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So, it's been awhile since my last challenge. Over the summer break I have gotten settled into my new house, got married, went on a honeymoon, and gotten off track with my fitness. Now that summer is ending it is time to get back on track and (sadly) it's time to get back to school. Goal: Lose 12 lbs over the course of this challenge. Quests Mathematics: I will have to practice my counting everyday. Particularly, I will be counting my calories and logging them into Lose It! Drivers Ed: I will have to study driving past fast food restaurants over the course of this challenge. I will not eat at any restaurant that has a drive through. Physical Education: I will work on my physical fitness by lifting following the Greyskull LP 3 days a week over the course of this challenge. Home Economics: Now that I will be back to work, I still need to maintain the house. So, I will spend a minimum of 15 minutes a day cleaning or organizing the house.

1. Get accepted into distance education certificate program in Project Management for September. This is going to consist of scouting out programs at different schools, assessing their content and method, sorting out the application process and completing that to a standard sufficient to be accepted. It's been a while since I've studied anything formally and that doesn't fit with my self image. Beyond that I've been dissatisfied with my current job on and off for a couple of years, and depending on company and industry dynamics it could be a precarious one. Doing some "homework", planning ahead and preparing for change seems like a good idea. At the very least I may stretch my brain in some new directions, apply myself beyond the bare minimums required to keep a job and have some peace of mind ... oh, that doesn't sound so "at least" after all. A bonus step on this one: Connect with the project management group in my company and let them know I'll be starting this program in September and would like to work with them - get guidance, use real company scenarios for case studies, etc.. I figure this will have two sets of benefits: provide better learning experience in the course work and re-introduce me to the company outside of the operations group. 2. Coffee, don't drink it. I really like coffee a lot. Such a treat. Funny though, it's something I sit down and drink in what could be lazy, leisurely moments and lately it makes me a jittery, anxious mess. Time to see what life is like without it. I've had this under way for a week now already and it actually feels better and easier to do than I'd expected. I think that it's definitely lowered my baseline stress. This week I had a variety of high stress work situations which I feel I handled with much more aplomb than I normally would have. Perhaps this is of sufficient value to trade in my morning ritual? I'll continue the experiment. 3. Daily rehab (mobility and strengthening) of the knees (and now elbow too) "Longitudinal tear of the meniscus and popliteal cyst of X, Y, Z dimension (I don't have the interpretation with me as I write this)", surgery not required and probably not beneficial - yet. That was late January. My lower body strength work has been flagging and I've been running less than I like to since then. With this my training has been eroding altogether - no curlbro here! If I can't be rough and rugged with the "leg" work it seems my motivation deteriorates. Lesson learned! I bought Mike Robertson's "Bulletproof Knees" in early April, read it and promptly ignored it. How much good is a book going to do when used that way? Hrrrrm. At the moment I can feel a bunch of imbalances and instabilities/tightnesses from the ankle to the hip expressing themselves in knee pain. Some of these are "cause" of the knee problem, others are "effect" but after a certain point they definitely feed back into each other. Daily work, 15 minutes or more of physio style exercises to improve stability in glutes and ankles, restore mobility throughout leg focusing on the knee. Goals: Improve ankle and glute health for better upstream and downstream stability and knee protection. Eliminate or diminish pain while running, bar squatting, pistoling. Additional work as required to mitigate growing "golfers elbow" developing on left side. Goal: Pain free upper body presses and pulls. 4. Achieve consecutive double unders ... how many? Double unders. I travel a lot and for a while I visited a lot of crossfit gyms. It was a really fun treat that turned a work trip into a little adventure with likeminded people. Showing up as the new guy who no one knew, for a long time it was easy to avoid learning how to do double unders ... a pretty standard appetizer to any WOD feast. I couldn't avoid knowing myself that I still, having been exposed to them about 4 years ago, have never strung together more than 4 consecutively and haven't even attempted one since last September. 10 minutes daily practice towards double unders. Ongoing study of youtube videos around this technique (not counted towards the 10 minutes) and seeking guidance from any coaches I encounter in this next 6 weeks. 5. Do GoRuck Class #659 proud. June 21st I'll be GoRucking overnight. I want to come through it with a smile, good stories and knowing I've done my classmates a solid any chance there was. While my overall PT has been less consistent and less intense than I like lately I'm not setting a training goal for this. I'll be on the road between now and then, and will be challenged sufficiently following through on the goals above. More details on S.M.A.R.T.ing these up to come.