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Greetings Rangers! At the end of May/beginning of June I will be attempting a ski summit of Mt. Rainier! Quest #1: Vertically Challenged A summit of Mt. Rainier demands over 9,000 vertical feet of ascent! Um, excuse me? Oh, I can do it in 2 days? Ok that could be doable. 4,600 feet from Paradise to Muir (overnight camp) and then 4,400 from Muir to the summit. This presents 2 challenges to me. Much more vert than I've done in a day all winter.Back to back big vert days.A general guideline for build up that fitness is below. This can either be on skis or hiking dirt (as it is spring here, both are an option) Week 1 - April 13 A - 2,000 ft + at least 2 days in a row B - 1,000 ft + 2 days in a row C - 1,000 ft or 2 days in a row Week 2 - April 20 A - 4,000 ft + at least 2 days in a row B - 2,000 ft + 2 days in a row C - 2,000 ft or 2 days in a row Week 3 - April 27 A - 4,000 ft + at least 2 days in a row with pack weight B - 2,000 ft + 2 days in a row with pack weight C - 2,000 ft + 2 days in a row with pack weight Week 4 - May 4 A - 6,000 ft + at least 2 days in a row with pack weight B - 4,000 ft + 2 days in a row with pack weight C - 4,000 ft + 2 days in a row with pack weight Week 5 - May 11 A - 8,000 ft + at least 2 days in a row with pack weight B - 6,000 ft + 2 days in a row with pack weight C - 4,000 ft + 2 days in a row with pack weight Week 6 - May 18 A - 10,000 ft + at least 2 days in a row with pack weight B - 8,000 ft + 2 days in a row with pack weight C - 5,000 ft + 2 days in a row with pack weight Excellent! A plan to make it to the summit! Quest #2: The Sherpa But there's a catch. Not only do I have to drag my ass up the mountain, I get to drag all of my gear on my back as well! This means 40-50 lbs of extra pack weight to carry. I have integrated part of this above, but carrying a heavy pack for extended periods requires core and leg strength. To realize this goal I will be lifting with a focus on squats, deadlifts, cleans and other ab/core exercises. A - lift 3x per week B - lift 3x per week C - lift 1x per week Quest #3: Fuel Shortage Fuel is always a struggle for me. Preparing meals and planning always seems to fall by the wayside first. For this challenge, I'm starting small. A - All lunches from home but 1 per week. B - Only 2 cafeteria lunches per week. C - 3 cafeteria lunches per week. Bonus point: Healthy choice from cafeteria. Possibly a salad over a burger and tots.

This challenge will be almost a replay of the previous one for me. During this challenge I will have a 2 weeks vacation which I will spend skiing, hiking and visiting my parents and family. I want to keep the daily practice also those time, but if instead of doing my kata I end up rolling on the floor with the kids, I will consider my deal done for the day (both handstand and kata). Daily rain The only part where I succeeded was the daily kata practice, which I will make "more difficult" this round. This time I am raising the bar to 5 kata or 10 minutes of single techniques (or short combinations) practice + 2 CON, + 2 DEX, + 2 STA The roots in the sky Same as previous challenge, every day I am dedicating 5-10 minutes to handstand + 2 DEX, + 1 STR Seeds I am re-adjusting the teaching side of this challenge: it should depend only on me if I can succeed or not, not on my students. I am reserving 30 minutes 4 times each week (but the 2 when I am on vacation). If nobody show up I have the books of Trias Sensei (founder of Shuri ryu) to read, to strengthen my knowledge of the theory behind the stile + 2 CHA, + 1 DEX, +1 WIS Changing leaves (life quest) Last time I failed in getting in touch with a local lawyer, so here it is +2 WIS As last time, there is a spreadsheet for me to track my activities

Hellooooo!!! OMG I have MISSED you all and am SO excited to be back!! (running around the room [forum] giving everyone hugggsss!!!! This is challenge #3 for me. Challenge 1 - fizzled, but learned to love NF community Challenge 2 - awesome, but life pulled me away from my NF family support system Challenge 3 - going to be the best yet! I am so ready to roll and have kept super active working out between challenges which is a huge victory for me - I'm doing it because I want to do it and it makes me feel good (whoa - this is what people talked about and I was like, "yeah right, feels real great" and I'm finally there too!!). I am not changing my goals a great deal from last time - just tweaking them to fit the things I have found that are working for me. While I feel the last challenge went great - I wasn't as successful as I was shooting for, so the goals still haven't been fully accomplished. 1. Diet: Paleo - (learning from last challenge continues) [con 3 | wis 1] make large amounts of meat on Mondays (my day off) to be used for the rest of the weekwell planned meals (do this on Sunday/Monday) laid out for the weekkeep snacks at work and bring my lunch (this is a huge need if I’m going to be successful)try 1 new recipe/weekconsider 65% success 2. Fitness: Swim 3 days/week *with the option to change to other cardio* [dex 2 | sta 2] Swim on Monday, Thursday mornings, and Saturday after January 17 (can't swim now - just got a new tattoo (my first)!!!!)keeping track of laps and time swamthis is to get in shape while preserving my joints so one day I can runAlternate activities: SKI (soooo happy to live in snow when I'm skiing!!), elliptical, walk, TurboFire DVDsrecord activity on my battle log 3. Strength: Bodyweight Workout 2 days/week [str 2 | con 1] I would LOVE upper body strength and sexy armsAssisted pull ups (today 7/5) goal 10/10Assisted dips (today 8/4) goal 10/10Planks (today 50s/20s) goal 90s/30sFocus on good formbuild reps up SLOW so I don’t re-injure my rhomboid muscle strainUltimate goal for later challenge – real push-ups and pull-upsrecord activity on my battle log 4. Life Level UP – help organize & run a fundraiser [wis 2 | cha 2] My 5 yr old daughter's friend (and our next door neighbor) was just diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumorvisit her caringbridge site if you like http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/evahoabyThis is my level up because I will be spending an enormous amt of time on it and I know I'll ignore any other goal I set hereI will kiss a$$ on this one because it means so much to me so in a way it feels like an "easy" goal. I am already emotionally drained because this family is close to me and I cry every time I think of sweet Eva (and her family) going through the worst situation a parent can imagine. The benefit will be done in 3 weeks. I'll think about other life level ups to add on then.Okay. Crying at work. Again. Boo. (shouldn't be doing this at work in the first place ) It is so weird how many times I thought of all of you during the past few weeks when I wasn't stopping in to update. I would sort of shake my head to clear it when I would be driving to work wondering if my friends were doing okay here - just seems sort of crazy that a virtual community could get to be real people that I care about! [And special thanks to Laurelye for coming to find me!] Can't wait to come check out everyone's goals and meet all sorts of new friends!! GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!! BE AWESOME!!! Ohh... starting stats: weight: 242lbs (lost 9lbs overall since challenge 1) height: 5'7" waist: chest: hip: