DJ Trippy T: Chooses Her Own Adventure!

[DJtrippyT]

Alright, alright, you've all shamed me into it, I'll get my shit together and start my challenge....

 

 

I LOVED these books when I was a kid. Reading was my favorite thing (possibly followed by rollerskating and falling out of trees) and I used to tear these little fuckers apart. I was totally that little brat that marked the last turning point with my finger so if I chose the option that resulted in my grisly demise, I could go back and re-do it without starting the book over. I also tended to flip through and read all the possibilities out of order, so my rebellious streak clearly manifested early.

 

 

I know it's time for new year's resolutions and berating yourself and swearing you will only eat oatbran and wheatberries until you reach your summer body goals...

 

 

But frankly my brain works better if it is event-oriented, not wracked with denial and guilt.(Rebellious, yo.) In other words if I have an event to train for, I can move mountains, but if it's just "ooh I want to fit a size six and look hot", forget it. I'm on the couch with ice cream and netflix. 

 

Besides, my summer body goals are much more like this, and oat bran and wheatberries won't get me there.

 

 

 

I looked at a few things for an event, and I was really interested in a race called the City to Sea that is 30 miles of kayaking, 100 biking, and 13 running, and it takes place over two days in the Florida Keys. Fabulous. But it isn't until December of 2020 and it's wildly fucking expensive. Like $700 registration plus travel and such. Plus, again, way to far out for me to focus on it. I can't maintain trajectory for that long of an event horizon. (Plus: running.)

 

So I invented my own!

 

 

I give you: TRIPPY'S CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE EXTRAVAGANZA!

 

 

 

I do a big bike event Labor Day weekend every year (this year is the first time I missed it in six years) in Savannah, and I'm going to use that event to build a three-day adventure race that will be absolutely, 100% be won by me, because I'm the only one doing it. Unless one of you fine people comes down for a weekend.

 

Day One: Kayak around Tybee Island (6 miles-ish)

Day Two: Ride the Metric Century division of the Savannah Century (65 miles)

Day Three: Hike the nature trails at Skidaway Island Nature Park (10 miles)

 

You'll note that I'm hiking as my third segment instead of running; this is because running sucks and it's my goddamn adventure.

 

So this will be my big training goal until end of August, which is still a little longer than I'd like, but doable. I actually played with the idea of going down in June and doing it - I have all the maps for the road segment, because it's the same every year, and the rest is just google maps - and it would tighten up the timeline and put it in an easier section of the year for me workwise. But if I do it in August I can take advantage of the race support for the bike segment, and it's going to be hotter than hell's handbag either way, so might as well just do it that way. Plus I may be able to coerce the Mantis into coming. 

 

I have two other big fitness goals for the year, which are the crossfit open (duh, see photo above) and I want to get my diving certification for both scuba and freediving this year. That will probably be the very last part of the year as it's costly and I have to save up.

 

So! I very much like this goal, and I know myself well enough that it's just weird enough to hold my interest. I love things with lots of moving parts. And I like that I created it myself, with all of my interests. None of it is inherently impossible - the kayak will actually probably be the hardest, especially if I don't get the tides right - but I'll have to focus and get hella fit to do them all in three consecutive days. 

 

Best of all, no oat bran or wheatberries.

 

 

And here we come to the first choice of my adventure. Do I....

 

- write out how I'm going to break this goal down into achievable steps in a second post?

 

OR

 

- empty the dishwasher and catch up on some office work?

 

 

 

[DJtrippyT]

You clever person, you know exactly which I chose. 

 

 

We're breakin' down some goals!

 

I've already done a workout planner (incoherent scribbles, above) but I want to break my training down into small, concrete steps that I can act on each week. 

 

My mini-goals for this week are: 

 

- optimize my nutrition at breakfast

- reduce lunches out

- break twitter addiction

- hit both my bike workouts.

- work remotely somewhere cool this week

 

How I will achieve those goals: 

 

- I will shop today for my breakfast food and lunch food so that I have it in the house.

- I will prep my standard breakfast (hard boiled eggs and black beans) so that it is ready for the next three days

- Come hell or high water, I will pack a lunch every morning before I leave the house, and I will keep a PB&J sandwich pre-made in the fridge for emergencies. 

- Sandwiches are totally acceptable for lunch, even though bread is not super nutritious, because an imperfect packed lunch is vastly superior to a bought lunch.

 

Positive reinforcement: Any day that I get both lunch and dinner homemade, I can load $5 onto a pre-paid visa card that I'm also going to buy today, that will be put towards my diving certs when I get them.

 

I picked this number because I figure if I eat lunch out, it's easily 10 dollars, so I'm both saving money and putting money toward my goal. Dinner even more so. I toyed with setting up a savings account or putting money in a jar, but I know myself, and I will totally raid those things on a bad day. So I will keep the reload information on my desktop, but I will give the actual card to a friend to hold for me, so that I can't use it impulsively. Or put it in the freezer.

 

Break my twitter addiction: 

 

I mentioned in my last challenge that I developed an insidious twitter addiction over the last year, and since I follow mostly politics on it, it was making me really stressed and depressed. Plus it ate up a HUGE chunk of my day. Like two hours, seriously. I was always flipping it open and rabbit-holing into darkness.

 

I "unfollowed" all the people I was reading except for one humor writer and a couple of friends that would be offended (and their accounts are small enough that they would notice) and my usage immediately dropped. But it was still unacceptably high:

 

 

 

Fifty-three minutes! That's almost an hour of my day wasted. I could have been training! I could have been playing with my cats! I could have been filling my face with cheese!

 

A little self discipline (and the mass unfollowing starting to take effect; there's just less to read) got it down a little more:

 

 

But even that is too much and I could feel my mood shifting after I read it for a bit (not for the better, either) because I just looked up the people I used to read individually.

 

So I am going to go SCORCHED EARTH.

 

- Any day that I log more than five minutes on twitter, I have to make a $1 donation to the re-election fund of a certain odious orange American politician.

- I will post my screen time image here daily for accountability

- if I blow it and I have to donate, I have to post the receipt for the donation, to my eternal shame.

- Five minutes is NOT cumulative; ie if I stay off twitter for four days that doesn't mean I get twenty minutes on the fifth day. 

 

This is a goal that will respond better to the stick, rather than the carrot, and I had to make the punishment so grotesque that it would appall me to do it even once.

 

Hit both my bike workouts: 

 

- I will have my bike clothes clean and ready to go

- I will organize my bike accessories tonight, so that I'm not looking for things

- I have the times for the rides in my calendar, with alternate times in case of bad weather

- I will research TWO new rides on my side of town, so that I can cut my travel time to rides.

 

Bike workouts are the hardest for me right now, because they take the longest, and the weather is so crappy. I enjoy them once I'm out, but getting to the comet (my normal long ride) is a 40 minute commute to the complete other side of town; so I need to at least look into some alternatives. Panola Shoals is good, but it's a one-way hill (you ride uphill for three miles then coast back, and I have to do multiple laps to get enough miles) and Stone Mountain is convenient but so hilly that I can really only do it once a week, at least right now. It does have the advantage that I can ride at night there, but it's currently in the 40's at night so... yeah.

 

I don't have any positive reinforcement or punishment for this one. 

 

Work remotely somewhere cool: 

 

This goal is just to make me think outside the box a bit - since I generally work from home or a coffee shop, I want to branch out. I have the time slated for either Thursday or Friday. 

 

 

 

Time to choose the rest of my afternoon. Do I...

 

- finish my house chores and go hike at Stone Mountain, which is on my training schedule today?

 

OR

 

- stay in my pajamas and read a book?

 

 

 

 

 

[Defining]

9 hours ago, DJtrippyT said:

- finish my house chores and go hike at Stone Mountain, which is on my training schedule today?

 

OR

 

- stay in my pajamas and read a book?

Go for a hike! And then come home and read a book.

 

EDIT: We also have a reading thread going on the PVP board, if you're interested.

[deftona]

I love looking at your Instagram and trying to figure out wtf is going on in your challenge, it's my new 2020 game! 

 

Following along! That girl in the 4th pic on your first post (wouldn't let me quote) is freaking acing the speedo challenge. She hasn't even had to get her boobs out to distract anyone. She is my IDOL. 

 

[DJtrippyT]

5 hours ago, deftona said:

That girl in the 4th pic on your first post (wouldn't let me quote) is freaking acing the speedo challenge. She hasn't even had to get her boobs out to distract anyone. She is my IDOL. 

 

Shes playing with fire on the cameltoe challenge, though...

18 hours ago, Defining said:

DIT: We also have a reading thread going on the PVP board, if you're interested.

 

Nice! I’m trying to read more so I’ll check it out. 

 

ETA: I think @Xena has reading on her list, I have to check

[DJtrippyT]

19 hours ago, DJtrippyT said:

 

 

Time to choose the rest of my afternoon. Do I...

 

- finish my house chores and go hike at Stone Mountain, which is on my training schedule today?

 

OR

 

- stay in my pajamas and read a book?

