dirty_rat MR_Willes: "Prepping to slay the Rat, Full Mucker!" Part 1

[Mr_Willes]

 

The Rangers and people from other guilds, that have been around for a while (at least 2 years i just checked) could know that, in my past, i have dedicated a few challenges in a row to prepping for my first StrongViking Beast obstacle run in the start of 2016. Those were pretty successful challenges, so now i'm summoning the strength of that format again. Because, frankly, things need to be done. You can also say i'm slowly starting to get frightened a bit by the endeavor i have set upon.

 

For the people that don't know, a few facts:

***

* T-minus: ~ 23 weeks / 154 days

***

* Rat Race Dirty Weekend 2018

***

* UK obstacle run

***

* 20 miles

***

* 200 obstacles

***

* Meeting all the Epic Nerds IRL for the first time!!!

 

There are a couple of things i want to accomplish before that time, and one way or the other i tried to put it all into a spreadsheet which i will upkeep daily.

 

(WIP)

 

A little explanation about all the things:

 

Weeks / Days:

Countdowntimers to keep me focused on the time left

 

KCAL/d:

I want to be just under 2000 KCAL a day, this is just under maintenance, which will allow me to lose some fat, and keep up with working out. I need to lose some weight to be able to handle all the bodyweight related exercises better, like hanging pulling jumping etc. etc.

 

Protein/d:

I don't want to lose the muscle i have built the last couple of years, so protein will be the most important nutrient that i will keep my eye on. Doing 160+ a day is just a little under 2gr/lbs of bodyweight.

 

Drinking/d:

I know this is not going to be much of a problem (especially compared to 2 years ago), but i know that if i don't mention this here a few days will be lost due to excessive drinking. Now i rate this on a scale of no / mindful / less than mindful. This gives me some leeway to enjoy the occasional beer. Cause a challenge has to be hard, but you don't need to set yourself up for failure, especially when the drawback (of a single beer) is that low. This untraining of my beer-habit also makes me a bit afraid of the race itself, i owe it to some people to thoroughly enjoy several beers on friday and saturday that i really am getting a bit scared of having to do the 20 miles and 200 obstacles while having a major beer-induced headache.

 

Eat healthy/d:

B/L/D a.k.a. Breakfast / Lunch / Dinner. These are the only moments i will eat. The only exception here will be stuff around workout like PWO, recovery drinks and protein shakes. Again this will be scored for doing the best i can. "Best option" means that there was no way i could have eaten healthier given the circumstance at that moment. "Mindfully" means that there might have been a better option which i didn't take but i made a conscious choice not to have that, but also chose not to take the worst option. This is a choice i frequently have to make. I'm not one for meal prepping (yet). And i also don't want to give my kids a bad example by doing some extreme dieting and in their presence i will eat normally but try to do so as healthy as possible.

 

No CC:

No Candy no Cooky, no inbetween snacking. This means i just eat at B/L/D and nothing else. This should bring a halt to several of my weaknesses. Especially the one that hit's me after snoozing on the couch, somehow i always wake up with such a sweettooth and stuff my face with cookies or candy just before i go to bed. It will also help in not accumulating those small extra KCALs throughout the day. 

 

Lift / Run / Crossfit:

These are the workouts i'm gonna do, and my goal is to give them equal attention. I always leaned on lifting more than running, and combining running with lifting was pretty doable. Now that i have CF in the mix it's hard to give running the proper attention. That's why i decided i'm gonna lay down a bit on the lifting and sacrifice one lifting workout for one extra running workout. Even the lifting workout will be geared towards the Rat Race. I'm gonna keep on doing the juggernaut program, and i will do a workout of DL/BP and SQ/OHP + 2 accessory exercises. This program will be written out coming weekend. This also goes for the running workout. I'm gonna go look for a plan that get's me to run about 10 miles within my ~20 weeks i've got.

 

Extra Reps:

I just like the idea of doing extra. So this is the excuse to do extra reps, and i'm going to categorize them as hard medium and easy. Hard ones are things i can only do a few of, like pullups. Medium are things like pushups, i can push those out a lot more. And easy ones are the things that i feel i could do all day (and actually have done so), like jumping jacks and mountain climbers. Scoring points are as follows, per rep: Hard 10 points / medium 5 points / easy 1 point.

 

Weight / BF%:

These will be here to record how my overall weight and BF% will transition throughout my prep.

 

OSM:

OSM a.k.a. Awesome. An awesome day, where i have been completely focused or something else significant happened, will be noted here. I'm hoping a lot of x'es in this column. 

