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So I know it has been a while since I have posted. There has been some stuff going on but mostly working out at work during lunch with my co-workers. So the level of accountability has been pretty good. However, I felt that I needed to reconnect with this community because of all the great ideas and encouragement that everyone provides! So let's see if I remember how to do this: Fitness Update: Currently I am training for 2 things in September. The first of which will coincide with the end of this challenge! September 9th I am running a Spartan Super race. It will be my second Spartan race and 4th obstacle race. I am really looking forward to it since 2015 was the last Spartan race I have done and I loved it. I am doing it in Michigan so if any of my fellow assassins or rebels in general are going to be there, let me know! The second thing I am training for is a half marathon. I did the race last year with my coworker and we are signed up to do it again this year. The nice part is our work is paying for the entry so all we have to do is train for it. I am feeling like I have run more in preparation than I did last year so that is a positive. How am I going to achieve these goals you ask? 1. Master Class 2.0 For those of you that have done the You Are Your Own Gym program before you will be familiar with the program hopefully. I have actually done this one 2x before (once in 2015 and once this past spring). However, I am stepping it up a little this time through the program. I have condensed the program a bit so there are less rest days in between so that I will finish it a week before the Spartan race. So currently I am on Week 6 Day 1 today and I will complete Week 7 Day 2 on Saturday this week. Sundays I have been taking off. So far I have not noticed any side effects from doing things this way. Most weeks I end up combining 2 of the workouts in the same day so I end up getting 2 days off (usually abs and pull happen together). So the goal for this challenge will be to complete the remaining 24 workouts (starting today). Complete: 0/24 2. Run for Fun! I know some of you will say that run and fun do not belong in the same sentence but I have been enjoying running recently. I think there are 2 things that have helped me. First, I have recruited my wife! She is part of the Hogwarts Running Club and has been following them for a while. Last year I got her to do a color run with me. We didn't train as much for that one so we ended up doing a run/walk for the 5K but made it through. This year, we are doing a little more of a stretch goal and aiming for a 10K. Last week she was able to complete a 5K without walking! The race is at the end of September so we have a little bit to go before the race but I think we will make it. Right now the goal is to run 3x per week with her. Complete: 0/15 (Including this week) 3. Yoga Time I have been trying to incorporate more yoga into my routine mostly for the stretching aspect. So in the mornings I am trying to get up before work and do some yoga. Last week, I was aiming for more consistent sleep so I skipped out on the yoga (except for Saturday), but I would like to make it more consistent than that. So my goal is to complete 5 yoga session per week. For those of you wondering, yes it will be using the NerdFitness Yoga videos! Complete: 0/25 4. Eat all the (right) things! I have been doing a better job recently of cleaning up my diet. It is not super clean but it is getting there. The next big hurdle for me is eliminating late night snacking. I have a tendency to eat really well at lunch (I pack my own for work). Dinner is usually also decent, but then comes the 9 o'clock munchies... Usually it happens while we are watching a movie, Netflix, or TV show. It wouldn't be bad if I have a greek yogurt or something healthy but at that time of night, we all know what kind of things are consumed. So my goal for this challenge will be to only eat healthy snacks, if any at all, past 8PM. Complete: 0/28

Main Quest: Complete the Coast to Coast Challenge! Goal #1: I am training for my first half marathon which will take place on September 6th at Disneyland. So I have decided to start running more frequently. STR +2, DEX +1 Mondays: 6:30AM for 4 Miles Tuesday: 5:30AM for 4 Miles Wednesday: 5:30AM for 4 Miles Thursday: 5:30AM for 4 Miles Friday: 5:30AM for 4 Miles Saturday: 5:30AM for 4 Miles A >32 B >29 C >25 D >22 F <16 Goal #2: Sunday is increasing my miles. I can run up to 6 miles but I have never pushed myself to go past that. So I must!!! STA +2, DEX +1 June 14 = 7 Miles June 21 = 7 Miles June 28 = 8 Miles July 5 = 8 Miles July 12 = 8 Miles July 19 = 9 Miles A >6 B >5 D >4 F <3 Goal #3: I've decided to stop drinking coffee and soda and begin drinking tea. Problem is that I really, really hate tea. But I figured I would give it a shot. This will have a cheat based system for this goal because I tend to fail when I don't have it. Now I don't have to drink tea if I don't want to. BUT if there is a day that I want a coffee or a soda I will be going for tea. CON +1 Grade Scale: Week 1: 3 cheats Week 2: 2 cheats Week 3: 2 cheats Week 4: 1 cheats Week 5: 1 cheats Week 6: 0 cheats A >33 B > 30 C > 27 D > 24 F <21 Life Goal: Since I will be running a lot I will need to care for my face and my feet. I don't want nasty feet or pimples. So for the next 42 days I will learn to care for my body. This means cleaning my face before bed, brushing my teeth, and putting crème and socks before bed. CON +2, CHA +2 A >38 B >34 C >30 D >26 F <25

