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Game On, ShadowLion! What to Expect Techno Ranger Sorcery - technology, coding, biohacking, mobility work, walking --> hiking/rucking, macro tracking, productivity and learning hacks, metaphysical speculation, octalysis Renaissance Rebelry - writing, a little artwork here and there, some music, knitting, spinning, sewing ShadowLiony Silliness - cats, otters, gifs and vids, puns, alliteration and other wordplay CONSTRUCTION ZONE Story Challenge Process Reference

I celebrate my 57th birthday during this challenge and I have been doing a lot of thinking about my goals and plans in light of that. That has included not only a review of the past year, but a longer look back over the course of my life thus far. About a year ago, I attended a startup weekend that sent my career in new directions and I have started my own company since. In the meantime, I spent a couple of challenges working to get "fire fit" again, but struggled with injuries and did not achieve my goal of attending Wildfire Academy this past spring. That kind of took the wind out of my sails and I took a time out on that goal to reevaluate, redirecting my energies towards becoming more resistant to injury and establishing small, solid habits in the interim. Lately, I have been back fighting the black dog (depression) once again. I have reached the conclusion that one of the main drivers of that is that I have not put the desire to get back into firefighting to rest. No matter how much I tell myself to let it go, leave it to the youngun's, that I'm too old to be out there again, I can't shake it. It's crazy, I know. I've tried to think up lots of alternative ways to work in related fields. The software development I'm doing is an obvious fit for training simulations, for instance. It's not enough. Looking back, the best things I've done have come from following those crazy intuitions, hunches, gut feelings, and inner nudges that won't go away. They may or may not lead me where I think I am going, but they have always led to somewhere interesting and worthwhile. So, I have resolved to go on faith that there is something to all this. I have come up with a new old plan. I will train towards qualifying again and save towards attending the 2016 Wildfire Academy, with no idea if I can do it. I will just move in that direction on faith and see where I end up. I am stalking my future self, with a few faint tracks on the ground ahead of me. My prey is elusive, unpredictable, difficult to catch. It may or may not be where and when I think it is. But what better huntress is there than a ShadowLion? With that as my challenge theme, here are my challenge goals: 1. Build the strength, endurance and flexibility to catch my prey (DEX -1, STA-2, STR-2) I am re-implementing my previous "40 Weeks to Fire Fit" program, slightly altered to incorporate my hard-learned lesson of needing to listen more closely to my body before increasing training volume or intensity and to give myself MORE recovery than I THINK I need. Fire Fit Returns Durability (DEX-1) ___/24 Comprehensive set of warmups, mobility/stability, and “prehab†exercises for an older female athlete. Bone-builders (including jumping exercises); spine/shoulder/hip/knee exercises to maintain joint health; dynamic stretching to increase ROM and overall flexibility; specific exercises for identified weak areas including head/neck/spine alignment and bi-lateral muscle balance, ankles, wrists/hand/grip, pelvic floor, and elbows. I MUST warm up before every exercise session. Kelly Starrett will be my guide to Becoming a Supple Leopard. ShadowLion will become a Supple Leopard Endurance (STA-2) ___/18 Phase 0 - 4(+) week pre-conditioning program utilizing exercise biking, walking, and other low-impact cardio to build my aerobic base. Then, start: Phase 1 - ~ 8 week program of walking transitioning to walk/jog intervals. Success will be being able to walk/jog in intervals for a distance of 5K, with an average heart rate of 145 or below, and a peak HR under 155. Goal time: < 45 minutes. ENDURANCE GOAL It helps to have a concrete goal. That will be to make the whole distance at a speed/intensity appropriate to my current endurance level. I can make sure that those who have made the ultimate sacrifice are remembered. I've never done a Fun Run/Walk/Race before and this one seems like the one to start with: 9/11 Heroes Run Strength (STR-2) ___/18 Phase 0 - 4(+) weeks of a pre-conditioning program utilizing exercises from “Durability†section below. Focus on getting elbows to withstand pushups and pull-ups by dropping back and then gradually progressing from wall pushups and lightly weighted rows; establishing base of low set and rep numbers on the other exercises. This is early stage stuff while I establish my top priority right now, the base aerobic levels of my endurance program. Then, start: Phase 1 - ~12 week assisted exercise program of knee-pushups; assisted pull-ups, grip hangs and rows; modified dips; lunges and variations. Additionally - squats, planks, sit-ups, burpees and variations. This will kick things up a notch and prepare me for an increased focus on strength training in Phase 2. I plan to build some serious muscle in the coming months... 2. Fuel my body for the hunt. (CON-2) ___/28, ___/8 I will fuel my body with high-quality, nutrient dense foods with an eye to supporting efforts to increase endurance and muscle mass, while trimming off excess weight. The dietary regimen I will follow will be a plant-based whole foods diet. I am still deciding how far to go with this goal. At a minimum, I will continue to log my food and target a moderate calorie intake. I may go further. I am considering the Engine 2 Diet. Alternately, I will go with one meat free day per week and one new recipe per week. Edited 07/24/2015 Week 1 will be preparation to undertake 28 days of veganism, based on the Engine 2 diet. Weeks 2-5 will be following E2 at the "Firefighter" level. Week 6 will be evaluation and the setting of new goals. I do have two meals per week where it is very difficult to make my own food choices, so I reserve 4 lunches and four dinners as exempt over the 4 week period. I expect that the remaining 76 meals should give me a pretty good idea if I want to continue the diet further, as will my "gut reactions" to the exempt meals. ShadowLion Emphasizes the Savory Over the Sweet... 3. Be a healthy, happy and balanced ShadowLion. (CON-1, CHA-2, WIS-2) Continue to ensure that I get plenty of sleep, maintain an healthy den, enjoy the company of friends, and keep creativity and fun alive in my life. Sleep CON-1 ___/6 49 hours of sleep per week. ShadowLions need plenty of sleep Maintain my den CHA-1 ___/36, ___/6 To have a healthy environment to relax in, I will do a daily clutter patrol of at least 10 minutes and a weekly home improvement task of at least 30 minutes. ShadowLions need a place to relax Spend time with my tribe CHA-1 ___/6 One social activity with friends per week. ShadowLions are not solitary creatures Stay Curious WIS-1 ___/36, ___/6 Make time for play. Every day. Create things. Just for the fun of it. At least once per week. ShadowLions are curious Sisu WIS-1 ___/36 Continue meditation and daily journaling habit. Maintain daily and weekly planning and goal setting, task management. ShadowLions are focused and determined 4. Establish and guard my territory. WIS-2, CHA-1 ___/3 I am continuing to establish my business, define my brand and build my portfolio. Define my range WIS-1 ___/1 I am starting to have work come to me and not all of it is work that I should probably take on. I need to better define the scope of my business and the kinds of projects I want to specialize in. This challenge I will contemplate my mission, skills, talents, and dreams to produce a statement of business scope that better reflects the direction in which I want to go. Mark my boundaries WIS-1 ___/1 I will be taking an online class concerning trademarks, copyrights and other legal aspects of owning and operating a business that deals heavily in intellectual property. This will be completed by the end of this challenge. I will also establish a schedule of what I need to do to implement what I learn and begin doing those things. Secure my territory CHA-1 ___/1 The server administration that I did this past challenge opened my eyes to the fact that I need more knowledge of computer security. I will complete an online course on that this challenge and apply what I learn to my clients' and my own websites. Territory is not to be taken for granted And, in a nod to challenges past (and the inspiration of "Nerdhammer")