 

Comments on missed goals and OSM days:

Part of the pressure of accountability, if i fuck up, i have to come clean. Tell how and why i fucked up a goal. On the other hand, this is the place to gloat about awesome days too!

 

 

So if you want to be part of this success please add some accountability.

 

 

Nag my ass over things i haven't done or when i tell you i don't feel up to working out. Challenge me (that won't work i can assure you) or find some other way to get under my skin. I'm hoping with the help of you all this will be another good (set of) challenge(s) and i will get my butt in gear to kick ass on the Rat Race. May the lord have mercy on my body

 

 

So...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jonfirestar]

18 minutes ago, Mr_Willes said:

For the people that don't know a few facts:

***

* T-minus: ~ 23 weeks / 154 days

***

* Rat Race Dirty Weekend 2018

***

* UK obstacle run

***

* 20 miles

***

* 200 obstacles

You forgot the beer! What are you doing to prepare for all the beer? I can't wait for this! It's going to be the most epic of Ranger meetups!

[Mr_Willes]

5 minutes ago, jonfirestar said:

You forgot the beer! What are you doing to prepare for all the beer? I can't wait for this! It's going to be the most epic of Ranger meetups!

You are absolutely right, i completely forgot about the beer and the other nerd meeting up. I wanted to write some stuff into here, but completely forgot. Gonna fix that this instant!!!

 

Edit: i did mention it in one of the zillion tag's i placed upon this thread!

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Glad you have some hype.

#youcannothide.

[Mr_Willes]

4 minutes ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

#youcannothide.

 

[Charlie_Quinn]

What have you done to me!? I was happily bopping along with my minimal hype and then you go and do something like this. 

 

[Wild Wolf]

6 hours ago, Mr_Willes said:

* Meeting all the Epic Nerds IRL for the first time!!!

 

Not all of us...

 

 

 

6 hours ago, Mr_Willes said:

No Candy no Cooky,

 

Solid goal sir! I have a wicked sweet tooth too. I'll help keep you accountable if you help me  

 

Wolfpool

[jonfirestar]

1 minute ago, Wild Wolf said:

Not all of us...

Don't worry Wolfie, we''ll give him an extra special hug just for you.

 

[Mr_Willes]

2 hours ago, Charlie_Quinn said:

What have you done to me!? I was happily bopping along with my minimal hype and then you go and do something like this. 

 

 

There is no stopping this hype train!!!

 

2 hours ago, Wild Wolf said:

 

Not all of us...

 

 

 

 

Our time will come Wolfie!

 

2 hours ago, Wild Wolf said:

Solid goal sir! I have a wicked sweet tooth too. I'll help keep you accountable if you help me  

 

Wolfpool

 

Accountabilibuddies, but i think I need to add "stop receiving dick pics" on my forfeit list.

 

2 hours ago, jonfirestar said:

Don't worry Wolfie, we''ll give him an extra special hug just for you.

 

 

Yes yes yes all the hugs! We need moat hugs. So every NF'er can prepare. You WILL receive a hug! (More if your nice!).

 

Next to the agreed upon HAMMAP!

 

We need shirts for that:

Hug As Much Marshals As Possible

[Mr_Willes]

Ooow and just to prepare everybody,@Charlie_Quinn, Stu is also getting a hug! (Unless he is like 6ft tall and all muscular and built like a football player and not the huggy type and possibly angry at me for hugging him, so I will do an assessment, and if I can take him he is going down, attack hug style!)

 

[jonfirestar]

2 hours ago, Mr_Willes said:

Yes yes yes all the hugs! We need moat hugs. So every NF'er can prepare. You WILL receive a hug! (More if your nice!).

It's going to be amazing. All the hype!! 

 

[Mr_Willes]

That gif sums up things quite nicely!!!

[DJtrippyT]

SPREADSHEETS!!!!

 

[swoons]

[Mr_Willes]

So i'm just gonna jump in do a week review, even if it's only been 3 days since i started...

 

WEEK 1 REVIEW:

 

 

Comments:

 

Friday 

Negative: Succumb to eating kebab after pressure of my coworkers (cause i never work on friday and they always have kebab). And i forgot my protein shake in the evening.

Positive: Solid start of the challenge, all other things were pretty spot on, and i did some extra exercises

Saturday

Negative: Not working out in the afternoon cause we had visitors, which lead to bad eating with dinner, and that lead to not working out in the evening

Positive: Even with the pizza i kept pretty close to KCAL and breakfast and lunch was on point!

Sunday

Negative: Didn't made any effort with regards to eating at dinner, which is why protein is way off and i had a few beers, felt like getting sick at the end of the afternoon all through the end of the day

Positive: Did my first step into a running program with regards to prepping for RRDW with a 10K Urban Trail run. Which was pretty good, and wasn't as hard as i though it would be.

