[toracorbat]

I'll try to lean into the roleplaying part of making a challenge and see if this gives me some extra motivation. I'm on my personal fitness journey for a while and have always done a little, but could never really get into it. I'm dreaming of my first pull up, but it's a long way to go to get there. So here's the story:

 

Hey fellow rebels,

I'm Agent Toracorbat. I've been on desk duty the past couple of years, but I've been asked to go on field missions soon. Of course, I said yes, but now I have to level up some skills to succeed. For the missions I'll need good endurance, hiking long trails in nature or commute under the radar in citys.

Plus the missions lead me to (partly) french speaking countries. To blend in, I'll have to learn french.

 

As you see, there's a lot to do. My goals for the next five weeks are:

1) Workout at least two times a week, but no more than four times a week

2) Spend two times a week, but no more than five times a week on focus training (like meditation)

3) Do 1 french learning exercise (no matter how small) every day

 

It's my first challenge in a long time, which means part of this training will be to improve my training grounds.

[Rookie]

Those are some SMART goals Agent Toracorbat! Good luck on your missions. 

[toracorbat]

I started early with my first workout today. Had a rough night and little working out felt pretty good this morning.

Using a trampoline for warm-up.

 

Push-Ups:                                                      5, 5, 2

Inverted Bodyweight Rows:              10, 10, 10, 10

 

Also french yesterday and today. Check.

This is mostly to get a routine down and see if I can improve my batcave somehow.

[Harriet]

Hi! Welcome and happy challenging! French, workouts and meditation sound like great habits to work on.

[toracorbat]

Agents Log, Week 0, Thursday:

 

Personal Battle:

Fellow Rebels, this week had a rough start. I'm currently working with an external consultant on a mission thats important for me. But this external turned out to be an agent of the shadow organization. Although I suspect he gets manipulated and doesn't know.

Nevertheless I have to deal with him now (since August 2021) and it's been difficult for me. He loves sending messages in a cryptic way that makes me feel dumb, yet this mission depends on my answers. And he's hard to reach on top of it.

It's though cause I never suspected him, I thought he would be in my corner. Monday I got another message from him, but luckily I got a hold on a great decrypter on Tuesday. But I hardly slept the night.

Today, he contacted me again. Less cryptic and with a fair warning but it keep making my mission harder. Had to include yet another agent. I'm waiting for her response. This weights me down and I try to not spiral with 'what if'-scenarios.

 

Field mission:

On the plus side. I've got a first field mission assignment coming up at the end of February. It'll include a 14km hike. It's a good mission to prove myself and test my equipment. I'll provide fotos.

 

Underfunded Agency:

In the meantime I try to get some additional money in, because the agency doesn't have enough funds. Like most agencies, I guess. It's looking promising so far. I'll keep you updated.

 

Batcave:

Updated my batcave by getting a workout timer out of it's dusty box and into a loading station. Next I should read the manual. 😅 I hope, you can see my batcave foto somewhere here.

 

Workouts:

On Thursday morning my lower back pretty clearly stated that I'm sitting too much. The downsides of a desk job. I put some extra exercises for that in my workout. Lower back was less grumpy, then I sat down at my desk again because work. 🤣

 

Progress:

Workout                     💪💪

Focus-Training        🧘‍♀️

French-Lessons       🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷

[Mistr]

Welcome Agent Toracorbat!

 

Looks like you are making a good start on your goals. My sympathy on the difficult communication with the consultant. I hope you can get some allies to assist with that.

 

I am also working on learning French. What study tools are you using?

[toracorbat]

Thank you. I know I have allies I can count on. I think, it's mostly a mind game for me at this point. This makes meditation more important and harder at the same time.

I used duolingo, but switched to babbel.com There are also podcasts like coffe break french (on spotify) and there's this nice extension for Chrome called 'Language Reactor' that adds helpful subtitles to Netflix.

