mark

END OF CHALLENGE RESULTS

I'm generally happy with February. I was very active throughout the month with a lot of futsal and other sports. I'd like to get back into weight training too and increase my triathlon training but at times I find it difficult to fit in the volume with the other sport I play.

Fitness Goals:

1) Swim, bike and run at least once each per week

Swim - exactly once per week

Bike - missed week 1 and 4

Run - at least once per week, twice in week 1 and 4

Overall I give this a B. I want to get out on the bike more, it's my weakest of the triathlon disciplines. I'm really happy with my running though; it's improved a lot this month.

2) Spend at least 3 hours per week working on flexibility

Week 1: 2.5 hours

Week 2: 2 hours

Week 3: 1 hour

Week 4: 1 hour

I give myself a D for this; I didn't get to the goal of three hours in any of the weeks. This was probably set too high. While I'm disappointed not to have done more, I am glad that I'm working on this and as long as I keep working on this it will slowly improve.

3) Get to level 15 in OMFG -- edit: DONE!! new goal: level 20

I give myself a B for this. I originally set the goal as level 15, but achieved that early when I first played around with OMFG and figured out the levels because I already had a lot of things I could tick off straight away. I reset the goal to 20 but only made it to level 18. Still pleased with this and it was fun playing around with OMFG. I want to do another 5k and marathon because I'm just off leveling up on both of these!

Life Goal:

4) Improve sleep habits: get out of bed before 8 AM at least 80% of the time during the last two weeks of this challenge.

I give myself a C. I got 9 days out of 14 or 64%, which is OK but not great. It is still a big improvement over where I was before though.

-------

Overall I give myself a C. A number of goals I fell short but I'm still happy. Some progress is better than no progress and as long as I keep working on improving and moving in the right direction I will get there eventually.

Thanks everyone who has been following me for the encouragement!

February 26 & 27:

Life caught up with me a bit over the weekend and the last few days, hence this update is a little bit late. I sliced the bottom of my foot on Friday. Nothing serious, just become painful to put pressure on the ball of my left foot. Was going to bike but took Saturday off instead. Ice skating/hockey and futsal on Sunday. I'll post a summary of the challenge results below in a new post

Goals:

1) Swim/bike/run: week four - swim 1, bike 0, run 2 (+ futsal 3, tennis 1, ice skating 1)

2) Flexibility: week four - 1 hour stretching

3) OMFG: level 18

4) Out of bed before 8 AM: 9/14

February 25:

Long swim this afternoon: 2km in somewhere around 55 minutes, with a moderate amount of rest at times. Little bit frustrating, I felt sluggish for some reason today but not sure why.

Goals:

1) Swim/bike/run: week four - swim 1, bike 0, run 2 (+ futsal 2, tennis 1)

2) Flexibility: week four - 1 hour stretching

3) OMFG: level 18

4) Out of bed before 8 AM: 8/12

February 24:

Run this afternoon: 1600 moderate then 3 x (800m in ~3:30, 800m easy)

Played tennis for an hour and a half tonight too. It was fun but I haven't played in six months and frustrating to be so rusty; I used to play a lot as a junior.

Goals:

1) Swim/bike/run: week four - swim 0, bike 0, run 2 (+ futsal 2, tennis 1)

2) Flexibility: week four - 1 hour stretching

3) OMFG: level 17 (nothing new)

4) Out of bed before 8 AM: 7/11

How's everyone doing? Only a few days left now and squad two has 3 more replies on their thread compared to ours, let's chase them down

"Everyone wants to know what I'm on. What am I on? I'm on my bike, busting my ass six hours every day. What are you on?" -- Lance Armstrong (from

That's pretty rough. I usually try and tell myself that as long as I keep taking action and moving forward, no matter how slow, I'll get there in the end.

Honestly, I want to work on my social side but to figure out how to put that into a challenge is difficult.

This is something I'd also like to improve and I agree it can be hard to find a good way to go about it. Maybe something like initiating a conversation with someone you don't know well at least X times per day/week?

Nice, almost an 8 minute mile. Doing great man.

Thanks mate! It's funny though because on our last run we were both completely cooked by the end so we made a conscious effort to go easier this time, which we did, and somehow we managed to go slightly faster and both felt much better afterwards.

February 23:

Futsal game and 60 minutes stretching. Not much to report other than I'm planning to run some time trials over the next couple of days and see if I can level up on OMFG

Goals:

1) Swim/bike/run: week four - swim 0, bike 0, run 1 (+ futsal 2)

2) Flexibility: week four - 1 hour stretching

3) OMFG: level 17 (nothing new)

4) Out of bed before 8 AM: 7/10

February 21 and 22:

Two hours futsal training Monday and today a good run with a friend at uni, 6.4 km in 33.5 mins.

Overslept till 10 today for the first time in a while but I was up till 3.30 last night.

Goals:

1) Swim/bike/run: week four - swim 0, bike 0, run 1 (+ futsal 1)

2) Flexibility: week four - 0 hour stretching

3) OMFG: level 17 (nothing new)

4) Out of bed before 8 AM: 6/9

Spent four hours in my lovely gym in TN to make up for my lack of enthusiasm about going to the icky YMCA in GA. It was a cardio day, but I did do the cardio lifting class that has always scared me before. I figured now could be my last chance to try it out and I didn't want to miss it out of fear. I did just fine by making some modifications to the moves I was especially worried about.

4 hours in the gym! That is quite literally a marathon, or would be if you replaced gym with running... awesome!

