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Well met, friends, it's theritram again and this time I'm singing up late for the challenge... It's better late than never, but that is something I need to work on too. At any rate, since it's been awhile, here's an introduction: I'm currently 29 years old, and I'm a first time father! I'm a Anglo-Saxon Heathen (who really ought to practice more) and in general a very spiritual person. I love to write, but that is also something I rarely if ever do anymore... I also love drawing and painting...again something I rarely do. Honestly, I am picking up on a trend, but at the moment it's little things that matter. I'm working two jobs as a delivery driver for a Chinese restaurant and as a teller at the bank. I plan on including something everyday in my going abouts to change my stagnant ways. I'm currently engaged, and my fiancee and I both want to lose weight and Level Up Our Lives!! We've been together for five years this year, and it's time I think to finally put aside our doubts and low self-esteems and finally change! We plan on being the people we know we can be. I recently got a new job at Capital One, and gods be good this is the start of a newer life for all of us. His name is Brannon Kalen Rowan :3 We couldn't make up our mind so he has two middle names. These are my goals: The Mind 1. Meditate a wee bit every day, no matter how small the time. Anything is better than none. 2. Take time out at least to dedicate yourself to something for the Gods. Whether it be a longer prayer/offering, meditation whilst invoking the Gods or what have you. The Body 1. Continue the Nerd Fitness Beginner's Body Weight Workout, but every three workouts add more reps and one more set to each circuit. 2. Log your walking on the Walk to Mordor excel sheet and walk!!! The Self 1. Find a better bloody job! With mighty hammer, crush the competition and find a job that can evolve into a career! That's right! I got the first part done, it IS a better job, but we'll see if it's career status or just a stepping stone to that career! Edit: That job was a sham, and currently I just started at Capital One! It's great pay, excellent benefits and definitely a career, so let's mosey! 2. Get busy living, or get busy dying. 3. Find a place to live and keep it! Be more frugal with money and save! At th moment, these are my goals, and I'm working as hard as I can to get everything in order to get our lives on track. I copy and pasted these goals from an older thread because they frankly still apply... so let's do this!

I have been cutting for far too long, it's time to regain my size and strength. So what better theme than the Mightiest of the Avengers, the Strength of Asgard, the Odinson: Thor! The Strength of Thor: Lift thrice weekly: On the Moon's day, Tyr's day and Thor's Day Feasting with the Frost Giants: Consume calories of the count of Three Thousand Four Hundred daily. Say nay to grains and sweet cakes when possible. The Chariot of Thor: Threaten the dwarves into forging a helm worthy of the Son of Odin. Then ride mine chariot to and from Midgard twice weekly: on Odin's day and Frigg's day. Odin's Teachings: While in Midgard, endeavor to learn the ways of magic and do works that please Odin. Onward! For the Glory of Asgard! ((I decided midway through writing this post to attempt to stay in character for the remainder of the challenge, we'll see how that works out))

Welcome to Part II of my last challenge, The Path of the Barbarian. On the surface, this may appear to be a simple repeat of the last challenge. Ok, technically, it is. But there is a reason behind this. Simply put, it worked so well that I WANT to do it again. Also, the holiday break so sufficiently disrupted my awesome routine that I NEED to do it again. Just to make sure I haven't lost any Barbarian savagery. Without further delay, the challenge itself:Goal 1 - Barbarian Mobility: This is the primary focus of the challenge, same as last time. A true Barbarian should be able to traverse all kinds of terrain, even while carrying a heavy load, even over snow and ice. I will be going for a 20-30 minute ruck (basically walking with weight on my back) four times per week. Location isn't really important. I should be able to adapt, whether it's a ruck through the woods or simply through the neighborhood. Also, like with the last challenge, any XC skiing I am able to do will count as a ruck. This will happen at least once per week, as I am now volunteering as an assistant coach with the local youth ski league on Sundays. So really, it's just a matter of getting in three rucks/skis in during the rest of the week. +5 StaGoal 2 - Primal Awareness: To survive, a Barbarian needs to be in tune with what is happening around him. To further develop awareness, I will continue daily meditation. This time around, I intend to get back to meditating for at least 12 minutes at a time. I don't have to start out with this, but by the last week of the challenge I intend to be meditating for 12 minutes (or more) daily. +3 Wis, +2 ConGoal 3 - THOR's HAMMER: It wouldn't be a Barbarian challenge without bringing back the hammer! Like last time, I will complete three sledgehammer workouts per week. My current routine takes about ten minutes to complete. Since I am regaining lost momentum after the holidays, my goal here is to simply maintain this level of intensity for the duration of the challenge. Increases in sets/reps/intervals can wait until the next challenge. +3 Str, +2 ConGoal 3 Update (as of 1/17/2016): Ok, so I was wrong. It still can be a barbarian challenge without the hammer. With the extreme focus I've been putting on daily meditation and early morning rucking 5x per week, the hammer has fallen by the wayside. So I won't get my strength and constitution bonus off this one, but nor will I have it count against me as far as whether I level up or not. The positive changes I've been making as a result of Goal 1 and Goal 2 more than make up for letting Goal 3 slide.Goal 4 (NEW as of 1/17/2016): In my never ending quest to find new and obscure interests, I have done some research and finally constructed a sling! Goal 4 isn't so much a deliberate SMART goal as I generally try to stick to. It is just a bonus quest of a sort, to simply keep moving forward in this new interest, whether that means crafting slings, practicing with them, or simply reading more information about them. Expect slinging to make an appearance in my next proper challenge as a full-fledged goal. I will perhaps award myself +1 Dex and +1 Wis, depending on how much I accomplish it the last two weeks of this challenge (but no more than this, as I am starting halfway through).In conclusion...METALZ : Onward to greatness!

I had been thinking about this challenge since week 3 of my last challenge. That was all before the news of the new Thor was announced. Now this challenge seems extremely apropos. BOOM! Let's get straight to the kicking of the ass, shall we? MAIN GOAL: REACHING ASGARD (PULL-UP!) I want to do a pull-up. It may not (will not) happen this challenge, but I really want to do one... at least one! FITNESS GOAL: LIFTING THOR'S HAMMER (pull-up progression) I'm following the NF Guide to Pull-Up Progression By the end of the last challenge I had started doing dumbell rows with my 25# kettle bell.... so I suppose they are kettle bell rows. I want to keep track of the progression of this exercise specifically. If I can consistently do 10 reps with the 25# I will move up to a heavier weight. I'm keeping it simple and focusing on this exercise specifically as well as more back exercises. I will allow myself to miss complete workouts, but I won't allow myself to not do 3 sets of KB rows. I'll also be tracking progress on assisted pull-ups. Currently I am using a chair and doing pull-ups with one leg on the chair. I also have resistance bands that will find their way into this progression sooooooon. DIET GOAL: PREPARING THE SHWARMA (batch cooking) If you have followed my journey you know that this is SUPER important to my goals and my overall sanity. I need to take time out of my schedule on weekends to prep food for the week. Then I can just grab things during the week, heat, and nomf. More time to wield my hammer and lay waste to ice giants. LIFE GOAL: BRING THE THUNDER (create, create, create) OK. Thor isn't the most artsy superhero so I wasn't quite sure what to title this one, so forgive me. I've been on a good tear of doing art things and being happy with just creating and making and putting awesome things into the world. So I will continue with this! I also am setting myself a challenging goal of creating a Thor costume/cosplay for Halloween. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! I've never done any wearable art before so this will be a learning experience and super fun. I'll be doing something like that and I will post any progress photos made through the challenge. Speaking of progress I should really put some progress shots here, along with some beginning stats. I've been having trouble seeing any real change/progress lately and it has been making me rather gloomed, so I'll definitely keep a before and after for this challenge. Ooo and make a chart for the pull-up progress because charts are important.

Vengefulpear's Asgard Challenge Hello again! Ready for another challenge? I am! So you may remember the last mini-challenges we all rebuilt the Bifrost (well done by the way!) but I figured while all you Assassins go back to Midgard and move on with some training I'll stay up here in Asgard and recuperate with Odin and train with Thor! Main Quest: Recover So my shoulder still isn't fully recovered. And honestly, it's getting quite frustrating. I have a doctor's appointment later (update to follow) so hopefully the doctor will be more useful than the nurse who just shrugged and said "just rest it" because that was about 3 months ago. I really want this challenge to be the last one that I have to focus on recovery rather than rebuilding, but my methods are pending doctor-ness. I feel like Thor trying to escape from hospital but being dragged back for his own good... I'm also pleased about the fact the mini-challenge is pistol squats because I definitely want to do those Anyway, onto the goals! Goal 1: Eat Like A God Eat ~2000 calories per day and eat right! +2 CON +2 WIS This will be a pincer attack for diet, I'm upping my calories to 2000 a day because I'm going to run a lot more and I want to cut out sugar and head down the paleo path once again. So for this part one of the goal is 2000 calories per day (averaged for the week) and then also trying to make sure I eat as one would in Asgard, so lots of steak and vegetables with fruit and nuts but much much less cake, sodas, biscuits (damn you free work biscuits!) and things like that. Eat like a Viking basically. And I can live with And here is the ever present calorie PVP spreadsheet https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AmtRMwoMwJORdG9zYkU1TVAtSkduTXhMUHZkaFdZYXc&usp=sharing BONUS OBJECTIVE: Eat fish 3 times a week Goal 2: Quicker Than Thunder Do sprint training twice per week as per programme and go for long runs too +2 DEX +1 STR I found an 8 week programme on bodybuilders.com which I think would be an excellent way for me to track and get better at sprinting, rather than just running up a hill until I get tired (which is current plan!) and I also want to run longer I think I'm up to 9 miles on my longest run so far. Let's see how far I can get! BONUS OBJECTIVE: Run a half-marathon just because you can! (13.2 miles in one run) Goal 3: Doctor's Orders [Get Better] Work up to full push ups and 3 strength training sessions per week Right, I'm going to the Doctor's tonight so this goal will be pending on what they say. The goal is basically to ensure my recovery is as quick as possible! So I have now been to the doctor's! She said that she can't give me anything or send me to a physio because it's been too long so I'm recovered enough that doing either of those won't make any difference at this point. Talking it through she was very keen to get me working out again (very very carefully) to strengthen up my shoulder again SO I'M ALLOWED TO DO RESISTANCE TRAINING AGAIN! My plan is to do crazy slow progressions starting with wall-push ups as part of the routine and using the dumbbells I have at home with maybe 1kg and do some shoulder exercises. Then I'll slowly work my way down the wall/stairs one I feel like I can safely do 3 sets of 8 push ups and the same for going up weights with the shoulder exercises. Charisma and Wisdom are attributed for this one because I will only consider it successful if I can do it without further injury. Key here is for care and making sure it's rehab rather than breaking me more. 4 POINTS TO BE ATTRIBUTED +2 STR +1 CHA +1 WIS So here, have some bonus gifs of Tom Hiddleston's Thor audition (And by that I mean audition TO BE Thor) Goal 4: Read the Library of Asgard Work towards writing everyday +2 CHA +2 WIS This doesn't have to be writing necessarily as I do have a book on writing poetry and a book on grammar, so if nothing else I can just read through those And I am not restricting myself to a time limit, this could be five minutes, ten minutes or three hours. It all counts! I'm looking forward to this challenge with everyone And one more gif for your entertainment:

When he reached the top of the mountain, the rainbow shimmered and made it seem like he was standing in an ocean of light. The road to Asgard stood before him, close enough to touch. But there was no way through. The mountain path had made him tougher and leaner but there was little skill in climbing a mountain, determination carried him this far but it could carry him no further. He fell to his knees in frustration and slowly made his way back down the mountain. But the assassin was not ready to admit defeat. There are not many things that can stop an assassin who's put his mind to something, and this assassin's mind was definitely set to stealing Mjolnir. He had heard tales of a demi-god in a distant forest who's grueling training regime sent many would-be heroes scuttling for safety. This was his destination. He would train under the demi-god and become skilled and powerful enough to penetrate the Rainbow Road and make his secretive way to Asgard. It took him several days by boat to reach the heavy forest the demi-god Adonis had taken as his home, feasting with generous merchants and sailors along the way. And then several more to find the marble temple at the its heart, where he would find the demi-god. The temple was beautiful, but barren, there was no one waiting for him. There was no mystic mythological figure awaiting him to turn dramatically. But this was what the assassin had been expecting. He left an offering on the temple altar and elected to come back the following day, to see if he and his offering had been accepted. He did not need to wait that long; as he was setting up camp a figure burst from the trees and began attacking the assassin. In a desperate fight the assassin parried, leapt and lunged against his assailant. After a few minutes of brutal intensity the figure jumped backwards an astonishing distance, nodded to the assassin and walked in the direction of the temple. It looked like Adonis had started his training. Hello fellow Rebels! I hope you don't mind my fairly long story intro! So this challenge I want to focus on high intensity exercise both with resistance training and sprints, and skill work. But I don't want to say just one kind of skill work, I think I would like to try out various poses and balancing work. My overall quest is to be able to do a one armed, hand-stand push up (modeled here by Vegeta) and a 90 degree push up. But I know both of these are extremely far away, so for now I'm going to focus on fat-loss (less to move) and some skill work. I've called this challenge the Belt of Adonis because I'd really like to be able to see mine (and of course abs!) and I hope that if I meet my fat-loss goal for this challenge I will be able to. Anyway! Enough of this levity, let's talk goals! Goal 1: To Be Carved From Marble (Fat Loss) +2 DEX +2 CON Lose 3% Bodyfat I want to be stricter with this goal than I was last time, I will be allowed to up my carb intake on workout days whilst trying my hardest to be paleo (but still under 100g). I might have a 3 or 4 cheat days spread across the whole challenge but I'm not sure about this yet. So we'll see! I will put some stats for myself down so I can gauge progress but (a bit cheekily!) I'm going to give myself till Wednesday to let my body calm down from my holiday last week and hopefully not be ballooned with beer! But the way I intend to lose the bodyfat is to do high intensity exercise, so lots of sprints and resistance circuits! And of course eat at a calorie deficit! The details of which I shall post up with my other stats when I do them. I'm looking into planning and preparing my meals over the weekends as well, if I can get a fair amount of meat from a butchers/supermarket for relatively cheap then that should be fine! Goal 2: To Fight the Black Bear (Strength) +4 STR Do 3 Strength Workouts per week With the upcoming release of the new Thor movie, I want to try and couple some strength training with the bodyfat goal to make myself look as Thor like as possible by the time the movie comes out! For the last couple of weeks of the last challenge I was doing weights at the gym splitting 2 days into essentially Chest & Back/Legs & Shoulders split and trying to throw in some bodyweight circuits too. So I'll keep doing this with Legs at the beginning of the week and Chest on Thursday (I can't NOT workout on Thorsday!) Taking inspiration from TiberiusNightrise I'll be tracking my workouts on here so I can see better where I'm improving/need to work on. And also carrying on from last time I'll be using the Bear/Cat infographics to playfully see how heavy I can lift! If I'm lucky I'll be able to Bench Press a Black Bear! What Cat Can You Lift?: http://i.imgur.com/rpo7B6Y.jpg What Bear Can You Lift? http://i.imgur.com/HYFCNQf.jpg To Black Bear and beyond! Goal 3: The Tricks of Immortals (Skill) +3 DEX +1 STR Do 2 Skill Workouts a week One of the reasons I love the Assassins guild is for all the crazy skills that we have going for us, so it's about time I started learning to do them too! Last time I planned to do skill workouts purely to focus on handstands/headstands, but this time I want to open it up a bit more, I'm looking into getting some gymnastics rings to put on my pull up bar so that should really open up the skills (and make it a lot easier to get the motivation!) But I'm not 100% sure what to do (I'm a total beginner skills wise) so any suggestions are welcome Goal 4: For the Assassin Records (Writing) +3 WIS Write at least 1 blog post a week Bonus points if I can schedule the posts rather than frantically write them during my lunch hour. I've also let slip for the past couple of weeks so I really want to get back into it as it will not only help me but should also help me for jobs. I have been toying with the idea of starting a fitness blog, with the theme for saturday morning/90s TV and other general geekery (I really like classics and mythology so I'd try and chuck that in too). So if I do start that then it has to be one blog post for BOTH each week, I can't use that as an excuse to do one or the other. I think that's more than enough for now! But I'll be on and about to post up any more coherent plans and my stats once I've done them. Best of luck to you fellow Rebels (and especially Assassins ) I look forward to doing another awesome challenge with you all

Round 4 Main Quest: To lose 100 pounds 1 - Food - Complete the Whole 30. So I started the whole 30 and it's a massive pain. I've gotten into yelling matches, gone hungry, and fallen asleep with tears in my eyes because of how defeated I've felt- but I'm going to beat this. Pass or Fail. There is no leeway. I must finish the whole 30. +5 Constitution 2 - Exercise - Warhammer Training 2x+ a week. I had originally done warhammer training 3 times a week. However, with trying to do the whole 30, part of the detox is having no energy and I really feel it now. I'm going to do this training twice a week at a minimum. I will try to do a 3rd time each week, but there's no promises. Pass or Fail as well. +3 Strength 3 - Stretching 2x a week. I tried stretching out last challenge. I want to improve. +1 Strength +2 Dex +1 Wisdom 4 - School. I was going to attempt a bookshelf (still might), but considering all the work I have to do to get an application (3 letters of recoomendation, 8 page essay, etc) I think that'll be my life goal this time. +3 Unsure