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The central tenet of Virginia Woolf's seminal essay A Room of One's Own is: "a woman must have money and a room of one's own if she is to write fiction" (yes, run away now). That was as true in 1929 as it is today. Goals a-comin': 1) Write a play! One of my goals in the last Challenge was to "stay in school" and I utterly failed in this, due to having to work long hours on a contract job, and spending time putting down good habits for my first month of Strong Curves. This month's goals are much the same, but the emphasis will be on my brain and self expression. I got paid rather well for the contract job and for the first time in my life, have no imminent debts. I've been wanting to write my own one-woman show for a while and I'm happy with the research I've done so far. I'm an actor and I'm finally creating my own work. It's 70% based on a real person, and 30% on me, but with some artistic licence it just about qualifies as fiction, VIRGINIA. I'll know if I'll be selected for some free research & development space by the end of February by a lovely theatre company, and were I to be chosen I'd need to be able to walk in the room with something by mid-March. I'm aware this probably won't happen but every other theatre seems to want a full draft, so there's no harm in starting. Some writer-friends have offered to read it too, and what with having nothing planned work-wise for February I thought I just need to get on with it. Everyone I've spoken to - friends, people I admire, people who can help me - think I've got a good idea. It's quite a lot of pressure to put on myself (my first time writing), so for funsies I'm going to break it up with MIT's Introduction to Computer Science and Programming With Python, and write a blog and a talk on running a successful Diversity & Inclusion programme in tech. I have a few days to timetable this before the challenge begins, and I will make sure I do so, lest the health and fitness stuff dominate again. I will nail down exactly how I'll quantify this, whether it's words written or time spent by the start of the challenge. Definitely time spent in front of the laptop/with a notebook: four sessions per week. As I build a writing habit I'll be able to work out exactly how long a 'session' is. Will post a provisional writing timetable for the coming week every Sunday. 2) Stay on track with health and fitness I'm really enjoying Strong Curves - not so used to dialling back the incremental weight progression because I'm on a cut, though. As I said at the end of the last challenge, I can spend up to two hours (because I do food shopping on the return journey) at the gym, so timetabling is a must: I have a bad habit of blowing off the rest of day if I've had a long workout. In addition to logging calories and doing Strong Curves I'd like to: a) Incorporate some exercises for my horrible arches as a preventative measure. Left one's pretty collapsed and I'm only in stability running shoes because of it - otherwise my gait's pretty neutral. I think doing it first thing in the morning would be best for building the habit. b ) Do at least two treadmill runs per week - three being ideal. If up to it on Tue, Wed and/or Fri, do a treadmill run, but recovery from weightlifting takes priority. c) My partner has booked a us a week-long holiday in the gorgeous Lake District (look it up, if you've never heard of it) in week three of the challenge. I hope my glutes hold out for all those ascents - though my cardio is pretty disgraceful. He's a long distance runner, has legs like a mountain goat, and I wish I had a chance of keeping up with him. One of our best friends is joining us, so continuing on the literary theme, we'll be the Shelley's to his Byron in the Villa Diodati... Best friend is able to keep up with him, even as he deteriorates over the week. I'm quite happy to stay at home and write for some of the time, while overlooking one of the best views in the world. i) I'll be doing the bodyweight version of Strong Curves ii) You'll forgive me if I forgo the aforementioned treadmill run over this period - I'll be walking A LOT. Could post my steps - that will keep me honest. Edit: This is a week of pure LISS! I'll be grand! iii) I'll do my best to log as accurately as I can, but seeing as our friend's a bit of a foodie, he'll want to cook most of the meals himself, with the occasional trip to a local gastropub. I'll try and make sensible choices, but I shall be eating more than usual and no one can stop me. iv) I'll post pictures! I've truncated three goals of the last challenge into one, and I'm writing a bloody play, so no more goals for this challenge. I'll be back with a timetable and some beginning stats in due course. Timetable is in a later post, with stats posted on first day of Challenge. Wish me luck - I'm terrified!