Artemis Prime Becomes the Lord of the Rings

[Artemis Prime]

I met the elves yesterday, too! Much nicer than that Black Rider fellow.

[Edgedancer]

On 9/11/2020 at 8:23 AM, Artemis Prime said:

I met the elves yesterday, too! Much nicer than that Black Rider fellow.

Agreed ^^

 

We are kind of traveling together. But you are walking everyday, whereas I hang out behind and run to catch up afterwards 

[Artemis Prime]

2 hours ago, Edgedancer said:

Agreed ^^

 

We are kind of traveling together. But you are walking everyday, whereas I hang out behind and run to catch up afterwards 

 I've noticed that in the app. It's nice to have somebody scouting out the trail ahead! And woot for making it to Farmer Maggot's field!

[Artemis Prime]

I started the Lord of the Rings workout today. Went through the Fellowship circuit three times:

 

3 4lb woodchoppers/side (supposed to be medicine ball slams, but I don't have a medicine ball.) Definitely need to add weight next time.

7 6.5lb renegade rows (first set I did a pushup for each row, then went every other for the last two sets. Could probably add weight because I think the pushup was the limiting factor here, but I'll let it ride for now)

9 BW lunges/leg (haven't done any real lower body work since before the chin up challenge started, so I started slow with body weight, but will add weight next time)

1 minute bridge (borderline on whether I could go to a harder progression. I'll stick with the low bridge for now and see how it goes.)

 

I even did a full warm up and cool down, which I've been known to cheat on in the past. It all felt pretty good. The first renegade row I forgot to set my feet wide and nearly face planted, but it was smooth sailing from there out.

[Artemis Prime]

Did the Two Towers workout on Thursday and the Return of the King on Monday. Need to add weight for a couple things, but as I said I'm focusing on being careful and going slow for things.

 

In the wake of the chin up challenge, I managed to do 3x3 chin ups in the Two Towers. Going to start adding reps, even though that messes up the numbers for the poem.

 

Box jumps went well, but I need to find something higher to jump on. Foam boxes are expensive and plywood boxes scare me after seeing what some people have done to their shins. I can find random things outside to jump onto, but that won't work once winter gets here. Might find a solution by then or might just switch to tuck jumps at that point.

 

Also substituted L-Sit work for handstand work in the Two Towers because...I mean...it's Lord of the RINGS, not Lord of the Handstands. Doing pretty well on the straight arm support, ready to start tuck leg raises.

 

The manmakers went better than expected, but I don't know that I'm doing the dumbbell snatch right. Going to have to do a little more research there and maybe post a form check. Using a light enough weight for now that I'm not worried about hurting myself even if I'm doing it wrong, but it still needs fixed.

 

Felt pretty good about the deadlifts. It's something that has always scared me because everyone talks about messing your back up, but I don't think they're actually as scary as a lot of people make them sound.  I started light with 10% of my bodyweight.

 

[Artemis Prime]

So I've made it to Tom Bombadil's house. I kind of want to make Rivendell by the end of the year and if I keep up my current pace that should be doable.

 

The LotR workouts are going really well. I need to film a form check on my manmakers but the lighting in my basement is terrible so I'll have to set up somewhere better for that. Also makes a convenient excuse bc I hate posting videos of myself. If I dont get it done by this time next week, could somebody call me out on procrastinating? Much appreciated.

[Artemis Prime]

So it turns out that the last portion of a manmaker is a squat clean thruster, not a snatch. I should probably still do a form check at some point, but I'm more confident that I can do the cleans correctly. They don't come up again until next week's workouts, so I'll see how they feel then.

[Edgedancer]

23 hours ago, Artemis Prime said:

I need to film a form check on my manmakers but the lighting in my basement is terrible so I'll have to set up somewhere better for that. Also makes a convenient excuse bc I hate posting videos of myself.

 

Have you tried filming yourself even without posting it? I find it useful to watch my self afterwards, I sometimes spot small details that I don't "see" during my workout. Also after doing it a couple of times showing the video to other people doesn't feel as weird.

[Artemis Prime]

On 9/30/2020 at 6:04 PM, Edgedancer said:

Have you tried filming yourself even without posting it? I find it useful to watch my self afterwards, I sometimes spot small details that I don't "see" during my workout.

I should do this. So next time I do manmakers (should be Thursday, I think) I'll film myself, even if I don't post it.

 

Decided to look up the next progression in the bridge before my workout yesterday and it was a table. And I was all "Oh, tables! I can do tables!"

HA! I could do tables, in high school. That was humbling.

 

In other news, I came across this poem in my rereading of LotR last night: 

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.

 

I forgot how much I love this poem. If I ever decide to commit to permanent ink, there's an excellent chance it will be the Tree of Gondor with the deep roots line. Also, it reminded me of this cool article Steve wrote way back in the day. I kind of miss when Nerd Fitness articles were a little...nerdier. 

[Artemis Prime]

For anyone wanting to use the spreadsheet, I just realized there was a mistake in the log template formulas from the Ford of Bruinen on down. It's been fixed, but if you already have your sheet, you'll have to recopy the template to get the fixed version.

[Artemis Prime]

Didn't get my workout in Tuesday, so I did it last night. Upped the weights some and I am feeling it today. But in a good way. So I think I've dialed in to where I need to be for now.

[Artemis Prime]

Huge victory for me today!

 

Last Saturday's workout did not go well. It just didn't feel good and I totally failed on my last set of chin ups. Then I missed a workout this week due to a variety of personal issues ranging from taking my cat to get spayed to my neighbor passing away. Which in the past would have added up to me completely giving up on everything until a redrawn several weeks/months down the road. Put today I doubled down, got my workout done, and absolutely nailed it! Totally feel like I had an encounter with the Black Riders but managed to get away and am still headed in the right direction!

[Elastigirl]

1 hour ago, Artemis Prime said:

Huge victory for me today!

 

Last Saturday's workout did not go well. It just didn't feel good and I totally failed on my last set of chin ups. Then I missed a workout this week due to a variety of personal issues ranging from taking my cat to get spayed to my neighbor passing away. Which in the past would have added up to me completely giving up on everything until a redrawn several weeks/months down the road. Put today I doubled down, got my workout done, and absolutely nailed it! Totally feel like I had an encounter with the Black Riders but managed to get away and am still headed in the right direction!

Woohoo!That's a huge victory.

[Artemis Prime]

I am now 85% of the way to Weathertop! I'm also adding the goal of making it to a full bridge by the time I make it to the end of book 1 (Rauros) inspired by the Bridge of Khazad Dum in Moria. 

 

Here's the progression I'm following: https://physicalliving.com/5-beginner-level-bridge-exercise-progressions/

 

I'm currently on Table. Going to try Upside Down Plank (also called Straight Bridge) once I hit Weathertop.

[Artemis Prime]

Made it to Weathertop! That puts me just over halfway to Rivendell. That means making it by the end of the year is going to be a stretch, but I think I can do it. Oddly, the early sunsets are going to help, because I don't mind spending time in my basement on my glider when it's dark out.

[Artemis Prime]

All righty, haven't been updating because my computer went belly up, but I just ordered a new one, so starting next week I should be able to stay more on top of this thread. I'm still plugging away at Rivendell, although I'm starting to realize making it by the end of the year probably isn't going to happen. 

I've also stopped doing the full Lord of the Rings workouts because I needed to simplify them some to fit my schedule. 

Bridge progression is slow but steady. I'm not sure if strength or mobility is my limiting factor at the moment, but I'm moving forward in both areas, so either way we're doing good.

The ring work is coming along the best. Last time I tried to go through the NF Rings program I think I was trying too hard to move to the next level, so this time through I'm just focusing on slow and steady. 

