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It was but a few minutes before dawn, the town was still asleep except for a few nocturnal individuals that were hurrying back in their den before the first sun ray would hit them. If these creature of the night were looking at the sky right now, they would have noticed a dark cloud raising from the eastern part of the town. Not your habitual cloud, mind you for it was moving, stretching, shrinking in a soft ruffling noise, and if that cloud had given rain, it would be one of feathers and, well, some less dreamy and more smelly substance. It did "rain" a little that day on a few unfortunate. As soon as the sun appeared behind the mountains, the cloud shrank one last time then exploded in a huge silence all over the town. That morning, every assassin in the region was woken up by the cooing of a pigeon carrying on its leg a sealed missive. (well, to be frank, SOME of them may have been awaken by the sound of the mentioned pigeon being disembowelled on their rooftop, bird of prey hunts in the morning after all). Breaking the seal of the assassin's guild, the missive read as this: Greetings assassin, our first meeting of the year will take place in a few days. Our den having been destroyed months ago, your duty will be to find a new place suitable for us. The guild expects results within a week. Translation Here we go again, for the first unofficial mini-challenge of the year (and the second one of all time, I know it's less impressive said like this ) I have to remind you that being un-official and all you won't win any skill points for participating and that participating is not mandatory in any way You're not an assassin and you want to participate? No problem! Everyone is welcome. I'm sure the assassin's guild have sent a few missive to the other guilds anyway. Bear with me, English is not my first language so the storytelling may not be very good Our first goal is to find a suitable place for what will happen next And for that, I need you to start moving. You can run, you can walk, even use a treadmill but I need you to pile some Km/Miles. Your usual commute doesn't count, I want some fresh distance. I know it's winter, it's cold, it's raining/snowing but that shouldn't stop us from taking a stroll outside. Bonus point if during one of your walk/run you manage to find a nice place for an assassin's meeting. Take some pictures! Where to register the distance: The quick and dirty and ugly spreadsheet is here:https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AotE3VGxMb_VdGJjWi1jRzEyck5VVzBHSWxjQUNIZlE#gid=0 You have 2 columns to register the distance, chose the one who suits you the best (km or miles). You have until next Sunday to log your distance. Countdown Mission#2: Masters of disguises The week has passed and the assassins and other guild officials have sent their propositions to the assassins headmasters. Theirs answers doesn't takes long to arrive as several pigeons are sent to each team members. The messages sent to the assassins and the other guilds officials are cryptic. "There will be juice". "Presence of assassin turkeys". "Beware of falling fish". No need to say, no-one but us could decipher the hidden location out of these messages. Now we have to assemble.. discreetly. No one, not even the untamed guardbirds must know our presence in the new den. In order to do this, we only have one solution. Disguise ourselves to cross the forests, plains and mountains unnoticeable. Assassins are supposed to be expert in infiltrations, today, they need to be masters of disguises. Translation: Congratulation everyone! Going out to walk in the cold (well for some of us) was not easy, but we still did it. I may have lost one toe or two in the snow, but it was worth it! A big bravo to Croman red who walked/run for 28.4 miles/45.7 km. Good job! This time, to trick humans and animals, we'll have to be sneaky and disguise ourselves in animals. For the next 4 days, you'll have to add in your routines at least one exercise whose name is an animal name, for example: Arm workout (Reps) Legs workout (Reps) Glutes workout (Seconds + Reps) Whole body workout (Distance) Yoga poses (seconds): Pigeon pose Cow/ cat pose Snake pose Crow pose Frog pose You got the idea, you can of course add your own exercise as long as it follow the "animal name" rule. Of course, just putting a disguise on won't make it effective.. But you'll see how to become a master of disguise soon Where to write my numbers: As usual, you have the quick and dirty spreadsheet. One day I'll