[Rookie]

Oh the cursed desk job! I have been trying to get up twice a day to do some stretches or just get the blood flowing. I am not sure it's good for focus but it has to be good for my body. 

 

Nice batcave!

[Jean]

The man carries a light-blue shirt, a dark vest and a round black cap. Flower patterns cover the shirt, the collar of the vest and the front of the cap. He smiles through his long beard as he extends a hand.

 

"Bonjour Agent Toracorbat !"*

 

He breathes.

 

"La caresse de l'air frais porté par le vent, on n'a pas ça dans les bureaux. Bienvenue sur le terrain !"**

 

*

Spoiler

"Hello Agent Toracorbat!"

 

**

Spoiler

"The soft touch of the cool air coming from the wind, that's not something they get in the office. Welcome on the field!"

 

~~~

 

Love the workouts and meditation combo. I find the mindset part to be very important, especially when dealing with turncoat agents (urk!). French speaking person of the Swiss cheese variant here, let me know if you want to trade words in French from time to time (I'll be away next week so may not answer until the next Sunday). You seem to be going through some tough times, the field training should help. Stay strong and show them what for, those agents have nothing on you.

 

 

[WolfDreamer]

Welcome Agent @toracorbat. Glad to see you stepping up to the challenge. We're here to support you on your mission. Let me know if I can assist in any way.

[toracorbat]

Thank you all for the nice welcome wishes!

 

Progress Week 0:

Workout                     💪💪

Focus-Training        🧘‍♀️🧘‍♀️🧘‍♀️

French-Lessons       🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷◻️🇫🇷🇫🇷

 

@JeanSorry, I had a busy weekend, but I love the idea. Hope to hear from you next week.

The woman smiles, happy to meet another agent with more experience in the field. She wears a blue button-down shirt, jeans and hiking boots.  She shakes Jean's hand.

"Bonjour Agent Jean." she says, "C'est un plaisir de vous rencontrer. Pouvez-vous me faire visiter et me donner des pistes, s'il vous plaît?"

Spoiler

Translations just so you know what I meant to say.

 

Hello Agent Jean. It's a pleasure to meet you. Would you please show me around and give me some tips?

 

[toracorbat]

Week 1:

Refined workout routine:

Trampoline:                                                   15 min

Push-Ups:                                                      5, 5, 4

Inverted Bodyweight Rows:              10, 10, 10, 10, 5

Squats:                                                            10,10, 10, 10

Balance Board best time:                     37 sec.

 

Progress Week 1:

Workout                     💪

Focus-Training        🧘‍♀️

French-Lessons       🇫🇷🇫🇷

 

Field mission February:

I wrote down the hiking route to navigate it just with a compass and my notes. But I have a map with the route on my smartphone as backup.

 

 

[toracorbat]

It's my birthday week and I'm busy, but had enough time to get my challenge done. So yay 🥳

I'm looking into balance boards that aren't round but use a roll and emulate surf training and similar sports. Has any rebel here experience with those? They look like a lot of fun.

 

Week 1 Update:

Refined workout routine:

Trampoline:                                                   15 min

Push-Ups:                                                      5, 3, 3

Inverted Bodyweight Rows:              10, 10, 10, 10, 7

Squats:                                                            10,10, 10, 10

Balance Board best time:                     49 sec.   💫

 

Progress Week 1:

Workout                     💪💪

Focus-Training        🧘‍♀️🧘‍♀️🧘‍♀️

French-Lessons       🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷

[Rookie]

Happy birthday! I hope its a good one. 

 

I only have had experience with the wobble board (circular one) so I am not much help there! 

[toracorbat]

Thanks Rookie! Yeah, it's good. 🥳 Thanks for your feedback.

 

I finally found a video to clarify, because I'm not sure my explanation makes sense. 😅 Those are obviously advanced tricks, I can't start with this.

 

Now, if you'll excuse me. I have to paint and build a rack for my batcave, before we can defeat a hag (at D&D) tonight. 

À demain!

[toracorbat]

Week 1 final Update:

 

