JonFirestar Crosses the Forsaken Lands

[jonfirestar]

JonFirestar Crosses the Forsaken Lands.

 

The two rangers gazed out over the shattered landscape. Like a dream the forsaken lands spread out until they dipped below the horizon. Huge whirling storms hung static in the air across the space below flashing green and white with magic infused lightning. Even from a distance you could feel the power from this place. The sickening film of pure magic that seeped from the land.

 

Twisted trees spread out below them. Their bark black and pink on warped and misshapen trunks. A creature ran between the trees. At first Jon thought it was a fox until he realised it’s skin was slick like a lizard but red-copper in colour. It wasn’t a lizard, or a fox. It was something wrong. This whole place was wrong.

 

Few in the civilized lands had ever ventured this far past the great barrier yet Jon could see in the distance the distinct outline of a human settlement.

 

“Why would anyone try to live here?”

 

His companion looked up at him.  The hood dropping from Sarad’s face revealing the travel worn face. Smears of mud and dirt clung to her skin. Jon suspected he looked worse for wear. She squinted against the glare of the sun and pulled the brim of her hood back up over her dirt matted hair. “Because nobody will tell them what to do,” she said. “People can really put up with anything.”

 

“But what about that?” He motioned to thick patch of visible air. It twisted and curled in on itself spattering around with pure power. Occasionally a spectral hand would appear as if clawing to get out.

 

Sarad pulled a face. The disgust visible. “That’s why most of the villages are on the outskirts. It get’s worse further in. Just don’t stare at anyone unusual.”

 

Jon tried to swallow but his dry throat rebelled against the action and he coughed instead. Further in was where they were going. He stared back at the magical corruption. An arm had appeared flapping around disembodied. It had almost solidified. It was nothing really. Spirits or manifestations of will but weak and devoid of any real power. At least that is what the mage had said. The magical storms were extremely dangerous but they hung static over the landscape anchored in place by mystical forces. The real danger in the forsaken lands were the Varrd. Raiding bands of the bestial creatures would breach the barrier at times and lay havoc on the lands. The forsaken land was said to be teeming with them.

 

Jon looked back down at the village. He’d been told they’d find it here. There were others too, according to their sources. “How do they survive the varrd?”

 

Sarad shrugged. “They fight them or appease them. How would I know?”

 

“How do you appease a varrd?”

 

Sarad didn’t answer. She stared back down at the spectral visage. A skull like face peered through the tear in reality screaming in silent rage at the intruders. She scowled. “This is why magic is controlled,” she swept her hand across the horizon.

 

Jon glared at her. She wanted to start this argument again? The mage had been gone almost a fortnight. His eyes left hers and locked onto her bow clutched in her hands. The runes blazed a dull black light. Her distaste for magic didn’t stop her from employing it. The argument was pointless now. Neither of them were mages. Their friend was likely dead. Gone making sure they got here alive. “What they do to the mages is wrong,” he said.

 

She swept her hand in front of her. “This is what happens when it gets out of control. Do you even understand how many lives were lost. The shattered the world.”

 

Jon looked at the cracked landscape below them. The fissures were ancient wounds cleaved into the rock. Stories said they all snaked into the centre of the forsaken lands. Like cracks in the world itself. “They are legends, they exaggerate.” He said.

 

Sarad snorted and in a flash of hands so quick he could scarcely follow she drew an arrow from her quiver and fired it at the spectre. The blinding white flash shot from the bow and Jon gasped as he realised what she’d just done. His head whipped round to see the arrow strike the magical appreciation in a blinding flash and then both vanished. She’d shot the arrow out of reality.

 

“Sarad,” he said.

 

“Shut it,” she snapped. Her voice choked and he could see tears glistening in her eyes. Rage boiled on her face but he knew it was directed at herself.

 

They couldn’t afford to waste those arrows. As far as either of them knew they were unique. The only ones in existence were sat in her quiver. Even Danith hadn’t been able to explain what they were, let alone recreate them. Where they were headed they were going to need them.

 

“Come on, let’s hope they have water,” Jon nodded down at the village. “Let’s hope we can even drink it.”

 

Sarad nodded. Her face hardened. “The village is going to be weird,” she said. “Don’t stare at them.”

 

The pair of rangers turned and started down the steep hill and into the Forsaken lands.

 

-----

 

Hype has forsaken these lands leaving us to trudge through the shattered remnants. Hype isn't all that it is cracked up to be. Momentum and determined perseverance are the qualities that are going to win through in the end. 

 

I've come to the end of my race season. I've got very little to keep me hyped for the near future. If I'm totally honest while the hype has given me a lot of motivation to stick to my workout plans my eating has suffered as a result. Since i have no performance goals to hit for now it is the perfect time to refocus my efforts onto losing more weight. I have still got a ton of weight to lose. 

 

 

Eat to Survive

This should be simple. I have a calorie target of between 2600-2700 calories. When I hit this thing bang on I lose weight. If I go over too much and too often I don't, or I gain. So I will record everything that I eat. Report any infractions to my plan and stop adding that extra scoop or gulp or whatever to my food (cause that's one of the things that is out of control). There are no variances in this and weekends are not an exception. 