[jonfirestar]

2 hours ago, Mr_Willes said:

Did my first step into a running program with regards to prepping for RRDW with a 10K Urban Trail run. Which was pretty good, and wasn't as hard as i though it would be.

That's a good start! Did you manage to get it in under an hour?

 

 

[Mr_Willes]

3 hours ago, jonfirestar said:

That's a good start! Did you manage to get it in under an hour?

 

 

 

It took us 1:20 to complete the course. But there were some bottlenecks, for stairs and narrow passages. I saw our time while running was just under 6 min. per K. So overall i don't think i would have quite made it within the hour, even without all the waiting, which now gave me a breather. Still i'm very happy with the way we ran. I'm feeling it a little in the legs today, but not too bad. I want to try a proper 10K wednesday evening to see where i stand.

[Wild Wolf]

On 12/8/2017 at 10:20 AM, jonfirestar said:

Don't worry Wolfie, we''ll give him an extra special hug just for you.

 

 

There better be some maiming involved during this group hug  

 

On 12/8/2017 at 12:48 PM, Mr_Willes said:

Our time will come Wolfie!

 

 

When? When? When!?

 

On 12/8/2017 at 12:48 PM, Mr_Willes said:

 

Accountabilibuddies, but i think I need to add "stop receiving dick pics" on my forfeit list.

 

Awww man...you take away all the fun!!

 

 

HAHAHAHA!!! 

 

Wolfpool

[Terra]

I have felt like I am missing so many people this challenge and then you pop up...  YEAH!  

 

And then things got a little weird above...  Those oiled men in speedos hugging...  OK, what ever floats your boat!   LOL

 

Hi - I love your challenge and I'm impressed by the charting goal. And prep for nerd meet ups is essential!  

 

[maegs]

Nice of you to show up for the challenge!  

[Mr_Willes]

 

With the odd weather i came home very early to work from home. Lunch at home is just a disaster. All these yummy things on the table and i just can't help myself. Did a short workout in the evening cause my FIL was over, and we got into a discussion with my son on how they are teaching him math. He has much trouble with reading and math. But we just couldn't figure out how to get him to "learn" math instead of the way we learned it( multiplications under ten) just learn them by heart! In the end, with regards to my challenge, what i learned today was, to plan out my day a bit better with MFP to be able to stick to the plan, and don't eat bread like a fucking moron!

[Mr_Willes]

16 hours ago, Wild Wolf said:

When? When? When!?

 

I don't know how, i don't know when, but we will work this out!

 

Preferably at CNF one time...

 

13 hours ago, Terra said:

Hi

 

 

13 hours ago, Terra said:

Those oiled men in speedos hugging...  OK, what ever floats your boat!   LOL

 

Oow just fun and games, and a reminder to train my butt muscles before RRDW

 

13 hours ago, Terra said:

I love your challenge and I'm impressed by the charting goal.

 

It helped me hugely in the past, so i'm hoping this time it will work again. But i have already been

 

 

I need to step up my game!

 

13 hours ago, Terra said:

And prep for nerd meet ups is essential!

 

Well the prepping i need to do for this, is finally lose my winterfat, and i actually need to up my alcohol tolerance by that time!

 

6 hours ago, maegs said:

Nice of you to show up for the challenge!  

 

[Mrs Van]

43 minutes ago, Mr_Willes said:

"learn" math instead of the way we learned it( multiplications under ten)

Spoiler

 

Go a step back to physical groups of stuff. Take ... little plastic soldiers/marbles/little cars. Make 2 groups of 3 men each. Let him SEE it, and manipulate the groups. Say 2x3=6 and let him physically build and manipulate through the multiplication table. So for 10x10 you are going to need 10 groups with 10 items in each. As soon as he can visualise it in his head, because he has seen it physically, he can start to memorise it, because now he knows what he is memorising.

Alphabet: put some jelly powder (if he is allowed to have some) into a flat baking tin/tray, and let him write the letter in there with his finger. Or take play dough and let him roll snakes and build the letter while saying the name and then the phonic sound for each letter. Or make physical associations with each letter, so he needs to see the letter Aa with an apple or ant next to it. That is if he struggles to remember his letters. Otherwise try the backwards approach: Take words he knows and likes, for instance names (his, yours, mom's, sister's) write it out, then break it up into the different letters, then put it together again slowly so he can hear the different sounds that make up the name. For instance "cat" c-a-t (phonic sounds), let him spell it forward, then backward, then close his eyes (see the word in his head) and spell it forward (normal way). Just ideas to try to see what might help. A lot of boys actually only start reading fluently around 10yrs old, so he still has time.

 

 

[Mr_Willes]

1 hour ago, elizevdmerwe said:

  Hide contents

 

Go a step back to physical groups of stuff. Take ... little plastic soldiers/marbles/little cars. Make 2 groups of 3 men each. Let him SEE it, and manipulate the groups. Say 2x3=6 and let him physically build and manipulate through the multiplication table. So for 10x10 you are going to need 10 groups with 10 items in each. As soon as he can visualise it in his head, because he has seen it physically, he can start to memorise it, because now he knows what he is memorising.

Alphabet: put some jelly powder (if he is allowed to have some) into a flat baking tin/tray, and let him write the letter in there with his finger. Or take play dough and let him roll snakes and build the letter while saying the name and then the phonic sound for each letter. Or make physical associations with each letter, so he needs to see the letter Aa with an apple or ant next to it. That is if he struggles to remember his letters. Otherwise try the backwards approach: Take words he knows and likes, for instance names (his, yours, mom's, sister's) write it out, then break it up into the different letters, then put it together again slowly so he can hear the different sounds that make up the name. For instance "cat" c-a-t (phonic sounds), let him spell it forward, then backward, then close his eyes (see the word in his head) and spell it forward (normal way). Just ideas to try to see what might help. A lot of boys actually only start reading fluently around 10yrs old, so he still has time.

 

 

Thanx for the tips Elize. I think the reading bit is a bit harder. He can write perfectly (not the most tidy but he knows all the letters). Small words and very much used words work out allright too. But when words get larger, like 5 letters or more. It almost feels like the letters are dancing. He adds one of the last letters of a previous word at the beginning, and/or adds one of the first letters of the word that's after the word he is reading. So it kinda feels like to us, in our very unprofessional opinion he has some form of dyslexia. That's why we are going to a speech therapist for this. It's just all the paperwork and procedures is the worst but effective. We have found out that his hearing on the left side isn't what it should be. He has a chronic "glue ear" (direct dutch translation). And will have have a tube placed in his eardrum at the end of this year (when paperwork is done, things do move swiftly over here, we could also have it done on the 19th but my BIL is getting married that day).

 

So now we are awaiting the paperwork (hopefully this week), to be able to start speech therapy.

 

So things are in motion with regards to his reading, and i can tell you, there is nothing wrong with his speech, or his sense of talking... Man, that little guy can talk, to the point we ask him to be quiet for a while. And he has this natural thing for gaining advantage through talking, i sometimes feel i'm talking to a "door-to-door-salesman" and he is gonna sell me a vacuumcleaner i don't need. I always tell others he is gonna be a perfect car salesman when he grows up.

 

With regards to his math. I just don't know what it is. I guess i have to work up from doing the physical groups.

 

At school he now has to do the following multiplications:

1x1 2x1 3x1 ... till 10

1x2 2x2 3x2 ... till 10

1x5 2x5 3x5 ... till 10

1x10 2x10 3x10 ... till 10

 

He often mistakes x for + so he answers 2x5 with 7. Or when we want 4x5, and we help him by 1x5=5 2x5=10 3x5=15 4x5= he could easily answer 30 or 50. So it's not clicking in his mind. But, being good at math myself, it's hard for me to understand how i have to "teach this". I need to study one of his books that we got handed on where they explain how they teach math. I thought they kept it at school, but my wife told me we have it at home, so i have to look into this.

[Mrs Van]

I hope you guys find a solution, and that math book helps I shouldn't actually try to help as I'm not a professional. I just hate to see kids struggle and sometimes it is something simple.

[Mr_Willes]

I'm definitely going to train with him and visual representations.

 

It's funny thinking about these things. Cause basically i never do math, when calculating something like 62 x 8, i basically go back to the "learned-by-heart" 6(0)x8=48(0) and i add 2x8.

 

So all i ever need to know (in these examples) is 1x1 through 10x10 and just add a 0 here and there.

 

I will have a look in his book and see how they teach him, i will let you know.

 

Another thing that is bugging me about the way the learn math is the way they add stuff. When i add stuff, i always make towers of 10, a bit in a way like tetris, just a square block of 10 by 10, and if i need to add 5 to 8, the first 2 of those 5 will fall on the 8 and the other 3 will fall next to it making 10+3 or 13 represented like this:

 

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X X

X X

X X

 

Now somehow they make blocks of 2by5, so for example seven is:

 

X X X X 

X X X 

 

and 10 is

 

X X X X X

X X X X X

 

No idea why they do that. But tonight i'm gonna pick up the book and read a bit.