Thumbs up to the pushups improvement too. Sometimes it's hard to notice changes day to day but to be able to look back and see that you've improved is fantastic!

A good beds is so valuable. Hope you can get things sorted in the new location ASAP.

LOL okay you guys I can't do French, but Will dude do what you can because I think you can do anything at all. Just do little things...one horrible thing about when we get hurt or bogged down is, we do an all or nothing. Don't care what you do man, just do something.

This is great advice in that it hits home to me right now. I've been a bit sore the last few days and done nothing at all. Really, what better chance to spend some time working on flexibility or something else like that?

Of course, there's a big difference between "bit sore" in my case and "doctors orders" so don't do anything crazy justicar

Also, thanks to you (and wikipedia) I now know much more than I did about the mandolin. How long have you been playing it?

February 20:

Back at it today. Scored 5 goals during futsal this afternoon (woot!) and then played cricket, or more accurately just practised batting and bowling in the nets with my brother for 45 minutes. First time I've done that in ages and it was great.

Goals:

1) Swim/bike/run: week three - swim 1, bike 1, run 1 (+ futsal 2, ice skating 1)

2) Flexibility: week three - 1 hour stretching

3) OMFG: level 17 (nothing new)

4) Out of bed before 8 AM: 5/7

That's awesome, well done!

Can't say as i've ever heard cricket chants...

Really? The Barmy Army was going strong most of the Ashes that I saw this year. The most memorable one I can recall was "You all come from a convict colony, a convict colony, a convict colony..." Gotta love them

Mark, I wish that worked better in theory

Haha, indeed. Have a good weekend everyone!

February 17-19:

Not much to add for the last few days. I have a slight tweak is my left hamstring so have just been resting until today when I went to my usual ice skating/hockey lesson. On a positive note I've been out of bed before 8 AM now for four days in a row, which is a big improvement on the first half of this month.

Goals:

1) Swim/bike/run: week three - swim 1, bike 1, run 1 (+ futsal 1, ice skating 1)

2) Flexibility: week three - 1 hour stretching

3) OMFG: level 17 (nothing new)

4) Out of bed before 8 AM: 4/6

“Criticism is something we can avoid easily by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.” -- Aristotle

February 16:

1 km swim at lunch, easy swim, mostly freestyle with a couple of other strokes thrown in occasionally. Futsal this evening. Tough game, played the first half a man short. Feeling a slight tweak at the top of left hamstring, need to watch this over the next few days. 30 minutes stretching.

Got up at 7:30 AM. That makes 1 day in a row up before 8 AM; better than no days in a row...

Goals:

1) Swim/bike/run: week three - swim 1, bike 1, run 1 (+ futsal 1)

2) Flexibility: week three - 1 hour stretching

3) OMFG: level 17 (nothing new)

4) Out of bed before 8 AM: 1/3

Great attitude! Get right back up on that horse, so to speak Good luck keeping at it!

February 15:

Good run after uni with a mate. About 7 or 7.5k in about 41 minutes. Pretty warm today and the pace was a bit above where we should probably be training; we've already agreed to ease up a little next time. 30 minutes stretching in the evening.

Sleep goal, or more accurately the 'getting up before 8 AM' goal, is not going so well. Need to get to bed earlier and practice getting out straight away.

Goals:

1) Swim/bike/run: week three - swim 0, bike 1, run 1

2) Flexibility: week three - 0.5 hours stretching

3) OMFG: level 17

4) Out of bed before 8 AM: 0/2

Hey mate, just checking in since it's been a few days since the last update. How are things going? Hope you're doing OK, aren't getting too sidetracked by injuries, etc.

February 14:

Spin class today. Originally planned to do more this evening but a friend of mine arrived back home and we ended up going out to dinner tonight.

Goals:

1) Swim/bike/run: week three - swim 0, bike 1, run

2) Flexibility: week three - 0 hours stretching

3) OMFG: level 17

4) Out of bed before 8 AM: 0/1 for last two weeks of Feb

Good work soldiering on, although it sounds like things are pretty mixed up and less than ideal. As long as you keep moving forward you will get there in the end...

Why the removal of goal #1? I understand different scales, but there shouldn't be that much of a difference...

I tend to agree. Or find some new scales, measure now and start again from here and the end of the month with say goals cut in half?

Overdue update...

February 11:

Went to the gym, did a couple of sets of pull ups then the fire alarm went off and we were all evacuated?! Did some pushups and bodyweight squats at home later plus an hour flexibility work.

February 12:

Ice skating/hockey lesson early in the morning. Easy 1km swim around lunch time and 30 minutes stretching.

February 13:

Futsal game in the afternoon.

Goals:

1) Swim/bike/run: week two - swim 1, bike 1, run 1 (+ strength 1.5, futsal 2, ultimate 1, ice skating 1)

2) Flexibility: week two - 2 hours stretching

3) OMFG: level 17

4) Sleep: sick last few days - no alarms, lots of sleep, as much as I felt my body needed

Hope everyone had a good weekend!

I already posted this link in the Off Topic forum but I love it so much I can't help mentioning it again: Star Wars Valentines!

Plus here's my quote of the day from this old Apple ad:

"Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The REBELS. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes.

The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them, disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them.

About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They invent. They imagine. They heal. They explore. They create. They inspire. They push the human race forward.

Maybe they have to be crazy.

How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art? Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written? Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?

While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do."

http://www.somethingawful.com/d/photoshop-phriday/very-star-wars.php

[ATTACH]188[/ATTACH]