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JK it’s me Jonesy! Netflix finally added Moana to their streaming and I think I’ve watched this movie 3 times in the last week, It’s like I’m 5. Since the songs have been stuck in my head, I decided to use it for my challenge theme. I’m also going to incorporate my game into this challenge. The points for activities at least. Overall Passing Points Goal = 584 Stronger than you think I like improving on my dead hangs so I want to keep that going. For other workouts, I need to do at least 2 a week. I failed pretty hard at having regular workouts last challenge. Dead Hangs (PR 10s) Bodyweight Workouts Cardio Workouts Wayfinding for the soul I love the idea of a routine but I struggle following them. I want to change this. Part of me wants the structure but the other part wants to do what I feel like I want to do...not necessarily what I NEED to do. Again, I want to change this. So for both zero weeks I’m going to work on creating some routines and then seeing how well I follow them for the challenge. create a workout routine to follow create a morning routine to follow create a nightly routine to follow create a household routine to follow Week 1-4 TBD Points awarded for routines Don’t be tricked by shiny things With the increased Regional transit authority (RTA) tax for my car this year ($250 more than last year) I really need to save up for my Sept/October bill. I also realized that I spent WAAAAY too much money on take out. Like embarrassingly too much. Zero week I’ll spend some time, not money, creating a monthly budget and possible the weekly ones. Create a Monthly and Weekly budget Bills identified and paid Set spending for week and stay equal or under Unplanned spending on food will result in negative points

TO DEFEAT Whoops wrong movie.. Now that you won’t ever get that song out of your head...you’re welcome! What would a bunch of Disney themed challenges be without Mulan? It was about time I finally had this theme especially because it’s time to get down to business. No simple challenge like last time. Calories 0/28 days (Passing 14) I’ve hit a wall in regards to my weight. I’m losing one or two pounds but then I gain 5 back and repeat over and over. While I still continue to workout, I’ve failed to evaluate my eating because I like food and am scared I’ll have to make changes. I know I’ll have to make changes. Sigh. My plan this challenge is to determine my TDEE and record my calories and macros. I’m not going to plan out my calories just yet because I want to see what I’ve been doing. If anyone knows how to determine their TDEE, hook me up with some links. Dead Hangs 0/28 days (Passing 20) So last challenge I finally put my pull up bar back up and decided to take a chance and see if I could at least hang off it. I PR’d at 5 seconds… Workouts 0/15 (Passing 12) Same as last challenge. I want to keep up my workouts and plan 3 workout days a week. This time I’m included my zero week ones. Adulting 0/5 Tasks This is always a good life goal for me. Apparently I need a challenge to actually do stuff.

I am seriously busted up. I ran my first ever OCR just a few days ago: Savage Race in Atlanta. And I have to say this: I cannot wait to do another one. It might be some time before I get to do another one -- this shit is expensive! -- but it's on the list for sure. First things first: I finished, which was my only goal. Perhaps the low-hanging fruit, there, but for a first race, not knowing what to expect, it seemed silly to look for more. And I finished respectably: Within the top 50% of finishers, both overall and within my age group. Which I think is pretty awesome! The course itself was nasty even without the obstacles, some of the most ridiculous hills I've ever run (or walked) on; with the obstacles, it was absolutely brutal. I had hoped to finish the race in under two hours, and I missed that by a damn sight, coming in just at two and a half. But that's okay! There is always room for improvement, and seeing as I can't wait to sign up for another race, I might as well start the training now: and that's what this challenge is about. Out of 27 obstacles, I only failed to finish three of them, so that's where I'm focusing for this challenge. I failed on a climbing wall halfway across, I failed on some upsy-downsy monkey bars (Sawtooth, if you're familiar) just past halfway, and I failed on some ropes (think Ninja Warrior finals, stage 2) almost immediately. See what those obstacles have in common? I do! GRIP STRENGTH and DEAD HANGS. I've been working pull-ups for the past year or so, and I've gotten pretty solid at them, but it's one thing to practice pull-ups in the controlled environment of my garage or a lonely playground; it's another to count on that strength when you're suspended ten feet in the air on the fifteenth rung of a devilish set of monkey bars. My goal for the next OCR I tackle is completing EVERY obstacle, which means I need to shore up that grip strength. So: 1. Grip Strength. I've got some trainers (the clampy thingies) at my job, and I need to be practicing -- and improving! -- on those every day. Currently I can do about five reps on the 200lb grip, but I'd like to get that up to ten reps by the end of the challenge. That means working them a little bit every day, which is easy enough when I'm at work. I also need to work on some different grips, since it's not always about the lovely solid bar, so I'm going to try doing some rope work (the ROTC room at my school has some ropes, so maybe I'll go make some friends there). 5 days a week drilling grip strength. Let's grow some new calluses. 2. Dead Hangs. This is something I haven't even trained, and now, looking at where I came up short, it feels like a tremendous oversight. I'll be honest: I don't even know how long I can hold a dead hang in pull-up position. So -- first things first, get a max-duration dead hang, and then, build upon that. Arbitrarily I'd like to improve my dead hang duration by 20%. That seems reasonable, but who the hell knows? We'll adjust this goal as the challenge develops. 3. Just keep running. Running is the heart and soul of my training, and it's going well, but I'm also coming off the medication I've been on for three months for my plantar fasciitis. The most important thing is keeping the runs consistent and stretching regularly throughout the day so that I can continue running without pain. Four runs a week, with foot stretches and ankle mobility exercises every day. EVERY DAY, you lazy non-stretcher, you. (Body weight exercises and pull-ups and the paces and distances of my runs are incidental but baked into this challenge, so I'll be documenting those if not focusing on them.) So, yeah. I took a challenge off because things were so overwhelming at my new job, but the new routine is pretty much in place, so it's time to get back on the horse and get back to some NF challenges. Let's get down to business.