Workout Sunday

Trampoline:                                                   15 min

Push-Ups:                                                      5, 5, 4

Inverted Bodyweight Rows:              10, 10, 10, 10, 8

Assisted Squats*:                                      10,10, 10, 10

Balance Board best time:                     1:08 min.   💫

 

*I had to switch to assisted squats, because my form is bad. Need to focus on stretching calves and ankle joint to be able and squat with good form.

 

Progress Week 1:

Workout                     💪💪💪

Focus-Training        🧘‍♀️🧘‍♀️🧘‍♀️

French-Lessons       🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷

 

Update rack:

 

[Mistr]

Happy Birthday!

 

GMB has some good mobility exercises for improving your form for squats. 

What will the the rack be used for?

[Elastigirl]

Happy birthday! I've found that when I go down a progression and focus on my form a bit, it is usually super helpful.

[toracorbat]

 Thank you all for your birthday wishes. I had a wonderful time, but was a little sick since Sunday. Thankfully I'm all feeling better now, but progress so far doesn't look that great this week.

 

19 hours ago, Mistr said:

What will the the rack be used for?

 I'll use it to store my workout equipment and maybe some photography and drawing stuff. It's bigger than what you see on the photo. It's a little challenging under a sloping ceiling, but looking good so far.

 

19 hours ago, Mistr said:

GMB has some good mobility exercises for improving your form for squats. 

I'm looking into it and it sounds really good. Thank you!

 

Focus Training

Good thing is, my agency set up a meditation and meditation movement online program that I happily signed up for. First on is meditation movement tomorrow.

 

Agency funding

It worked out, I'll give a first webinar in April. 🥳

 

Progress Week 2:

Workout                     ⬜

Focus-Training        🧘‍♀️🧘‍♀️

French-Lessons      ⬜ 🇫🇷🇫🇷

[toracorbat]

Progress Week 2:

Workout                     ⬜💪💪

Focus-Training        🧘‍♀️🧘‍♀️🧘‍♀️

French-Lessons      ⬜ 🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷

 

I've been recovering this week.

The guided moving meditation at work was good and since it's a set schedule I'll keep doing them.

 

Field mission:

The mission was successful. Walking through nature is great to destress. I also learned more about the local plants and about navigation with a compass and notes I made beforehand.

Plus the day was wonderful and sunny.

 

 

 

[Elastigirl]

So pretty! I love going for a walk in the woods. That's cool that you learned about the plants and navigation

[Mistr]

Yay for walking in the woods!

[WolfDreamer]

Well done @toracorbat! Walking through nature has a powerful impact on your body and your mind. Looks like you're taking great strides towards your goals. Keep it up!

[toracorbat]

Progress Week 3:

Workout                     ⬜💪💪

Focus-Training        🧘‍♀️🧘‍♀️🧘‍♀️

French-Lessons      🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷

 

Workout Sunday

Trampoline:                                                   15 min

Push-Ups:                                                      5, 5, 5

Inverted Bodyweight Rows:              10, 10, 10, 10, 9

Assisted Squats:                                      10,10, 10, 10

Balance Board best time*:                     57 sec.

 

*I couldn't resist and got a balance board like the one in the video. For me it's more fun than the one I had before, because there's more movement involved. I'd also say it's a little easier (just the balancing not the tricks), because there's more room to balance out mistakes. On the other hand I have to be more careful to not hurt myself, but so far it wasn't dangerous. I'm pretty proud that I got to almost 1 minute during my first session. 

 

Additional goal:

I need to restrict my news intake. I donated and help gather information for refugees, but I just must not check the news every hour or so. That really messes with my focus goals. 😅 I'll try to only check news once a day.

 

Language (English, not French):

Because I just learned this. If I've ever used the word 'irritate' in a post, 99% I meant to say 'confuse'. Because false friends can be sooo confusing. 😅