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I'm back! This is a no frills challenge. I haven't the energy or time yet to devote to themes or narrative. But I'm here, and I'll do my best to keep up! Stepping back was probably what I needed, but I missed you guys! I'm back, and I'm ready to jump back into the swing of the challenges. The mental stuff... yeah, that may crop up in this thread but I'm trying to focus on more positive things as well. Anyway, onto the goals! I have ALOT happening in the next couple weeks. TM with @jonfirestar next weekend, Rat Race with a host of awesome nerds on the 12th May, Pen y Fan (24km there and back again journey) the week after.... and a trip up to the Peaks on the 4th for a couple days (therapy... finally summoned the courage to get a professional to help with the stuff in my head). To prepare for this, my training schedule is also looking fairly busy. I signed up to BreakPoint's Prime Evolution programme. 12 weeks with Mind, Body (workouts) and Nutrition (clean eating) elements. I love it so far, and following this forms the bulk of my goals. But I am also doing BMF 2 - 3 times a week (2 on the weeks I have stuff on at the weekend). Goals: 1. Follow the Prime Evolution Body section 7/7 This consists of 6 workouts a week, plus a rest day. Sounds intense, but 2 of these workouts are 'mobility days', mostly yoga type movements. Each workout is 20 minutes long, plus a 6 minute warm up and 6 minute cool down. 2. Follow the Prime Evolution Mind section 7/7 Sounds corny, but I think this will be the most important part of the programme. It's about reconfirming to yourself your goals, forging discipline, learning breathing techniques, visualization, etc. It's about changing your approach to more positive ways of thinking. 3. Follow the Prime Evolution Nutrition section 7/7 This one is self-explanatory. No junk, no refined sugar, no processed foods. This requires me cooking more, but so long as meal prep happens, this shouldn't be an issue. Also, warmer weather means my brain is less resistant to the idea of salads for lunch. Each of these sections earns me one point a day, so a maximum of 3 a day or 21 a week. My goal is to hit 21-20 points. (I will sometimes sacrifice a point for a cheat meal!) I could add BMF as a goal, but if I can go, I do go, so I shouldn't need the prodding. Also, my attendance will get a little more choppy, with the races, events and other stuff filling up my weekends.

Why is the Rum Gone? Step One- alcohol limited to wine events ONLY. Step Two- Track what I am eating. Set reminders to track food consistently. Booty- If I succeed at this during weekdays, every week for a challenge, my reward is going to update my phone (time for a new one mine is cracked and glitch-tastic) Swab the Deck Matey Schedule chores and do them before gaming. Monday-Kitchen. Tuesday- vacuum. Wednesday-Bathroom. Thursday-cat litter and garbage. Friday-Saturday- chore free. Sunday- cat litter and laundry. Booty- If I succeed at following this plan for the entire challenge, my reward is taking a weekend off and going to see my best friend (to be scheduled) Short Drop and a Sudden Stop Do the steps challenge for myself daily to get my cardio level elevated. Occasional days missed to rest/ life allowed, but MUST do at least 5 days a week. Booty- If I succeed, my reward will be beating some of my demons back into their playpen. Hoist the Sails Workouts- Teaching Mondays and Fridays, if class is cancelled, do hammer and chisel total body workout anyways. Tuesdays and Thursdays are spin classes, if cannot make it, do treadmill cross country work. Wednesdays are groupfit class. If cancelled or cannot make it, do Les Mills Combat 60 min workout. Saturday is flexibility work and outside time if possible. If not possible, do Les Mills Combat 45 min. Sundays are rest with light flexibility work. Booty- Getting sexy back. A Pirate’s Life for Me Take care of myself. Honestly take care of head as well as body. When the demons come out to play I am allowed to call for back up. I do not have to fight alone.

OK, this is the new challenge and right now my main goal is .... waiting. In 13 hours, I'll be running the Spartan Beast. After that, I'll be resting, recovering and having fun with my family and offline for a while. When I get back, then I'll set new goals based on how I did at the Beast because I'm running the Beast at the Spartan World Championships in 2 months. I'm basically bookmarking this challenge by a Beast on either side. The challenge this time through will be to figure out what to do to hopefully make the next Beast better. It will likely include lots of running, burpees and PLP for starters. We'll see where it goes from there. Not much of a thread so far, huh? Well, hopefully I'll have enough energy tomorrow to give a race report after the Beast. Or you know, I'd like to survive it, too. Yeah, surviving would be good. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- ... and now I'm back from vacation and ready to actually do a challenge. I need to take what I learnt from the Beast and get ready for the Vermont Beast. What did I learn from the Beast? There was lots of running and LOTS of hills. Running, especially hills, is a priority. My legs hurt for 4 days after the Beast, all in the quads. Hill runs should help that. But leg strength is also a priority so that I can still use my legs when I'm done. During the race, I failed one obstacle which was all upper body. The second hardest obstacle was also upper body. I'd love to conquer all the obstacles sometime. Now could be that sometime, right? 1. You thought you ran before ... Run a minimum of 50K each week.Long run each week is at least 25K and can't be more than 50% of my weekly total.At least one run each week where the hills kick my ass. (hill sprints, long runs on hills, etc.)The only exception is the last week of the challenge, where I'll start tapering. 2. Legs like tree trunks. Daily burpees. You can't be a spartan and not do it. The goal is a set of 30 burpees everyday, but I might mix it up to do intervals or sprints of them just to keep it fresh.Another round of PLP. Starting this round at 10 reps. (on day 5 so far) I'm going to increase the lunge portion by doing jumping lunges instead of normal lunges.Starting Body Weight Progressions for squats. 2x per week as I still want to get to the gym at least once a week and lift heavy stuff. 3. Arms like boulders. Daily burpees. Love them or hate them, they work.PLP is here, too. Pull ups are the same, but I'll try to use fewer sets. Push ups are going to be elbows-in push ups to make them harder.Starting Body Weight Progressions for pull ups. 2x per week. OK, so far this is looking just like the legs goal. We can throw a little twist in there.Practice climbing a rope using only arms 1/week. I did it up a playground pole on vacation. This seems like the next logical progression. And it would be cool. 4. Spartan tech I'm going to simplify the data streams into the house. At the end of the day, I don't know if it will make it so we watch less TV, but it should make it much cheaper to do so. I'm not looking to pirate or stream illegally. But even legally, there are a lot of options to cut down costs and still have a good setup. Cancel long distance plan (cell phone has unlimited long distance)Get a digital antennaeGet a laptop, desktop, smartbox, whatever to stream mediaSwitch internet to unlimited bandwidth.Subscribe to NetflixCut the cable 5. Learning Tricks I always like learning some new tricks for body control. The Starting Body Weight Progressions has some of these and a list of physical requirements you should have in place in order to try them out. When I work on my squats and pull ups, I'm going to throw these in, too- either work on the trick, or work on the prerequisite I need to learn the trick. First up, crow stand!