Search the Community

Main mission: To get back into a positive and healthy lifestyle Life has been busy with two puppies and a new job. I am spending less time on my mental well-being and physical health. I want to use this challenge be a catalyst of a healthier mind and body. My ultimate goal weight is 115-120, so here’s to hoping I can get the bangin’ bod I’ve wanted. Goal 1: Fitness: Workout at least 180 minutes per week Make it to the climbing gym at least twice per week and at least two yoga sessions per week. I would like to do one day of strength training per week. A - 180+ minutes B - 150 - 179 minutes C - 120 - 149 minutes D - 90 - 119 minutes F - <89 minutes Goal 2: Paleo 80/20 6 days per week. I love cooking and felt really great the last time I ate paleo. I like the structure. I want to do mostly paleo, with a one meal exception per week. A - 6 days of paleo B - 5 days C - 4 days D - 3 days F - 2 or fewer days per week Goal 3: Keep in touch Call my parents and grandmother once per week Call at least one long distance friend per week Pass or Fail Life Quest: Daily mantras I have a list of daily mantras I want to use when negative thoughts come my way A - 7 days per week B – 6 days per week C – 5 days per week D – 4 days per week F - 3 days per week Life Quest # 2: go to a group exercise class at least once Pass or Fail

This will be a multi-part challenge, spanning at least the first 3 challenges of the year. I'm keeping the first one simple, and will focus on some good foundational stuff. Like Lara Croft, parkour, climbing, combat, and outdoors exploration are all totally my jam. I even have a passing interest in ancient civilizations, and will likely be scrambling around some Mayan Ruins in the early spring. Main Quest: Parkour all of the things!!! Climb all of the things!!! Balance in mind-bending ways! Play with weapons! Look like someone who could compete on ANW. 2015 and how we arrived here: Major goals for 2016 My overly full schedule: Goals for this challenge: I'm keeping things very simple and foundational this challenge, as I already have an overburdened schedule. Goal 1 - Be agile like Lara (fitness) Lara can balance on challenging objects, pull up easily onto things, and perform flips without breaking a sweat. My goal is to collect an average of 10 minutes of skill work/day, the skill work divided between: Kipping pull ups, Rail walking, Front walkovers, Back walkovers, Forearm stand/scorpion, and weapons play. Right now, I can do kipping pull ups, but I get nothing at all from the kip as my technique is poor. But kipping is much more efficient in parkour and will also lead me to a muscle up much sooner. Forearm stand and scorpion will help with the core and shoulder engagement needed for handstands. Rail walking is important for parkour, and I constantly need to improve. I'll post a video of my current status with the walkovers. And weapons are fun! ungraded sub-goal: I'm horrible about prehab and foam rolling if I don't force myself to do it. So, the goal for this is to also average 10 minutes/day. Goal 2 - Proper fuel for exploration (diet) Surviving in the wilderness is impossible without proper fuel. This goal is simple: Track protein, and manage 110 g/day (I'm open to suggestions on the number. I weigh 145 lb). ungraded sub-goal: minimize soda and alcohol. Goal 3 - Stay mentally sharp in the wilderness (life) Lara had to be mentally sharp to explore, find new artifacts, do tons of parkour, and thrive in the wilderness. And this requires excellent sleep. For me, sleep is the foundation for improved productivity, good muscle recovery, and reduced anxiety for me. The goal is to set a solid bedtime routine, where I stop eating food after 8:30 pm, I drink some calming herbal tea, electronics are turned off by 10:00 pm, and I read after that until falling asleep. On weekends, everything can shift back an hour. The goal is 6 days/week of compliance with this plan. ungraded sub-goal: Make at least 2 animated graphics for Xcode apps. Continue working through tutorials and messing around with some of my partially finished apps.

Wasn't really planning on doing this one while still on break from school, but I figured what the hell, what's the worst that happens? I don't do it? Oh well. Anyway, I am going to keep this one really simple. Challenge 1: Climb stuff, but not too much. ​ Still trying to make sure that I don't re-injure my left elbow, and keep my fingers strong. So I can climb three times a week for two hours each, MAX. No mas. I know I am traveling a bit over the next few weeks, so it shouldn't be too much of an issue, but I will just try to keep track. ​ Attr: +3 CON; +2 WIS Challenge 2: Climb stuff, but please stretch first. Pretty self explanatory. I just need to make sure I stretch before I start my warm up. Attr: +5 CON Challenge 3: Sleep and don't sleep ​Wake up no later then 8 every morning. Need to get back to a more structured sleep pattern. Attr: +2 STA; +3 CHA As you can sort of tell, I'm not putting too much effort into this challenge. I'm only doing it because I know it will help me get into the swing of things, not because I really want to do it. I'm pretty sure I have done the points right, but let me know if I am wrong.

Hello everybody! Since I'm new to the rebellion and seem to be unable to open a new "introdce yourself" thread I will put my introduction right here: I will delay posting my epic quest until clearer news/instructions are posted later today. The experience points stuff hasn't been understood so far so I will add those later, too. So here are the quests: 1) RUN, DONKEY, RUN! I just discovered that I don't suck at running anymore and feel that moving through the woods around my part of the city makes me feel so much better mentally and physically. Since I'm quite active otherwise babysteps (no time/mileage goals etc: 1 run per week on a nice trail not pressed for time 2) FIND A BOULDERING YODA To watch and learn you have! I really enjoy bouldering and don't do too bad at it (Levl 7/10 at my gym). I'm usually bouldering with my partner and friends, who both are on approximately the same level as I am. To level up my bouldering I need to learn some tricks and strategies from other boulderers, but I'm shy and stuff like that. Quest: Everytime at the boulder gym watch other climbers for at least 10min in total. Embrace hints from foreigners. 3) DON'T GET STRANDED IN A FOOD DESERT The cafeteria at my university serves crappy food which makes me feel sick and lethargic. I will pack lunches for my "long days" on wednesday and friday. 4) TIDY UP THE BARN I tend to get overwhelmed by housework and tend to delay tasks to the last minute. I absoultely hate that. Babysteps again (laundry, vacuuming, dedusting, ... will follow): Tidy up the kitchen "ready to cook again" every evening. So here it is, the first Spiderdonk-Challenge, I am thrilled to see how I get along!

What? Another turncloak assassin? Autumn is my favorite time of year, and I'm always looking for excuses to head outdoors for hiking, exploration, and other fun stuff. Plus, all of the parkour people seem to be here these days, so I'm going to Ranger it up for this challenge. A little about me: For each area, the goal is to reach 100 points over the course of the challenge. I'm expecting to do my usual parkour classes and climbing sessions during the challenge. But, I don't specifically get any points for any of them. Goal 1: Explore the area around the vault -hike on a trail that I've never done before (+20) (I love hiking, but I tend to go back to old favorites rather than try new things) -go climbing outdoors (+20) -attend an outdoor parkour meet up (+20) -go on parkour jogs of 2+ miles (+5 pts/jog) -go on a 2+ mile nature walk (+2 pts/walk) -go camping (+20) -go canoeing and fishing (+20) -collect new videos of doing parkour outdoors. (+5 pts/video) -do misc. outdoorsy stuff that seems to fit here (+? pts.) (new) -learn about the flora and fauna native to Shenandoah. Be respectful of the wildlife while camping. Try to identify plants and such while hiking (+5 pts) -learn to identify the local snakes, and learn about their behaviors (+5 pts) -learn about the native wildlife in Shenandoah 2. Avoid Rad Poisoning -only 1 alcoholic drink/week (mmm.. football booze) during the challenge (+5 pts/week with 0 or 1 drinks) -no soda at all (+5 pts/week) -try new recipes (+10 pts/recipe) (mmmm.. iguana on a stick) -do batch cooked meals in the crock pot (+5 pts/meal) -5 times/week, eat a serving of veggies first for evening snack (+5 pts/week) 3. Level up my game -be able to do Kong vaults with no hesitation (+20 pts) -learn a new yoga pose from the yogajournal.com Advanced Challenge poses (+20 pts) -30+ second rail balance or completely walk across the rails at the parkour school (maybe 25 feet long with turns). (+20 pts) -successfully land a lache that is far enough that I couldn't just reach and grab the next bar (+20 pts). -Climb a new route that is at least a 5.10+ (+20 pts) -Do something that absolutely terrifies me (probably from the parkour obstacle class). (+20 pts) -Weapon practice (+1 pts for each 15 minutes) -Progress through Age of Pandora. (+2 pts for every chapter finished) 4. Study the Big Book of Science: -swift or Xcode tutorials (+10 pts per non-trivial tutorial) -work through swift manual (+1 pt/10 pages) -complete non-trivial project Euler programs (+5 pts/program) (new) +1 point for project Euler program, but coding must be in Swift -resume Duolingo practice (+ 1 pts for every 50 XP on Duolingo). -make some sort of math education app for my kids to play with (+25 pts/finished app) -read (+5 pts/book) -do science experiments with the kids (+5 pts/experiment) 5. Keep the camp clean and comfortable: -Keep the house close enough to guest-ready that I never have to decline my kids' request to have friends over. (+5/week) -learn a new piano song (+20) -paint Russian doll minions (+5 pts/doll) - morning adulting before play - after getting kids on the bus, must take care of adulting tasks before hopping on the computer or relaxing (+5 pts/week) -uploading vacation photos and creating a vacation photo album for the kids (+10 pts). + ??? points for any other significant adulting, cleaning, or crafting related task. I'm sure things will come up during the course of the challenge, and I'll assign appropriate points to them.