 

This is simple but it is the primary focus on my challenge. 

 

Daily pass/fail

 

Fight to Survive

I've been neglecting my strength workouts somewhat recently. I have reasons for this (injuries and races) but I want to double down. I've lost strength and I want to get it back. Keeping to a regular schedule will help. 

 

The basic template is this:

Mon: Squat and OHP, basic  OCR circuit. 

Wed: Deadlift and Bench, OCR circuit

Friday: Long OCR circuit. 

 

The OCR circuits will be detailed in the updates but it's just basically a lot of bodyweight exercises with an eye to getting better at OCR races. 

 

Session pass/fail

 

Run to Survive

During week 0 I don't intend on doing any running and hopefully that'll be enough to banish the niggle in my calf. If that is not the case in week 1 I will swap the sessions for another kind of cardio and revise my plans. 

 

In my head this is how I'd like this to play out. 

Week 0: Resting

Week 1: 3 runs, 20 miles. 1 quality workout

Week 2: 4 runs 25 miles 2 quality workouts

week 3: 5 runs, 30 miles 2 quality workouts

week 4: 5 runs, 30 miles. 2 quality workouts

 

This constitutes an overall reduction in both number of runs and overall mileage. 

 

pass/fail for each run and pass/fail for q sessions. 

 

Scoring

 

To keep myself accountable I'm reimplementing the health bar. The concept is simple. The pass/fail for the challenge is based on the 80/20 concept. There is a total of 74 points available. 20% of that is 15 so I have 15 health points. If I drop to zero I 'die'. I like this system because it provides a good visual indication of how you are doing and really shows that a few bad days isn't the end of the world. 

 

 

 

HP           14/15             |

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Intriguing story to start with.

[Cheetah]

Very nice!  I'm along for the ride!

[Maigs]

Following along of course!

[Wild Wolf]

Lol...we continue to be like minded fools, don't we? Love the little story intro and following for more Jonpool madness

 

Wolf

[Salinger]

Here here here here for awesomeness

[jonfirestar]

2 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Intriguing story to start with.

Thanks, it popped into my head some time last week when we were talking about being forsaken by hype. 

 

2 hours ago, Cheetah said:

Very nice!  I'm along for the ride!

Good to have you back, my friend. Let us conquer food! 

 

2 hours ago, Maigahane said:

Following along of course!

And, of course, I'm happy to see you back! 

 

2 hours ago, Wild Wolf said:

Lol...we continue to be like minded fools, don't we? Love the little story intro and following for more Jonpool madness

Wouldn't have it any other way, Wolfpool! 

 

1 hour ago, Salinger said:

Here here here here for awesomeness

Yay! Good to see you back! 

 

 

Updated the intro to include some actual goals. And to show of my mastery over the forum software by implementing an actual health bar! 

[Wild Wolf]

4 hours ago, jonfirestar said:

I've lost strength and I want to get it back

 

 

 

We all know you're a beast, so..

 

 

I say all this love, I promise  

 

Wolf

 

[jonfirestar]

Week 0, Monday! 

Today was a really good, hype free, day  at least until last thing this evening when I was forced to deal with something that has caused a massive spike in anxiety. All resolved satisfactorily so the anxiety should subside in a day or two but it is a thing and I'm feeling a little on edge tonight. 

 

At the gym this I tested how the rowing machine would affect my calf and I'm happy to say that it didn't seem to aggravate it at all. So I'm happy that is something I can use to keep my aerobic fitness progressing while I nurse my sore calf. It's worth saying that when I foam rolled my calves out this morning I could really feel the tender spot in my left leg that is causing me worry. So I feel like it's worth using the roller as a gauge as to when I feel like it's fixed. 

 

Otherwise decent enough day. First day back at work after my birthday break and it wasn't too busy. Some work is waiting for me and I've got a bout a week and a half to go through an entire syllabus of dell certification, meh. I did open my email to find that I had 63,000 emails in my inbox! (I'm not even exaggerating). That was fun. Mostly caused by bug so it wasn't like I had to go through 63,000 emails but it was a nice surprise.  

 

Eat to Survive

2,678 - pass. 

Food has been decently good today. I did forget my protein shake and grenade bar when I left for the gym and ended up buying a bunch of protein bars from the local supermarket. Which did the trick. MFP was adjusted to show this but all things were within target so this is a solid pass. 

 

Fight to Survive

I hit the gym this morning. I mentioned this in my last challenge but not this one. I've got a small injury to my calf and I'm avoiding heavy loading my leg until it's better. So I'm skipping the power lifting for week 0. I did hit a decent circuit. 

