general), my theatre company follows through and shows me exactly the opportunity I have. More details come June 4th. Tonight I probably won't do a lot towards my goals because I get to see Sweeney Todd, yay! This particular production is with DeVotchKa doing the musical adaptation, so I'm super excited. I've heard nothing but amazing things about it. Eeeee!! Scorecard: QUEST ONE: ENDURANCE TRAINING 1/2 cardio days per week QUEST TWO: BACK CONDITIONING 3/5 back stretches per week 3/5 back massage/foam rolling/heat therapy per week QUEST THREE: SMART SNACKING 0/8 non-freggie/non-protein snacks over four weeks LIFE QUEST: SPRING CLEANING 0.55/4 areas of apartment cleaned over four weeks SIDE QUEST: PIANO PRACTICE 34/240 minutes of piano practice over four weeks

Don't forget to warm-up a little before you stretch; it's no good to stretch cold muscles. It doesn't have to be an intense warm-up, just something to loosen up your muscles! I find that if I stretch on a recovery day, doing it near the end of the day helps more than doing it earlier. Yep! The TMNT Workout was actually my next strength routine once BBWW became too easy and I felt like I still wasn't ready to tackle the Advanced BWW and I was still scared of free weights. I still refer to the workout every so often when designing a routine, since it tends to cover everything I want to focus on for my own goals. I recommend it, for sure!!

If you want a recommendation for good routines, I really like the Mobility portion of the TMNT Workout for a warm-up. As I got more and more fit, I found that I needed more than just that, so for a while I incorporated mountain climbers and bar-only warm-ups prior to my lifts. Recently, even all that wasn't enough anymore, which is why I started jump roping, which is probably my new favorite way to warm up quickly. Steve has a good article on warm-ups here, though eventually it's all about finding what you need to get yourself going! As for a cooldown, stretching is how I often go about it. Again, Steve has an article about stretch routines, though a lot of my stretch routines are derived from dance classes and videos since over the past year and a half, dance had been a HUGE focus of mine. This video was my starting point for designing my own routine: In the end, though, your warm-ups and cooldowns should be about finding what works best for you and your goals, as with any fitness regimen. YAY TEAM AVENGERS!!!

Apparenty it's been a whole month since I documented my splits progress. Surprisingly, they didn't suffer all that much??? Last (April 7, 2016): Current (April 7, 2016): (featuring epee bruises!) In fact, I think my right side (which is the far left one; this is a mirror selfie, so it looks reversed, etc) has improved. Thanks, fencing, maybe??? Also, it looks like my legs are more defined. I call it a trick of the light. I'm just glad I'm not bloating anymore. And since I'm here, and since I just finished my workout, here is the rundown of what I did: Warm-Up: TMNT Mobility + 3-minute jump rope Squats: 1x8x45lb (warm-up), 1x8x100lb, 1x5x110lb, 2x5x115lb, 1x3x115lb Bench Press: 1x8x45lb (warm-up), 1x8x60lb, 1x5x60lb, 2x4x60lb Box Jumps: 3x12x24" Forearm Planks: 40 sec, 35 sec, 30 sec PVC Fencing Drills (advances, retreats, lunges, parries): ~7 minutes Cooldown: Flexibility ~28 minutes Debrief: Squats showed me just how much my left side (my off-side) is going to suffer if I don't pay attention to it; once I got to 115lb, my left leg was hurting in a way that I know DOMS tomorrow is going to suck. Much foam rolling and stretching to take place throughout the evening. ;;; Other than that, since I'm working on reprogramming my lifting, this was a good way to see where my starting point might be no matter how I decide to take things. Bench press didn't bother my back, which was a win? And I'm finally getting the hang of parry seven, I hope. It's been the most awkward of the parries I've learned so far but I think I'm finally getting used to it. Also made sure to work on my form for advances and retreats (even decided to switch sides, ahahahaha, oh man, if I ever want to be an ambidextrous fencer I have A LOT of work to do on just this basic alone!) and get my timing right for my lunges since I'm trying to break the habit I've been having of lunging and then thrusting. I think thrusting and then lunging will be in my muscle memory sooner rather than later, which would be awesome!! So, yes. My back is still unhappy but I made sure not to do anything that would bother it, not even Crow. Let's just hope that my DOMS tomorrow in my left thigh won't be so bad that I won't be able to sprint! ;;;;;;;

