Fayrn

Before and After

10/11 things done

Explore China

Eat something new with one meal every day

7/7 days

Explore for 30 min everyday (if not busy)

4/4 days

Write in travel diary every night

7/7 days

Fitness Maintenance

6/12 days

Side Quests

Linguistic Mastery

8/8 days

Before and After: +4 WIS, +35 XP

A - Everything done B - 8-10 things done  C - 5-7 things done D - 2-4 things done F - Did nothing

Explore China: +4 CON, +4 CHA, +30 XP
A - Weeklong exploration B - Explored 4-5 days  C - Explored 2-3 days D - Explored 1 day F - Locked myself up in hotel room

Maintain Fitness: +1 DEX, +1 STA, +1 STR, +35 XP

A - Fitness Maintained B - 9-11 days C - 6-8 days D - 3-5 days F - Lazy Potato

Linguistic Mastery: +18 EXP
A - Pass F - Fail

Gold Keeping: +4 EXP
A - Pass F - Fail

Knowledge Expansion: +2 EXP
A - Pass F - Fail

Hey adventurers, I'm new here! My fitness and life goals are split down the middle between Assassins and Adventurers, and since this month I'll be going to China, I'll be shacking up here for the next four weeks.

Main Quest:
Travel like an Adult

Traveling is not a new thing for me, but while going through airport security and customs isn't a big deal for me...everything else is. All my anxiety and stress comes from packing, getting the house ready, and taking my furry baby to the sitters. When I come back I don't unpack anything for MONTHS. I also am notorious for over packing or worse leaving something extremely important behind (like a cell phone charger). Also when I'm out adventuring I tend to stay in some sort of comfort zone, mainly with food, and have a bout of laziness if there's not already planned events. These 4 weeks I will work on NOT doing what I normally do when I travel.

1) Before and After

During week one I have to prepare my home and prepare myself for the upcoming travels. During week three and four I have to unpack and put away things, and of course tell everyone on Facebook what happened. In total there are 11 things that I need to do in order for this side quest to be a success.




2) Explore China

A simple quest in my opinion. Go out and explore! Eat new things! Take lots of pictures and write down the memories before bed.

3) Maintain Fitness

Again super simple, just keep fit during these four weeks. I'll be doing ballet videos 3x a week and swimming whenever possible. During my week in China, I'll be doing yoga instead due to the strict Internet censorship preventing me access to my normal youtube videos.

Side Quests

With any good adventure, there's always side quests to complete. These little add-ons will not give me any attribute stats, but will instead contribute to my XP. These are things I need to work on often throughout the year. Quests are as follows:

Linguistic Mastery II

Review Vocab 2x a week

Gold Keeping II

Save $26 this month

Knowledge Expansion II

Read 2 books this month

Today was my last day of exercise for this challenge. Here are the results:

2x8 55lb leg curl

2x10 roman chair ball thing

2x8 55lbs leg extensions^

3x8 190 lb glutes machine

3x8 55lb hip flexor

1x8 115lbs addiction, abduction

3x8 40lbs lateral raises

3x8 65lbs triceps press

3x8 20lbs shoulder press

Back extensions 1x10

Weighted back extensions: level 8 1x10

Leg raises 1x10

Bodyweight:

Knee Push-ups 20

Assisted shrimp squats: 10

Flutter kicks: 40

Inflated ball crunches 25

Swimming: 450m

Almost done! Can't wait to read your update!

How's everything going? I'm hoping this cold weather doesn't have you down! Keep going strong!

So I did it! I made my Japanese learning goal this challenge!

So I'm COMPLETELY completed my language quest! First time ever being done in a challenge! Woo!!!!

Also had my first freediving session today and the instructor said I did great.

I swam 50m dynamic apnea and 1:50 min breath hold in static apnea.

Apparently Beginner Freediver goals are 25m dynamic and 1:30 breath hold.

And then I just had some fun in the pool, learned how to properly duck dive, messed around with my camera, and found out I can't fit through the hoops they have floating on the bottom because my monofin is too big.

But all in all great lesson!

Windshield wipers

http://youtu.be/X59_4RrU_aA

Had a nice chill work out today. I'm still sore from Saturday, so I switched out my usual strength training for my final legs video, the full arm video, and some Fitness Marshall videos. I'm also almost done with my language quest, which I'm really happy about. I usually do terribly on my language quests during my challenges.

Amazing! Another traveler! I'm glad to hear your doing great with your goals while abroad. Can't wait to hear more!

I'm honestly impressed that I'm almost done with my Japanese goal. I usually don't do very well every challenge I've added it to.

Wow, great workout! Might I suggest however that you do pull up and pushup type exercises before doing shoulders and triceps.

Thank you for the advice! I'll Definitely try fixing the order of my workout for my final week.

Thanks guys. Got a workout in and while I am exhausted I do feel better.

4 sets 6 pull ups

4 sets 6 bent over rows with 190 pounds

4 sets 6 one arm knee pushups

4 sets 8 wide grip pushups with 25 pounds on back. Should've gone with the 35.

4 sets 12 pike pushups

4 sets 8 overhead presses with 75 pounds

2 supersets of 8 lateral raises and 8 rear delt raises both with 20 pounds

4 sets 4 chin ups

4 sets 6 tricep pushups

2 supersets of barbell curls with 75 pounds and 10 tricep kickbacks with 20 pounds

2 sets 12 bench dips with 30 second rest between

4 sets 10 weighted situps with 35 pounds

4 sets 12 weighted russian twists with 35 pounds

4 sets 6 assisted pistol squats

4 sets 8 dumbbell jump squats with 20 pounds

4 sets 10 good mornings with 35 pounds

2 sets dumbbell calf raises with 20 pounds

2 supersets of 10 wrist curls and 8 reverse wrist curls both with 20 pounds.

This was kind of a "screw it, I need to workout so I might as well go all out" thing. Going to be feeling it in the morning and that is a good thing.

That's how I felt about today's workout. But I don't think mine was as intense as yours 0.0

WEEK THREE REPORT

Build Tail Strength

This week I didn't do well keeping up with my planned schedule of MWF, but I did manage do to both my strength and body training, and my yoga, done this week. Today, in fact. I've noticed some GREAT improvement on my balancing. I should take a video!

4x8 50lb leg curl

2x10 roman chair ball thing
4x8 50 lbs leg extensions
3x8 185 lb glutes machine
1x8 45 lb warm-up, 2x8 50lb hip flexor
1x8 100lbs reverse hip flexor, addiction, abduction
3x8 35lbs lateral raises
3x8 60lbs triceps press
3x8 15lbs shoulder press
3 negative pull-ups
0.5 pull-up
10 machine pull-ups 70lbs
Back extensions 2x10
Leg raises 1x10

Bodyweight:
Push-ups
-uneven knee 6
-10 knee push-ups
5 jack-knife sit ups
10 weighted bicycles
Planks: 30 sec
Balanced squats: 15
Assisted shrimp squats: 6
Squat jumps: 20
Superman: 20
Flutter kicks: 50

Swim the Distance

Not much to add. This week was a good swim. I'm hoping to do even better on my final week.

Training Under the Pressure

During week 3 I'll be attending my first Freediving session. I'm so excited!

Side Quests

Linguistic Mastery

I'm honestly surprised how well I've kept up with this quest, considering in the past my language learning endeavors usually went terrible. I only have a little over 70 words left to learn, so this last week I'll be bringing it home!

Knowledge Expansion

A little over half-way with Half-Blood Prince (57%).

SUMMARY

This week was a bit of a mess. But now approaching the final week of the challenge, it's almost my second wind for finishing strong. Week 4 is gearing up to be a great week!

Submerging in cold water is said to have many health benefits.

Too chicken to try XD

So I had a great swim today. Practiced some new bubble tricks, and a new backflip. And of course I did ACTUAL training. Along with my 300m I did an extra 150m. And I feel like my dolphin kick is getting more powerful and fluid.

Yesterday I did my weekly video, which was more full body than legs, but still good.

Remember when I said the weather was getting colder? Apparently it's snow time now. So there's no way I'm going in the ocean.

Sounds like a great 2nd week!

Can't seem to be in a sport any more w/o spending thousands of dollars for specialized equipment. WW kayaking is the same way. First you start out w/ a used boat, cheap paddle, skirt and PPE. Then you decide you need a carbon fiber paddle. Then a specialized boat. Then you want to paddle in the winter and need a dry suit. Then you think everyone else needs to watch you kayak so you buy a GoPro (like me for instance). It just goes on an on.

I never put much thought in it but yeah. A friend of mine does outrigger canoeing and that's cost her so much money in Paddles and canoes. Even some hobbies can cost you a lot of money these days: hosting a YouTube channel, cosplaying, or even just playing an instrument.

I guess money is the small (or in this sense expensive) sacrifice we pay to have some fun and entertainment in our lives.

Internet! For my tail I bought the fabric cover for my monofin from a woman who makes them in Hawaii. As for my monofin, a well known freediver/mermaid Mermaid Mahina created the Mahina Merfin. I love it because it's as big as normal freediving monofin but made of rubber and easier on the ankles. It's great for an intermediate swimmer like myself.

But there's also special platinum grade silicone prosthetic tails that professional mermaids like Hannah and Melissa have used. They're thousands of dollars...so I'm steadily saving up for one

Sorry, Fayrn. I read that initially as a problem with rolling to one side when you were swimming instead of a floating issue.

Your center of gravity will have a great deal to do with how your body sits in the water. Most women have their center of gravity in the lower abdomen while most men have their center of gravity towards their chest. Basically everyone's legs sink a bit. Increasing your arm strength will not help too much with that. Sad to say, women have a natural tendency to float.

But increasing your arm strength is never a bad thing.

Haha no I think that'd be a funny site to see; a mermaid perpetually rolling to her side.

Shame but your right increasing my arm strength won't be a bad thing, it'll definitely help with lifting myself out of the pool since I can't use my legs.

Thanks for all you advice! :3

Balance in the water is all about your core. Though, if you are listing to one side more favorably during your pull will definitely hinder your balance. You may look up some drills on proper rotation during swimming to help balance you out.

My favorite balance drill is the paddle on head drill or "unipaddle" drill that my Master's coach likes to put in our workouts. I love it, but everyone else on the team hates it. You place a hand paddle on the top of your head and swim 25 yards. The rotation part comes in when you try to breathe -- if you cannot rotate properly, you will lose the paddle and most likely also get a lungful of water. This drill also helps with arm placement -- if you slice too much the cavitation will knock off the paddle.

Another balance drill involves kicking on one side and then the other coming back down the lane -- which might be one of your favorite things

0.o I don't understand what you said! I guess you can't call my swim training "traditional". All I do is practice my dolphin kick and breath hold.

Speaking of deadlift I tested my max today and came up with 275. Not all that bad I guess.

 

You guess? That's fantastic! Keep up with the great work!!!

Today was a great workout! Did week 2's leg video, which was pretty difficult this time around! I also did the swan arm video (7 min in this time) and feet stretch video. Along with my squats for the mini-challenge I decided to add some cardio with some dancing! 

I've noticed some increased strength in my core, especially towards my mid-back. I'll be going swimming tomorrow and will see if this affects the power of my kick or how long I can stay underwater.

In other news; I signed up for a freedving beginners crash course at the end of January. Most likely, I will not be able to get certified this month. In fact...I most likely won't be able to get certified until April. Part of the certification requires open dives, and in this increasingly freezing weather, I'd need a dry suit (which I don't have, requires a different set of certification and is expensive).

And part of my Epic Quest, I've updated my website's booking info and about me page and I've also written up a booking agreement and liability waver. I feel so adult.

Sort of...

...my house is a mess. I'll have to make proper adulting like house cleaning part of my challenge next month.