 

4 rounds

Row 1k (about 3:50-4:00 minutes) 

Pullups x5 (as many unassisted as possible, which was 2 per set, and the others assisted) 

Pushups x10

Leg Raises x10

Goblet squat 20x24kg 

 

Run to Survive

No running but I did finish my gym time with a 5k row. It was 22:54, which is quite slow but better than I was actually expecting. I've been racking my brain for my old PRs on the rowing machine (as opposed to on water) and I think the 5k time was somewhere around 16 minute mark. I don't know if I should care. There is very little chance I'm going to put the time and effort into it that I am going to come anywhere near the times I could hit in my early 20s but I am coming around to the idea of using the rowing machine to train my top end anaerobic and threshold systems. 

 

Scoring

No health lost so far! 

[jonfirestar]

24 minutes ago, Wild Wolf said:

 

 

 

We all know you're a beast, so..

 

 

I say all this love, I promise  

 

Wolf

 

 

[Sloth the Enduring]

Great start brother.

[iatetheyeti]

Love the story

 

Following along without hype. 

 

(that's a lie, story = hype!)

[deftona]

Following, bursting with concealed hype just like in Tank's thread. 

 

[Novaurora]

Here!!!

[WhiteGhost]

Here for sure!

[SkyGirl]

DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUDE, that story has me like:

 

 

 

Your descriptions are incredible!!! I am so excited to learn more about this creepy land!!!

 

Press onward, fellow hypeless Ranger!!

[jonfirestar]

12 hours ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

Great start brother.

Thanks Sloth! 

 

11 hours ago, iatetheyeti said:

Love the story

 

Following along without hype. 

 

(that's a lie, story = hype!)

No hype here  I'm happy to have you following. Glad you liked the story. I'm never sure if anyone will like it when I write them. 

 

10 hours ago, deftona said:

Following, bursting with concealed hype just like in Tank's thread. 

 

 

Just contain that hype. It might be infectious! 

 

7 hours ago, Stribs said:

Here!!!

Hi Stribs! 

 

4 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

Here for sure!

Good to have you back! Where are you setting your challenge up this time? 

 

4 hours ago, SkyGirl said:

DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUDE, that story has me like:

 

 

I'm going to assume that's a good thing  

 

4 hours ago, SkyGirl said:

Your descriptions are incredible!!! I am so excited to learn more about this creepy land!!!

Thanks

 

I really have nothing on you  and I am extremely rusty but there was a time I'd spend every waking hour writing stories and it often saddens me that I don't do it any more. I'm also apparently really bad at proof reading  

[iatetheyeti]

39 minutes ago, jonfirestar said:

No hype here  I'm happy to have you following. Glad you liked the story. I'm never sure if anyone will like it when I write them. 

 

I think it's safe to say we do indeed like  

[WhiteGhost]

52 minutes ago, jonfirestar said:

Good to have you back! Where are you setting your challenge up this time? 

I am doing a thoroughly hypeless challenge back with the assassins

[Kestrel Grey]

Definitely following, how could I not with that intro?

You tend to smash your targets when you focus on them, so looking forward to seeing you smash these goals.

[jonfirestar]

8 hours ago, iatetheyeti said:

I think it's safe to say we do indeed like  

Then thanks  

 

29 minutes ago, Kestrel Grey said:

Definitely following, how could I not with that intro?

You tend to smash your targets when you focus on them, so looking forward to seeing you smash these goals.

Thanks. I really want to smash these goals this time round so I'm trying my best. 

 

 

[jonfirestar]

Week 0, Tuesday! 

Two days of the challenge down and the fight has begun  Going from the relative excess of the last week or two to actually being firm about my calorie counts always makes my body fight back. I'm unsure if it's all psychological or if it is physical. I know I really want to go snack on something right now. I'm feeling quite determined right now. Time to kick some ass. 

 

I weighed in this morning and I'm currently sitting at 225lbs. Coming off of the weekend I expect there to be some rapid drop off over the next couple of days but I'm putting this up here so that I have a record of how my weight is doing. Just a matter of accountability. I'm not setting a weight loss target but I think having it up here will help me to keep on top of things. 

 

Otherwise I'm feeling a little mentally drained today. I spent most of it watching training videos and it hasn't made me happy. They were incredibly tedious. My anxiety is still high but it is coming down again. 

 

 

Eat to Survive

2,666 - pass. 

Stuck solidly to my food plan today. Feeling okay. I really want to snack right now though. 

 

Fight to Survive

rest day

 

Run to Survive

rest day. The calf is still a tiny bit sore. At least now I'm convinced something is wrong. Something that is worth resting out. 

Scoring

No health lost so far! 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

5 hours ago, jonfirestar said:

Otherwise I'm feeling a little mentally drained today. I spent most of it watching training videos and it hasn't made me happy. They were incredibly tedious. My anxiety is still high but it is coming down again. 

If I had my way people who design training videos would step in a puddle with fresh socks any time someone was bored by their work, @DJtrippyT exempted of course.

[Cheetah]

5 hours ago, jonfirestar said:

No health lost so far! 

 

Great job!

 

Resting is so worth it.  I'm looking forward to getting back into it, but I'm glad I'm taking the time to get things sorted.

[TGP]

dude that is like so awesome.  I had to look up "OCR" to see you prolly meant this:

 

respect: