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Nic walks into the Ranger Headquarters after her last mission. She had hit some minor setbacks, but understood that the setbacks were a result of her strict new training regimen-- her body simply wasn't up to the task because it was growing stronger. But now, it was time to prove herself again. Nodding at the guildmaster, Nic makes her way to the Assistant Quartermaster to return her equipment. "One set of magic rings of levitation, one bow, the short sword, 10 knives." Nic each item on the counter as she listed the item, pulling each one out of her trusty rucksack. "Welcome back," the QM replied. "You're going to need those again. Report to Bev in Assignments, she has a new mission for you." The QM paused, "Come back when you're done with Bev. I have some things you'll need. Leave this stuff here," he gestured to the tools Nic had already taken out, "you're going to want to repack when you get the new equipment." Nic silently raised an eyebrow at this. Nodding, she left the ruck behind, but grabbed a dagger off the counter and put it on her belt. Just in case. You never know when a knife might come in handy, after all. Having armed her self, she then walked over to Mission Assignments, also known as the bar. "I heard you have a mission for me, Bev." Nic sat down in front of Bev, who was manning the bar. Bev efficiently whipped out a coaster and then set a nice tall glass of Harrendahl mead in front of Nic. Nic gave a grin at the quick service. Bev remembered everyone's orders and always knew what suited their mood. "Good to see you again, Nic! Long time no see." Bev was right on that point. Nic had been on a free-lance training mission for the past month, after failing a previous assignment. "Listen, when this mission came up, I had to give it to you. It's perfect. So you know the Mar'saat Raiders in the Western Reach? They're looking for some help. Someone tough, motivated, but unlikely to be stopped by the Warlord's forces. They're short a few members after that battle in the Weir Woods." "The Raiders? Really?" Nic knew of the Raiders. They were some of the toughest of the Rangers-- legendary for their strength and speed. They were a key unit in the Rebellion, great at smuggling supplies into beseiged villages or ambushing Warlord Dzanai's forces. They epitomized what it meant to be a Ranger, in Nic's eyes. "See? I knew you'd be interested. They're looking for someone to help them smuggle supplies from the base in the Reach to a small fishing village at on the coast. They'll be able to tell you more when you get there, but they're expecting you at the beginning of next week. Go see the QM. He'll have what you need." Draining the mead, Nic gave a quick "thanks!" to Bev and headed back to the QM. He had replaced the bow that she had returned with a bo staff. Nic was grateful-- the bo staff was her preferred weapon. In addition to the bo staff and other weapons, the QM had added in a new pair of boots ("Extra light, so that you can run faster, but durable enough for all terrain, and enchanted to drain water if they get wet,"), a map to the base at the Western Reach ("burn it once you've memorized it-- don't want Dzanai's forces to get a hold of it and read it."), and a new half-cloak ("a little easier to run with, than that long one you've got on."). "See you in a month, Ranger. Come back safe." Nic smiled, thanked the QM, and walked out the door. She had a mission to do.

Hello, friends! I used to be an active member about 3-4 years ago, but sadly dropped off the forum as time went on. However, I really missed the community here and have some new workout goals to meet, and so I decided to come back! A bit about myself: I'm a 26 year-old attorney (graduated in 2017) who is trying to make a significant career shift by applying to the United States Marines Corp! I would still be a lawyer, but the work I'd be doing if I get in is the kind of work I want to do. Why the Marines? Well, why not? The physical standards for Marines are arguably the toughest out of all of the service branches, and I really like that they want their attorneys to be as in shape as any infantry officer. I also want to be a resource to and for women in the military, and the best way to do this is by being there. My long-term goals: 1) apply and get accepted to Officer Candidate School (OCS) by passing a Physical Fitness Test (PFT) 2) pass OCS and get my commission 3) be able to max out on pull-ups (12 for female Marines) 4) live a healthier, happier life 5) become more knowledgeable about Stoicism 6) continue developing and improving my language skills (Polish and French) Goals for this challenge: Physical goals: 1) Get to at least 2 consecutive pull-ups. I am currently able to do 1 pull-up without assistance. The minimum requirement is 4, starting 1 January 2019. This means I have to figure out how to do 4 consecutively by the time the selection board meets to select candidates in mid-March. My short-term goal is to be able to do 2 consecutive pull-ups consistently by the end of the challenge. • How to accomplish this? - "Greasing the groove" by doing assisted (resistance band) pull-ups whenever I walk by my pull-up bar as well as making them the focus of my strength building workouts Monday, Wednesday, and Friday 2) Rehab the knee and get better at running again I sprained my knee back in November, and it's finally recovered. It was a minor sprain (grade 1, no surgery needed, just a compression sleeve on the knee and no running or excessive lower body movement), and after 4 weeks of recovery, it's better! However, I don't want to do too much too soon and resprain my knee, so my goal for this challenge is to incorporate running just twice a week back into my workout schedule, as well as walking more regularly. My goal is to get back down to my 8 minute mile, 24:21 3 mile time for my PFT. • How am I going to accomplish this? - Do one sprint session a week and one 1-2 mile run a week to build up the strength in my knee again. - Walk whenever possible, and take breaks to take walks if necessary at work - Take the stairs at the office!!! - Slowly integrate squats (both bodyweight and with weight) back into my workouts to strengthen my knee 3) continue building core strength Crunches are a PFT requirement. I'd like to be able to max out and get a full score on crunches for my PFT (110 in 2 minutes) • How am I going to accomplish this? - Have a family member hold my feet while I practice crunches in 1 or 2 minute sessions to improve abdominal strength 4 times a week. If no family member is free, stick my feet under some furniture and go! Intellectual goals: 1) Practice my language skills and continue to improve I used to have near-native fluency in French. Sadly, a lack of practice is causing me to forget a lot of what I know! I'm also learning Polish so I can communicate with my mom's side of the family more (my grandmother speaks no English) as well as connect more with my culture and heritage. • How am I going to accomplish this? - Practice Polish on Duolingo for at least 5 minutes a day every day. Duolingo is far from perfect, but I've learned a lot in the past couplele of months and I want to keep improving! - Read at least 1 news article in French per week and 1 book or short story in French this month. I have a subscription to the Monde (French newspaper) and a couple of French novels in my house! I have no excuse for missing this goal. 2) Build a healthy mindset by studying and implementing Stoic practices I'm a recent student of Stoic philosophy (I've been teaching myself since this summer), and while I've read a lot, it's time to start implementing what I've learned. For this month, I'm going to focus on practicing gratitude (an important Stoic practice!) as well as practicing reframing my more negative thoughts and habits • How am I going to accomplish this? - I have included a gratitude page in my bullet journal for the month of January! I'm going to write down 1 thing I'm grateful for each and every day this month - Stay up-to-date with the Stoic philosophy podcasts I listen to, and make sure I'm actively listening and absorbing what I'm hearing - Practice mindfulness every day. If I encounter a stress point or obstacle, approach it rationally rather than immediately getting stressed out 3) Clean up my diet... Again The holidays got me again! Snacks and sweets everywhere, and I am particularly susceptible to dark chocolate and praline pecans that just happen to be in the house (and unfortunately, I can't just get rid of them. My mom bought them and I'm still living with my parents because living costs are high here in MA and because if I get into the Marines, there's no point in moving if I'm going to Quantico in 6 months!). I need to cut down on my snacking and eat cleaner again. • How am I going to accomplish this? - Replace my snacking habits with a specific time of day to enjoy a piece of chocolate or dessert - EDIT: new mini challenge: drink a minimum of 2L (or 64 Oz) of water a day! Other things of note: I have 2 formal events this month: a med school formal and a black tie wedding! I need to make sure I don't go off track because of travelling. I'm excited for this challenge! EDIT: I've gotten rid of the food tracker portion of my challenge because it takes a lot of time and I don't have a scale to measure foods accurately. It also just isn't very practical while I'm at work to spend time inputting recipes or trying to figure out how to eyeball my homemade food. I've also edited the crunches portion so I can stick my feet under furniture to practice crunches.

For those just joining me, I’m Quickdraw, your friendly neighborhood United States Marine Sergeant. I’ve spent the last two challenges preparing to slay my biggest personal dragon, the Marine Corps Physical Fitness Test (PFT) this Saturday. My goal score is 250/300. My dream job assignment (teaching at my job school) is contingent on getting that goal score, because fitness is what we do. I’ve been training hard and I expect to completely succeed on Saturday. Which means only one thing: Done, done, and I’m on to the next one. I need another quest to pursue. Main Quest We take two annual fitness tests. Sometime in the fall, I’ll be tested on the Combat Fitness Test (CFT), which is very, very different from the PFT. I intend to score above a 290 on that test; I’ve previously run a score in the 270s. I also have it in my head to run the local half marathon, and participate in a Spartan Race/GORUCK/Tough Mudder (the more the better). Those events are all merely symptoms of the physical condition I need to be in for the CFT, though. The CFT is what matters, and that 290 is my Main Quest. A note on scoring Last challenge I used a system of Miss/Block/Hit/Power Attack/Critical to track my achievement levels. Calculating those values daily was getting a little demanding, so the simplified version works as such: I score 1 point/day/exercise off the list. Hit/Power/Critical will be assessed on a weekly basis instead of daily. Bonus activities are worth a variable amount of extra points at the end of the test. Final grade scale per quest is A-F in 10% increments out of the total possible 6 weeks*weekly critical hit value. Subquest #1: Upper body The CFT calls for some very different upper body fitness, but I want to maintain my progress on pullups. To cut down my pure reps and give my poor shoulders a BREAK, I’m doing my Armstrong Program pullups with my backpack with a 10 lbs brick (yup, that’s what counts as a “break†around here). Every time I regain Training Set 6 (the number of reps-per-set at which I can perform 9 sets with 1 minute break between sets), I’ll add another 5 lbs to the pack. By next years PFT, I want to do 20 pullups with 35# in the pack, representing the weight I was my first time here at this school 6 years ago. All the other exercises are meant to improve my performance on the scored 30# ammo can press on the CFT. The scoring thresholds are meant to allow for some rest days on the ammo-press training. Pullups 1/day Armstrong Program. Unweighted ammo-press training 3 minutes of sun gods, and search for additional exercises. ONLY ONE/DAY OF Light ammo-press training Use my bricks and light sandbag for timed AMRAP. Start at 10 lbs*2 minutes. Heavy ammo-press training Make a heavier sandbag, 40 lbs, maybe a 50 lbs as well. Start at AMRAP 1 minute. HIT 5 / POWER ATTACK 8 / CRITICAL HIT 12 Bonus activities: Work out with the Powerlifting Club at least once. Make it to one of the Crossfit box’s free Saturday sessions. Try sledgehammering. Subquest #2: Core Always room for further improvement here. I’m shifting away from doing 10 minutes of planks, in favor of some alternative stuff. Most of my quest goals will benefit from doing more squats, so that’s the thing I’m bringing in. 6-minute abs 5 minutes of planks 50 air squats Another 50 air squats HIT 10 / POWER ATTACK 15 / CRITICAL HIT 20 Bonus activities: Achieve a 2 minute front plank. Subquest #3: Cardio For all of my planned/projected major activities in 2014 (see Main Quest), I need to improve my endurance under load. The CFT, in particular, is meant to rapidly suck all the glycogen out of you and leave you exhausted. Loaded endurance Weighted hikes for time. I’ll find a good starting point for this as I go, probably my ~1 mile run course and 20 lbs as a starter during this first week. As I go, I will increase weight, speed, distance, and add hills. Sprints Short course (10 minutes there and back) of lamppost sprints, on-track pyramid sprints. Long Run 5+ miles at a more moderate pace. HIT 2 / POWER ATTACK 3 / CRITICAL HIT 4 Bonus activities: 12 hour town ruck with my friend Dallas. Identify (and possibly register for) a GORUCK and/or Spartan. Trail run in the park areas near my house, minimum 7 miles. Physical Sidequest: Flexibility I need to be spending more time with my foam roller and stretch bands. My mobility kinda sucks, and putting my shoulders through 500 pullups/week this past challenge has made it all the more obvious. Foam roller Daytime stretching Post-run stretching HIT 8 / POWER ATTACK 12 / CRITICAL HIT 16 Bonus activities: Attend a yoga class. Try some MobilityWOD stuff. Mental Sidequest: Daily Meditation I am trying to develop a habit of mindfulness meditation. I bit off more than I could chew last time by trying to increase my sessions-per-day, so the goal here is simply to adopt a habit of daily meditation, weekends included (I get weekends off for everything else). One session, 2 minutes. That’s it. No critical hit threshold, no bonus activities; this is pass/fail on a daily basis, and I will not (this time) enhance it during the challenge. If I can successfully develop the habit at 1x/day, I can expand it from there NEXT challenge. __________________ I look forward to sharing this challenge with you guys and seeing you accomplish your goals as well. Let's do this!

