eggy365

My Final Assessment for the Challenge: Goal 1: Flexibility Lvl 2 (Monk) - I'd say I hit this. Over the past week or two (post-illness) I've been able to get 10 minute stretches every day after a quick 3-to-5 minute warm-up. Grade: A Goal 2: Crunches Lvl 2 (Monk) - Totally hit this. I'm thinking that perhaps I was a bit more in shape core/abs and leg-wise than I'd initially presumed, so this might have been a low bar to vault. But, success is success, so I'll take it. Grade: A- Goal 3: 1 Meal/Week - Blew this one out of the water. Even while sick, I was still able to plow through and make some good, healthy, Paleo-style food. This past weekend I attempted some home-made coconut milk ice cream (didn't turn out well *at all*, but I'll try it again sometime down the line) and made steak and eggs for dinner. I've really liked finding interesting, healthy recipes and cooking for myself. I can totally see this trend continuing on into the future. Grade: A+ Goal 4: Finish Writing Chapter - Bah. This is my one real faltering. The illness made it hard to concentrate, much less write, so this fell behind. I'd say I completed about 45 to 50% of the writing I was aiming to accomplish. Grade: C- Overall Grade: B - Though I did well, the illness set me back some and I obviously could've done better even in the areas I really rocked. Lessons to keep in mind next time, though.

Day 28: Gah. Been almost a week since I last updated, but though I've been busy, I've been keeping to the plan as much as possible. Did my final round of Kenpo practice and exercising for the Challenge today, and kept with the exercises over the last week (though, I've noticed some troubles with number of reps/sets when it comes to pull-ups and I didn't really hit my benchmark for the final week as I'd laid it out at the beginning). So, my Final Assessment for the Challenge: Goal 1: Flexibility Lvl 2 (Monk) - I'd say I hit this. Over the past week or two (post-illness) I've been able to get up to 10 minute stretches every day after a quick 3-to-5 minute warm-up. Grade: A Goal 2: Crunches Lvl 2 (Monk) - Totally hit this. I'm thinking that perhaps I was a bit more in shape core/abs and leg-wise than I'd initially presumed, so this might have been a low bar to vault. But, success is success, so I'll take it. Grade: A- Goal 3: 1 Meal/Week - Blew this one out of the water. Even while sick, I was still able to plow through and make some good, healthy, Paleo-style food. This past weekend I attempted some home-made coconut milk ice cream (didn't turn out well *at all*, but I'll try it again sometime down the line) and made steak and eggs for dinner. I've really liked finding interesting, healthy recipes and cooking for myself. I can totally see this trend continuing on into the future. Grade: A+ Goal 4: Finish Writing Chapter - Bah. This is my one real faltering. The illness made it hard to concentrate, much less write, so this fell behind. I'd say I completed about 45 to 50% of the writing I was aiming to accomplish. Grade: C- Overall Grade: B - Though I did well, the illness set me back some and I obviously could've done better even in the areas I really rocked. Lessons to keep in mind next time, though.

Day 22: Today hasn't been too bad. Did 73 squats to see if I could qualify for the first level of Assassin Squats (100 minus your age: 100 - 27 = 73): legs were definitely a little weak after that, but they felt good. Had some trouble with push-ups and pull-ups today (16x2), but was able to get them by the skin of my teeth.

Day 21: Wow...so, long time, no post. Obviously, I was down with a bad cold for a week or so (sinus congestion, fever, then a week or so of chest congestion), but that was followed by a GI bug that I picked up from my fiance's wee-nephew that only added fuel to the fire. So, the last two weeks or so have been filled by a Plague of Lameness that I only really started clawing my way out of this past weekend. Saturday I was able to get back into the parkour conditioning I'd been doing (14 reps, 2 sets per exercise) and Sunday I was able to get back to Kenpo class. Luckily, I was able to keep my cooking goal during my illness: on the 9th I made some Ankara Chicken that was real good, on the 16th I made some sort of Lebanese(?) chicken dish that my fiancee picked out of the "Paleo-Diet for Atheletes" book I've been using, and then last night (the 23rd) I made some crunchy garlic broccoli to go with some lean chicken in sweet-and-sour sauce that my parents made for Sunday dinner. All in all: pretty good thus far. A silver lining to the illness: my caffeine intake has reduced considerably. I used to drink one or two cups of coffee a day (at least), but over the past week I've had *maybe* one bottle of pop in a day three or four times through out the week, had one cup of coffee last night and currently I'm nursing my first (and hopefully *only*) cup today. Today, I got some stretching and Kenpo practice in for about 15 minutes and I plan to hopefully have an actual character sheet up some time tonight or tomorrow. Right now, I'm still optimistic that I'll be able to accomplish most of my goals for the challenge (though, the writing goal has fallen behind some, I'm still going to try and finish.)

