Search the Community

Welcome everyone, and Happy New Year! I do gymnastics, weightlifting and bodyweight skills of various styles (video: summer training sampler) and sleep far too late. I'm also a software engineer, mental calculation competitor and amateur composer. I've decided that 2016 is going to be epic, so I need to get started making that a reality. Goal #1: rest properly: the biggest thing that stops me from doing more fun stuff is not getting enough sleep. Therefore this challenge I'll have a simple but strict goal of having my laptop off before 0100 every day. This means I'll get about 8 hours of sleep (my alarm is for 0910 or later) but won't have to rush to brush teeth etc. before sleeping (rushing before sleeping is a bad idea). Scoring: for each week: 7 days with laptop off by 0100: +0.50 CON5 days with laptop off by 0100: +0.25 CONI'll start this at 2015-01-04 01:00:00 for 28 nights. Goal #2: solid workouts: to get back to my physical peak, I need to resume some serious strength training. Some things I'd like to achieve in the next few months: gymnastics rings: front and back leversbarbell squat 150% my bodyweightbench press 100% my bodyweightbar muscle-upone-handed push-upgo to a gymnastics competition/meetFor this goal I'll get: +0.50 STR for each full weightlifting session+0.25 STA for each 10-exercise bodyweight/rings workoutFor the latter, I'll be mainly doing randomized workouts. Explanation in spoiler: Goal #3: experiential happiness: I'm generally happy but it's worth learning more about what affects my mood, so I'll do an experiment. Details in spoiler: I already did a trial of this in December and learned that I need to prioritize sleep (hence goal #1 here). This challenge, I'll run an experiment in a separate thread (I'll post a link here when it's made) so that you and anyone else in the forum can try this sort of experiment too. +1.00 CHA for hacking my happiness. Goal #4: mental calculation training: The next Olympics of Mental Calculation and Memory Sports - "Memoriad" - is in November in Las Vegas, and I intend to compete and do well. I've competed before in a similar international competition but the standard is getting higher and I need to keep up! Over the holiday, I've made some training programs to improve weak areas, so this challenge is to train using these for 15 minutes, 4 times per week. +0.25 WIS for each week that I do this. Details of the events in the spoiler: Goal #5: the list: yep, this worked well last time so I'm doing the same again +0.25 for every item in this list that I check off by the end of January. Maximum +6.00 possible between this and goal #2. No bodyweight PR goals this time because that would make me focus on the wrong things... handstands: have a training session in my office (like I did in 2014 before they put a ping pong table in my training room)cartwheels: learn decent cartwheels on each side (I've been nearly there for a couple months)round-off: learn this gymnastics move (I know the theory but I can't yet do the technique)front handspring: do this consistently on floor (I've landed it before but most of the time I'd land on my ass)front flip: land this safely on floor (I've only done it onto soft surfaces as my technique is unreliable)front flip: bonus points for landing it on floorgymnastics rings: learn a front or back kip (not the same as a kipping muscle-up)1 mile run: as fast as possible for time (achieved in 6 min 25 sec)800 metre run: in 02:50 or lesscalendar dates: 40 in a minute (PR before challenge is 37)calendar dates: 42 in a minutecalendar dates: 44 in a minutecalendar dates: 46 in a minutecalendar dates: 48 in a minutecalendar dates: 50 in a minutesquare roots: second-best score of 315 (second-best before challenge is 308)square roots: second-best score of 330square roots: second-best score of 345square roots: second-best score of 360 (maximum possible)binary digits: refine and memorize algorithmbinary digits: refine and memorize algorithm (bonus point!)binary digits: try binary digits event without reference to notes Okay, so nice and straightforward as always Good luck everyone for the first-ever 4-week challenge. Looking forward to following your progress!