Howdy folks. I'm Quickdraw. This is my second challenge, and I've known since Day 1 that I am a Ranger. I train simply, I eat very paleo, and I live a highly primal lifestyle. Now that my noob challenge is out of the way, I'm here to join up. My Motivation I'm an active duty Marine, hunting for a 250+ (out of 300) Physical Fitness Test. I already had that goal in place when I began the previous challenge (my first), but shortly after I was offered my dream job as long as I can get my fitness test above... 250. SO. Whether you call it Fate, fortune, luck, God/s, the universe being itself, my path is set. MAIN QUEST As above; 250+ PFT. I'll be performing the test in mid April, just after this challenge ends. The 3 events are: (up to) 100 crunches in 2 minutes, (up to) 20 pullups in a single max set, and a 3 mile run as fast as possible (18:00-29:00, since I'm old). I used to get 20 pullups/100 crunches/SLOW run, but right now I'm coming back from a long time on the couch. I'm framing my whole thing as doing battle with a horde of monsters (sloth, selling myself short, etc), so my daily achievement thresholds are in terms of damage done as if I were a character in an RPG. My subquests/battles: PULLUPS (+STR) I am using the Armstrong Program (link goes to a simple write-up if anyone wants to try it for themselves!) to attempt to go from my current 12 pullups to 20+. The program calls for M-F pullups with weekends off. Success criteria: MISS (0): Failing to perform at least the daily Armstrong Program workout on a weekday. BLOCK (0): Weekend. HIT (1): Performing the day's Armstrong Program workout. POWER ATTACK (1.5): Performing the day's workout, plus a second round of the day's workout OR a weighted negative set. CRITICAL HIT (2): Double workouts AND a weighted negative set. Notes: Weekends off are mandatory. An "A" week requires at least 7 damage done; letter reduction per point less or weekday skipped. CORE (+STR) I have been doing 5+ minutes/day of planks to build core endurance. I am already at max (100) crunches with >20 seconds to spare, but would prefer to actually complete 120+ in the test's 2:00. MISS (0): No core work, no excuse. BLOCK (0): Sunday, or other day if I then make it up on Sunday. My one "shield" to use as I see fit. HIT (1): 5 minutes of planks. POWER ATTACK (1.5): 10 minutes of planks, or 5 minutes planks +50 crunches/leg lifts/other core exercise. CRITICAL HIT (2): 10 minutes of planks, +50 reps of some core exercise. Notes: Sunday is the only mandatory recovery day. "A" week requires 8 damage. RUN (+STA) This past year, I ran the 3 miles in 25:30. Lame, by Marine standards. Just last week, I set a (trial run) PR of 22:40. My goal is to see that time under 22:00. MISS (0): No run, no excuse. BLOCK (0): I have 4 BLOCKs per week, as I am trying for a 3x/week run schedule. HIT (1): At least a 2 mile or 20 minute jog. POWER ATTACK (1.5): 3 miles, 30 minutes, or moderate speed work. CRITICAL HIT (2): 4 miles, 40 minutes, heavy speed work, or 4th/5th run for the week. Notes: No specific recovery day is mandatory. "A" week requires 5 damage. LIFE QUEST I'm busy. Like, stupid, stupid busy. I'm responsible for a large group of subordinates, and I have my own full-time classes and responsibilities besides. I would like to build a mindfulness/meditation habit that I can then share with my juniors. I'm pretty well read on the concept, but I have not taken the time to actually implement it. Life is not going to provide me a "good" moment; I need to seize it for myself. But as I try to be more zen (I know, not usually something you associate with a leader of Marines), I recognize that setting elaborate structures on such a process is inherently counterproductive. So I'll leave this goal as follows: I will be more mindful. (+WIS) Implementation: I will meditate for at least one stretch of 2 minutes per day. ------- I look forward to sharing this journey with you all. Edit: Summaries for my personal quests, the Ranger Guild miniquests, and the RPG Fanatics miniquests. RL craziness being what it is, I may subjectively adjust point-value scores later on when I have enough time to figure out what's going on. Won't be adding my point values to my sig until the challenge is over, though. QUEST/SELF Zero Week QUEST/CLASS W1 QUEST/PARTY W1 (+1 CHA)