Day 6: Bah. So, I'm actually sick. Resting up today and tomorrow at the very least (which means I'll have to bow out of spezzy's burpee challenge; maybe next time). Planning on cooking a Paleo meal tomorrow, though. I can at least keep to that goal.

A-holes get assassinated, too. Your point? I don't think anyone here is advocating actual assassination or actual assassins as our model, more the romanticized notion of agile, stealthy warriors, a la ninjas or the Assassins from Assassin's Creed. And if you want to talk the *historical* Hashashiyyin (which, btw, was not the name they gave themselves, it was a derogatory epithet first used by the Fatimid caliph al-Amir that originally translated to something along the lines of "rabble" or "outcasts"; the allusion to hashish use came later), those guys were pretty bad-ass. And, in fact, while the first Assassin's Creed obviously fictionalizes a lot, they were actually pretty much a kin to a militarized version of Switzerland in regards to the other Middle Eastern - and European - powers a foot in the Holy Land during the Crusades - they were essentially neutral, but would assassinate the leaders of any faction who would threaten their people (the Isma'ili/Nizari sect of Islam). In fact, it's said that after a while Saladin got really pissed at them and seiged the fortress-town of Masyaf for a few weeks. The Assassins kept telling him to leave and it would be water under the bridge, but Saladin wouldn't. That is, until he woke up one morning with a dagger and a plate of poisoned sweet-cakes (of a variety that the Assassins were well-known for baking) on his pillow, inside his well-guarded tent. So, to me, the idealized, romanticized, fantasy-style "assassin" is that: someone smart, agile, and stealthy. Any dumb-ass with a gun can attempt (or pull off, if they're lucky) a political assassination a la John Wilkes Booth, et. al. It takes an Assassin to get in, out, and successfully complete their mission with little-to-no collateral damage. But, that's my $0.02. *shrug*

Day 5: Woke up with a mildly sore palatte/throat, so I'm taking a rest day, popping DayQuil and consuming a lot of green tea, and hopefully will be taking on spezzy's burpee challenge tomorrow (should this icki-tude turn out to be nothing).

I vote: yay

Day 4: 5 min. warm-up 10 min. of light stretching Parkour Conditioning: squats: 2 sets of 12 reps push-ups: 2 sets of 12 reps leg-lifts: 2 sets of 12 reps pull-ups: 2 sets of 12 reps These set were pretty easy (even the pull-ups), but I was planning on bumping the reps up to 14 next week anyway, so it seems that everything's going good.

Day 3: 5 min. of warm-up 10 min. of stretching 15 min. of Kenpo practice (basically, drilling kata over and over and over, ad nauseum) 40/40 bicycle crunches* 20/20 leg-lifts* 1/4 of the way done with my non-fitness goal for the month (my aim right now is do 1/4 of it per week) * - the number of reps for these I haven't found particularly difficult, will probably have to up them sooner than I had expected.

You're on, spezzy : )

Thanks, Alethea. : ) And good luck to you, as well!

Day Two: 5 min. warm-up (jumping jacks and running in place) 10 min of stretching Parkour Conditioning: squats: 2 sets of 12 reps push-ups: 2 sets of 12 reps leg-lifts: 2 sets of 12 reps pull-ups: 2 sets of 12 reps (some moderate difficulty on this, but good)

Real quick summary of Day One: Crunches - 40/40 bicycle crunches (20 on each side) & 20/20 leg lifts 15 minutes of practicing Kenpo katas. Side note: My training schedule is pretty much going to consist of (for the time being) Mon, Wed, Fri, Sun: Kenpo & "Monk" conditioning Tues, Thurs, Sat: Parkour conditioning

Another tardy Assassin reporting for duty! : )