fiddleronthmoon

So I did end up skipping Wednesday, but I went yesterday instead. It sucked and I didn't have a good run, but I did it. I'm going LARPing this weekend, so I won't be doing it then, but I'll try to continue on Monday with Week 6 Run 3.

I have been having a really hard time for the past few days. I skipped running on Saturday because I had to get ready for a wedding. I honestly could have fit it in somewhere, but I was going through a depression downswing and I could barely pull myself out of bed. Which is a valid excuse, and is not at the same time. I ended up skipping Monday because I "had a lot of things to do." Which is not a good excuse at all. Don't mistake it for laziness, mind you. I suspect it's because there's that part of my brain that knows I am close to succeeding and is immediately sabotaging itself. I need to learn how to control that, but I keep talking myself out of it. >.< I need to run tonight or I don't know if I'll ever get back on the wagon. It's giving me a headache just thinking about it. But I have the feeling that I'm going to skip it again tonight. I don't know what is going to happen, and I'm scared.

Update: Finished Week 6 Run 1. I felt like death, but I finished it! Another thing that I noticed about the program, though, is that it is still in beta, more or less. It still has some bugs in it. One of the bugs is that it will sometimes delay the next transmission, even if it is time sensitive. For example, it will say "Good work, Runner 5! Only one more minute! Hang in there!" but then it will delay the next transmission for 2 1/2 minutes. I can't decide if it is a bug in the program, or if it is the developers' clever idea to get people to run for longer than they think they can because they were waiting for the voice to tell them to stop. Clever developers....

Hello all! I haven't had time to sit down and check in at the end of Week 1, but here I am now! Results below: Zombies!: I am actually doing very well with this one. Week 5 saw defeat at my hands (or legs, I guess...) relatively easily. For the first time in my life, I ran for 10 minutes without stopping and at the end of the week, it brought that total up to 6 times. Yay me! I would call it a resounding success. I had a bit of a setback yesterday for Week 6, Run 1, though. It ended up being just a little bit my better, and life got in the way toward the end, so I had to bail out early to go catch a train. I'm bummed out because I have only had to quit a run once before and that is because I fell and busted my knee way back in week 2. But I decided I would just try again on Thursday and set my days back by one. Life happens right? No big deal. Angry Birds: This is where it gets difficult. It is a long and complicated story, which I will absolutely get into detail about if you folks want to talk about it, but suffice it to say for now that it I am not in a good place with my mental health right now that would support my effort to do full body strength training at this very moment. I have chosen to put it on hold until the next challenge and just focus on the running this time around. I don't know whether or not to call this one a failure for quitting this particular challenge or a success for recognizing that it is not the best course of action for me right now and might end up doing more bad than good.

I am in a similar situation with Italy, except I know where I will be staying, I have a "job," and I will only be there for 3 months. Or else I'd be in the same scramble!

Well done on week 1. Can't wait to see how far you've come next week. :3

Excellent goals and excellent progress so far! I look forward to following your challenge. :3

Hey everybody! I'm part of this group, but I forgot to check in...>.> My challenge is in my signature. Hope to level up along side my amazing adventuring team! (And poke fun at the dedicated healer. :3 ) Have a good day!

