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Luke Skywalker: Oh, come on! How could you know my father? You don't even know who I am. Oh, I don't even know what I'm doing here! We're wasting our time!Yoda: [sighs, looks upward] I cannot teach him. The boy has no patience.Obi-Wan Kenobi: [voice emanates from nowhere] He will learn patience.Yoda: Much anger in him, like his father.Obi-Wan Kenobi: Was I any different when you taught me?Yoda: He is not ready!Luke Skywalker: Yoda? I am ready! I— Ben, I can be a Jedi! Ben tell him I'm rea— [bangs his head on the low ceiling] Ow!Yoda: [to Luke] Ready are you? What know you of ready? For 800 years have I trained Jedi. My own counsel will I keep on who is to be trained! A Jedi must have the deepest commitment, the most serious mind. This one, a long time have I watched. All his life has he looked away to the future, the horizon. Never his mind on where he was [pokes Luke]. Hmm? What he was doing. [paces around] Adventure. Heh! Excitement. A Jedi craves not these things. [turns to Luke and points with his walking stick] You are reckless!Obi-Wan Kenobi: So was I, if you remember.Yoda: [still looking at Luke] He is too old. Yes. Too old to begin the training.Luke Skywalker: But I've learned so much.Yoda: [looking toward the sky] Will he finish what he begins?Luke Skywalker: I won't fail you! I'm not afraid.Yoda: [grimly] Oh! You will be. You will be. Main Goal I'm planning to to to Blue Mountain, Ontario, in October for the 2017 OCR World Championships. I could register right now as a Journeyman as I have completed the requisite three or more qualifying events since the last Championships. I don't want to just show up as an enthusiastic course-filler, though. I want to qualify as an Age Group competitor by earning my spot through competition. The black one on the left is what I'm after. How realistic is this goal? On July 30, 2016, I finished 24 minutes behind the OCRWC qualifier time for the 50-54 age group at Savage Race Chicago.This past February 25, I ran the Spartan Sprint in Arizona while sick as hell and finished 15 minutes behind the final OCRWC qualifier time. I am working with a running coach who has given me a plan to increase my speed over distance. I know I'm getting better, but I believe I still have time to make up. I've used my 10k time as my guideline for improvement, since it's the same distance or longer than my two A races for this year; over the past year and a half, I've knocked about 10 minutes off my PR for 10k and am working to trim even more off by the end of July, when my two "A" Races are held: Savage Race Chicago, July 30 Conquer the Gauntlet Des Moines, August 5 What will it take for me to get there? I now have 10 weeks to close the gap on my competition. I'm still slow enough over distance that some solid dedication will trim off large chunks of time, though. As I identified before the last challenge, it's going to take me, getting out of my head, casting off my own perceived limitations, and pushing beyond my comfort zone. What I want is still on the other side of comfortable. I'm not going to let the two races in this challenge cycle - the Chicago Spartan Super and Sprint on June 10-11, and the Minnesota Spartan Sprint at the end of this cycle on June 24 - alter my training toward my goal. I'm going to be doing a boatload of hills between now and June 24, because if I don't, I will die on the ski hill here at home, but that won't replace anything in my schedule, and it will make me a better runner overall anyway. The Chicago and Minnesota Spartans are B (Chicago Sprint) and C races on my calendar, and will be run accordingly. I will not be risking injury or fighting my way off-trail (like the hard-core "ON YOUR LEFT" people who expect others to yield during a section of a bushwhacked single-track and then leap through the brush when you can't, while cursing loudly) during either one of these events. I aim to enjoy all three, and if an OCRWC qualifier occurs at any, well, that's great, too. I've got ten weeks. Goal: Faster I've become faster than I was - three of my last four road races were all personal bests, and the fourth met a goal time - but if I want to be faster, I've got to run, consistently. Two challenges ago I put on more consistent miles and started getting the hoped-for results. Last challenge I got a new running plan from my coach, Josh, and I just set a PR in a 5k in terrible conditions at the end of the last challenge, even though I missed my own personal goal time. Now it's time to put on some significant mileage and be able to sustain those paces for longer, in order to achieve my goals. This will be the schedule for this challenge: Week Zero: 3 miles VO2 Max Monday, Hills Tuesday, 4 miles Lactate Threshold Wednesday, 3 miles Thursday for consistency, Hills Friday, 10 miles Saturday, Incline Trainer Sunday Week One: 3 miles VO2 Max Monday, Hills Tuesday, 4 miles Lactate Threshold Wednesday, 3 miles Thursday for consistency, Hills Friday, Badass Dash followed by 4 mile trail run Saturday, Incline Trainer Sunday Week Two: 3 miles VO2 Max Monday, Hills Tuesday, 4 miles Lactate Threshold Wednesday, 3 miles Thursday for consistency, Hills Friday, Chicago Spartan Super Saturday, Chicago Spartan Sprint Sunday Week Three: 3 miles VO2 Max Monday, Hills Tuesday, 4 miles Lactate Threshold Wednesday, 3 miles Thursday for consistency, Hills Friday, 10 miles Saturday, Hills Sunday Week Four: 3 miles Monday, 3 miles Tuesday, 3 miles Wednesday, 3 miles Thursday, Minnesota Spartan Sprint Saturday (this is also my annual Youth Group Mission Trip week, hoo boy), trail run Sunday Yes, I'm planning on either running or climbing hills almost every day for the next 10 weeks. This is what it's going to take. Goal: Stronger This has been working, but they moved one of my lift days at the gym. I'm replacing it with Boot Camp due to convenience. I need to be more consistent with my own body-weight workouts. Part 1: Week Zero: Lift Day Tuesday, Boot Camp Thursday, Obstacle Academy Friday, OCR WOW Weekend Week One: Lift Day Tuesday, Boot Camp Thursday, Obstacle Academy Friday, Badass Dash Saturday Week Two: Lift Day Tuesday, Boot Camp Thursday, Chicago Spartan Super/Sprint Weekend Week Three: Lift Day Tuesday, Boot Camp Thursday, Obstacle Academy Friday, OCR WOW Weekend Week Four: Youth Group Mission Trip where I'll be doing manual labor all week, MN Spartan Sprint Saturday Part 2: Continuing the Grease the Groove pull-up training method I stole gratuitously from @Big_Show. I'll be recording the total number of pull-ups completed every day, not just full dead-hang strict pull-ups. I wanted to average at least 20 per day over the last challenge, but it was more like 12-15. I'm aiming for 15 to 20 per day this time around. Part 3: Also during the last challenge, I tried to accumulate 200 push-ups per day; this wound up being more like 60 to 120 per day. I'm going to try again, shooting for 120 to 200 per day. Not hard if I get in a few sets of 20 during my workday at my desk. Challenge Plan Summary I can do this. Goal: Smaller I know my macros work. I'm still trying to refine so that I meet goals based on my daily needs; I'll be sticking with what I set the last time around, because actually meeting these targets daily was not so much "hit and miss" as "stormtrooper-level miss". 10 weeks of dedication to attempt to meet a goal I set before the first of the year. That's only two challenge cycles; not quite the home stretch right now, but I can see it from here, and I need to be ready. Here we go. We all know what Yoda would say here.

I think the miles really will take care of themselves this challenge. I don’t have a mileage goal because I’m doing races the next 3 weekends and then will need to recover a bit. But I do have two running goals: 1. [9 week challenge] 50 hill repeats. This one will end at the end of this 4-week challenge. At time of writing I have 24 done and 26 to go. 2. [6 week challenge] 50 strides. This one includes the 4-week period and the “zero weeks” before and after. 30 seconds of quick running, usually done in sets of 4 at the beginning and/or end of a workout. I think this goal is good because it builds some useful flexibility and power into my stride. And some non-running goals: 3. 60 chin-up negatives. This goal is mostly a placeholder to make myself go to the gym regularly, but I'm racheting this up from earlier challenges! I’m going to try doing a few more with each gym session. I’m also going to slowly start adding pushups back in. I miss them. 4. Log calories 5 days per week with daily average below 2300 each week. I need to get back on track here. The higher limit should help, but it’s still easy to go over if I eat junk. 5. Drink at least 1 liter of water at least 20 days of challenge (aiming for 5/week). This also isn’t hard, but I haven’t been doing it. Water I drink while running doesn’t count. Other things: I’m gonna clear out this list: (1) Make vet appointment, (2) Call new doctor, (3) Call drywall repair people, (4) Get one new piece of furniture, (5) Get a massage. These are all things I’ve been putting off for a long time, even the massage. I’m gonna get them ALL done. For most of them, doing the job is its own reward, but as a bonus, if I do them all, I’m going out for sushi.