I would hope!! Good thing is that my superpowers in the mini don't require extensive use of my back, which is why I picked them. I can always find cardio for Super Speed that doesn't overstrain that clump of back muscles, stretching for Shapeshifting is for the purposes of helping my back recover (plus I always have dance as an option for Shapeshifting, which as long as I don't do anything too crazy will be fine), and my back doesn't hate fencing thus I can continue to contribute to Elemental Affinity. Still, it does mean that for another week I don't get to do a lot in the way of upper body strength work, boo. Which means every day is leg day. Which is fine. Because I'm the weirdo who loves leg day. This is exactly why if I'm not careful, I will spend no less than 2 hours at the gym. If I go during work hours, I can limit my time to less than 90 minutes, but if I go after work or during the weekend................ Yep, there are three of them! Jaws of Hakkon (which I love because Ameridan ), the Descent, and Trespasser, which takes place 2 years after the final battle in DA:I. All are worth playing through, though I'll admit the Descent is more for the lore that is sure to be super relevant in the next game, as the DLC plot felt very similar to how Legacy for DA2 felt. I didn't enjoy the Descent nearly as much as I enjoyed Jaws of Hakkon and Trespasser. And I'm also the herd that comes up with a backstory for a PC in a game! My elven mage has this whole reason as to why he was sent there instead of who the Keeper was originally going to send (a hunter who is also my Lavellan's older sister -- I have a game ready to go where she does get sent, which will be the Solasmance game; not that I like Solas, but I'm trying to piece together all the lore to come up with my theories on how the next Dragon Age game will go down, thus my playing as Mahariel in DA:O currently) among other things, which helps the RP aspect of the game. It's harder for me to play through with an Inquisitor I didn't give a lot of thought to, tbh, which is why once I got the romances I wanted with Cadash and Treyvelan I kind of just. Stopped? Ahahahahaha........ ;;;;;;;;;;;;

Day 02 I'm not TRYING to, sheesh, stupid back muscles........ Work was boring, which made me depressed, because my brain is wired weird. I had to remind myself over and over again not to complain about the boredom, because in two weeks I'll wish for boring days again. ;;;;;;;;;;; AH WELL. Went to the gym after work to run some sprints because it was spitting rain and I'm a big baby when it comes to running outdoors when it's raining. After my warm-up, I attempted to do a 30sec-1min-2min-4min-2min-1-min-30sec sprint workout (sprint 30 sec, rest 30 sec, sprint min, rest 1 min, etc), but either I pushed myself too hard from the get-go or the exercise is a lot harder than it looks, or both. I'm going with both. I couldn't get to the 4min portion and so my exercise became 30sec-1min-2min-2min-1-min-30sec. Well, at least I have something to work towards! After that, I spent ~30 minutes doing some yoga including inversion and hand balance work in the mix, and this is when my back finally twinged when I was working on Crow Pose. So, I stopped, and my back did not forgive me the rest of the night. Seriously, Crow was literally the ONLY thing I did that even kind of worked my back, wtf. Naturally, I took a lot of care in my stretching and foam rolling to try to placate the damn thing. Though as soon as I finished foam rolling, I spotted a skinny PVC pipe and immediately decided to test to see if I could use it for fencing drills. Next thing I knew, I was practicing my lunges and my parries. ;;;;;;;;;;;; WELP. Went home, took an Epsom salt bath for my back, applied some IcyHot for more placation because all of the whining my back was doing, and then worked on cleaning the guest bathroom and practiced the piano for about 13 minutes (focused on Hanon exercises and the Totoro song) before dinner was ready. Guest bathroom is more or less clean now, yay, just have a couple of minor things to finish it up, now to tackle the master bath. Good day, overall, work aside anyway! Scorecard: QUEST ONE: ENDURANCE TRAINING 1/2 cardio days per week QUEST TWO: BACK CONDITIONING 2/5 back stretches per week 2/5 back massage/foam rolling/heat therapy per week QUEST THREE: SMART SNACKING 0/8 non-freggie/non-protein snacks over four weeks LIFE QUEST: SPRING CLEANING 0.5/4 areas of apartment cleaned over four weeks SIDE QUEST: PIANO PRACTICE 13/240 minutes of piano practice over four weeks