Reflections at the Two Year Mark Last challenge held a lot of NF milestones for me: One year soda free, 100 days of SISU, and my second Nerdthday. I've spent quite a bit of time reflecting on what I've accomplished so far and where I want to go next on my Epic Quest. From that, I have identified a number of things that I want to address and distilled a few lessons from the last two years that I want to emphasize in this challenge. The "wisdom of experience" is gained from being too stupid/stubborn/impatient/arrogant to listen to good advice! What I know now - from such experience - is that I need to focus on small, simple, steady and slow. My biggest mistakes in getting fitter have centered on trying to do too much, too soon. Inevitably, I would end up injured. My will was strong, but my body was weak. The SISU experiment of the last three challenges has taught me to go slower to move ahead faster, to listen more closely to my wise body and pay less attention to my impatient mind. This challenge will be quite challenging in that I will need to apply my experience and not fall back into old habits now that I am returning to a more usual structure of goals and activities. What Works for Me In reviewing my fourteen (!) challenges thus far, what has worked best for me has been: Gamification (Oh, NerdHammer, how I miss thee...and Hello, HabitRPG!) for motivation and building habitsAcronyms as easy reminders, keeping me focused and aware of opportunities to improveAn overarching vision that each challenge fit into, providing more motivation and contextBeing social, something that has suffered some the last few challengesHard limits on things like bedtime; consistent logging of things like food and exercise. So, this challenge, ShadowLIon SWEATS the "small stuff." Study Writing Eating Art of Relaxization Training Startup Grind The following areas continue to address my SISU goals, but change up the time expectations and the absolute "daily" requirement as needed for the next phase of my plan. They also include some remedial work needed on eating habits and sleep. The "Daily" Show - ShadowLion's Six Days a Week, No Double Misses, Moderation in All Things Plan I've sorted my goal activities into daily, weekly, bi-weekly, and midpoint/end of challenge categories to better allocate my time and energy. Dailies - 6x per week, with no double misses at the rollover. Weeklies - one or more times per week with a minimum time quota. Other Checkpoints - I have a number of project milestones set at the 2, 3, 4, and 6 week marks. I am limiting myself to those goals, even though there are a lot of other things I want to accomplish. If I get things done early, then I can dip into my Grab Bag of extra things to do, but not before. This may seem really restrictive (it is!) but it is a necessary curb on my Ranger Do All the Things! mentality. THE PROGRAM Study (CHA - 2) Weekly - 3x per week, 10 hours weekly total, minimum. If I am smart, I will make those sessions shorter and more frequent than that. This is to move forward on my programming knowledge and skills for my startup. Other checkpoints - Course deadlines and portfolio project completions will be added to the "Project Portfolio" post below as they occur. Writing (CHA - 2) Daily - 15+ minutes of morning pages or blogging. Weekly - Novel quota - Minimum 2,500 words. Mid-challenge checkpoint - At least 10,000 words. End of challenge checkpoint - At least 20,000 words. Eating (CON - 2) Daily - Food log. Maximum 1800 calories on non-cheat days. Weekly - Three cheat meals allowed. Batch cook, 1x per week. Art of Relaxization (CON - 2, WIS - 2) Daily - 7+ hours of sleep, with a strict 1:00 AM curfew. (Bonus - HabitRPG points/reward for getting to bed by midnight.) At least 20 minutes of leisure time for hobbies, fun, general relaxation. Meditate a minimum of 9 minutes per day for greater self-awareness and realization of what makes me tick. End of challenge checkpoint - Get out of Dodge! At least 1 day trip and one longer trip out of town. Preferably to the mountains where it is cooler... Phoenix, AZ. Summer. Insert gratuitous cute kitten here: Training (STR - 1, STA - 1, DEX - 1) Fire Fit has not been forgotten. It was strategically delayed while I dealt with my disappointment of not meeting my goal last fall and decided how to move forward. As above, I determined that I needed to move slower. Smaller, sImpler, steadier, slower. I don't know if I will make it to AZ Wildfire Academy next spring (fall app deadline) or not, but I am going to move in that direction and see where my habits take me. Daily - 15 minutes of stretching, prehab, rehab, and stabilization a la Kelly Starett. Body tuneup and maintenance. Weekly - Gradual ramp up to regular strength workouts and cardio within the bounds of what joints and connective tissue will handle. This is a moving target with a lot of unknowns right now. My main criteria is that I do something in each category 2-3 times per week at my current level, whatever that is. Logging is a must. My current expectation is that I will be doing modified pushups, ring rows, grip hangs, isometric strength work, some kettlebell and dumbbell work, along with brisk walking and exercise biking for now. I will keep my expectations and efforts in check and be cautious. In this area at this point, less in more. Startup Grind (WIS - 2) Move Existing Sites to Cloud Hosting Weekly checkpoints End of Week 1 - Complete research on cloud hosting solutions for SAS and have plan in place to move the site. End of Week 2 - Testing of development site. Complete final transfer to production by middle of the following week. End of Week 3 - Have checklist and plan of how transfer remaining sites. End of Week 6 - Have all site transfers done. Creating CS & AS/C3SG sites Weekly checkpoints End of week 1 - Define requirements, user stories, site structure. Detailed project schedule in place. End of week 2 - Card sort of information architecture, outlining of text, color palette generation and mood board, thumbnails and roughs of graphic elements. End of week 3 - First major round of user testing of several rough prototypes using basic graphical elements and text. End of Week 4 - Production of final versions of artwork and text. Refine prototype. End of week 5 - Ready for beta testing - User results incorporated into a fully functional prototype. End of Week 6 - Final testing and debugging. Deployment. Grading of my goals will be judged by my percentages of days, words, and times completed as outlined above, using the standard letter grade system. Additional ungraded goals: Spend an average of at least 20 minutes per day on Nerd Fitness following fellow rangers and potential rangers threads and commenting, more than that when I can. In addition to the 20 minutes of MANDATORY recreation per day, I want to make having fun and enjoying life a priority this time. There were too many days last challenge where I worked very long days and about the only thing that got done outside of work was my SISU "MEWS", basic cat care, and to take a shower! Oh, and get a little bit of sleep. I basically broke all of my good sleep habits from previous challenges... The pace of my life last challenge was pretty brutal and it is ultimately unsustainable and counterproductive to keep that going for very long. I figure I've earned a little break, though am not sure how to achieve it except in small chunks spaced throughout the six weeks. For now, my solution will be to take more breaks throughout the day, especially ones that involve the "exercise cubicle" we have in the back room, plus to be more aware of when I enter into "diminishing returns" and to do something about that. Experiment to find the optimal time spent or number of "Toads" to tackle per day or week. See the "Grab Bag" post below. "Tackling Toads" is aimed at creating less stress and more freedom in my life by taking decisive action on things I don't like to do, as opposed to procrastinating, wasting time, and prolonging the misery. If I finish early on a project, or otherwise carve out some extra time, I can visit the Grab Bag and do something from that list just for fun. I may also experiment with rewarding toad tackling with an equal measure of fun. TL:DR; All of the above is just a plan to get stronger, be BOLDER, and accomplish my life goal of being a Belly-dancing Amazon Pirate (who codes and fights fires!)

April 6 I saw the forums were up as I was writing my wrapup of last challenge. I was dithering over whether I was going to keep SISUing, but when I saw that the first day of the new challenge was the last day of my one full year of NO SODA, I took it as a sign. Heck, yeah! I want to see if I can hit 99 days straight and make it all the way to my second NF birthday. Time to woman up, Shadow LIon. Let's see what you're made of! April 9 I'm using the "between challenges" week to test a slight increase in my SISU quotas, and so far it is working, despite a crazy, crazy schedule. Two websites need to get out the door and a game prototype is due by late afternoon Monday. Yikes! So, I'm not going to over think things here. This one's going to be a near repeat of last time, with a modest bump up on my minimums, The focus, as before, is on consistency and quality, as opposed to quantity. My "MEWS" minimums are as follows: Meditation - 3 minutes minimum Exercise - 15 minutes minimum Writing - 15 minutes/500 words per day minimum Study (Code) - 15 minutes minimum My maxes are set to minimum x 4. I will be using HabitRPG as my tracking and reward system. The challenge will be all or nothing in terms of points and leveling up. The goal is 99 days straight SISU - straight through to my second Nerd Fitness Birthday on May 30, 2015. To go with the "MEWS" theme...and to remind me to take baby steps: