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There's just something that soothes my soul about using remixed video game music - a decidedly nerdy thing - to drive myself to decidedly un-nerdy things like running miles and doing strength work. It makes me happy. In case you don't know, RisenPhoenix and Cheechoe threw down a gauntlet on me this past challenge: to compete with a team of Nerds in the Spartan Sprint at Fenway Park in Boston. This is an exciting thought to me: getting there means having a job which can handle the load of travel, lodging, and general expenses of going to an awesome city. To say nothing of the training that goes into running such a race well. I'm pumped about it. It's changed everything about how I train, and I feel really good about it. And it's inspired me to keep putting resumes out and leveraging my contacts and keep that upbeat, positive mental attitude that they say is necessary to survive these things. Anyway. The Rebel's Running Guide, which I'm using to prepare myself before the final eight-week push of the Spartan Sprint training, recommends finding races to test yourself and your training against. I found one. And, interestingly enough, they will let you race it for free if you volunteer. I like free things. So, I shall volunteer. The only downside is that the date of the race doesn't coincide with the challenge, which irks me. I mean, come on. Don't they know there's a Rebellion afoot? The real challenge isn't necessarily the training, though. The real challenge is me waking up and dealing with pain. My yearlong mission of bulletproofing myself is still quite underway. And even though I have much rigorous work to complete, it's useless if it destroys my body in the process. Also, I still need to do martial arts. I'm a freaking Monk GL after all. Getting punched in the face and working too hard are the things I do. Camp Gladiator - I need to get out and do this thing. This is part active recovery training, part professional development. I missed the first week's worth of camp due to snow, and I missed Monday's because I ended up on the wrong side of the park where they were holding training. No. More. I will have ten possible times I can make it out, and I need to do that. There's too much riding on it to not. +2 STA, +1 STR, +1 DEX Yoga - Well, all the active recovery stuff I did for my hips has done wonders, and I'm going to keep applying it as much as I am able to. Now we just have to address the rest of what's wrong with me - knee pain, thoracic pain, tightness in my lower back from standing too long at my desk. There are programs that exist to deal specifically with these things, but they cost money, and I don't got that to spend. Yoga seems like the next best alternative, and I'm working with the Druids to figure out how to go about that. That's probably going to be a Monday/Friday thing as well - I'm already using those days for active recovery stuffs anyway, and as long as I'm gentle and conscientious with myself, there's no reason this can't work. +2 CON, +2 WIS Integrated Martial Arts Training - So far, this part hasn't worked too good. I set out originally to do an increasing scale and grease the groove with movements throughout the day. That bombed. I had some more success with cutting back on that and just making sure to throw some combinations, but it's still not clicking yet. Most recently, though, I've had more luck with doing martial arts skill work alongside my regular training. Thus far, that's taken the form of MMA follow-along videos done before the runs for fancy science reasons that I'll be glad to rant about if you want me to. I think that this might be the answer - combining martial arts with my regular training and lumping it all together. We'll start small with combinations and uchikomi, and if it takes, we can explore some further integrations. +3 DEX, +2 CHA (because fighters are cool). LIFE GOAL: Professionalism - I gotta get a job. But I know that even if I work for it, there's a possibility that it will take more than six weeks to get the job. I have no interest in being penalized for that. So, here's what I want to hold myself to: 20 resume subs per week; and five CPT pitches on Thumbtack per week. The CPT pitches can and probably will vary depending on how many people are available for me to pitch, but it is what it is, and I'll be completely transparent about that. +1 WIS, +1 DEX Also, I'll be logging workouts here, just because. Also, Convict Conditioning is kicking my ass in the best possible way, and I want to share the beautiful pain with you all. Let's go to work!