Bouldering Definition (thanks wikipedia) Bouldering is a style of rock climbing undertaken without a rope and normally limited to very short climbs over a crash pad (called a bouldering mat) so that a fall will not result in serious injury. It is typically practised on large natural boulders or artificial boulders in gyms and outdoor urban areas. However, it may also be practised at the base of larger rock faces, or even on buildings or public architecture (see buildering). Bouldering is a style of climbing emphasizing power, strength, and dynamics. Its focus is on individual moves or short sequences of moves, unlike traditional climbing or sport climbing, which generally demand more endurance over longer stretches of rock where the difficulty of individual moves is not as great. Boulder routes are commonly referred to as problems because the nature of the climb is often short, curious, and much like problem solving. Bouldering is more focused on the technique of climbing instead of undertaking a full bodied climb. To reduce the risk of injury from a fall, climbers rarely go higher than 3–5 meters above the ground. Anything over 7 meters is generally considered to be free-soloing (or simply 'soloing'), although such climbs might also be termed high-ball bouldering problems. For further protection, climbers typically put a bouldering mat (crash pad) on the ground to break their fall. Last, climbers often have one or more spotters, who work to direct the climber's body toward the crash pad during a fall, while protecting the climber's head from hazards. Where to do bouldering Indoor bouldering With its increasing popularity; bouldering areas are more and more common in indoor climbing gyms and some climbing gyms are dedicated solely to bouldering. Outdoor bouldering One of the most famous outdoor bouldering site is located in Fontainebleau forest in France, this forest contains a lot of natural boulders, including the well known: L'éléphant: The bouldering grading system used in Europe is the Fontainebleau system which ranges from 1 to 8C+. Many other bouldering site can be found all over the world like the Red rock canyon in Nevada. Equipment One of the major appeals of bouldering is its relatively scant equipment requirements. Bouldering equipment may include: Close-fitting rubber climbing shoes, for better traction and edging capabilities.Loose, powdered chalk.A mattress-like object called a crash pad to provide some cushion if the climber falls.A brush, or several brushes of differing sizes, is used to clean holds.Sport tape to cover cuts or blisters and provide support for jointsGrade Bouldering Rating Systems Hueco (USA) -> Font. (French) V0 -> 4 V0+ -> 4+ V1 -> 5 V2 -> 5+ V3 -> 6A/6A+ V4 -> 6B/6B+ V5 -> 6C/6C+ V6 -> 6C+/7A V7 -> 7A+ V8 -> 7B/7B+ V9 -> 7B+/7C V10 -> 7C+ V11 -> 8A V12 -> 8A+ V13 -> 8B V14 -> 8B+ V15 -> 8C V16 -> 8C+ Climbing What's climbing Rock climbing is an activity in which participants climb up, down or across natural rock formations or artificial rock walls. The goal is to reach the summit of a formation or the endpoint of a pre-defined route without falling. Rock climbing competitions have objectives of completing the route in the quickest possible time or the farthest along an increasingly difficult route. Rock climbing is a physically and mentally demanding sport, one that often tests a climber's strength, endurance, agility and balance along with mental control. It can be a dangerous sport and knowledge of proper climbing techniques and usage of specialized climbing equipment is crucial for the safe completion of routes. Because of the wide range and variety of rock formations around the world, rock climbing has been separated into several different styles and sub-disciplines For rock climbing, having a partner to hold the other end of your rope with the rope already strung above is called top roping. A specific knot is tied to the climber on one side of the rope and the partner "belays" for the climber by running the other side of the rope through a belay device. There are many different types of belay devices but perhaps the most popular is the grigri. Where to climb Indoor Outdoor Equipment TBC Grades I need your help to improve this thread If some of you could spare some of your time to write a few words about the followings subject: Boulder: how to chose your shoes Boulder: vocabulary Boulder: competitions Boulder: Famous bouldering place Climbing: Equipment required Climbing: vocabulary Climbing: competitions Climbing: famous climbing places And whatever subject you think would be interesting. It will be my pleasure to add them to the main thread

There he was, standing on top of the hill. It was icy cold outside. "Winter came early", he said out loud, while his breath formed small steamy clouds in front of his face. He tightened his cloak around his shoulders so that only the the fur on his chest and face was visible. His ears were pointing straight ahead, focussing on some sound in the distance. Even though the blanket of snow muffled the sound of the nature, life in the surrounding villages had yet to die down. The last traders were packing their waggons to leave in the direction of the city, he knew that this was the last chance to leave this place before the passes were closed. He followed an old trail to the largest village in the area and the only sound that could be heard was the crackling snow under his bare paws. Around noon, he reached the village and the smell of animals and goods surrounded him. Most traders have already left and there was only a single large waggon left. He sneaked to it and hid himself inside under a plane in between sacks of wool, the main export product of this area. "At least, I won't be freezing" he thought and shortly thereafter fell asleep, only awoken by the feeling of the moving waggon before he drifted back into sleep again. "Falling asleep is not always a good thing" was his second thought. His first thought was: "This is a very sharp knife at my throat". "What are you doing here?" the trader shouted, with a voice that is not really expecting an answer. "Where do you think, you are going?". Not really sure about the answer, he replied "The city". "And why should I carry you all the way over there? For free? I could just throw you out in the cold!". "Well...", he thought about it as much as the knife allowed it, "This is a long lonely trip...and I have my own food". The old man seemed to think about the answer, before he replied: "Yes, the trip is long. And I think I can not blame you for leaving this godforsaken place. I agree. But do not even think about stealing my stuff" and with these words, the knife vanished in between his clothes. "I am Brian, what do you want in the city?" "I am Ulfgard. I don't really know, I think i will join the assassins guild". "The assassins?", Brian burst out in laughter and his arm touched him, not too gently, at his belly. "Then travelling to the city is only the smallest part of your journey". to be continued

