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Hello Monks! After taking over a year off from Nerd Fitness, I realized that I need support as I face my greatest challenge yet: the Krav Maga level 2 test. My gym takes belt tests quite seriously. I wasn't ready for the most recent test in February, but that may have been a good thing. It was five hours long and the final drill was to bear-crawl through the snow while being attacked by Disturbers. What are Disturbers you might ask? Hang tight, I'll explain in due time. Back story: You may have heard about Krav Maga. It may have been something like this: Regardless of what you might think, it's an awesome workout and tons of fun. If you want to know more, we made a pretty sweet video (I'm the biker chick in the black jacket) demonstrating the awesomeness of Krav Maga last year. I feel like I can safely say 'awesomeness' since The Awesomer featured it... Over a year and a half ago, I completed my first NF challenge that was geared towards passing the Krav level 1 test. I blew it away, met my goals, and tested up successfully. Then life happened... graduate school got crazy and I started working 10-12 hour days rather than staying sane and maintaining a healthy work-life balance. Consequently, NF and I grew apart. Since I tested up in Nov. 2013, I'm ashamed to admit that I haven't made any progress towards leveling up. Instead, I feel like I'm barely keeping my head above water with my health and fitness goals; no where near the badass that I would like to be. Well, I will tread water no more! It's well past time that I leveled up. Join me as I prepare for to test up on May 30th. The Test: 3-5 hours total of good-natured hell with no more than the occasional 30-60 second break. Hour 1-2: Being driven to exhaustion with some combination of constant drills (hammer-fists as fast and hard as you can for 60 seconds, etc.), burpees, pushups, combative sit ups, sprints, holding plank position while being kicked in the abs, etc. Hour 2-4: Technique demonstrations, working through entire level 2 curriculum Hour 5: Final Drill... this always changes and is ALWAYS insane. One year, it was carry your partner while you swim/paddle across the Cape Fear river. As I mentioned for the most recent test, it was bear-crawling through snow while fending off attackers. You can't really prepare for this, you just have to keep moving and survive. I should also mention... at any time during the test, you can be attacked by Disturbers. These are senior students (at least one belt/rank higher than you) wearing masks (I prefer a purple lucha libre mask when I disturb for the level 1 tests) who can make you do situps/pushups/etc. and generally make your life hell at any moment. The bonus for the level 2 test is that they can try to black bag you, attack you, and/or pull you into an extended sparring session which you have to be able to fight off. The Challenge: After much thought, I've decided that to prepare for this boss battle, I really need to target 3 major areas: technique refinement, strength, and endurance. Goal #1: Technique Refinement Attend Krav classes 3x a week I know the entire level 2 curriculum, I just need to perfect things here and there. Goal #2: Strength 100 pushups, situps, or burpees every day I have no idea what crazy physical feats of strength will be required, but if I can bang out 100 pushups in a row I would definitely be in good shape for the test. I'll be starting out with 4 sets of 25 and ramp up the size of each set throughout the challenge. Goal #3: Endurance Run 4 miles a week I hate running. With a passion. Therefore, I should probably work on it a bit. I envision this as being a goal of running 4 miles total, so I could do 2 2 mile runs or a giant 4 mile run. If you'd like to follow along, I made a spreadsheet to track my progress.