learn how to make shiny ones, promise! https://docs.google....xjQUNIZlE#gid=1 And as usual, the (yes, I hate myself too for that): http://www.timeandda... disguise&csz=1 Mission #3: Gathering resources Anyone who would have been present at that mysterious place that day would have find himself in a fantasy world. Cows, cats, dragons, dogs and many other animals gathering in silence in the same place. If such a person was here, and obviously still alive to tell the story, he would have seriously wondered what was in his can of juice because all the animals would become human and nobody can be that good at disguising self right? But that's being ignorant of the assassin awesomeness. We are in the right place but we notice quickly the lack of juice, some of us decide to check our surroundings, the news falls soon, just a little farther: As promised the juice is here, stored in huge crates, We'll need to sort it, bring it to the meeting point and make sure we have enough for everyone. Nobody's knows how many pack of juice are hidden over there, we'll need to figure that out the hard way. Translation: If we want some juice, we'll need to work on these 6-pack right Accepted exercises are: Plank: 1 point every 10 seconds done + Variations: 1 leg/ 1 arm plank, Side plank Hollow body hold: 1 point every 10 seconds done , V-sit: 1 point every 3 seconds done Hanging leg raises: (knees, leg bent, legs straight, 1 point every rep). : 1 point/rep : 1 point/rep+ variations And so on, feel free to add your favourite abs exercise, and remember the rule: "If it's too easy to do, don't count it and try something harder"! This challenge will last for 4 days or if we manage to gather enough points (I will decide of the total necessary soon) Where to register my numbers: Ok, this time I'll try to make it less quick and dirty ^^ Spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AotE3VGxMb_VdGJjWi1jRzEyck5VVzBHSWxjQUNIZlE#gid=2 Countdown: Let's work on these abs! For the juice! Mission #4: Attack of the Mushroom men! The pack of juices have been taken to the meeting point. All the participant worked hard to secure our juice supplies, now we all hope to be able to rest a little around a few pack of "old grape" juice before the meeting start. Unfortunately, the sweet smell of the juice attracted some unwanted fellows, an army of Mushroom men slowly rises in front of us: Their strength: their numbers, in a blink of eyes, they are covering everything around us. Their ability: With their size (one inch for the tallest) our daggers and any kind of sneak attacks are ineffective against them Their weakness: Nothing like some good stomping on their head to make them realise that you don't mess with the assassins! Translation: Jump! Yes, I know you like it as much as I do (ie: not) But we need to crush this army with our feet! A few exercises ideas: - Jump rope - Burpee - Jump squat and variations - Jumping jacks And so on. Anything that makes you jump works I can't jump! If for some reason, you can't jump at all, you'll have to take care of these mushroom in another way! And that mean.. cooking them! I want you to try at least 2 new recipes respectful of your diet and give us the recipe (and picture too!) Now would be a good time to try a new vegetable or a new way to cook something You have a little more than 5 days! So jump to your heart content (and hopefully this time, I'll find a way to really participate >_>) http://www.timeanddate.com/countdown/to?iso=20130204T00&p0=195&msg=Attack+of+the+Mushroom+men Boss battle! We've been crushing thoroughly the mushroom men, more than 15000 of them were buried into the ground or eaten spreading their spores in the air. But it seems that the small fry (seasoned with garlic and parsley, omnomnom) had a chief, a king even. And compared to the inch-tall soldiers, the king is a giant: Their creepy looking king came as a last-hope reinforcement, we'll need to fight it to save our juice. Translation: Lots of jumps were done these past few days, and lots of mushrooms went back into the ground The mushroom king is too tall to be stomped on, but hey, we can punch it! Your job will be to add a kicking/punching routine in your workout. Those who have Wii-fit can use the game for example, or the in Wii sport. If you have a sandbag, you can paste the picture of the Mushroom king on it . Kickboxing lessons or martial art classes work too. You only have two days to defeat the Mushroom king, if he's not defeated when the countdown is over, he will flee. All you need to do is count the time spent doing