TALVI's NINTH CHALLENGE: On the wild track! Time for a shiny new challenge and a shiny new game! Ark survival is a game that has just been released for early access. To be honest, I don't know much about the game yet. But I do know that the idea is to survive and thrive on an island covered in dinosaurs. Particularly excited about taming velociraptors and riding enormous alligators around, and the game may have infiltrated my challenge theme. I should probably introduce myself: I'm Talvi and and these challenges have really helped me enjoy fitness particularly with my first push-up, starting and improving in climbing, my first 5km, my first 10km and recently my first chin-up and pull-up. I've also used these challenges to improve my Spanish and to learn some programming. At the moment, I'm playing Ark survival and whilst I am a long-time DOTA player, I'm trying some LoL and HotS on the side. So let's get down to business. I want to develop six skills which will coincidentally help me to survive on a dinosaur-filled island of doom: 1) Dinosaur! Argh, just keep running... Whilst I'm not convinced I can outrun many dinosaurs, running will certainly be more useful than standing still. Unless there is a T-Rex… But we'll cross that bridge should I ever come to it. To train myself, I want to try running twice a week (approx. 4 runs) in preparation for a 15km race in the gardens of Versaille on the 21st June. It is only two weeks away, so I just need to practice being comfortable running that distance again. Not too bothered about running for the duration of the challenge, but it would be nice to run a couple of times in the last 4 weeks. Also I need to get a certificate from a doctor before hand - I must remember to do that! 2) This isn't working, try escaping vertically... Should the running not shake off any velociraptors, my plan B is to climb to safety. I could escape by trees, boulders or mountains! But I will train mainly on boulders. I want to practice bouldering once or twice a week with the goal of playing with blue routes (the next level up) each session until I can actually do one. 3) Flight isn't working, so what about fight? To be honest, I'm not sure how I'd approach fighting a dinosaur. So far in Ark Survival, I have punched a pterodactyl and it killed me. I'm going to assume that in this survival scenario, that strength will be pretty important. I did my first chin-up a couple of days ago (I was so very surprised) and literally just did my first pull-up an hour ago! 5 pull-ups in a row is on my epic quest list for 2015, so I am going to work towards that by trying different bodyweight workouts, tailored exercises or pull-up bar play. Whatever takes my fancy on the day as long as some practice gets done each week. 4) It's a UNIX system, I know this! I don't know about you, but I'm not going to be eaten just because I didn't know my way around a computer. Plus, there is definitely some tech in Ark Survival since there are some mysterious towers in the distance. I'm made some progress in past challenges in learning Python, but this time my overarching goal is to finish the Edx MIT course 6.00.1x "Introduction to Computer Science and Programming using Python". 5) Cuidado, hay un dinosaurio! In this game, you can get teammates by joining tribes and then working together to survive longer and make more epic things. Makes sense. Expect that the boyfriend's tribe are all Spanish. The plan here to use my HP audiobooks, Anki apps, online grammar practice, Spanish book lessons and speaking practice to improve. 6) Dear reader, if you have found this diary then... Now this is the MOST IMPORTANT OBJECTIVE of the challenge: to write down what I have done towards this challenge EVERYDAY (+/- 2 days). There is nothing really new in this challenge, so I know that I can do these quests if I give them the time they deserve. Writing down what I do everyday has been really helpful in past challenges: it makes me more accountable and makes me review each day in the context of my goals. Overall challenge set-up: To level up in the challenge, I will only have to complete my 6th quest aka. post everyday about the challenge. STAT points will be allocated depending on the successes in the other 5 goals. Ideal allocation: 1. Running 5+ times: + 3 STA 2. Climbing: 11+ times: + 2 DEX & + 1 STR 3. 5 x pull-ups: + 2 STR & +1 DEX 4. Completed the first 6 weeks of programming course: + 3 WIS 5. Acceptable progress in Spanish: + 3 CHA Thanks for reading and I'll see you guys on the forums. Good luck with your challenge!

I'm chronically overbooked with my fitness stuff, and this challenge is going to be more about scaling back a little bit and addressing the non-glamorous, not-so-fun foundational work that I'm always neglecting. I'll still be doing 2-3 parkour classes/week, 2 or so climbing sessions/week, and filling in around that with yoga, hand balancing, swimming, hiking, playground workouts, and a little extra strength training, because that's what I always do. And I'll still log all of that, post videos, etc. in this thread, because that's also how things run around here. This challenge is also coinciding with a 10+ day vacation, as well as the start of the school year for the kids, so it's especially important for me to keep things kind of simple and unchallenge-like. Goal 1: Foundational work. Between the parkour, climbing, being 1.5 years out of major knee surgery, and being kind of middle-age-ish, I need to take better care of my body if I want it to continue functioning at optimal levels. 1a) Do a mobilityWOD video, one of GMB's unbreakable series videos, or any other similar mobility work at least 4 times/week. If I find any particularly good or useful videos, I'll be sure to post the link. 1b) Prehab - stick with 5-10 minutes of prehab work at least 5 times/week. This includes rolling my IT Band, shoulder stretches, quad stretches, soleus stretching, and some of my other leg PT stuff. 1c) Be a good leader - My husband also does the parkour and climbing, but he can never self motivate to do the stretching and mobility work. So, at least once/week, I have to nag him into joining me for a quick stretching session. Goal 2: Clear the mind. The goal is to meditate, do meditation focused yoga, or do some directed breathing for at least 5 minutes every day. I'm hoping that this improves my mental well-being quite a bit. Goal 3: Mudhole? Slimy? My home this is. Yeah, the house is chronically cluttered and messy, largely because the children are underfoot all of the time. I've had success in the past with following Flylady, so I'm going to start it again. Goal is to do all of the Flylady weekly tasks + the weekly cleaning, with substitutions if there's something in Flylady that isn't particularly relevant or useful for my house. Edit: Goal is to get maximum points in the cleaning/adulting PVP for my non-vacation days. Goal 4: Anger, fear, aggression; the dark side of the Force are they. I made a lot of progress in the last challenge with just enjoying what I'm doing without letting jealousy over people who are better than I am or general frustration get in the way of my enjoyment. I really do believe that constantly comparing myself to others, letting myself become insecure, or letting myself become so frustrated that I'm flat out angry are poisonous attitudes to have. After all, I'll always find people who are much better than I am, and I'll always have off days here and there. The goal is to just have fun with everything. Goal 5 - Let the wookie win. While I love the Assassin minis, I think they've become a little too epic for me to handle with everything else that I have going on. Last challenge, I got a little carried away, to a point where the minis were adversely affecting my parkour, climbing, and actual challenge goals. While I hate sitting out and feeling excluded from what I feel is a major part of the guild, I really either need to make the choice to do exactly that, or to establish very clear boundaries for myself as to what I'm willing to do for the mini, and then learn to stick with that. If I go that route, I need to learn not to be swayed by the feelings of letting down my team, and I need to learn to just say NO if the mini isn't going to be conducive to meeting my actual goals. The vacation grading will be: Goal 1 - Just stretch a little every day. Goal 2 - Still meditate. If that's not possible, then take a moment to catch my breath and re-center myself each day. Goal 3 - Not really relevant on vacation Goal 4 - Let's face it, people in large crowds are pretty obnoxious and rude, which in turn tends to make me angry. Since I'm going to be at the "happiest place on earth", I need to take a lesson from Elsa and just Let it Go. Goal 5 - Not really relevant.

Hi all, new here, been lurking on and off for awhile. First the back story. I played soccer my whole life till 18 was always lean, stopped playing in college, became sedentary, gain a ton of fat over the following 10 years. Ended up hurting my back, had surgery, gained more weight out of fear of moving and hurting it again. In February of this year I was 186lbs and around 28% body fat. I am currently 33yo, and was disappointed with what I became. I decided to get back to who I am(coincidentally) this coincided with returning to school for my MBA. I have additional motivation in that I don't want my children to grow up with a dad that can't move with them. I started working out again in February, I am currently down to 158lbs and 14.57% body fat. My oldest son is going to be turning seven and he wants a membership to the local rock gym, and I'd love to go bouldering with him. I'm currently eyeing becoming an assassin. My current goals: Continue lifting on my current schedule, add an afternoon bodyweight session. Gain flexibility and endurance Dead hand for 20 seconds each arm Get to 3x 12 pullups currently 3x 8. Get up to 3x 15 chinups currently 3x 10. Begin running again(Dr gave the go ahead to run again, however must be conscious of the lower back). Maybe yoga? Finish four rungs on the salmon ladder(best to date is three). Long term goals: Weight 165lbs and 8% body fat Dead hang 20 seconds with 50 lb added weight. Get agile enough to do parkour. Improve dismounts on lachees. Add additional obsticles to home course. Finish MBA. Take the kids bouldering once a week for a year straight. There's a lot more, but think they'll be saved for another post. Anyways, cool site, look forward to tracking and gaining here.

Hey, I'm looking for some advice about my diet. I'm a female climber, who is trying to lose a bit of weight/ get leaner. At the moment I'm not overweight, but I'm at the high end of healthy for my bmi, and would ideally like to be about a stone lighter. I weigh about 137 pounds (I am about 5''4), and I work out for about an hour 5/6 days a week. This is a mix of climbing (at a high intensity) and weights. Sometimes I do HIIT. I don't want to lose muscle, although I guess some loss is probably inevitable. When I'm not working out I am completely sedentary haha (I am a student- I sit down and revise/ netflix). Does anyone have any guidance as to how many calories I should be eating, roughly? I am confused by all the different advice on the internet, I've found everything from 1200 to 2000 calories recommended for me per day. I've been following the every other day diet for the past few weeks, but got fed up as I started getting light-headed whilst bouldering (not a great combo). Thanks v. much for any advice : )

Meow! As a fierce assassin cat you need to be able to blend in anywhere.... And Lilith's next assassin assignment is to defeat Team Rocket, in their attempt to control the region! The way to come closer to them is to cartwheel, because that way Lilith's dodge skills are highly increased! Also, it looks so cute of course that Team Rocket will be lured into NOT attacking, like this: Then the little assassin cat also needs to be strong, in order to do a lot of damage! Soooo how will I achieve those things? Well here are my goals: Goal 1: Do Stronglifts 3x per week. Goal 2: Do Third World Squat every day. Goal 3: Finish my Cartwheel Checklist (scroll down for the checklist) every week Goal 4: Hooping 1x per week. Quite a lot, no? Cartwheel checklist is based on the things written in http://gmb.io/cartwheel/ Hollow Body Plank 1x Frogger hopping 1x Wrist exercises 1x Triangle Pose 3x Half Pancake Sidebend 1x Pancake 1x Cartwheel 1x Obviously more would be better, but I don't want to overdo it. If I WANT to do more that's fine obviously, but I don't have to. So that's it!

Hi, I'm Nymeria, and I generally suffer from do-too-much-itis. I've been rock climbing for a few years, I do a lot of yoga hand balancing and animal flow stuff, I still fool around a lot with martial arts and martial arts weapons (I'm kind of an ex practitioner. It's complicated), and I recently started taking parkour classes twice/week. This has also led to a struggle not to keep my body healthy, functioning, and keep my life in balance. For this challenge, I'm going to turn to one of my favorite anime characters and a fellow hot-headed, nerdy, often physically busted, do-too-much-er, Edward Elric, for some inspiration. This time, my physical schedule is pretty set, with climbing/bouldering twice/week, parkour classes twice/week, and hot vinyasa yoga once/week. (Realistically, I'll make it to 4/5 of these on average, just because between kids, life obligations, and such, that's how it seems to work). I also expect to do some playground workouts, hiking trips, and other things like that. For this challenge, all of the physical goals will be accessories to help me get stronger and prevent me from falling apart. Goal 1. Proper maintenance (fitness) My shoulders are constantly tight from the climbing and yoga. My surgically repaired knee is also starting to become irritated by the jumpings and landings in parkour (ACL reconstruction in Jan 2014 - I didn't rehab things with the expectation of this much high impact work). If I don't want my leg and arms to get busted, the way Ed's auto mail often is, I need to focus on some prehab and ROM work. So... a.) Get cozy with the foam roller and stretches: 5x/week - roll out ITB, calves, and quads. Roll out shoulder blade area. Do shoulder dislocates. Do the following yoga stretches: Extended puppy (shoulders), cross legged forward fold (ITB), hands clasping behind the back pose, reclined cow face pose (ITB-gluteus). b.) Build better foundations for jumping: whenever my muscles permit, do weighted squats, deep squats, more jumps, and calf raises. Revisit some of the physical therapy knee exercises that I haven't touched in the last 6 months. Goal 2 - Decrease the numbers (diet) Edward Elric: "Water, 35 litres. Carbon, 20kg. Ammonia, 4 litres. Lime, 1.5kg. Phosperus, 800g. Salt, 250 g. Niter, 100g. Sulphur, 80g. Fluorine, 7.5g. Iron, 5g. Silicon 3g. And fifteen other elements. Those are the elements to make an average adult human body." This goal is simple.. I want to decrease my numbers, meaning lose a little weight. Realistically, I only could lose 5-ish lbs, but those 5 lbs can mean a lot when you're hanging on to rock holds by your fingertips or trying to jump even higher. I loathe actively cutting and tracking my diet, so I'm going to keep things small and simple. Goal is Only 3 drinks bearing any liquid calories at all per week. Otherwise, all other drinking is to just be water. I train a lot and I have a lot of muscle, so I really do need to eat. The juice/alcohol/soda stuff is purely empty calories and is the easiest to trim from the diet. Goal 3 - Become less lopsided (fitness) Like Edward, I feel pretty lopsided. In part it's due to the messed up knee. Some of it is simple right-handedness. Some of it is muscle imbalances. Still, the result is that in parkour, I have preferred sides for every vault or wall technique. In yoga, I have a lot of hand balances that I can only perform well on one side (like 8 angle, flying lizard, side crow extensions). I also have a lot of standing balances that have a strong side and a weak side. Yes, I know that's normal. Still, in parkour, the side I use is somewhat dictated by the nature of the obstacle, and I really need to be proficient at both sides. For the yoga stuff, I just enjoy the warm fuzzy glow of doing things well, so I tend to do my strong side first and more often than my weak one. For this challenge, I am changing my mindset and making sure I give my weak side more attention than my strong one. Goal is to have 90% of my exercise sessions address my weak side at least equally as much as my strong side. Goal 4 - Hit the books (life) I used to read all of the time. But then I became addicted to my phone and waste my time rather than doing productive things like reading or learning. It's time for this to change. a.) Read at least 15 minutes/day. Aim for also reading at night before going to bed. b.) Continue with my DuoLingo German studies. I'm currently at 2300 XP, so the goal is to reach 3800 by the end of the challenge. 5. Daily Reflection (life) Last challenge, I had a goal of coming up with something positive or something for which I am grateful every day. While that was rewarding, I'm broadening things, such that this challenge, I just need to spend a few minutes meditating and reflecting on the day. I may or may not post the reflections depending on how relevant I think they are. I will edit later with more specific grading criteria. Let's do this!

CHAPTER EIGHT: THE FOREST CLOAKS ME I am going on holiday midway through the official challenge, and so I shall be starting early and hitting pause until I get back. This challenge will be 6th – 23rd April until 5th – 31st May. Getting ready for Fontainebleau Possible challenge reward: +5 STR, +3 DEX & +2 STA I started indoor bouldering around about a year ago thanks to these challenges. I’m still pretty bad, but I enjoy it and I progress a lot when I can boulder regularly. Soon after starting climbing, I realised that I live pretty close to a really famous bouldering forest and I’ve been meaning to go for a while. Well, there is no time like the ‘near’ present. I had a little think about it, set a date, found a campsite, bought a tent, looked up how to rent a crashmat and roped my partner-in-crime into it. The plan is to go on the 2nd or 3rd weekend in May! I focussed on running last challenge with the Scouts and bouldering fell to the wayside. However I need work on being at the best level I can be, if I want to get the most out of this trip and to be safe whilst I’m there. Practice makes perfect so I will boulder twice a week. Also, I will try and improve my climbing by doing three supplementary activities each week: reading about bouldering and techniques, pull-up practice, yoga, BBWW, running or grip exercises. Learn to draw Possible challenge reward: +3 WIS & +2 CHA I have been experimenting with digital vector art using Inkscape for a few months now, and it has been nice to do something creative. I have always wanted to draw, paint and make beautiful things. So I’m starting here. There are quite a few resources on the web about beginning pencil drawing, so I plan to do an hour of lessons/learning every week and try to draw something every day, even if it just a doodle. I am not going to be super strict about the everyday rule, but if I can draw 5 out of 7 days then I’ll be pretty chuffed. I’ll see how the goal evolves and I may tweak it as need be. To sum up: 1. Boulder twice a week 2. Do three extra activities to make me a better climber 3. Do an hour of drawing lessons/learning each week 4. Draw five times a week Let me know if you have any advice or suggestions (especially bouldering-type ones), and I look forward to another awesome challenge with you guys!

I recently started bouldering with my boyfriend. I climbed and/or bouldered before with school, but that's years ago and nothing serious. I want to try and go more often if possible and try to actually improve. Problem is I probably won't be able to go to bouldering or climbing gyms often because I'm broke, which is also why I don't have my own equipment (like the much wanted shoes) yet, and borrowing these increases the entrance-fee of course. I was wondering what exercises and stretches I can do at home or at the small gym I have access to to at least get the strength I need for climbing. I can't say which machines and equiptment the gym has to offer since I don't know the names... At home I have a pair of 1,5kg/3,3lb dumbbells, and my sister has a pair of grippers that I could probably borrow. There's rather high bars in the courtyard of my house which I never use because they're full of spiderwebs, I can hardly reach up the smaller one and even if I could I couldn't even do one pull-up. What tips can you give me to improve my performance for the times I do manage to go to the bouldering gym again?

Mad Hatter bends over backwards Hi! I'm a level 15? 1 dabbler assassin (and perpetual noob). In my past lives I've played with circus, aerial, poledance, acroyoga, climbing, kitesurfing, lindy-hop, ballroom dancing, gymnastics, burlesque and I love it all! But lately I've been utterly fascinated by contortion and handbalancing and my current epic quest is to develop super powers in all things bendy and upside down! I feel like the last 1 3 5 challenges have been all over the place, and that I've strayed quite far from this epic quest. Perhaps not in goals, but in spirit. So in this challenge I'm going to concentrate on a single superpower with razor sharp focus - flexibility. Goal #1: Streeeetch! (DEX +5) I'm going to train for flexibility for an hour every day, in some way or other. My training sessions should be a combination of deep stretching, mobility work and strength training for the back, core and hips to keep my body happy and bendy. This is the main goal for this challenge and even if I fail at everything else that's fine as long as I really tried my best to reach this goal! Goal #2: Fix my environment (CON +4) What's the point in training everyday if I'm just going to undo any progress through my daily habits? I've already introduced a few experimental changes at work that I'll expand on some other day, but this goal is not about tracking each of them. It's more exploratory in nature so I'll just see how it evolves. Goal #3: Shinies! (DEX +1) Every week I'm going to explore a new movement that requires a high degree of flexibility. This could be dancey floorwork, or linking a few static poses together into a flow, or just anything cool that I've found on the interwebs. I don't have to nail anything, I just need to challenge myself and give it a good try even if I end up looking like an ass. Goal #4: Love the process! (WIS+2, CHA +3) The first part of this goal is to document the process. I will post a video every week and also a daily reflection. The second part is remember to love the process, and not to be so harsh on myself. I'm going to practice it by saying something positive about my training or my body in the daily reflection. And for full disclosure you might hear lots of other tales in this thread, of handbalancing, climbing, strength training, maybe some aerial and the makings of tasty food! Wheeeeee!

For this challenge, I'm going to focus on fully living in the present, rather than dwelling on the past ("before my knee blowout, I could do whatever thing but now I can't") or punting things toward the future ("It would be really nice if I could do...") without taking the steps right now to have any realistic hope of achieving that. As always, I will be doing and logging my usual rock climbing/bouldering, playground parkour, yoga, hand balancing, weapons, hooping, etc. 1. (Fitness)Respect the progressions: There are several yoga moves I'd love to do, but I'm not quite flexible enough. There are also several parkour moves I'd love to be able to do, but I'm not strong or flexible enough. So, rather than just giving up and doing nothing at all to get there (which has kind of been what I've done over the last many challenges), I'll instead dial things backward and work through some easier progressions until I have a solid enough foundation for the full move. The moves I'd love to focus on are: (yoga) Firefly pose- currently need to improve flexibility to get my shoulders under my legs. I can either balance a few seconds with my legs really bent, or I pick up and fall right back onto my rear. So, I'm going to focus on the deep squat with my shoulders under my legs to improve the mobility. I'll also just try to get better about holding with my legs bent. There's no point yet in trying to pick up all of the way and getting frustrated with my repeated failures. (yoga) - wheel to standing or wheel kick over - My backbend/wheel is okay, but in order to stand from it or kick my legs up and over, I need my hands and feet to be closer together. So, I'm going to focus on pushing my torso closer over my shoulders and walking my feet in toward my hands. (parkour) Kong vault - I can't confidently even do a ground kong without having my knees flare out such that they're outside of my arms. I'm also horribly paranoid about clipping my legs, especially since my knee still isn't quite 100%. I'm going to work on good form ground kongs, the kong jump-ups, and just jumping over low-ish obstacles. (parkour) rail balance - While it's still cold, I have parallettes I can step upon. When it's warmer, there are plenty of playgrounds with rails. Rather than getting fancy and trying to move around a lot or do QM, I really just need to practice standing around or walking very slowly. I may come up with a few more things to add to the list. I'm not going to grade based on practicing a certain number of times/week. Instead, it's going to be whether I feel like I'm putting in the honest effort to follow the progressions, rather than giving up or hiding from the skills in question, and whether at the end of the challenge I'm seeing some progress. 2. (Fitness) Tons of Handstands: I've always wanted to have a solid handstand, but I've been stuck at 3-5 seconds freestanding for a long time and have never really put in the effort to improve with that. After some personal training with this, I learned that my shoulders aren't engaged properly when I do handstands. I've instead been doing lazy, loose handstands. Now that I've started practicing really pressing upward, engaging my shoulders, and keeping my core very tight, I feel like I have so much more control. I want to ride this success and finally make some progress with the handstands. Goal is to do 100 handstands/week, but to count, all of the handstands need to have solid form. 3. (Life) Positivity and Gratitude: I truly believe that being positive and grateful is a habit and mindset. Each day of the challenge, I must come up with and post something for which I'm grateful, something that made me happy, or something generally positive. Goal: 42 daily postings. 4. (Life) Learn a new language -For years, my husband and I have been saying that it would be nice if I could speak German, so we could have our own adult "secret language" that the kids can't understand. And for years, I've done nothing on that front. I recently downloaded Duolingo. My goal is to add 250 XP to my total each week. I'm at 659 right now, so assuming I'm around 700 at the start of the challenge, that means I should aim for 2200 XP by the end. Extras: There's no way to grade these, but they're just things I'd love to work on and be reminded of frequently through my challenge. (Fitness) Form comes first: I have a few yoga moves in which my form (shoulder alignment) is off. I also am guilty of taking some shortcuts, or squeezing out a few extra reps even after my form is starting to fall apart. I've spent the last year assuming that everything would eventually work its way out, but realistically, I'm just perfecting bad form. This goal is more about shelving the ego and dealing with not managing as many reps or as much hold time, or having to step back in some of my progressions. (Life) Control the clutter: No one in my house (including myself) puts things back where they belong after using something. So, we're always fighting clutter. Rather than just setting things down out of place and assuming I can put it away later, I'd rather stop generating the clutter in the first place. (Life) Get over it: I'm one of those people who gets upset or over-analyzes things long past the point where I should just accept that things are over and done. So, I want to reach a point where if I'm foolishly getting worked up about something, I can take steps to calm down (whether it's doing some cardio kickboxing, weapons, yoga, meditation, taking a walk, playing piano), and then learning to just let it go.

Hi. I'm Nymeria, and I'm accepting my path as one of the shiny object chasing, Jack-of-all-trades, do-all-of-the-fun-things types of assassins. I climb multiple times/week. I also love power yoga/handbalancing, martial arts, playground parkour, hooping, rings, and other random fitness stuff I also NEED my soundtracks to operate in life. Whether I'm exercising, cleaning, taking a relaxing bath, or whatever, I need music to get into my groove. It's at times been a bit of a hinderance to me, since I can't handle a lot of exercise videos or classes where I have to endure crappy music and a teacher yammering on and on. (yoga stuff and hooping at 4x and 2x speed, because it's kind of boring otherwise. All of the indoor clips were filmed in the last week, and the outdoor stuff was from the autumn. It feels great to get back into the groove of posting training videos!) 2014 was a really rough year for me, both personally and fitness-wise. Very late in 2013, I had a catastrophic fall while climbing, tore my ACL, MCL, and broke 2 bones in my knee. Then I had surgery and spent the better part of 2014 dealing with physical therapy and rehab. I'm ready for 2015 to be an injury-free year, so I can focus on being awesome and not on just regaining ground. For my part, the "Awesome mix" isn't making a great playlist (although I'm always open to music suggestions. I gravitate most toward progressive metal stuff). Instead, it's the formula of eating habits, exercise stuff, and daily routines that help me achieve the things I most want. In this challenge, I'll focus a lot more on eating habits, since they got a bit out of hand over the holiday season. I also have gained about 5 lbs of flab over the last few months, and I really need to lose it. Goal 1: Awesome eating for an awesome life (diet). I don't do tracking, so instead, I'm using a point system to encourage healthier choices and discourage destructive ones. Goal edited, to make things simpler. I eat 3 meals/day, so... +1 point for any meal that is filled with wholesome food, veggies, proteins, etc. and only a very modest/minimal portion of carbs/starches. +1 point for drinking only water or tea in a day +1 point for choosing healthy evening snacks, like carrots and hummus, celery+peanut butter, or other veggies in the evening. I will permit myself to have a modest snack in each day and a small portion of a sweetened drink (like 4 oz of orange juice or lemonade). I'll also permit myself to have a beer on football gamedays for no penalty. -1 point for anything beyond a modest snack -1 point for caloric drinks beyond what was set forth ^^^ -1 point for unhealthy meals. Goal: 21 points/week. If that becomes too easy by week 3, I'll increase the goal. Goal 2: Batch cooking (diet) For me, bad choices are often made because I either let myself become so hungry that I want to eat NOW, or because I'm just feeling too lazy to cook. The solution for me is to batch cook something healthy, so I have plenty of leftovers to reheat. Goal: 6 batch cooked meals during the challenge (nominally 1/week). Goal 3: Shore up some climbing weaknesses (fitness - climbing) - I'm pretty comfortable with my workout routine, but there are a few tweaks that should help me progress faster. My raw strength is great, but my muscular endurance is fairly poor. This is a huge problem with climbing, where I'll climb beautifully for 2/3 of the route, and then I'm out of gas for the end. To fix this, I'm going to do some high rep, low weight work with DB rows, bodyweight inverted rows, grip training (focus on hanging loooong periods of time on some very easy grips, rather than short holds on really small ones). Goal: 2 sessions/week of the endurance stuff. Goal 4: Keep things fresh and exciting (fitness - yoga) This is a 2 parter. The first I'm shamelessly stealing from starsapart. 1x per week, I'll try a new pose from the Yoga Journal advanced poses blog. I would hate for yoga to become stale for me. The second part is that I'm toying with the idea of becoming a certified yoga teacher at some point. The problem is that I'm 99% a home practitioner, largely because I enjoy playing my own music and because I'm afraid that most yoga classes would be kind of boring for me. But, I need to suck it up and at least try out some classes for informational purposes, if nothing else. Before the end of the challenge, I want to attend at least 4 formal yoga classes at my gym. Goal: 1 new yoga pose/week. 4 formal yoga sessions/challenge. Goal 5: The boring, dreaded cardio (fitness - general) This one is simple: 60 minutes of pure cardio action. Whether it's HIIT style, cycling, jogging, elliptical, I need to keep my heart rate up there. I generally find cardio to be boring, but getting back into some cardio action would help me lose some flab, improve my stamina, put the finishing touches on my knee rehab, and would probably be good for me. So, I just have to suck it up and do it. I'm not counting lower heart rate cardio stuff for this goal, so no credit for hooping, walking, etc. Goal: 60 minutes/week. Yeah, this challenge isn't necessarily going to be fun, but at the moment I'm filled with ambition and resolve. I'd rather push myself and come up short than just do another space filler, coasting type of challenge.

So, I'm back. Or at least trying too and with a real challenge for a change. I've been in a dark zone these past few month, well, I'm still am. For reasons, I stopped gradually reading my mails, using skype, going out to see friends because I want to avoid the "How are you doing?" question, visiting my forums, reading my emails and finally not even opening my inbox anymore. I was once a developer and recently I couldn't even see a line of code without freaking out, no need to say, my professional life is not good at all. But that's part of things I don't want to speak about right now ANYWAY, challenge #IHaveNoIdea, the theme is: Getting my life back on track! My weapons are: Take it slowly! Crawl, don't try to run (seriously don't)! Life goal: I will start with that because it's the most important thing for now. To get my life back on track, I need to know what I want to do. Quite difficult task because when you're in the dark nothing really tempt you. For now I have to catch on all that I should have done when stuck in my dark zone, meaning I have some people to re-contact and that will be really hard. Easy start: - Contact people that I have not avoided until now a bit more. - Be more active on the forums - Give frequents news to my family (especially because they are freaking out because of the terrorists attacks in Paris.) Goal #1: Determine if I want to have my Bento business on. Friends are supportive, people are happy with my services but I see it slowing down and am not sure it's worth it. So I have 6 weeks to start or drop. Goal #2: Hoop, hoop and hoop more. IF I decide to keep on the bento business it's unlikely that I'll make that full time. My target customers are people in offices, so it would be only for lunches and I would have part of my afternoon free. I usually hoop at the climbing gym and many people there asked me if I was giving any lessons. Well, obviously not now because I'm but a beginner but that could be fun to do. But to start teaching or even showing off, you need to get better at it. Unfortunately, it's not the right season for hooping because it's cold and too many clothes are not good. Still, there are still things that I could learn and train for in a limited space (aka: my apartment) So my goal is: Hoop 3 times a week minimum! And learn a new trick/week! Week #1: XXX New trick: Smearing Goal #3: Climb more /!\ This goal is on hold for a few more days due to a elbow tendinitis! I have kept on climbing 3 times a week all this dark time but I have seen no progress at all. I'm still stuck on blue problems and I know I need to push myself a bit more to finally level up. The plan is to add to my bouldering workouts some exercises that will make me: - Work on my flexibility! - Work on my grip! - Work on dyno! Dyno is my nemesis, but considering my height I really NEED to be good at them to be able to solve some problems. Well that's all for now, let's do well this challenge . (and damn it was harder to write than expected..)

Our story thus far, I'm a 35 year old guy who is striving to get back in shape. My main sport is bouldering, and I have been at it for 20 years on and off. I did a challenge last fall, dropped out halfway through, and still had the bouldering trip of my life in October. I went to the Chattanooga area for ~2 weeks and climbed a bunch of great problems, including a v7, 4 v6's, and too many v5's and v4's to count. It was beautiful. I made a short film with footage from the trip. If you like bouldering, please have a look! You might like it. Anyway I got back from the trip, had surgery on my ankle, sat around for a few weeks, then the holidays hit. Now I'm about as fat and out of shape as I've ever been, and I need to get back into the game pronto! I have a week long trip in April to Joe's Valley, Utah, and another in July to Squamish, BC. In order to have good trips in April and July, I need to be training NOW. But... There are six holes in my ankle bones. My surgery was to remove six screws and a metal plate which had to be put in to fix an ankle fracture that I incurred when I was eighteen and stupid. (Alcohol + skateboard = ouch) The bones will not be back to full strength until the beginning of March. So... For this training cycle, all climbing will have to be indoors. I am not willing to add the risk of outdoor bouldering until my ankle is back to 100%. So I plan to be bouldering indoors along with supplemental training ~4x/week. And since one cannot pull every day, I will add some calisthenics - pushing and legs, on the off days as well as some running. So on to the goals. 1. Complete a v6 indoors 2. Campus 1-5-9 (metolius spacing) - each side - will explain later 3. Complete sets of 5x5seconds of m4/m4 and 35slope/35slope on hangboard - again needs explanation, later 4. advanced tuck front lever x10 seconds 5. one arm lockoff x10 seconds each side 6. freestanding handstand x15 seconds 7. tuck planche x10 seconds 8. wall headstand pushups x5 with full ROM 9. pistols x5 each side 10. Run 5Km in <30 minutes Alright enough for now. I know the challenge doesn't start until Monday but I might as well log my workout from yesterday. Quick Bouldering/Hangboard Session warmups v0/v0/v0 then The Green 60 v5 - I set this one in October but hadn't finished it before yesterday. Took at least ten tries but I sent Ryan's new v5 - felt surprisingly easy but a great problem nonetheless, usually Ryan's problems are sandbags then hangboard Jug/Jug 2 sets of 5 reps of 5 seconds (2x5x5) Jug/deep4 one set each side of 5x5 deep4/deep4 one set 5x5 - finished all reps Think I should be using the timer app on my phone, otherwise I think I don't rest long enough - got super pumped just from the 5 hangboard sets but could also be that I haven't used it in almost 3 months.

Hi! I'm 0gravity I'm starting a log here to keep all of my things in one place. A short intro - I'm a 35 year old guy who just trying to stay in shape. Bouldering is my sport, and I spend more time doing that than any other physical activity. I have specific goals and training techniques specifically to improve at bouldering, which you will see below eventually. I also until very recently weight trained regularly, and recently I have switched into trying to develop specific bodyweight only skills such as the handstand, and have left the weights behind for now. I was climbing pretty well in the Fall, then I had elective surgery in November to remove hardwear from my ankle. I was unable to climb for four weeks, and now I have been climbing indoors for four weeks, after four more weeks (February 15) of climbing indoors I will be able to climb outside again. My work hours are a big obstacle to me. Currently I work 3AM to 3 PM, three days a week. In March, I will be switching to the opposite shift, 3PM to 3AM. I think this will be much better for me and involve less caffeine and hateful alarm clocks. My short term goals (by February 15 - taken from the challenge thread) 1. Complete a v6 indoors updated: Complete a v7 indoors 2. Campus 1-5-9 (metolius spacing) - each side - will explain later updated: Campus 1-6-10 both sides 3. Complete sets of 5x5seconds of m4/m4 and 35slope/35slope on beastmaker 1 hangboard - again needs explanation, later 4. advanced tuck front lever x10 seconds 5. one arm lockoff x10 seconds each side 6. freestanding handstand x15 seconds 7. tuck planche x10 seconds 8. wall headstand pushups x5 with full ROM 9. pistols x5 each side 10. Run 5Km in <30 minutes Medium term goals - (by April 1) 1. Finish Pow Pow (v8), at the Sad Boulders, which has been my project off and on for years Long term goals - (by 12/31/15) 1. Planet of the Apes (v6), Joe's Valley 2. Gibbs Cave (v8), Squamish 2. Finish Soul Slinger (v9) at the Buttermilk Epic Goals (any time, but if I don't get them by ~age 45, most of these will never happen) Stained Glass (v10), Bishop Xavier's Roof (v11), Bishop Mandala (v12), Bishop Spectre (v13), Bishop Midnight Lightning (v8), Yosemite Valley The Orb (v8), Rocktown The Shield (v12), Little Rock City Karma (v11), Fontainebleau Rainbow Rocket (v11), Fontainebleau Duel (v11), Fontainebleau Shosholoza (v12), Rocklands

Lilith the Chubby Kitten - Climbing to the top! Chubby kitten hmmmm yes, that’s still what I am…. Sometimes. Lilith turned around, to claw at the falling fall leaves. She just loved fall. With the colours, the rich smells… And the winds of change. But Lilith started to realise something that has been happening to her for a while now. She was not just a chubby kitten anymore, and sometimes, she wasn’t one at all. She had grown up in mind and body. Feeling stronger, and therefore being stronger. Whenever she felt her fiercest she could feel a strange energy getting hold of her. It was hard to describe it as anything but power. She had been a circus cat briefly, now a kitten again. But she could feel something inside her fighting to get out. Along with the surge of power came an urge to climb. Trees, bigger trees, yet somehow they never reached high enough. I have to climb as high as the earth goes! Perhaps she would turn into a fierce mountain lion…. If only she would release that part of her. Challenge goals: Become a better climber and train for the Fjallraven Classic (I need to be ready next summer!) I’m going to work with a point system! Every week I need to get 10 points for a successful week. I can earn points by doing the activities mentioned below! Bouldering (2 points) Toprope climbing (2 points) Finger strength training with clay (1 point) Yoga for Climbers by Judy Tsuei (2 points) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fb8Aa-Db6vc Yoga for Rock Climbers by Kassandra (1 point) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWX6m6SMQYE DoYouYoga (1 point) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0ejZxy7Doc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifZGhTMQJ40 Climbing workout (2 points) 2 rounds - 20 double leg lifts - 10 pushups - 20 single leg deadlift 2 rounds - 20 reverse rows - 20 sumo squats - 20 bulgarian split squats 2 rounds - ball plank - 20 donkey kick - 20 fire hydrant - 20 glute bridge Practice for the Fjallraven Classic (2 points) Pilates Abs (1 point) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_S1hkhuDt0#t=700 Pilates Lower Abs (1 point) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMHgxyX_f7U#t=533 Point counter: Week 1: 11 Week 2: 9 Week 3:10 Week 4:11 Week 5: Week 6: TOTAL: Green = good week Red = bad week

As the title suggests, I really just want to keep the momentum going from #1 and add to it. So! Main Quest: Return to rock climbing/bouldering (and beyond?) There are plenty of rock climbing places around. That's the easy part. The hard part is getting back the strength, flexibility, and endurance after having two children. My entire body is way too lax (joints, etc) or way too tight (muscles, especially hamstrings). Previous challenge helped me make some great progress (yay, knuckles on the floor in a forward bend! I can lift our propane tank safely!). I'm looking at taking it to the next step and actually getting into a regular climbing/bouldering routine. I say "and beyond" because I love me some rappelling, I've always wanted to try zip lining, rope obstacle courses make me giddy, and some of the other guildmates are doing amazing things with silk that I've never seen before! Who knows what the next 6 weeks will bring? Sub Quest #1: More Yoga! (+1STR, +2STA, +1CON) I've already built it into my weekly schedule to do Tues and Thurs classes at the Crack of Dawn time (6:30am). I have a few options - I can do more Crack of Dawn classes (my membership covers any classes that happen before 9am, lol), or I can build and do a personal routine. Either way, more yoga. A: More than four sessions of yoga, any combination of class or personal practice. B: At least four sessions of yoga, any combination. C: At least three sessions of yoga, any combination. D: Only two sessions, must have made it to the classes at least. F: Less than two! Ugh! Sub Quest #2: The Awesome Hand Strength (+2STR, +1DEX, +1STA) I have long hands and fingers, and my hand strength has always been low. My hand joints lock up pretty easily. Time to change! Sylph actually inspired me to do this, as I saw her Theraputty posts last challenge. I am going to look into getting some. I'm considering doing these exercises possibly, or a different routine if I find a better one. This has a lot to do with consistency and habit - I really just need to make this a part of my life! Sub Quest #2-B: Focus (+2CON, +1STA, +1WIS) Reducing all distractions from what is important in my life. If my husband, kids, and my complete health are what truly matter to me, then I need to make it happen. Taking some cues from others here: No FB or NF before 8pm. Crunchyroll only during nap or kid sleep time. Computer work such as budgeting, finances, and other digital to-dos need to be scheduled out and done during nap times, so Crunchyroll will be second in line on those days. A: Stuck to the limits. No digital stuff before 8pm or only during kid sleep/nap times (excludes skyping and text communication). B: A couple slipups but needed to get stuff done so had to do it. C: Intentional choice to do otherwise a couple times. D: Trying hard, but am not committing fully. F: Never stuck to it. Sub Quest #3: Bodyweight Continuum (+2STR, +1DEX, +1CON) I had the hardest time balancing all three of my subquests last challenge. It seemed like it was just too much habit building all at once? I really want to make BBW a habit though. YAYOG is interesting to me but I don't know much about it yet. Whatever it is I decide to do for this section I want it to help me increase my actual strength and endurance. I also want to incorporate some kind of running as warm up. A: More than 3 sessions a week. B: 3 sessions a week. C: 2 sessions a week. D: 1 session a week. F: Nothing. Life Quest B: Fix the problems! (+3WIS) Help my husband craft ideas to fix the multiple problems that cropped up, including needing designs for new dinner table, fixing leaks, fixing flooring (replace with new flooring), etc. Will be graded according to whether I found plans, provided them, talked with hubby, and worked on them. Life Quest: Draft a 3D image of our home for renovations (+3WIS) My husband helped me come up with this one. We talked about what I should accomplish in 6 weeks' time and what was important in our lives. We want to do a TON of renovation on the trailer we live in, with some pretty unique, never-before-done ideas. He doesn't want to do it half-heartedly or without proper planning. I'm going to use TinkerCAD to develop a model of our trailer with some of the major changes we want to make to it, with exact measurements, etc. I believe that I can do this in 6 weeks' time. A: Completed model with changes B: Completed model, without changes C: Mostly done model D: Half done model F: Never reached half way Motivation: That Woman I am going to be, soon! Honestly, I want to be healthy and fit and balanced in life for my husband and kids, but what I really want is to be that awesome woman I saw myself being as a kid. I even dream of doing awesome things as an older adult, or elderly, but I can't get there if I don't start now. I don't want to impress people, or show off. I just want to be the best version possible of myself. I have no idea what that looks like, so let's find out!

Hello fellow assassins! I've completed three challenges now, and I love how these challenges help me to level up and get closer towards the epicness I want to be. This time, my fitness goals aim to help me become a better boulderer and as always I have extra mental goals to level me up in different ways. If you haven't seen me around before then I'm a scientist, potterhead, DOTA2 enthusiast, minecraft beginner and whovian. And I look forward to seeing you guys around the Rebellion!!! MAIN PHYSICAL QUEST To climb more green routes Possible challenge reward: +5 STR, +1 STA & +3 DEX 1. Climb twice a week Last time I went to the wall, I could do all of the yellow paths (easiest) and 2 green paths (next level up). I want to be able to do more green routes and practice makes perfect. 2. BBWW once a week I can tell these dramatically improve my strength when I do them, the problem is just getting me to do them... 3. Run once a week Lets see if I can improve on my PRs. 4. Pullup practice four times a week Inspired my other rebels, I have bought a door frame bar and it is staring at me menacingly. I am really starting out as a complete lvl 1 pull-up noob here and working upwards: Level 1: Sandbag rows/Dumbbell rows, Dead Hang for 60 seconds (palms away) & Flexed Arm Hang for 15 seconds (palms away) Level 2: Jumping/Negative Pull-up to Dead Hang position (5 perfect slow reps), Leg Assisted Pull-up (5 perfect slow reps) & Body Rows Level 3: Chin-up & Pull-up MENTAL QUESTS Possible challenge reward: +3 WIS & +3 CHA 5. Learn to draw using pencil and computer (2hrs a week) I would like to make a stock collection of images I can use in presentations, posters and perhaps infographics. So I'd really like to get the creative juices flowing on paper for ideas and then get the ideas onto the computer using Inkscape. Easy... I just need to learn how to draw. 6. Continue learning Python (2hrs a week) Started in past challenges and I really enjoyed it. It took a backseat to other priorities this summer, but I would definitely like to get back to learning Python using the 'Introduction to Computer Science and Programming using Python' on Edx.org, Codeacademy, ThinkPython online textbook and finally Checkio (if I can ever get that good). And we're off!!! Good luck everyone! Captain's log here

Sorry, my sloth brethren. I'm going team corgi this time, because corgi Assassins are awesome. For those who've never followed my threads, I'm a notorious shiny object chaser in the guild. I rock climb 2-3 times per week, do yoga another 3 times, and then fill in the rest of my time with playground parkour, gymnastic rings workouts, hand balancing (flying crow, side crow, 8 angle, elbow lever. yay), hooping, martial arts weapons stuff, and whatever else strikes my fancy. And I'm okay with that. I'm also 8 months out from an ACL reconstruction (horrible climbing accident in December), so I'm still somewhat rehabbing that. I've had a pattern over the last many challenges of picking a flavor-of-the-month skill, working on it to a point where I'm burned out and no longer care, getting frustrated because my benchmark was either too easy or entirely unreasonable, and then half-assing it the last week or two. I've come to the realization that I don't need any motivation to exercise. I already exercise 1+ hours/day. It's also okay to be a shiny object chaser. My main thing is the rock climbing, and I do that 2-3 times per week. Everything else is just filler, and it's perfectly fine to just do whatever exercises I feel like doing. So, I'm not going to have strong exercise goals. Instead, I'm focusing more on developing some wisdom or inner peace. Yeah, I probably should be in the Druids for this one, but I like it here. I'll still log my exercises, post training videos, and the like, just as I have for previous challenges. The goals will be kind of weird this time... Goal 1: Reduce the alcohol consumption. Only 1 drink/week is allowed. I'm not particularly concerned with losing weight or fat, but if I did wish to do so, my best approach would be eliminating the alcohol or calorie bearing drinks. Either way, it would be healthier to cut back a bit. Goal 2: Electronics off at 10 pm on Sunday-Thursday evening. No iPhone. No computer. No tv. After 10, it's reading time and then sleeping time. This will hopefully lead to an easier time falling asleep, less tiredness, and more reading. Should be wins all around. Goal 3: Stop taking life too seriously. Sometimes, I just get agitated or grumpy over minor things and just can't shake the funk. Other times, I hold back from doing things I want to do out of fear of looking silly or stupid. So, this is a two part goal: a) create a happiness folder on my computer of videos, pictures, or whatever that always make me chuckle. Whenever I'm feeling stressed or grumpy, look through the folder and get a good laugh. b.) I'm only permitted 1 time for the entire challenge where I don't do something out of fear of looking silly. Usually, this happens when I get the itch to work on hand balancing while at the gym or when I want to do some playground parkour, but I'm worried that people are looking at me. Goal 4: Cleaning. How can I find some degree of inner peace when my home is a disaster? Between my 2 young kids and the fact that both my husband and I are prone to clutter, the house is always a disaster. Goal is 10 cleaning tasks/week (excluding dishes and laundry, since there's a never ending stream of those). Goal 5: proper maintenance. My mobility isn't great. And my shoulders and wrists take a beating between the hand balancing, climbing, and rings. And I'm still quasi-rehabbing from the knee surgery. Goal is 2 hours of mobility work per week. I already do a decent amount of yoga, but I'm hoping to develop a habit of doing some brief mobility work when I'm waiting at the bus stop, cooking, or even during commercial breaks.