Jarric - Road to Oblivion IV - The Final Stretch

[Jarric]

This year the first of my major goals is Nuclear Oblivion, a 12km lapped obstacle course where I'm hoping to do 4 laps (~48km/~30 miles) and qualify for the Obstacle Course Racing World championships. Nuclear Oblivion takes place on 19th May, which is the last day of this challenge.

 

On the Saturday of week 3 I'm running Rat Race Dirty Weekend, a 20 mile obstacle course, just for a bit of fun.

 

The end of week 2 will be a taper run at 10 miles. The end of week 1 will be my last long run before the events at 19 miles. I ran 17 miles yesterday.

 

So that sets the stage of where we are for the next 4 weeks, Now for some goals;

 

Track Your Workouts - 10XP

My usual plan of a minimum of 7 workouts per week, but this time with a twist - if I didn't write about it it didn't happen. I've fallen out of the habit recently of writing out my Crossfit workouts, and I'd like to get back to that and have a full picture of my running and climbing too.

 

Plan Your Food - 10XP

I read a great Nerd Fitness e-mail yesterday about knowing what you're going to eat tomorrow, and how that planning helps you avoid making bad choices. It sounds interesting and I want to give it a go. And to start, here's what I'll eat tomorrow:

• 1st thing - Glass of whole milk
• Breakfast - 3 eggs, banana, protein shake
• Snack - Apple
• Lunch - chicken, veg and rice
• Snack - WW's homemade lemon cake
• Dinner - Tomato-y sausage pasta
• Snack - Easter chocolate
• Last thing - glass of whole milk

 

Sort Those Finances - 10XP

I got a promotion (and payrise) at work this month, and next month I should get my annual bonus, so it's a good time to think about where I'm putting my money. I'll have weekly goals for this:

• Week 1 - do family budget
• Week 2 - do personal budget
• Week 3 - investigate help to buy ISAs
• Week 4 - Reduce some bills, get pet insurance

 

Check In - 5XP

I'm terrible at keeping up on here, so I'm making it a goal to check in daily, even if it's only for 5 minutes.

[RuthixCube]

Woah, this is quite the challenge! I'm very interested in reading about the OCR stuff - my sister convinced me to participate in a 5k one later this year and it will be my first. I've heard about the larger more challenging OCRs and the World championships, so I'm excited to see how you do! Best of luck!

[Terra]

So excited you are here!  Nuclear Oblivion sounds amazing!!!!  

[Jarric]

22 hours ago, RuthixCube said:

Woah, this is quite the challenge! I'm very interested in reading about the OCR stuff - my sister convinced me to participate in a 5k one later this year and it will be my first. I've heard about the larger more challenging OCRs and the World championships, so I'm excited to see how you do! Best of luck!

 

That's cool! 5k is a good distance for an OCR, I hope you enjoy it. How long until your one?

 

18 hours ago, Terra said:

So excited you are here!  Nuclear Oblivion sounds amazing!!!!  

 

Thank you! It will certainly be something, I'm really excited but starting to get nervous too!

[Jarric]

Wednesday - W1D3

Food for today is so far on track. Plan for tomorrow:

• 1st thing - Glass of whole milk
• Breakfast - 3 eggs, banana, protein shake
• Snack - Apple
• Lunch - chicken pasta, fruit
• Snack - banana
• Dinner - Beef stir fry
• Snack - After Eights
• Last thing - glass of whole milk

Workouts have been logged, so I'm calling that 3/3 for this challenge. Didn't go climbing last night as Hopalong was ill, might see if I can go tomorrow. Instead I worked late and went home in an absolute daze after some quite taxing work. Got to chill out in front of High Rollers and Critical Role though, which is always nice.

 

This morning at Crossfit we had "Jackie" - that's a 1,000m row, 50 thrusters (20kg/15kg (45#/35#)), 30 pullups all for time. I managed the lot in 13:58 which I was pretty happy with. Need to work on my pullups though as I've been neglecting them and was reduced to singles by the end of the WOD.

 

Tonight I may go and play some snooker for a bit, and generally have a chilled one.

[RuthixCube]

9 minutes ago, Jarric said:

That's cool! 5k is a good distance for an OCR, I hope you enjoy it. How long until your one?

 

I think, while I'm dreading it a bit right now, that it will actually be a pretty fun experience. I might actually enjoy it enough to want to do another one haha. It's in mid August, the 17th I believe.

[Jarric]

23 hours ago, RuthixCube said:

 

I think, while I'm dreading it a bit right now, that it will actually be a pretty fun experience. I might actually enjoy it enough to want to do another one haha. It's in mid August, the 17th I believe.

 

Yeah, just remember that it is supposed to be fun! That's plenty of time to prepare too, so I'm sure you'll be good.

[Jarric]

W1D4 - Thursday

Food yesterday was ok, a few too many snacks at the end of the working day. I didn't have After Eights at home, as I went to play snooker and had a few beers instead! Food for today is a bit different as it was apparently due to be sausage pasta rather than chicken pasta, and then WW didn't make enough pasta so it ended up as sausage and veg. Still a decent meal. I do sense cake this afternoon however.

 

Food plan for tomorrow:

• 1st thing - Glass of whole milk
• Breakfast - 3 eggs, banana, protein shake
• Snack - Apple
• Lunch - homemade chicken soup
• Snack - banana
• Dinner - forgot to ask WW this morning... need to check that
• Snack - Easter chocolate
• Last thing - glass of whole milk

I also found out yesterday that I got on to quite an interesting course that I applied for, so that'll be fun. The main this is that it culminates in a trip to the USA (Hartford, CT specifically) which is pretty exciting. Well, scary and exciting, it's a long long way from home!

 

This morning I ran. Got out a bit late and went really slowly; last night's beers and going to bed after midnight probably didn't help. Another 5 miles down however.

 

This afternoon I get the results of an MRI scan I had on my hip, so fingers crossed that all goes well. After that I might go climbing if Hopalong is up for joining me.

[RuthixCube]

3 hours ago, Jarric said:

I also found out yesterday that I got on to quite an interesting course that I applied for, so that'll be fun. The main this is that it culminates in a trip to the USA (Hartford, CT specifically) which is pretty exciting. Well, scary and exciting, it's a long long way from home!

 

Oh hey, you're coming to my neck of the woods (sorta)! The New England area, anyway - I'm in MA. That's super exciting! 

[Jarric]

20 hours ago, RuthixCube said:

 

Oh hey, you're coming to my neck of the woods (sorta)! The New England area, anyway - I'm in MA. That's super exciting! 

 

Ah that's cool! I'll admit to having to look up how close that was; my US geography is basically non-existent

[Jarric]

W1D5 - Friday 

Got the results of the MRI on my hip yesterday: IT Band Syndrome. So really nothing too much to worry about, probably a few months on physio in my future. I'm relieved at least that it's nothing more serious.

 

Food yesterday was ok - I had a lot more chocolately snacks in the evening than the plan. Today I've already had some cake as well, but at least I've finished the cake at work! Dinner tonight is beef stir fry. Plan for tomorrow: 

• Breakfast - Wheatabix and a banana
• Long Run - a banana, a lot of running gels, maybe an apple
• Post run - 3 eggs, protein shake
• Lunch - Something quick, possibly an omelette.
• Snack - bacon sandwich
• Dinner - party food
• Last thing - glass of whole milk

Last night I also got my family budget sorted, so i can tick that off the list. We're actually not too far off our expenses from 2 years ago, so it's good to see they haven't crept up too much. Really feel like we're starting to plan for the future now.

 

This morning was upper body bodybuiling at crossfit - 3 sets of 8-12 reps on bench, bent over rows, dips, chinups, skullcrushers and bicep curls. It was quite good fun to do something a bit different, and I felt like I was inflating as I did it!

 

Tonight I'll chill out and get to bed nice an early, so I can get up tomorrow for a 19 mile run *gulp*. This'll be my longest ever training run, and my last long run before my main events. Tomorrow evening I'm going to a 21st birthday party, which could be very fun and/or very messy.

[Jarric]

Week 1 Round-Up

Workouts - 7 (4 runs, 2 crossfit, 1 bouldering) - All written out

Meal planning - 4/6

Finances - Task done (setting family budget)

Checking in - 4/6

 

I had a pretty good weekend; the 19 mile run was OK although I ended up doin a lot more walking than running in the last 6 miles, and particularly so in the final mile. The 21st birthday party was also good, a very funny night where I drank far, far too much.

 

Sunday I bouldered in the morning - it wasn't a particularly good session given the massive hangover, but it was probably better to sweat it out.We met up with WW's family for lunch and for the afternoon, so that was nice even if I was still suffering a bit.

 

Week 2

Yesterday was ok. I was in a bit of a shitty mood from not having a great WOD at Crossfit, and various things not going my way, and probably ultimately from having a heavy weekend. Felt a bit better in the evening after a meal with WW's family and a few hours sat in front of Critical Role.

 

Today I had a lie in and then went for a 5k run in the morning. I think I'm going to enjoy my couple of deload weeks of shorter runs, it's nice to have more time to do nothing of a morning. This evening I have a D&D game, which I'm very much looking forward to.

 

Tomorrow's food plan:

• 1st thing - Glass of whole milk
• Breakfast - 3 eggs, banana, protein shake
• Snack - Apple
• Lunch - leftovers of today's dinner (which WW is deciding on), plus fruit
• Snack - banana
• Dinner - Tapas night
• Last thing - glass of whole milk

[Jarric]

Week 2 day 3 - Wednesday

Last night I apparently did not have D&D, because I'm not a terribly organised person and don't know when things are. We got as far as getting in the car before we found out, which was ridiculous. Decided to go do some shopping as we were already up, which was something. Then just went home and chilled, which was good because my brain was totally fried from work.

 

This morning was Crossfit, we were doing bar muscle-up progressions, following by a WOD: 7' AMRAP, 7 wall balls, 3 bar muscle ups. I did 12kg wall balls and jumping muscle ups off a couple of plates for 5 rounds. Then we had assault bike - 3 efforts of 15 calories for time - it was horrible!

 

Tonight I'm going out for tapas with WW and family. Tomorrow's food plan is:

• 1st thing - Glass of whole milk
• Breakfast - 3 eggs, banana, protein shake
• Snack - Apple
• Lunch - rice and beans (which I need to cook tonight), plus fruit
• Snack - banana
• Dinner - need to check with WW - I think gnocci was mentioned
• Snack - Easter chocolate
• Last thing - glass of whole milk

[Jarric]

Week 2 Day 4 - Thursday

Yesterday evening we went for an excellent tapas at a local place, which is probably the best tapas place in the country. Then just chilled at home in front of the TV. It was a nice night. I did also make some rice for today's rice and beans lunch.

 

This morning was a very chilled 5k; I think this short run thing from now until Oblivion is going to suit me!

 

Food hasn't been great as I was stuck in a meeting during what should have been lunch time, so I ate a load of biscuits in the meeting that were not on the plan.

 

Tonight is D&D night after what feels like far too long. I can't wait to get back into playing my wisdom-drained sorcerer/cleric, and hopefully kill some trolls.

 

Tomorrow is D&D, work, and chilling out. Will be a good time to write my budget tomorrow night for that part of my challenge.

 

Food for tomorrow:

• 1st thing - Glass of whole milk
• Breakfast - 3 eggs, banana, protein shake
• Snack - Apple
• Lunch - leftover gnocchi
• Snack - banana
• Dinner - one of the meals from our monthly recipe box
• Snack - Easter chocolate (still working through it!)
• Last thing - glass of whole milk

[Jarric]

Week 2 Day 5 - Friday

I feel like I'm titling my updates wrong - this is Friday's update but that naturally means it's all about what happened on Thursday...

 

Anyway, yesterday was supposed to be my physio appointment, but the physio was ill so it's been pushed back to Friday next week. Ironically the day before Dirty Weekend, which is a 20 mile run! I'm sure they won't be very impressed with my plan to do that, but there we go.

 

D&D last night was awesome, we killed some trolls and then a bone golem in the shape of a giant scorpion which the trolls had been worshipping as a god. This fella in fact: 

 

It was really cathartic given that our last session, which was about 5 weeks ago, we basically got our arses handed to us by some really nasty shit. So killing a god made us all feel much better. We finished the session by advancing to level 10, which was pretty cool too.

 

This morning we had a horrible Crossfit WOD (which I have just remembered I need to add to my journal):

10 rounds for time:

 - 200m run

 - 10 toes to bar

 - 1 minute rest

 

Because of the rests everything else was done at a sprint - it was really hard work! I scaled the T2B to knees to elbows, and finished in something like 22:25.

 

Tonight I will chill out and do my budget, tomorrow is a 10 mile run and the start of a three-day weekend  

[NicTheRugger]

5 hours ago, Jarric said:

This morning we had a horrible Crossfit WOD (which I have just remembered I need to add to my journal):

10 rounds for time:

 - 200m run

 - 10 toes to bar

 - 1 minute rest

oh ow. That sounds tough!

[DarK_RaideR]

Somehow I've missed this, but here now. Loved catching up with all the goodness

[Terra]

How was your long weekend???