[Artemis Prime]

Rebooting this thread for 2021. I've been inspired by some of the other people here to really embrace my inner hero, and also decided to stick with my Middle Earth theme, so may I introduce you all to Artemis Prime, Half Elf Ranger:

 

Artemis Prime will have most of her adventures in the challenge threads, but I wanted to keep a running tally here of stats and goals. So here are the stats:

Name:	Artemis Prime	ST	60	Backstory: Artemis Prime is a Half-Elf raised by her human family in Rohan. She left to explore her Elven heritage and almost stayed with them as a Paladin or a Cleric. However, she ultimately chose to remain mortal, became a Ranger, and returned to Rohan. Her Rohirrim family struggles to understand her need for solitude and her scholarly interests, but they share a love for animals and storytelling. Artemis Prime wants to continue her intellectual pursuits while honing her Ranger craft. She also wants to resume her weapons training so that she can defend herself in the wilderness and uphold her family’s honor in the Rohirrim tournaments.
Race:	Half Elf	AG	56
Profession:	Ranger	CO	95
Level:	1	IG	101
Experience:	1000	IT	91
Power Points:	3	PR	73

And here are the goals for 2021: 

Walk to Mordor: The goal is to reach Heneth Anun, but my stretch goal is to make it to Mordor and destroy the Ring by December 31, 2021

Fitness: Hold a Full Bridge for 60 seconds. Once I have that down, I want to start working on handstands, which means I also want to be able to do 20 pushups (30 would be even better)

Writing: Draft and workshop my novel, and also maintain a blog to start building an audience and networking with fellow writers

Barn: Living with my parents is going better than expected, but it can't last. Current plans are to build a barn with an apartment on the family property. Keeps me close, but not too close.

Gardening: I've had a garden forever, but this year I want to look into growing plants to use as chicken feed in the winter and starting a little garden at work with our students.

Bible Reading: I've let this slip recently, but I read Luke throughout December and it's amazing how much calmer and more in control of my life I feel when I take this time in the morning. 

 

That's the big six. Other goals that are a lower priority this year include taking a vitamin, snoozing less (just got a sunrise alarm clock for Christmas!), sticking to a budget,  and practicing my trombone. I'm also planning to set a Good Reads goal to read 80 books. My goal this year was 75, and I'm almost on pace to make it exactly, but I had a couple long stretches I didn't read this year, so I want to work on keeping steadier progress this time around.

[Artemis Prime]

I don't regret my decision to move back home, but I do wonder sometimes why I did. I've actually been home now for several years, but just last summer I really decided to stay. My parents offered to change their will so that I inherit the place, as long as I still buy my siblings out and since I'm not having any luck finding land in my price range, it seems like a good deal. So now I'm sort of part owner of 18 acres that's almost in the middle of nowhere, and much as I love that for indulging my hermit-tendencies, I would have had better prospects - occupational, social, cultural - pretty much anywhere else. But when I was living in town I was often restless and always felt the need to come back here for regular visits.  Then this morning I stumbled across this  snippet from a poem:

 

do you know what it's like to live

someplace that loves you back?

 

It's "summer, somewhere" by Danez Smith and I found it as an  epigraph in Hiddensee by Gregory Maguire. After I looked up the whole poem I realized that it's much darker than those two lines and the title indicate, but anyways I feel like that quote really encapsulates what I'm doing here. I have a job that satisfies me and pays my bills and a small, tight circle of friends and family, and even if others might think that I'm wasting my talents due to a lack of ambition, the fact is I'm happy here and for me that's reason enough to stay on this piece of land that I love and that loves me back.

 

I don't usually wax quite so philosophical in these posts, but I feel like I've had an epiphany this morning. I'll get my new challenge thread up at some point today and we'll return to our regularly scheduled programming.

[Artemis Prime]

Latest challenge can be found here: Artemis Prime Gets Into Character - January 3 to February 6 New Year Challenge! - Nerd Fitness Rebellion

I've listed how much experience each quest is worth along with how much is possible. It's actually possible to exceed that, at least for some quests, but the idea is that's the number I use to determine if I level up that stat or not. So if I get all (or more) of the possible experience, I automatically get +1 to that stat. If I only get 80% of it, then I have to roll the dice with an 80% chance of getting the stat boost.

The two things that didn't make it into this challenge are Bible Reading and Gardening. I do want to keep them up though. Currently working my way through Book One of Psalms. Not much to do gardening-wise for me this time of year, but I do need to finish my work proposal and get it submitted to my supervisors sooner rather than later. It's pretty much done, I just need to check some prices on things to make sure I'm requesting the right amount of money.

[Artemis Prime]

Didn't snooze once this morning thanks to my sunrise alarm clock, which means I had plenty of time to read a few Psalms before starting my day! 

[Artemis Prime]

Another day, another nice, gentle awakening from my sunrise alarm clock. Early days yet, but I really think this is a game changer. Had plenty of time to read a couple Psalms before work and I'm also feeling much more awake and alert in the morning.

[Artemis Prime]

Finally met this guy yesterday on my Walk to Mordor:

 

I've always been a bit attached to him because he formed the backbone of my party when my brothers and I played The Wizards. Only 51 miles to Rivendell!

 

No snooze this morning, read Psalm 18, feeling pretty good about things headed into 2021.

[Artemis Prime]

Farewell 2020, won't miss you. I did manage to walk 408 miles from September 1 to the end of the year, however, which puts me 50 miles away from Rivendell - not too shabby.

Bit of a late night last night but still didn't snooze this morning and had time to read a few Psalms. Not a bad start to 2021.

[Artemis Prime]

Okay, first challenge is a wrap! Overall score was 81% with 392 experience points. Here's the breakdown:

 

Constitution: 25 experience, 71% (So must roll under 71, rolled 43, +1 Constitution)

Presence: 40 experience, 80% (roll: 87, no stat gain)

Intuition: 36 experience, 72% (roll: 54, +1 Intuition)

Strength: 120 experience, 80% (roll: 87, no stat gain)

Intelligence: 65 experience, 65% (roll: 51, +1 Intelligence)

Agility: 106 experience, 101%, automatic +1 Agility

 

So if I don't change anything, stats are:

Level 1

Experience 1392

CO: 96

PR: 73

IT: 92

ST: 60

IG: 102

AG: 57

 

I'm thinking about changing my rolls, though. Just the ways the rolls fell, the two areas I did the best in (not counting Agility) are the two areas I did not level up in. So I'm thinking of making my rolls and then deciding which stat to apply them to based on how well I did at that challenge. So this time around, I'd swap my rolls for Strength and Intelligence so I could level up in Strength since I did better with my workouts than my barn drafting. But that kind of feels like cheating the system instead of just letting the dice decide.  Going to have to think about this.(Also feels counter-intuitive that higher rolls make me less likely to level up, it's breaking something in my brain.)

 

Other changes made to the challenge set up for Challenge 2: I adjusted the experience for each quest so they're more equal, all coming out around 50 experience. I also broke down the quests like "outline novel" into smaller pieces and assigned experience to each piece so there's a more objective grading system in place. Also changed how I'm tracking things in my planner to make it easier to see how much experience I've gained mid-challenge.

 

Takeaway for the quests themselves:

I do pretty well with my vitamins on workdays when I'm following a routine, less well on the weekends when my mornings aren't structured

Need to work on my blog and book more on the weekends. I can sometimes steal time at work to play around with my projects, but I really can't count on that being the norm and I don't do much on weeknights because I usually need a computer break by the time I get home.

Similarly, need to get my workouts in earlier in the day. The chances of me working out after dinner rapidly approach zero.

The hang up with the barn drafting was mostly me putting off going to my neighbor's to measure her barn, should move along nicely now that I have all the numbers.

Walk to Mordor is going well, should be able to start getting longer walks in with sunset getting later. 

 

New challenge should be up later today, tomorrow at the latest.

[Artemis Prime]

New challenge is up: