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Live for the Kill He catched up with them at midnight at a small farmstead near the mountains. It was too late for farmers to be awake but yet the light of the fireplace and a few oil-lamps shone clearly through the cloth –covered windows.†It’s gotta be themâ€. As he closed in, the wind carried the sound of drunken singing voices along with the smell of roasted pork. He grabbed his axe and shield and took a deep breath to calm his thoughts. “I will not turn this time. I shall strike with vengeance- man to man- and make them look into my eyes as they die†he told himself. Indeed, despite of being able to control his beasty side, he felt the need to deliver justice in a more refined way. Tonight it would be steel what torn his enemies apart, not claws. It’s only four of them. Four drunken bastards will not prove a challenge to the wolf-warrior. He walked through the door as if there weren’t four werewolf-hunters inside. -“I’ve been after your trail for a couple hours. For a group of hunters you are not very good at covering your tracks†he told the men- -“Who in the hell are you? Start talking before I slit ye’ throat!†one of them said -“It does not matter who I am. What matters is what I’m after: I seek the scum that ambushed my brothers on the fort south of here!†-“He’s a wolf! End him!†shouted the nearest hunter as he took a swing at the Ulfhedinn with his sword. The warrior dodged the blow and struck the man’s face with his shield, shattering the bones and sending him dead to the ground. He threw his axe at the next man’s chest, where it sunk deep. The third man was dispatched with haste as he clinched to the shield of the Ulfhedinn who then pushed the hunter along with the shield into the wall, cracking the hunter’s skull against the naked stone. The wolf warrior turned around to face the last foe. Surprisingly enough, both were unarmed. It all came down to fisticuffs: As they punched and kicked each other they eventually fell to the ground and wrestled until the wolf-warrior managed to climb on top of the hunter and pounded him with his fists. Each fist was a sledgehammer of anger, hatred and grief landing on the murderer’s face. He kept on striking after his hands began to bleed and well after his foe’s heart stopped beating. There, covered in the blood of his enemies, the werewolf understood that even if he killed the murderers who slaughtered his companions and brothers; justice was far from served. More and more of this werewolf-hunter bands were forming across the kingdom to chase and kill brotherhoods of wolf-warriors. He saw it clear then; stripped of everything he had, his family, his brothers. His life’s mission would be only one: cleansing the land of such murderers. From now on… he lives for the kill. Technical aspects In order to defeat 4 enemies without turning into a bloodthirsty beast, the Ulfhedinn has to be proficient in the art of combat both armed and unarmed. this challenge will be oriented towards martial prowess. S.M.A.R.T goals Not miss a single weapons-training within my reenactment group. Practice once a week with the punching bag and establish a “punching bag day†habit. Of course this should be accomplished along with my usual strength training 2 times a week and swimming 3 times a week At the present time, I'm really working towards getting in combat shape(or in overall shape for that matter)so I can prove myself on the arena and bring honor to my group. Besides the actual combat training, my mentor-in-combat-affairs Mario is helping me develop a "warrior psyche"; a state of constant defiance and fearlessness towards the adversary and towards life in general. This should prove usefull not only on the arena but in my journey to find my better self. I'll be going on a vacation next week but I've worked out in a hotel room before. The swimming part is not a problem: I may not have a pool at my disposal but I'll have an ocean to suit my needs. I'll be returning right on time for some punching bag sparring and some waepons training the day after. You could say I've got it all sorted out... providing I dont slack, give in to beer and pizza and ruin it all. So, wish me luck fellas, let's get this started!

Time to Take on Two-Face!!! For those of you just tuning in I'm AverageJoe and I'm on a grand journey to go from Fatman to Batman. Last challenge I battled my way out of the pit (barely ). I ended the last challenge at 204lbs and 21% body fat, the lowest I've been in a LOOOONNNNGGG time! But that sub 200lbs/20% mark is still being elusive. I also used the FBI Fitness test to evaluate my progress, which gives you a grade based on performance in various exercises. I want to take a similar approach and take on some of Gotham's greatest Villains. First up TWO FACE!! TWO-FACE - GOAL #1 Break the 2 barrier! Get below (and stay below) 200lbs and 20% body fat!! I'm sooo close I can taste it. I'm sure I've gained back a little since the end of the last challenge (battling a cold = no exercise and poor food choices) but I CAN and WILL reach this goal. This is a straight Pass/Fail scenario: Pass = Cha +3 Wis + 2 TWO-FACE - GOAL #2: Gain 2 points each for my pushups, pull ups and situps (per FBI test) This means... 45 situps in 1 minute (currently 41, so should be doable) 44 consecutive pushups (currently at 35) 14 consecutive Pull ups (currently at 11) All three exercises achieved = Str +3, Dex +2 TWO-FACE - GOAL #3: Spend 2 date nights/week. One with my wife and one with my daughter. The end of last challenge I really pushed myself and didn't spend as much family time as I would have liked. 6 weeks = Wis +3, Con +2 First step for this challenge will be to get healthy and beat this cold. Then the training begins!!!

“Don’t get your hopes up yet.†That was how Erik started this morning. He was holding a brown folder. An official looking brown folder. Didn’t he know that being told not to get your hopes up did just the opposite? It’s just like someone telling you, “Don’t think about elephants.†What’s the only thing you’re thinking about right now? Elephants. The folder contained a mission. A real mission. Not training. “It’s not your official deployment. Not yet. We still have several more months of training before you’re ready for that. It’s a short-term scouting mission. We’re sending you to a potential deployment location to get the lay of the land. It’s just reconnaissance. Your main job is to lay low, and gather as much info as you can in the next week.†He handed me the folder and I was so eager to open it and study every detail, that I almost missed him continuing as he sat down across from me, “You’re transitioning into a new phase here, HN. You’re going to be losing the structure you’ve come accustomed to on base. You’ll have to have your own self-discipline. You’ll have to start spending time centering yourself for missions, to keep on task. I’m giving you only two assignments for this training period, as you’re going to have to start training your weak areas on your own. Once you’re deployed, that’s not the end. It’s just the beginning. You’ll have to keep improving whenever you find a weak spot. Take a look at your mission folder. There’s a digisheet in the back that has your extra training assignments. You’ll start working on them after breakfast.†He abruptly got up and and left me to my cheese and strawberries. Or at least I thought he did. He paused behind my chair for a short moment. “You’re doing well, HN. Don’t sell yourself short. You can do this, you have to know that. Because it only gets harder from here.†Habit goal: Self-Discipline Establish an energizing morning routine 1. Get out of bed without snoozing 2. Do gorilla workout Why it's a challenge: have I mentioned how much I hate mornings? Why I want to do it anyway: I hate mornings. This should change. Also, junk gets in the way for workouts if I don't get them in at the start of the day. I want to work my way towards a serious workout in the morning. My daily 16 was a start, but I'm getting bored of those exercises, and I didn't like a lot of them anyway. So I end up skippig it often. I enjoy the gorilla workouts a lot, and they are quick. And leave me much sorer than my daily 16 ever did. Once again, two points per day. Starting at 84 points: 70-84 = a 60-70= b 50-60= c <50= f Using lift app to keep track, so I can easially look at my stats and not miss something. + 2 CON, + 3 STR Endurance goal: Training assignment number 1: Improve that 3 mile time. Still 5k. This time on a sliding scale. Sub 30 = a Sub 32 = b Sub 34 = c Anything else = f +3 STA Skill goal: Training assignment number 2: Learn to dance Solo swing dance Why it's a challenge: I have terrible, terrible proprioception and coordination. Not to mention swing is generally a two-person gig. Why I want to do it anyway: I love love love swing music. When I hear it I feel like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rj125Azt5hA I can't contain myself. There is no hope of me sitting still. Why solo swing you say? Well cuz I don't have a fella. I go to a lot of parties where there is swing dancing, and there are lots of couples, and anyone who's not, doesn't know how to swing and thus won't dance with me to those songs (it's seems that only couples ever bother to learn to dance?). My brother and I used to swing dance something fierce. We are sort of estranged at the moment, and not having that built-in dancing buddy makes me miss him a lot at these dances. Just doing triple step by myself back and forth looks dumb and is boring. Therefore, I want to learn a routine (or repertoire of moves to mix and match) of intentionally solo swing dancing to jive to when these songs come up. Ideally I'd like to learn six new moves, one for each week. 6 = a 5 = b 4 = c <4 = f +2 DEX, +3 CHA Life goal: Centering myself to keep on task Learn to enjoy alone time. Accumulate 1 hour per week of quality alone time. Why it's a challenge; I am an extremely extroverted person. I hate being alone. being alone for too long makes me exhausted and depressed (characteristic of extroverts). This has freaked me out so much that I really avoid being alone at ALL. I tend to associate inrospection with introversion, and therefore with anger and depression (becuase when I am angry or depressed i don't want to interact with anyone.) Why I want to do it anyway: some alone time is necessary, to think and collect my thoughts, center myself, and come up with new ideas. Introspection is important, to develop who I am as a person and process new life experiences. It's gotten to a point that if I want to go do something (a hike, or bouldering, or seeing a movie) and no one is available that night, I won't even go. Guess what? I'm still alone that night. I'm just alone and bored. I want to start doing these things alone and enjoying being alone, not viewing it as that sludgey in-between time I have to slosh through between human interactions. So I'm going to accumulate one hour per week in quality alone time (ie watching tv, cleaning the house, working alone doesn't count. I'd be too distracted to pay attention to being alone) Six hours throughout challenge = a 5 hours = b 4 hours = c <4 = f + 3 WIS I'm also going to be doing two side challenges, one for the Parkour Posse PVP [improving my pull ups] and the other is a water fast with Croman Red in march [stay tuned for interesting RP writing centered around this.]. So starting stats: Weight: 171 Height: 5'11" <glad this has been basically the same. Chest: 39 Waist: 33 Hips: 40 Max pull ups: 2 Alright, let's do this thing.

Again, not a full life plan, but here's the run-down of my goals for 2013. I had way too many goals last year, and I think I only accomplished about 5% of them. This year i'm going to keep it small. 4 goals per life-area, for a total of 16 goals. You'll notice a lot of these are the same goals as last year, because i was a bum and didn't accomplish them. If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try, try....try try try again... Strength/Endurance Goals: 1. Run a 5k in under 30 minutes 2. Run a mile in under 7 minutes 3. 1 Pistol Sqauat 4. 50 push ups Skill Goals: 1. Press into handstand 2. Full Dive roll 3. Clutch flag 4. Some form of solo swing dance Life goals: 1. Learn all of "Crystalize" on the violin, and perform it 2. Finish writing my kid's book 3. Write my first iPhone app 4. Become location independent [even if not my perfect job, just ANYTHING not tied to an office. A step in the right direction] Habit goals: 1. Reach 155 pounds 2. Have a daily morning workout [a real one, not just my warm up Daily 16.] 3. Develop a diet free of allergens [this will be updated with what I’m allergic to after I go to the doctor] 4. Get in the habit of stretching daily before bed