this kind of warming up, you can do it at your own rhythm. To defeat him, we have to cumulate 15 hours of kicking/punching in the air, on a sandbag or on a giant mushroom. By the way, If you're fighting the mushroom boss, you don't have to keep on stomping mushrooms, the choice is yours. Mission #5: Choose your side! Despite all our efforts, the mushroom king managed to flee in a dirty cloud of spores. The spores stings the eyes and make it difficult to breathe. We try to take some rest in this crunched mushroom-covered forest. For now everything is silent, consequence of the after battle effect. The stronger of us tries already to go get some well-earned juice when the silence is broken by.. some yelling? BY TOUTATIS! ALEA JACTA EST! LET THEM TO ME, LET THEM TO ME! Some rotten fish smells cover the spore smell, some fights noises fill the silence and a bunch of people appears between the trees running onto us, or maybe.. onto the juice! The spores attack has left most of us in a confused mind. You can interpret what you see in two different ways: 1 - You recognize the druids being pursued by Romans and, to help them, you'll act like a Druid to lure the Romans in a deadly trap. Assassin's style 2 - These barbarians are here to steal our juice! Curse them! And they cowardly attack us with stones, spears and smelly fishes! Grab an helmet to defend yourself! We'll need to avoid these petty attack and then get back at them. Translation: This time we're going to have a little fun with the druids! You can choose whether you want to help them by attracting the Romans acting druid-like to take care of them in our own way. Or get rid of these Juice-thief to-be that dares sending rocks, smelly fishes and spears at us! You can read the their side of the story here: http://nerdfitnessrebellion.com/index.php?/topic/23952-mini-challenge-2-the-romans-are-here/ Considering that we have just finished a big battle, a recovery mission is in order. I want you to do some sun salutations, you can do them slowly, of fast for a more cardio-like exercise. http://yogasite.com/sunsalute.htm or http://www.sensational-yoga-poses.com/sun-salutation-b.html If you really want to do some running or burpee, I won't forbid you of course. But remember that body maintenance is important! This time you'll log your results here, please notice that there are some max rep/distance a day: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AtfIzBt5Gx5KdExTczlKa0hUMThqSEUyd003NnpHa3c&usp=sharing#gid=0 Final mission: Un-Bearable guests! Our not secret-at-all anymore meeting point is but a battle field. Some dented Roman helmets, rotten fishes, broken spears lies here and there, signs of the previous battle. The druids have escaped the Roman pirates, or was it some tree-huggers thiefs that have fled us, understanding that they won't stole OUR JUICE! Some mushrooms roasts on an unattended fire, producing an heavy smoke that surrounds us all. The smoke is dense, stinging our nose and watering our eyes, we can barely see our brothers and sisters assassin by our side. The smoke makes us dizzy, you hear some coughing nearby... wait, are those coughing or? Let me check this handy diagram: Well, apparently we have a case of BEARS! You find yourself faced with a bear. The beast, noticing you, lunges at you and, despite the exhaustion, you manage to jump up and grab a low hanging tree branch, pulling yourself up and out of the path of its swinging paw. It doesn't seems to be enough for the bear that keep on trying to reach you. You'll have to escape every single one of his attack, or else.. Translation: You got it, we definitely need to pull ourselves out of this problem. Allowed exercises are: Dumbbell rows: Inverted rows Negative chin up Negative pull-up Chin-up Pull-up: Wide-grip pull-ups Muscle-ups Around-the-world One arm-pullups But also: Bouldering: Number of problems Climbing: number of meters/Feet(?) climbed Rope climb: number of meters/Feet(?) climbed Pick the exercises according to your fitness level of course. Each assassin will be assigned one bear to fight, don't be defeated :x Countdown: http://www.timeanddate.com/countdown/to?iso=20130217T12&p0=195&msg=Un-Bearable+attack Spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AotE3VGxMb_VdGJjWi1jRzEyck5VVzBHSWxjQUNIZlE#gid=5 It's the final week, let's give it our best! Disclaimer: I will allow myself to shorten this mini-challenge if necessary, I will also allow myself to add some surprises if I feel like it. Think of me as a tyran or even worse! as a Game master Good luck and have fun!