Hello Fellow Rebels! I'm starting from scratch. The last few challenges I've to structure "just so" and failed. Well, I've learned from those failures; I've learned that I need to be simple. What does that mean? It means that I'm focusing on one thing and trying not to get sidetracked. The One Thing? Running. I signed up for the Philadelphia Rock 'n Roll Half-Marathon this year. I ran that same half-marathon two years ago on a broken foot (suffered at mile 3) and I want to do it again - just not with the broken foot. I need to stick to my schedule. So, shortly, I'm going to post my schedule here and, I'm hoping, you guys will hold me accountable. FOR THE REBELLION!

So on July 19 I will be running the 0 SPF trail half marathon. It is put on by my local and favorite trail running group. I was so disappointed last year when it filled up when I was on the fence on signing up so this year I signed up for it on the first day. The most challenging aspect of this race is that in that short 13.1 miles is 4600 feet of elevation change (that is almost as much elevation change as the 50K I ran last November had in total). So I need to work on hills, specifically hill endurance, and longer trail runs. I think realistically I should be able to break three hours, so I want to make sure I get up to the running time throughout this challenge. I also have a 5k the weekend before, and will not do any specific training for it and just rely on my half marathon training. Main Quest For this challenge, focus on trail half marathon training. Overall, just improve my running. Goals 1) Average six hours total cardio a week Double my target long run, and should build a good base and help encourage desired long runs. +4 STA 2) At least two hill specific workout a week Need to work both on single long uphill endurance (a few really long hills) and rolling hill endurance (many hill repeats on shorter hills). +3 STR +2 DEX 3) Eat primally and have less than 800 deviant calories a week I have tried this before and it works sometimes just to track the deviant calories. Hopefully weigh less and easier to move up those hills. Grading based on 800 (A) and 2400 (F). +3 CON +1 WIS 4) Tidy up twice a day Certain rooms such as the workshop, playroom, storage room and garage don't stay tidy long, hopefully this will help with that. +2 CHA Stats LVL: 15, STR: 15, DEX: 19.5, STA: 27, CON: 8, WIS: 13.25, CHA: 8.25

This challenge is fairly similar to my last, but with some twists to keep it interesting. I have two half-marathon races during this challenge, and I’ll be gearing up for a marathon in early June. I think adding the hill work will really help me in these races. 1. Go the distance. Run 150 miles. This was a good goal for me last time, so I’m going to give it another try. (Max 4 pts Stamina). 2. Tough it out. Run 40 hill repeats If 40 is ‘over the hill’ then I have something to prove! To count toward the goal, I have to run the hill at least twice in a row (single climbs don’t count).(Max 3 pts Strength). 3. Stay strong. Cross train 3x per week Cross training can be anything (20+ min). Within this goal, I want to work on push-ups at least twice a week. I’m working up to 40 knee push-ups in a row (I got up to 31). Once I get there, I’ll move into inclines. I also plan to work on wheel pose (yoga) each week. I want to be able to do this on my paddleboard this summer!(2 points Strength and 2 points Dex). 4. Don’t fear the green. Dark leafy greens once a week. Things like baby bok choi, swiss chard, and even a spinach salad count. Lettuce doesn’t. (1 pt Con; Full point if I get 5 weeks). 5. Life side quest: 6 Dreaded Tasks I have a list of things I really should do, but have been avoiding…ranges from going to the dentist to paying my taxes to fixing the flat tires on my bike. Some of these are more avoidable than others. I have to pick 6 things on the list and get them done. (3 pts Wis).

Hit a high for hill climbs this year! 4766 feet of elevation gain! http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/204205813/848535