STORY TIME BECAUSE I'M SO OVER THE MOON HAPPY ABOUT THIS LIFE ACCOMPLISHMENT!!!!!!!!!! So back in March, I was drinking with some friends (the same friends who convinced me to sign up for a 10K while drunk) and next thing I knew, I was signed up to run a half marathon at the end of May. I do 5Ks and lift weights and do CrossFit-esque things. I was NOT a runner. I'm 5'8 and weigh over 200lbs. I'm strong, but I'm not fast, and I've never enjoyed running because it just makes me feel inadequate and weak and too large for the space I occupy. It's very much a mental thing for me. Yet there I was, with this seemingly-insurmountable task ahead of me, all focused around running. I set my training plan, kinda stuck with it up to mile 5, then a back injury followed by shin splints sent me spiraling off the wagon. I continued with my lifting/CrossFit/functional fitness workouts 4-5x/week because those made me happy, but I did no running because running made me miserable. And yet the half marathon continued to loom!!! Fast forward to one month before the race and I FREAKED. THE EFF. OUT. How was I going to run 13.1 miles in a month when I hadn't run more than three in the past two months??? So that Sunday, I laced up my running shoes and did an 8-mile training run. Did I run every step? Of course not. But I did it and I was committed to at least doing my long runs leading up to the race. Next week, I did 9 miles. Then 11 miles. Then it was the weekend before the race and I ran a casual 3 miles and it was HARD. I went to my gym on the Tuesday and Wednesday leading up to the race to keep momentum and because it puts me in such a good mood. I have some of the best coaches and best gym buddies there that make for a fantastic support system. I was in the middle of moving apartments and was wicked stressed, so it was just plain GOOD to be there. Got a lot of pep talk from my two coaches and plenty of words of support and advice from my gym buddies. Packed my bag Friday morning, went to work, then off I went with three friends to Virginia for the half marathon! I slept MAYBE 2 hours the night before the half. There were four of us squished into a hotel room and I'm a really light sleeper. And I was nervous as hell. 4:45 a.m. came WAY too early, but up we were and by the time the 7 a.m. start time rolled around, I was ready to just get the damn thing over with. Humidity was at 90%, but at least it was overcast. The course advertised as "flat," but it was clearly all hills! Despite all that, all my mental freaking out and failed training plan, I absolutely FLEW through those first five miles. My average mile time for all my training runs had been between 11:41 and 12:30. My usual 5K time is around 35 minutes. But those first five miles? I was doing 10:00 miles. Holy moly was I flying!!! I knew I had to slow down, so I did, and settled into a nice pace with some walking interspersed to give myself some recovery time so I could keep trucking. I really don't like plodding along, so during all my training runs, I did this nice run-one-song-walk-one-song routine so I could run at a decent pace for half of the time instead of plod at a miserable pace for the full time. A lot of the course was not only hills, but also a weird dirt road! Nobody in my group was prepared for that. One of my friends has run a full marathon before and another has run 6 half marathons, and even they didn't run every step. That made me feel SO good about how I was doing. I felt great until mile 10 when pain started to settle in, but by then I was so close to done that it didn't matter. I also saved a baby turtle at mile 10, so that was a mood booster! This lil guy tinier than my palm was trying to scuttle across the road, so I stopped to move him to the other side so he wouldn't get stepped on. So cute! Also saw some bunnies and at one point I was running by a pasture and a horse and two ponies came out to run alongside the course. I crossed the finish line with an official time of 2:32:00. I think that comes out to an 11:36 mile? BUT BUT BUT according to my GPS I wore, I actually ran 14 miles (I weave around a lot), which actually set me at a sub-11:00 mile average. Which is a whole 1:30 faster than most of my training runs! I WAS SO PUMPED!!!! Three real training runs during the course of the whole prep period, and I logged a 2:32:00 and a faster mile average than ever. Crushed my 5K record. Crushed my 10K record. I felt like I was on top of the freakin' world. TL;DR I failed at training for running and only did lifting/CrossFit leading up to a half marathon then I went out and crushed it and had a 24-hour endorphin rush that I may or may not still be high on and I've never felt this good about my life or this happy in a long time and everything is awesome.

Main Quest: Complete the Coast to Coast Challenge! Goal #1: I am training for my first half marathon which will take place on September 6th at Disneyland. So I have decided to start running more frequently. STR +2, DEX +1 Mondays: 6:30AM for 4 Miles Tuesday: 5:30AM for 4 Miles Wednesday: 5:30AM for 4 Miles Thursday: 5:30AM for 4 Miles Friday: 5:30AM for 4 Miles Saturday: 5:30AM for 4 Miles A >32 B >29 C >25 D >22 F <16 Goal #2: Sunday is increasing my miles. I can run up to 6 miles but I have never pushed myself to go past that. So I must!!! STA +2, DEX +1 April 19 = 5 Miles April 26 = 6 Miles May 3 = 6 Miles May 10 = 7 Miles May 17 = 7 Miles May 24 = 7 Miles A >6 B >5 D >4 F <3 Goal #3: I've decided to stop drinking coffee and soda and begin drinking tea. Problem is that I really, really hate tea. But I figured I would give it a shot. This will have a cheat based system for this goal because I tend to fail when I don't have it. Now I don't have to drink tea if I don't want to. BUT if there is a day that I want a coffee or a soda I will be going for tea. CON +1 Grade Scale: Week 1: 3 cheats Week 2: 2 cheats Week 3: 2 cheats Week 4: 1 cheats Week 5: 1 cheats Week 6: 0 cheats A >33 B > 30 C > 27 D > 24 F <21 Life Goal: Since I will be running a lot I will need to care for my face and my feet. I don't want nasty feet or pimples. So for the next 42 days I will learn to care for my body. This means cleaning my face before bed, brushing my teeth, and putting crème and socks before bed. CON +2, CHA +2 A >38 B >34 C >30 D >26 F <25