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It started with a bad morning, and it did not improve from there. Bad enough to wake up in what felt like someone else's body. Except Scalyfreak knew for a fact that it was her own. It was familiar. It just felt so different. A while later, there was the unpleasant discovery that her armor is gone. Along with her shield, and her broadsword. The corset style leather vest hanging off the armor stand instead fits perfectly, of course. As do the boots and the vambraces, and the sleek rapier, that is so light it feels like waving a knitting needle around. And where her backpack was placed last night, is a satchel, a beautiful dagger, and a couple of long hair pins. There was also a scroll, with specific directions. Hours later, the fire that has been humming inside Scalyfreak, tearing at the back of her mind all day long, begins to grow louder. And louder. She slows her steps, comes to a stop to take a deep breath and then, without hesitation, steps out into the large clearing where the scroll has informed her that Self-Sabotage can be found this afternoon. As with everything else the scroll's prediction is correct on this topic as well. The ugly beast stands quietly in the clearing, looking as smug as ever. The large monster lifts its head and almost lazily gives Scalyfreak a slow once-over, before it begins making that slow hissing noise that passes for laughter among its kind. The flames and their humming grow louder. It's starting to burn. “Oh, this wasn't my idea. But the quest scroll says this is what I'm doing now.” Scalyfreak glares at the ugly demon beast in front of her, and has the brief satisfaction of shutting up that hissing laughter. The quest scrolls are powerful, after all, and must be obeyed at all times, by everyone. Uneasy, feeling quite exposed without her armor on, Scalyfreak draws the uncomfortably flimsy looking rapier and feels a little bit better when her unfamiliar-feeling body automatically flows into a perfect fencing stance as if it has practiced the movement her entire life. But only a little. Self-Sabotage is formidable and brutal, and Scalyfreak is well aware that her heavy armor was all that kept her alive during some of their previous encounters. The armor she no longer has access to... and its absence is heavy and frightening. Self-Sabotage's hungry stare returns to Scalyfreak, eventually coming to a stop at her abdomen. While the monster most likely envisions feasting on spleen or liver, Scalyfreak hears the noise from the flames grow to a roar as the fire soars through her, demanding an outlet. As the giant monster begins to circle her, Scalyfreak decisively pushes her fear aside and focuses on the upcoming battle. She is the protagonist in her own story. She knows what to do, somehow, despite never having used a rapier before in her life. She moves closer, circling in the opposite direction to her opponent, while her left hand draws the ornate parrying dagger, and lifts it into a ready stance. And then she sets the flames free. For the very first time ever since I joined The Rebellion, I am doing a weight loss challenge. Spoilering the rest because weight loss talk. Keeping this new focus on cardiovascular health in mind, these are the goals for this challenge: Build HP (physical health) Another first time ever; This will actually be measured in PAI points! Becoming more active while learning how to use the PAI app and its measurement system all falls under this goal. (Many big thanks to @Ann of Owlshire and @oromendur for introducing me to PAI!) Restore Mana (mental health) Continue to meditate every day. The nature of this challenge will fuel The Flame and preemptive fire fighting will make all the difference. The mental health properties of working out also puts home workouts and gym workouts on the blue mana bar for this challenge. Build Stamina (emotional bandwidth) Keep up with the library reading challenge, stay engaged with the D&D campaign, listen to music, cook and eat good food, spend time with Husband and the Sidekicks. In short, do things that make me actually happy, not just things that feel good in the moment. Here we go. To battle. And lastly, a short intro behind the spoiler, because assuming everyone always understands my strange re-imagery would be a bit delusional.

[Preamble] Welcome to Owlshire, a beautiful woodland property in the Forest of Dean, England. I’m a 42 year old American woman living here with my British husband (Mr) and pre-school son (Enting). I work in gamedev and when I’m not doing that, I’m tending to my garden, doing needlework of some sort, writing, playing games (of various sorts), and exploring our local woodlands. [Goals] My fitness goals are thus: Reach Mordor Finally finish my (tracked) journey to Mordor. I’m 889 miles away! I’ve been wanting to complete this challenge since the early 00s (when it was called the Eowyn Challenge), and I’m sure I’ve been “there and back again” several times over, but I’ve never managed to track the whole thing. I want to finish my walking route to Mordor by November 2022. My goal for this challenge is 150 miles (which is an average of 25 miles a week). I will do this in a combination of longer walks but also just getting up and moving around more during the day. I can settle into my chair in my office in the morning and not get up again until lunchtime. I think it would be better to get up do shorter walks and activities on days I can’t do a longer one. More PAI Continue with PAI. For this challenge, I want to build up to an average score of 75 (and actually maintain it). I hope to do this both with my more exerting walks, but also by doing short impact cardio like burpees and jumping jacks when I can’t get out for one of those hilly walks. Less BMI (Updated Week Zero) I want to continue to reduce my BMI/weight. This will be done with increased activity and continuing to watch my portion sizes/limited snacking. I’m currently at 22.8 BMI, and I will count this goal successful if my BMI is less than it was before, or if my weight is less than it was the beginning of the challenge. (This is because BMI is a different measurement that may not “tick over” even if I’m still making progress.) Tracking will be done with a minimum of weekly updates, and of course will include plenty of Owlshire photospam. Level Up My Life: Driving Practice A non-fitness goal that I’m adding partially because it impacts my time for fitness, but also because it’s really important: practicing for my driving test. Here in the UK, Covid has caused understandable but huge delays—at the moment scheduling a practical driving test is around 6-10 months of lead time and if you fail or have to reschedule? You can wait that length of time again. My test is scheduled for 28 March and because of these ongoing delays, I’m under a lot of pressure to “one and done” that test. We live out in the country now, and being able to drive is critical, especially now that the Mr is going to start traveling for work again. So, my goal here is to minimum 2 (3 is better) practice drives a week, which is about what we can usually fit in. There is one week where Mr will be away for work that’ll impact that, but I’ll note that when we get to that week. Tracking will be done with a minimum of weekly updates, and of course will include plenty of Owlshire photospam. [Challenges] It’s likely that my husband will soon need to start commuting part of the week to his studio and I’ll be regularly solo-parenting which will require some routine adjustments. My household has a tendency to catch every germ (except, so far, Covid) that comes through the Enting’s preschool. I do not exaggerate when I say this happens about every other week. This tends to knock down my fitness goals since I become housebound looking after people even if I’m not sick myself. I’d really like to work on alternatives for when I can’t go for long hikes in the woods—which is my preference, but can’t always happen. Admin note: I always start on Week 0, and I track from Monday-Sunday.

[Preamble] Hi rebels! I’ve been on a challenge break, but recently started doing a Daily Weekly Battle Log/Epic Quest with some longer term fitness plans. I thought I’d join the holiday challenge madness and see if I can do a bit more! [About Me] I’m a 42 year old American woman living in the forests of England with my British husband and pre-school son. I work (remotely) on the narrative side of gamedev and when I’m not doing that, I’m tending to my garden, doing needlework of some sort, playing games (of various sorts), and exploring our local woodlands. [Goals] My fitness goals are pretty simple right now: Reach Mordor Finally finish my (tracked) journey to Mordor. I’m 1100 or so miles away! I’ve been wanting to complete this challenge since the early 00s (when it was called the Eowyn Challenge), and I’m sure I’ve been “there and back again” several times over, but I’ve never managed to track the whole thing. I want to finish my route to Mordor by November 2022. My ongoing goal is 20 miles a week, but for this challenge I’d like to stretch it to 30 miles a week. Eat PAI About this time last year, @oromendur introduced me to PAI, which wasn’t working well for me as a satifying metric early on, but I’ve decided to start tracking it again. For this challenge, I want to build up to an average score of 75 (and if I get there before Christmas, maintain it). I’m also shatteringly close to reaching my weight loss goal for the year, so hopefully I can hit that, too! Tracking will be done with a minimum of weekly updates, and of course will include plenty of photospam. Admin note: I always start on Week 0, and I track from Monday-Sunday. Week 0 is going to be an odd one—I’ll tell you more about it later!

I’m a 42 year old American woman living in the forests of England with my British husband and pre-school son. I work (remotely) on the narrative side of gamedev and when I’m not doing that, I’m tending to my garden, doing needlework of some sort, playing games (of various sorts), and exploring our local woodlands. Or at least, that’s what I want to do... The last year has been full of big changes—in November 2020 we moved from Central London to a woodland property in the Forest of Dean in the midst of this pandemic. I had stars in my eyes about spending my time gardening and wandering the woods with my young son (the Enting), but a couple of months after we arrived I was recruited for fantastic role, and while me returning to work was not in our plans for another couple of years, it was too good of an opportunity to pass up! But it does mean I’ve spent a lot more time indoors this year than I expected to, and I’ve done a lot less work around Owlshire as well. Add in several rounds of autumn colds and the darkness of coming winter and… well, it would easy to stay inert indoors under a fluffy blanket until next summer. I’m keen to feel strong again, get outdoors, and feel worthy of Owlshire! This is me, today.