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the answer is... neither! But only because right as I was leaving the house for my hiking session my cats got into a squabble, pulled a tablecloth off a table (sending table contents showering to the ground), and cat #1 hurt her leg. I stayed home to monitor the situation in case a trip to the emergency vet was required then went to the grocery store to get my breakfast/lunch stuff. (She was limping for a while but it’s almost gone this morning; I still may take her to the vet around lunchtime to make sure. She’s hopping on and off the bed though so I don’t think she’s seriously injured, possibly a sprained paw).

 

on the bright side being at home meant I got a lot of my house tasks done including cleaning out the car and scrubbing the bathtub (truly a task for the damned)

 

I saw a woman at Publix wearing a head-to-toe athleisure outfit with a snakeskin pattern with gold accents (leggings AND top) and I feel like I need to rethink my personal aesthetic.

 

I ate lunch and dinner at home yesterday so $5 goes into the reward fund (although dinner was frozen pizza; I was pretty stressed about the cat)

 

twitter time yesterday: ZERO!

 

 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Following along.

[DJtrippyT]

If anyone misses my countdown challenges, it’s 

 

286 days

 

until Labor Day weekend. 

[DJtrippyT]

WHY IS THERE SO MUCH PHIL COLLINS ON MY IPOD

[Sloth the Enduring]

WHY IS THERE SO MUCH PHIL COLLINS ON MY IPOD

Why is there any Phil Collins? Except for this song, which is awesome.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Remember the Ritalin episode on South Park where the only way the kids could convince Chef that Ritalin was bad was by telling him the people on Ritalin were listening to Phil Colins?

[DJtrippyT]

2 hours ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

 

Why is there any Phil Collins? Except for this song, which is awesome.

 

 

 

 

 

24 minutes ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Remember the Ritalin episode on South Park where the only way the kids could convince Chef that Ritalin was bad was by telling him the people on Ritalin were listening to Phil Colins?

 

Counterargument: this song is also awesome

 

 

The video is worth watching just to laugh at how hilariously huge the cameras are. It’s like something out of the Stone Age. 

[Sloth the Enduring]

That song is truly terrible.

I actually saw Phil Collins at some point in the 80’s. I don’t remember the details, I have to assume I went to impress some girl.

[deftona]

3 hours ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

I actually saw Phil Collins at some point in the 80’s. I don’t remember the details, I have to assume I went to impress some girl.

 

Was your theory that everyone looks great next to Phil Collins?

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

It sounds like you guys are saying Phil Collins is only good when he's singing with other people.

[deftona]

4 minutes ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

It sounds like you guys are saying Phil Collins is only good when he's singing with other people.

 

I prefer his gorilla side

 

 

[DJtrippyT]

9 hours ago, deftona said:

 

Was your theory that everyone looks great next to Phil Collins?

 

ZING!

3 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

It sounds like you guys are saying Phil Collins is only good when he's singing with other people.

 

Or covering other people’s songs. Entered as evidence, “Groovy Kind of Love” 

 

ETA: Holy Shit, is that Julie Walters in that movie? Mrs Weasley was HOT!

 

 

[DJtrippyT]

I’m choosing today’s adventure... do I:

 

Work from home, with cats and laundry (and boyfriend) underfoot, amd hope I can get everything done before my scheduled bike workout today

 

OR

 

go to the coffeeshop amd work in quiet with an unlimited supply of espresso and sandwiches?

 

 

[NeuroPunkNonsense]

I LOVE choose your own adventures! 

[DJtrippyT]

2 hours ago, Atrytone said:

I LOVE choose your own adventures! 

 

Hey! I am so happy to see you!

[DJtrippyT]

6 hours ago, DJtrippyT said:

I’m choosing today’s adventure... do I:

 

Work from home, with cats and laundry (and boyfriend) underfoot, amd hope I can get everything done before my scheduled bike workout today

 

OR

 

go to the coffeeshop amd work in quiet with an unlimited supply of espresso and sandwiches?

 

 

 

and the answer is...

 

 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

41 minutes ago, DJtrippyT said:

 

and the answer is...

 

 

I am disturbed bay a lack of sandwhiches in this picture.

[DJtrippyT]

47 minutes ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

I am disturbed bay a lack of sandwhiches in this picture.

 

There was definitely a sandwich. There was also a second espresso which was DEFINITELY a mistake, as I’m now feeling jittery and murderous. 

[Defining]

11 minutes ago, DJtrippyT said:

There was also a second espresso which was DEFINITELY a mistake, as I’m now feeling jittery and murderous. 

You can take theanine if you overdo it on the caffeine - I stack them pretty regularly.

[Elastigirl]

1 hour ago, Defining said:

You can take theanine if you overdo it on the caffeine - I stack them pretty regularly.

I take theanine to help control my bp, so yep good stuff