I've already had a little bit of a slip up. :/ I was supposed to do my first Angry Birds workout on Tuesday, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. It's a long story, which I will elaborate on later, but for now suffice it to say that it is literal mental torture to me right now. I'm sure I will break out of it with time, but for now, just trying to get myself to do the exercise is exactly as exhausting as running into a brick wall over and over again. And I know I'm not supposed to do exercises that don't sound fun, but here's the thing: I'm an active person. I am a bellydance, theater artist, and I generally eat well, unless I don't. Most exercising I do is local to the legs because of the dancing. I want to get into full-body fitness, but it so, so painful. That's why I decided to go with the Angry Birds workout. I figured basic body-weight stuff would be challenging, but not suicide-inducing. I was not prepared. TL;DR I skipped Tuesday and possibly already failed my challenge. But there is still hope. If I just pretend Tuesday was my one day off, I can still salvage the challenge.That's what I'm doing. Yesterday, I did W5R1, which is farther than I have ever been before, and completely uncharted territory. But good news, everyone! I ran ALL of my "free runs" as just regular runs, which I have never done before. Ever. And the two free runs at the end were 10 minutes, each. Holy cow. Mind you, I felt like hell and was begging for the sweet relief of death by the end, but I did it! I'm actually really enjoying my running sessions more than I ever thought I could. I did the very first Angry Birds workout today. Just now, in fact. Oh man, I have a LOT of work to do... these were my stats: Squats (goal 30): 32 / XXX / XXX / XXX / XXX / 32 total / 3 stars / <---level up! Pushups (goal 40): (knees) 1 / 0 / (switched to incline) 7 /12 / 8 / 28 total / 0 stars One Armed Rows (goal 30): 8 left, 7 right / 8,7 / 0,5 / XXX / XXX / 16,19 total / 0 stars / <---gave up Planks (goal 60s): 10 / 7 / 6 / 10 / 5 / 38s total / 0 stars I have a long way to go. It makes the bad parts of my brain light up. >.<

I have made swift work out of W4R3. Huzzah! Now here's something you didn't know. A while back, I gave myself two rewards for completing the Zombies, Run! 5k training. For finishing 4 weeks, I earned a Runner 5 t-shirt. For finishing all 8 weeks, I earn myself a new bellybutton piercing. Since I finished 4 weeks last night, I have officially earned my shirt! Yay for me!

It looks like you and I have a lot in common! I look forward to hearing some of those songs... And I like your stat reward system! I might have to pick that up. I wonder if it's too late to do that now? Best of luck anyway! I look forward to seeing your progress.

Hello all! This is my very first 6 week challenge, so I decided to keep it nice and simple for now. After all, it's not about the actual task for me, it is about building a habit. I have a nasty habit of...falling out of habits...it's complicated. So I only have 2 goals that qualify to be SMART: 1. Complete the Zombies, Run! 5k training (I petered out on the last workout of week 4, so I will pick it back up there and keep going). If I complete it in a timely manner, I can spend the final 2 weeks playing the official Zombies, Run! game on the 3 days a week that I would have been doing the 5K training. 2. Do the Angry Birds workout to the best of my ability on the other 3 days a week. Aim to increase each workout by 1 unit (second, pound, squat, you know the drill) per session. I have a bunch of other things I want to do, including picking the guitar back up, working on certain art projects, dieting, learning languages, but none of them are SMART for the moment, so I will forego them and keep it simple just this one time. JUST THIS ONE TIME. Next time, though... Also, I'm in CLAN DFTBA! I'm off to the gym with my boy to finish that pesky week 4. Wish me luck!

Hey folks. Fiddler here. I've posted once or twice before, but nothing serious. I'm back in the game because a good friend of mine invited me and a bunch of my friends on a 40 Days of Pain challenge. He wants to hit his big 30 feeling strong and healthy, and we're all competing to see who gets the healthiest. To answer this challenge, lest my honor be in question, I am picking up Couch-to-5K and bellydancing again. You guys should all check out my blog to follow my progress: Caro Diaro, the Long Road to Leveling Up. Hope you guys are all having great success with your workouts!

My god.I have fallen *WAY* behind. My personal life is making it very difficult to stay faithful to this. I have made some bad decisions and worse purchases over the past 2 weeks or so, which is why I haven't responded. I think at this point I have failed the challenge, but I am still making small decisions about my diet as it happens. But when you live like I do, it is hard to ignore the Wendy's when you've only got 30 minutes and $3. But you know what they say. Do the best you can with what you've got, and I am.

Don't have time for a full entry right now, but I will say this: what is the thing about peanuts? I mean, I see that they are legumes which means that they are anti-Strict Paleo, but what it it about them that is bad? I will do a little research, but I was just curious.