Adventurers of the Lucky Vale V

[Sciread77]

New challenge. 
 

I survived the last challenge. I finished audiobook number two, which is also the first one I’d be proud to have my name on.  I’d like to have more health goals this time. On the other hand, a lot of the time lately it’s been a struggle to drop one foot in front of the other. I’ve been tired and sick, which causes me to snore which keeps Jessie up on top of ruining my sleep, and it sucks. Last night seems to have been pretty decent. 
 

Halloween is coming up and that should be fun. Jessie and I are seeing Celine Dion tomorrow night after a trunk or treat with the boys’ best friend. That should be pretty great. 
 

At a meeting with my boss this week, he said our jobs are safe but workloads are expected to at least double starting in January. The new leadership wants to completely end working from home. He expects a tremendous amount of turnover in our department. That’s not a great thing to look forward to. I’m feeling pessimistic about things here, though I WOULD rather actually be busy than pretend to be busy. And I’d rather have a job than not have a job. What all this means is that, in keeping with my practice last week, I’m actively working to get jobs elsewhere again. Super preferably something where Jessie could stay home with the kids for a while if she wanted to. 
 

Health wise, I lost a little more weight past last challenge and unknowingly plowed right through a plateau. I haven’t consistently seen this weight since 2011, before the arthritis really hit and we started to have kids.  I’d like to continue on down to my goal weight, which is a ballpark for that 13% body fat in my signature.  That will require strength training too. Fit is what I’m going for, not skinny and not weak. I‘ve worked hard to gain this strength and I don’t want to lose it. 

It’s a rough patch again. My sleep cycle has readjusted with my going to bed later and getting up later now that the book is done. But the days have gone dark and I work in a dungeon, so it’s a constant battle against depression/mental health issues. It doesn’t help that everything in life outside of our little family and it’s internal relationships seems to involve treading water. That frustration, which I’ve talked about a lot on here, is a pretty big one and it’s also why I like to go back and look at the progress I’ve made in any area of my life. 
 

I’ll be writing actual goals in another post. 
 

 

 

[Sciread77]

I should also mention that I’ve been reducing caffeine intake and it’s also affecting my mood. But one can only drink 8-10 cups a day for a short time. I’ve switched to tea for the time being as well, which is a good indicator of progress. 

[Ann of Owlshire]

Good luck on the job hunt! And surviving your last challenge!

[Aquarii]

On 10/25/2019 at 2:49 PM, Sciread77 said:

I should also mention that I’ve been reducing caffeine intake and it’s also affecting my mood. But one can only drink 8-10 cups a day for a short time. I’ve switched to tea for the time being as well, which is a good indicator of progress. 

 

I halved my caffeine intake a few days ago. The struggle is real. I sleep better, though. =P

 

Looks like some great goals this challenge!!

[WolfDreamer]

Looking forward to whatever goals you lay out for yourself, my friend. Let me know if I can help in any way.

[Sciread77]

On 10/26/2019 at 10:04 PM, Aquarii said:

 

I halved my caffeine intake a few days ago. The struggle is real. I sleep better, though. =P

 

Looks like some great goals this challenge!!

It is. I had some extra this weekend because we went to see Celine Dion and I didn’t want to fall asleep on the way home. 
 

On 10/26/2019 at 3:35 AM, Ann of Vries said:

Good luck on the job hunt! And surviving your last challenge!

 

Thanks! I had an interview today and I think it went really well. I applied on Friday 4 minutes before I left for the day and they scheduled the interview Monday morning. It’s a new role and pretty close to my wheelhouse, so it sounds like  something I’d really like provided that the comp is what I’m expecting. It would take quite a bit of financial pressure off of us as well as being a great challenge. Turns out, I thrive most when nobody knows what’s going on and someone needs to bring order to the chaos. Also, one of the interviewers already offered me a job a few years ago. I didn’t want to relocate and had to turn it down, and I only made it through that part of the screening due to an error the recruiter made. But I think it’s a pretty good sign. 
 

I should know in the next couple of weeks. 
 

On 10/27/2019 at 2:34 PM, WolfDreamer said:

Looking forward to whatever goals you lay out for yourself, my friend. Let me know if I can help in any way.

So physically, I’ve got a very different set of goals for usually. As a way to shake things up, we decided to apply for jobs together, and a couple of them have physical requirements.  The tests are:

 

Situps: 

Pushups

Sprint: 300m

Run: 1.5 miles

Pullups
 

So my physical goals are all based around those. I’ll be honest, I’ve not done sit-ups or run in any kind of hard/competitive fashion since before the kids were born. My whole physical regime has been built around walking-pace carries of heavy stuff. I’m starting with greasing the groove and getting used to the motions enough that simply testing myself won’t kill me for a week with DOMS, then I’ll be doing a preliminary test. I expect to do poorly enough that I don’t even make the point chart, but that’s ok. With a baseline, I can start working in that direction. 
 

1.  Daily sit-ups, pull-ups, and pushups. Never killing my self except during self tests. 
2. Sprints 2x/week

3.  Long runs 3-4 times a week. 
4. Rest well (sleep).

5. Continue to apply for jobs. 
6.  Take a break from VO unless this last book series offer falls through. All I’m planning to do is a weekly serial for a while, which I can do with minimal daily effort. 
7. Fun-Simpsons Tapped Out Halloween.  It’s not really a goal but I traditionally start playing the game again and play a lot from October to mid-January to catch the holiday swag. My town is a gigantic mess of Halloween and Christmas decorations with a few Thanksgiving ones too. Really all I care about right now is the spooky section. 
8. Serious joint care. I have run because of psoriatic arthritis. Gotta take good care of those joints doing one of the hardest possible things on them. 
 

And there we go. Tomorrow is Halloween, and it’s probably gonna snow. We’re going as greasers (the guys) and pink ladies in poodle skirts (the ladies) and it’s gonna be epic fun. 

 

 

[WolfDreamer]

11 hours ago, Sciread77 said:

2. Sprints 2x/week

3.  Long runs 3-4 times a week.

 

Sprints are a great full-body workout, especially if you do intervals of them. You can also integrate them into other running routines. Speaking of which, what are you considering "long runs"? I'm only curious because when I first started running, I considered a 5k to be a "long run." After almost running a half marathon, a 5k no longer seems "long" to me. 

[Sciread77]

On 10/31/2019 at 7:17 AM, WolfDreamer said:

 

Sprints are a great full-body workout, especially if you do intervals of them. You can also integrate them into other running routines. Speaking of which, what are you considering "long runs"? I'm only curious because when I first started running, I considered a 5k to be a "long run." After almost running a half marathon, a 5k no longer seems "long" to me. 

All my sprints are structured interval training. I still have the template my high school track coach used, and I made some pretty wicked progress with it. A huge part of the point is building pace in without having to think about it.   
 

“Long runs” are measured by time, not distance.  I just pulled up Google Maps and ran a few of my old routes through. Looks like they started at about 3-4 miles and ended at 8-13 miles. Most of the time they were capped at about an hour but sometimes we went for longer runs, especially when we were promoted to 3x/week intervals. The point is to constantly jog in that sweet spot in which you’re able to talk but it isn’t super easy. 
 

I remember one year, in college, I hadn’t been running but I was still in decent shape. So I decided to run a half marathon for the heck of it. On my 20th birthday.  I completed it, and at a good clip... but I ended up like Barney on How I Met Your Mother. Frozen up. Pathetic. At least I wasn’t stuck on the subway lol. 
 

So I took my baselines on the non-running events today and last night. 2 pull ups (about what I expected), 28 sit-ups, and 15 pushups. I counted 17 but the app I was using determined that I didn’t go all the way down on 2 of them. 
 

Situps: I need to increase by at least 10 to pass, and preferably I’ll be knocking out substantially more. 
Pushups: I need to increase by at least 15 to pass, and I used to do well over 100 of these at a time so I feel I should be able to max this event out with regular, intentional practice.

Pull-ups: At 2, I have the minimum to pass. But I’d like to do more than hit the bare minimum. Plus, bare minimums in every event will still fail the overall test.
 

 

None of these are events I’ve been traditionally bad at, and me a decade ago would not even have needed to train extra for the test. I have the skill set needed to succeed.  I suspect that I’ll realize pretty substantial gains simply by getting used to the movements again. I haven’t done sit-ups since I changed industries almost a decade ago. 
 

 

 

[Sciread77]

So I was able to Google Maps a distance to run the 300m and the 1.5 miles. It’s fairly flat but the 300 has a 9m total incline, about 3%. I ran against the wind, which will be good too. Of course, my first try was not captured by the fitness app. My second run, which was slower, I came in at 1:12, 72 seconds, below passing.  I’ve got a lot of work to do, and I forgot how wonderful AND terrible running hard is. 

[Aquarii]

More power to you on those runs. Of all the different physical activities I have tried, running has always eluded me, both sprinting and long distance. 

[Sciread77]

On 10/31/2019 at 8:43 PM, Aquarii said:

More power to you on those runs. Of all the different physical activities I have tried, running has always eluded me, both sprinting and long distance. 

Thanks. I originally got involved in running because I was that fat kid nobody every thought would want to or be able to succeed. As much as I don’t like how hard it is on the joints, running was where I learned mentally how to push to the limits and it’ll always be a little special to me for that. Sprinting has always been harder than distance for me in the same way that boxing was always harder than wrestling. 
 

I got a notification that the audiobook came out in an email last night!

 

https://www.audible.com/pd/B07ZQSHXRQ/?source_code=AUDFPWS0223189MWU-BK-ACX0-169859&ref=acx_bty_BK_ACX0_169859_pd_us

 

[oromendur]

On 11/2/2019 at 5:56 AM, Sciread77 said:

I got a notification that the audiobook came out in an email last night!

 

Oh, this is awesome! You've been working so hard -- it's nice to see something concrete and finished come out of it. Congratulations!

 

On 10/30/2019 at 6:02 PM, Sciread77 said:

Thanks! I had an interview today and I think it went really well. I applied on Friday 4 minutes before I left for the day and they scheduled the interview Monday morning. It’s a new role and pretty close to my wheelhouse, so it sounds like  something I’d really like provided that the comp is what I’m expecting. It would take quite a bit of financial pressure off of us as well as being a great challenge.

 

This is awesome too! Best of luck, with this one and with the others requiring physical testing. Are you happy to share more details on those? I have to admit to being a bit curious  

 

On 10/31/2019 at 1:02 PM, Sciread77 said:

I forgot how wonderful AND terrible running hard is.

 

More terrible than wonderful, in my experience, but every year or two I give it another go. You're crushing it, though.

 

Wishing you success!

[Sciread77]

Woohoo! 3 books sold! To my parents, my mother-in-law, and my aunt-in-law lol. Still, exciting. I’ve sent several of the free redemption codes out. I know they’re supposed to go to the popular reviewers but I’ve been sending them to friends and family struggling with mental illness for themselves or a loved one or who are mental health professionals. I don’t expect to make a killing on the audiobook. More than anything, I want to help people see that there is life after diagnosis and that seeing a professional can dramatically change your quality of life. 
 

We’ve been doing our physical training together as a family. Jessie and I have been doing a lot more sessions than we include the kids with, but they like to be involved and do it along with us. Woody, being so big, struggles with push ups and sit ups. But boy oh boy does he try. That is, the kid yells like a banshee when the going gets tough. He’s learning to conquer hard things and I’m super proud of him for that. Rex and Bo Peep are basically smaller and solid muscle, and they can do the body weight stuff like it’s nothing. Rex decided he had to ride our backs for the push ups and it’s been rough lol.

 

Jessie is not happy with where she is, but she’s already improving rapidly. I’m super proud and really working to simply be supportive and encouraging. I don’t want to force or harangue her if she doesn’t want to. I’m not her personal trainer and while I have the skills to help her create the workout she needs to succeed, I’m not doing anything beyond that. Definitely not like I do/did in my roles as a coach. 
 

On 11/4/2019 at 11:10 AM, oromendur said:

 

Oh, this is awesome! You've been working so hard -- it's nice to see something concrete and finished come out of it. Congratulations!

 

Thanks! And it’s really nice to have one that I can both make public and feel proud of having my name on!

 

Quote

 

 

This is awesome too! Best of luck, with this one and with the others requiring physical testing. Are you happy to share more details on those? I have to admit to being a bit curious  

 

 

Thanks! The one with the interview is a field position in which I’d manage a team of sales assistants-which I’ve done already but it was about 8 years ago- and in which I’d be helping define a lot of the role since its brand new. It’s also under a leader who I like and who has already offered me a job in the past. I was, regrettably, unable to take that one. The other, I won’t be releasing any details about except the physical training I do for the physical test, which I’ll talk about here. If I/we/she get that job, I’m sure I’ll announce it on here at the appropriate time. Sorry to be secretive on that. I’m not trying to tease y’all!

 

 

Quote

 

More terrible than wonderful, in my experience, but every year or two I give it another go. You're crushing it, though.

 

Wishing you success!

 

 Yeah, it’s definitely both. It’s cool making my body do otherwise unexpected stuff and pushing myself to the limit. And distance running can be pretty cool. But sprints or starting running at any distance sucks hard. 

[Sciread77]

Today’s the day I test the 1.5 mile. Wish me luck; we need all the Luck in the Vale at the beginning. I haven’t actually run this far in some years. 
 

As with the 300m, I won’t be running this on an actual track, but on a trail at the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows. I have a board meeting there in a bit, there’s plenty of room to run, and it’s darned pretty. There’s about 30 meters of hill in the run as well. But as a younger runner, I practiced on mostly hills/trails and raced on traditional tracks. 
 

Jessie seems to have an ankle bothering her, so we’re going to put a brace on it and maybe tape the foot/ankle as well. She’s gonna be on RICE the rest of the night

[Sciread77]

13:30 on the nose. Good for a dude that hasn’t really run in years, especially given the hills!

 

One of Jessie’s students from a couple years ago died in an apparent firearm accident. He was a great kid. Jessie is sad, and Woody saw the news report and he’s sad too (though consoled that his friend will see/meet Jessie’s aunt in heaven. He’s a sweet kid.)
 

Right after finding out about that, I got a call on my work line from the mother of my friend who killed herself right before Easter. We had a good, long conversation about how we miss her, and I was able to assure her mom that the relocation to California a few years ago didn’t change that. 

 

I guess it was a deathy kind of day.  I’m thankful that we're all ok in my family, and I hope and pray for these two families who have lost their beloved children and siblings. 
 

 

 

[Sciread77]

Today has been a good day, but I’m sleepy as all gets out. It probably doesn’t help that it’s cloudy and dark outside. I could go to bed now and sleep through the night. 
 

I calculated my volunteer hours tonight, and between the theatre program and my nonprofit board work they’re at 726 hours this calendar year.  Between the theatre program and the board she’s on, Jessie volunteers a similar amount of time and we both currently do part-time work. Maybe it isn’t surprising that I’m tired lol. I am proud though. I always said from the beginning that Jessie’s work is important to me and to the community; in a lot of ways, theatre is what helps familiarize us with those that are different from us and help us see others as human beings, who maybe aren’t so different after all. Which is good in a democratic republic like the one we live in. 
 

The work I do is important, and protects people. But not as directly as I would like it to. In any case, I’m committed to strong ethics and working for the public good. Which means it’s hard sometimes to work for a corporation only concerned with the pursuit of the almighty dollar. I am fortunate that the company I work for is filled with people who are concerned about doing the right thing whilst making money. 

I’m all waxing poetic but I’m also waiting on my computer to update so I can work again lol. 

 

 

 

[Sciread77]

I WAS taking today as a full rest day since I’m looking to take a preliminary physical test tomorrow, but I let the Daschund puppy out and he immediately began running and barking... long story short, I ran a barefoot 100 meter dash to catch the little booger. 

[Sciread77]

I did the full test yesterday.

Situps: 29

300m run: 66 seconds

Pushups: 20

1.5 mile/2400m run: 14:22

 

I saw improvement in everything except the long run, which is to be expected since my first run at 13:30, while in a pretty hilly area, was also run fresh after a day of rest and the actual event has you do the 3 previous parts of the test just a few minutes earlier with only a few minutes rest. 
 

Overall, I’m pleased to have a baseline, even if I’m pretty far from my goal results. I was in worse shape in late middle school/early high school than I am now. I weighed more and was a lot weaker. Granted, I didn’t have systemic arthritis back then, but I still have a lot less to go. Back then, I made more than enough progress to max out the test score across the board in about 3 months. I think it’s more than reasonable to say that I can at least comfortably pass within a year*.
 

*With hard work and dedication towards this goal. 
 

 

[Sciread77]

Last night, I got a package in the mail from my friend’s mom with the announcement, the program, and several prayer cards from her funeral. We had the encore show for She Kills Monsters that day and I couldn’t miss without putting Jessie and the cast and crew in a major bind since I’m responsible for all the little loose ends that only an adult can really tie up, and the funeral was about 6 hours away. I still feel a little guilty for not going, and the biggest consolation is that I’d have feel pretty guilty regardless of which choice I made. Honoring the dead or loyalty and duty to the living. With a value system like mine, it’s gonna cause some turmoil. 
 

The package helped. I got it after we got back from a fundraiser for the school program. 
 

I am being interviewed for the internal company newspaper because I totally maxed out our new charity/nonprofit grants based on my hours and apparently not a lot of people did that. About 1/4 were due to the trips. It’s pretty cool. I sent all the grant to the blind reading and audio description service ok on the board for, even though it was a minority as far as the hours go. The donation posed an ethical quandary, especially concerning the wording, since my wife leads one of the programs, the donation would have been sent to the district directly with no guarantee it would make it to her program, and I’ve a fiduciary duty to the other. If the wording was different and I could direct it straight to the theatre program I’d almost definitely have split the donation between the two. 
 

Quandries, quandries. I’m not really excited for the public attention; I’d prefer to stay in the shadows and see the programs succeed. On the other hand, I’m more than willing to use this platform to help people. And I’m motivated to show my kids the example of Jessie and I dedicating our time and energies to something important beyond just earning money. We both feel that the servant spirit toward our fellow human beings is an important thing to develop. 

[Sciread77]

Well, Jessie is in a boot with ankle tendinitis. It’s  apparently been causing issues for a while, but training to run causes it to flare. We caught it pretty early on, I think, but it’s basically from not wearing good shoes. She had great inserts over the summer for our trip that transformed basically all shoes into good shoes but the puppy ate them. For now, she’s resting and recovering. I’m not sure if she’s going to take a full break or focus on pushups and other upper body/core stuff. 
 

I’m trying very hard to not give myself shin splints or some other stupid injury from overtraining. I think I’m doing ok right now, though my shins started to “feel” the last part of my run on Saturday. I ran intervals at the YMCA. All their tracks are wonky. I get the indoor one being nonstandard as it goes around a gym. But the outdoor one really threw me. And it’s blacktop, which I really don’t like ewww running on.   In any case. I stared pace work Saturday. My current goal is a 12-minute 1.5-mile/2400m run, and I ran a mile’s worth of pacing 88.88 meters at a time with 2 miles of walking/rest in between. At the end of each test I did 5 sit-ups, 5 pushups, and a pull-up with a 5-10 second hold at the very top.  The hard thing on the run, I think, is not the time itself but performing an endurance event after the previous three. That and getting my body used to running again, because the last thing I need to do is Barney Stinson myself. Or worse, get a big injury with a long recovery time. I stopped after a mile’s worth because I was listening to my shins’ limits, not because I couldn’t go on, and I think that’s an important thing to do. 
A few months after Woody was born, I did the Insanity workout. Which was hard, especially for a guy who’d been at a desk job for a year or two at that point. And who’d walked with a cane the previous summer because he hadn’t yet started life changing arthritis medicine.  I’d just I powered through it, and I think it was to prove that I could do it. Ego, while pushing me through, did so at the cost of getting a horrid case of Achilles tendinitis/tendinosis that plagued me for years. Until I became active here, as it happens. So my goal here is not to improve as hard and fast as possible, but to improve consistently and solidly pass the test. Race and event days always involve unforeseen circumstances that impede performance, and very rarely does one hit a personal best at that time. Same with fighting. Typically, one must train to a higher degree and have a solid conditioning to overcome those. I, personally, expect to have 1-3 sick children the night before the test, and perhaps a 50-degree temperature change (up or down) and I plan on being ready this time. 
 

I need to find a better place to practice the 300m as well. 
 

 

 

 

[Sciread77]

Oh. Also. Invited my family to Thanksgiving (as usual) BUT, instead of having other things to do, they’ll actually be coming to our house for it! They have only come one other time in the last 10 years, so it’s an unexpected surprise. We always make plenty of food. There is that added level of stress because, well, that’s how they roll but it’ll be nice for them to come over and watch Elf on repeat with us and play with the kids. My sister, brother-in-law, and nephew are coming for dessert too. So it should be fun. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday on account of the unadulterated feasting. 

[Sylvaa]

3 hours ago, Sciread77 said:

Oh. Also. Invited my family to Thanksgiving (as usual) BUT, instead of having other things to do, they’ll actually be coming to our house for it! They have only come one other time in the last 10 years, so it’s an unexpected surprise. We always make plenty of food. There is that added level of stress because, well, that’s how they roll but it’ll be nice for them to come over and watch Elf on repeat with us and play with the kids. My sister, brother-in-law, and nephew are coming for dessert too. So it should be fun. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday on account of the unadulterated feasting. 

 

Our current Thanksgiving count is 16 (and a baby). I also seriously enjoy Thanksgiving, so I'm looking forward to it, but if you need to commiserate about dealing with family, I've got you.

[Sciread77]

5 hours ago, Sylvaa said:

 

Our current Thanksgiving count is 16 (and a baby). I also seriously enjoy Thanksgiving, so I'm looking forward to it, but if you need to commiserate about dealing with family, I've got you.

Thanks. It’s a bit of both. I LOVE Thanksgiving. And cooking the big meal. And having a ton of people over. Our first few years together, Jessie and I regularly had 20-30 people over including the future godparents of our kids. 
 

My sister is awesome. I love her and her family. She’s got life-threatening nut allergies, though, so I’m super anxious cooking for her. At my 30th birthday, she ate one single thing (the only prepackaged ANYTHING I had and it was carefully scanned for offending items) and she ended up in the ER. That sort of re-affirmed the near-paranoia I developed from watching that happen as a kid. It’s a good thing to have in that kind of situation but I’m always afraid for her. 
 

My mom is really the wildcard. I never know what she’s going to do, and I’ve talked a lot about her and her family on here.  They tend to treat people as “the in-law” which causes issues with Jessie and frankly, they STILL treat my dad like the in-law which isn’t cool at all. Especially given that my grandpa on that side treated my dad like another son. 
 

Just weird stuff. I’m hoping it’ll all be fine but part of me is waiting for some drama crisis lol. 

[Sciread77]

I hit a couple new highs today, again, which is good.  Though I hope to start making better progress as I get a little more used to the movements and stop being quite so sore all the time.

Situps: 30
Pushups: 21

 

So far, I'm improving in each of these at a rate of about 1 additional on the max per week. I need to improve much faster.  38 and 30 are numbers that put me at the bare minimum to pass provided I absolutely slay the running events, and I'm not about to rely on just some of the events to pass on purpose. I think that a lot of these is still mental.  It's been a long time since I've regularly done these, so I probably have to push myself more to get the mental game back.  Heck, I'm on the AMRAP boards here at 28 pushups just a year or two ago when I was in WORSE shape, and it's still just this tiny fraction of what I could do a decade ago.  *cue world's tiniest violin playing for the sad guy in his 30s who can't match his pushup record from his 20s*

 

Outside is covered in ice, and I don't have a nice track to run on/I don't want to die.  For the running, I ran intervals on the stairs; 6 flights in 15 seconds, 6 times, with a minute and 45 seconds rest/going back down on each.  The whole thing took 12 minutes, not including my warmup and cooldown.  It's a lot easier on the joints and tissues, works on the good ol' VO2Max, and I can definitely feel it in my legs.  I like that it's so hard to push at the end, too, without being painful, and that it's super convenient to do indoors here.  

 

I'm still going to have to train for running outdoors.  After I score high enough, I'm going to submit my numbers and then the first official test is about 2 months after that.  Which puts it either in winter or spring.  I've a good history of running fast in the winter, and I'd prefer to run in the freezing cold that the heat or when the allergens come back out.  

[Sciread77]

Altogether throughout the day, I did 200 pushups and 200 sit-ups. 
 

Now, to watch the next couple of days to see if I destroyed myself.