Basically, this. I used to run half marathons and 10Ks and what not (I started my NF journey as a Scout), and I agree. A third option is this: is one or the other significantly more important to you? If running is more important to you (and/or you're training for races), don't go so hard and heavy on your strength training. Absolutely still keep it up, of course, because strength training is a surefire way to improve your speed and endurance, but you don't have to beat yourself up. Most runners will run 3-4x/week and only strength train 1-2x/week, whichever combination gives them 2 rest days in a week. If they do workout 6x/week, that 6th workout is usually something like easy yoga or walking, or a much, MUCH easier workout in either strength or running, but most training plans worth their salt will recommend 2 rest days in a week at all levels (beginner through advanced). If strength training, on the other hand, is more important to you (and I'm guessing it probably is???), then take it easier on your runs. Or train both on the same day, as starsapart mentioned, with running as a supplement later in the day. Tbh, I don't have a different recommendation than she does for if strength training is more important, mostly out of inexperience -- while strength has become more important to me than running over the past year, my solution was to completely nix running (with the rare exceptional cases when I felt like doing intervals) in favor of other things I wanted to improve upon. Now that I've (hopefully) discovered my true fitness passion, I'm reevaluating things all over again and so running is making a comeback, but it's acting as a supplement to my actual fitness goals. So............... TL;DR, if strength training is more important to you than running, or if both are about equal to you, what starsapart recommended! If running is more important, then take it easier on your strength training.

Day 01 Yeah, Shark Week, what a way to start a challenge Okay, wow, Shark Week, you're a special little snowflake of a pain in the ass, aren't you? On the bright side, it was kind enough to wait until after Saturday fencing and Mother's Day, so I'll grant it that, but ow, wow, so glad yesterday was effectively a rest day between the cramps and my complete loss of appetite. Between the normal Monday craziness at work and my (final) film acting class in the evening, I didn't have a whole lot of time to do anything for the challenge, but I did do my back conditioning exercises and I took my massage pillow to my back, so I can say I did at least that much! I was planning on trying to get in a run this morning, but I didn't get good sleep last night because my boyfriend was playing online video games with his friends, so I had to close the door so I could sleep, which meant that my cat was unhappy no matter what side of the door he was on, sigh. It looks like it might rain after work, so I guess it's to the treadmill today, boo. Scorecard: QUEST ONE: ENDURANCE TRAINING 0/2 cardio days per week QUEST TWO: BACK CONDITIONING 1/5 back stretches per week 1/5 back massage/foam rolling/heat therapy per week QUEST THREE: SMART SNACKING 0/8 non-freggie/non-protein snacks over four weeks LIFE QUEST: SPRING CLEANING 0/4 areas of apartment cleaned over four weeks SIDE QUEST: PIANO PRACTICE 0/240 minutes of piano practice over four weeks

Basically +10 to everything you and @starsapart are saying because Shiori can do DIAF and Juri is my bb, and probably my favorite character after Utena herself. Because Juri is a fabulous, fantastic wonderful human being and she deserves better.

Hey hey hey~ Yikes! That does sound troublesome having to set that up every time! My electric piano is a full-sized one and basically screwed into the stand all of the time -- the biggest hassle this thing causes me is figuring out where to put it in an apartment, as there rarely seems to be The Perfect Place for it with all my other stuff. I thought getting a 2BR would fix this problem, but noooooooope. Right now it's kind of. Awkwardly in my dining room. Ahahahaha. My go-to song used to be, and still is because even when I haven't touched the piano in years, I can still remember it by heart -- Canon. So. I need a new go-to. Because nobody wants to hear Canon. AGAIN. "Tonari no Totoro" is something nobody will tell me to OMG STOP PLAYING THAT PLEASE BEFORE I KILL MYSELF because it's cute and bouncy and happy and Totoro. But eeeeee, ME3~ I've been rewatching some videos from that game lately and omg, the feels, I kind of want to boot it up again after I finish my Mahariel play-through of DA:O. Even if all I do is play the Citadel DLC again because Bioware has yet to put out a DLC that tops that. Trespasser for Inquisition came close, but Citadel is just. Perfection. OMG. Problem is, as always, time. I'm in my last two weeks of relative sanity. Eep! And if you find cloning technology, let me in on it!!!!!!! Then I can have my clone work (even though I love my job) and do important adulting errands while I have all of the fun with all the things!! Haha, truth! Idk, Totoro has a special place in my heart because childhood and innocence, and I love Spirited Away for many, many reasons I cannot even begin to list. But Chihiro/Sen is my bb and my heart, which is probably the toppiest of reasons why Spirited Away is easily a favorite. Haku helps immensely, too.

It depends on when I take my rest days, tbh. If I take it during the work week and I'm not swamped at work, I usually take ~30 minute walk for an active rest day. If it's over the weekend and I have no plans to leave the apartment, I veg out and play video games. Right now my rest days are including stretches for my back, but otherwise, these are pretty standard practices for me. As for eating....... I actually don't change my eating habits, for better or ill. When I'm in a better position to both schedule-wise and mentally/emotionally, I'll take stock of this, but for now, I eat when I'm hungry. I try to take rest days only twice a week, but sometimes it just happens where I take them three times in a week, usually because of exhaustion because my life is chaos or because my schedule doesn't permit it because my life is chaos, or recently, because of my back worries. I aim for 4-5x/week of working out, regardless!

Here for this! And best of luck on your computer issues and finals!!!!!!!!

RUKAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

I was going to mention her, but I couldn't remember her name. Because her name isn't worth remembering. Juri, you need better taste.

Fun and manageable were my keywords. Also simple. I was hesitant about having my back conditioning be 5x/week because of my worries of burning out, but lbr, anything less than that isn't inviting a fast recovery! So, necessary. Otherwise, the only other difficult challenge is my snacking quest, but it's just a simple case of DON'T, and I need the self-control now that winter is more or less over. I hope. Assuming that Colorado doesn't Colorado, like so: Cannot see the Anthy gif alas (stupid work firewall), but omg, I love how complex Anthy and..... well, lbr, EVERYONE is, even if there are a certain couple I loathe (*cough*Saionji*cough*Nanami*cough*) and how they just take some tropes and then just stomp all over it like LMAO WHAT ARE TROPES ANYWAY. GODS I LOVE THIS SHOW.

You know I'm here as always. I'm also curious about the weight belt. My mother, though admittedly not knowing much about lifting, suggested that because of my back injury that I look into getting one. I feel silly about it since I'm not lifting THAT heavy yet (my deadlifts are barely above my bodyweight), but still, worth looking into at the very least even if not for the near future!

Following~

Following! As a brat, I am familiar with PCS but only from the perspective of the kid rather than the parents. When we had to do our overseas move from Japan to California, my mother made me get rid of SO MUCH STUFF, some of which I'm still a little bitter at having had to let go, but I understand the need! Plus having to put our poor cat into quarantine, etc. The PCS from California to Colorado was less stressful all around, but still stressful, especially since I was older (getting ready to enter high school) and more aware of what was going on. Best of luck on the move! Always an exciting time, for better or worse!

Following~

So......... I don't feel like doing a formal Day Zero post, so I won't. A couple of thoughts as the challenge kicks off, though (since my life functions on a Monday-Sunday week instead of a Sunday-Saturday week, my personal challenge starts today instead of yesterday): CARDIO: Focusing on Super Speed for the mini-challenge means most of my cardio workouts, if not all of them, will be focused on sprints and interval training, which tbh, is the most beneficial for fencing anyhow. Since running is how I got into fitness, and because I need to desperately catch up in Zombies, Run! (I AM STILL ON SEASON 3 AND SEASON 5 JUST STARTED WHAT), the majority of my cardio will be via running. Expect some Zumba to get thrown in there, since that will count towards the Shapeshifting superpower for the mini, too, and I still have Evita prepwork to do! BACK CONDITIONING: Idk, this is mostly self-explanatory? My back IS getting better, I can tell, and I'm only a couple days away from the time when my doctor told me to avoid back exercises, so I will tentatively test the waters for upper body work. But I'll be cautious, too, of course, and continue with the stretches and heat therapy/massage therapy. I may even schedule a formal massage before the end of the challenge since I talked to one of my more active friends who said that he and his wife get massages monthly to avoid what happened to me. ;;;;;;;;;;;;;; SMART SNACKING: This is going to be hard but I believe in me. If I can behave at work and home, then I will be able to stand to be less cautious when out with friends and family, but still careful not to eat like an asshole. Between birthdays, belated Mother's Day celebration (my mother was not up to really celebrating it yesterday considering the close proximity it was to my (paternal) grandmother's passing, so we're celebrating it in two weeks instead), and other things, I want to make sure I have the freedom to eat yummy goodness for these things! SPRING CLEANING: I'm still deciding what order to do the cleaning. Maybe the bathrooms this week, the bedrooms next week, and then the living/dining room and finishing with the kitchen in Week 4? I have until tomorrow; I won't be getting to this today at least. PIANO PRACTICE: I gave the song an initial go yesterday. HOW DO I BASS CLEF GUYS. I spent the past 18 years of my life so focused on treble clef that I can very barely read bass clef anymore. But, the arrangement I have of the song is simple enough, so maybe by the end of the four weeks I'll have something I can be relatively proud of? At the very least, I'll provide a recording of my accomplishment in Week 4. Also, fencing DOMS is weird. Ow, my right side. My left side is perfectly fine, but my entire right side of my body is making for awkward........ everything, really. WELP. And my mother gave me her jump rope, so now I have my own personal jump rope for warm-up purposes, woo! Just in case the jump rope at work is being used, or if I'm not at the gym to workout, so yay win. Let's get the 4 weeks going~