Search the Community

Hello everybody and welcome! The next six weeks kind of look like a break in the action. Here they are: W0 - Week ending June 11 - Last week of BEBOP. (Broki's Evil Bulgarian Olympic Program) W1 - Week ending June 18 - Olympic Meet. W2 - Week ending June 25 - An entire week off! W3 - Week ending July 2 - New Program starts! W4 - Week ending July 9 - New Program..... W0 - Week ending July 16 - VACATION! Most likely the new program will be a Hybrid Weightlifting / Powerlifting program, unless Miss Broki Trollsforeva somehow manages to talk me into skipping the CNF PL Competition. I do not know the details of this program, but any guesses what nationality inspires this programming? Needless to say, the XCOMmies did not die in the last Challenge Cycle. They just got caught up in some time warp, typically caused by some massive explosion. They will see action again one day. Before we know it, we will be back to the grind! Meanwhile in the gaming world, so many of today's games are do the quest, then go up a level. Then do the next quest and go up another level. In a lot of old-school games you had to grind your way to the next level. Find enemies you can defeat. Kill them. Go up a level. When they are too easy, you find tougher enemies you can defeat. Kill them too. Go up another level. Eventually discover clues to lead you where you are supposed to go next. These were the days before the Internet. No place to go for a walkthrough. Figure everything out on your own. The game manual was actually worth reading. After several months or so, a clue book would come out and that would pretty much tell you how to solve everything. Now of course, we have the Internet and can look up walkthroughs for these old games and read up on the best strategies to break the game. So that is what we will try to do. Who ever imagined the grind would be a break in the routine? This cycle, I chose an obscure title perhaps nobody has ever heard of. (I never heard of it until I saw it on GoG and decided it sounds fun and will give it a try.) EDIT: It looks like I have to get my own darned picture. You start with a party of six and you wander around aimlessly in a mostly abandoned castle. It is old-school dungeoning. There is no mapping function. You have to draw the map on graph paper. You wander around aimlessly until you get a random encounter. Then you beat up the beasties and move on to the next one. Of course, I will name these toons after XCOMmies! (caught in that time warp?) So how does this game work? Hmm. Let's see how I can recycle the goals from the last Challenge and make them look like new goals...... A. Wander around aimlessly until a clear direction appears. A good map always helps. Goal 1: Follow the final week of BEBOP, then Competition Week, then Rest Week, then obtain a New Program. It sure sounds like wandering around aimlessly until a clear direction appears, doesn't? B. I did say you have to draw a map. There are key spots you have to return to on a regular basis. Eventually it become familiar and you know it like the back of your hand. Yup. You guessed it! Goal 2: Keep Tracking Macros and Weight We have about five months worth of data. Still wandering around aimlessly. No weight goal. Pretty much maintenance. Calorie goal. Hmm. We can make this a little more interesting, since this is easy enough. So we will add a couple of things: a. Give the Weekly Range along with the weekly average. Say Average week. 3400 Calories. 2500 to 4000. The goal is to decide on what is reasonable. b. Veggies! Find ways to include more of them! Fresh or relatively fresh is ideal, but difficult to execute at the moment. Most likely starting with canned. Add to report. C. I also said monsters and bad guys appear at random and you have to fight them. So..... Goal 3: Fight! The next big battle is on June 18. This time I think I am shooting for: Snatch 60 / 65 / 70 kg (PB on video is just over 65 kg.) Clean and Jerk 85 / 90 / 95 kg (PB on video is about 92 kg.) The openers are subject to discussion. The final number is YOLO. One important thing to note is the units are kilograms and I can ask for any integer number. D. Don't get killed! Of course! Goes without saying! Goal 4: Stay Healthy! Overhead Press pounds x (0.96 + 0.03 x Reps + 0.01 x Sets) expressed as a percentage of 150 pounds = Shoulder Condition. Push Press pounds x (0.96 + 0.03 x Reps + 0.01 x Sets) expressed as a percentage of 200 pounds = Shoulder Condition. These numbers have been getting better! After the PL meet on April 23, any pressing motion was a hard pass and Dumbbell Push Press started with the Hot Pink Dumbbells. Mobility has also been improving. E. Granted, I have trouble actually playing through these games. I suppose I have more fun just playing around with them than actually finishing. Still, it is fun to play along. Goal 5: Adopt a Toon! True to XCOMmie tradition, there is no choice. At least this time, we can be Equal Opportunity. However most likely I am shamelessly playing favorites. It is probably going to take me the entire week just to roll these toons. (Shamelessly high stats.) They are still getting XCOMmie names. (...except they are subject to 8 character length or so because.... old school) It looks like the last time I dabbled in this game, I played: Males: Dwarf, Hobbit, Dog-like (Dog-like is most likely spoken for but subject to change.) Females: Human, Elf, Cat-like (Elf is pretty much spoken for because I owe somebody a favor.) I might play first come, first serve, otherwise. Or shamelessly play favorites. ---------------------------------------- TLDR: As for the Challenge - not much new here: Follow the program as it comes in. Track minimum and maximum macros for each week. Track vegetables and find ways to add them. -------------------------------------------- EDIT: Changed Title to "Wandering Aimlessly." 6/7/16