[Jarric]

Jarric's ADVENTure

 

Because who doesn't love a particularly strained pun?

 

  

On 12/30/2021 at 6:32 PM, Jarric said:

2022 Road Map

 

Usually I start a year by making a roadmap for the year, and then create my first challenge with that roadmap in mind. This year is no different, but rather than running a battle log for my roadmap I want it at the top of every challenge so I remember what I'm trying to do (looking back over my 2021 roadmap just now I was surprised to find out what some of my goals were!).

 

Goals for 2022

I've been trying to decide what my goals should be for the year, and that's proving quite difficult. I have the option to enter a few endurance races - I'll be doing Rat Race Dirty Weekend that clocks in at 20 miles, and then there's Nuclear Oblivion Extreme (6.5 hours), Nuclear Oblivion Maxx (13 hours). I could add in Europe's Toughest Mudder (12 hours) and even Quarry Events Longest day (16 hours 38 minutes). The trouble is I don't know if I really want to do endurance events; they're really hard work! At the same time I don't know what I would want to focus on if not that; there was talk of the Spartan European Championships being held in the UK this year, but I can find precious little information about that at the moment.

 

With that said, I can always decide these goals later in the year. This arbitrary change of date doesn't have to be the time that I plan to do something cool in the future, so if I do find something that really captures my imagination I'll add it here.

 

Edit - June 2022: I've finally picked a goal! I'm going to run in the Open Wave of the Spartan European Championships in October. My training between now and then will be focussed on getting the best possible result in the Beast that weekend. After that I'll start looking at events for 2023; maybe something with some more swimming, or an adventure race or something.

 

Edit - October 2022: I've booked my 2023 goal! In September next year I'll be running Man vs Mountain, which is a 22 mile run through the mountains of Snowdonia in Wales. The plan between now and then is to very slowly ramp up my mileage between now and then, and train with the guys I'm running the race with every couple of weeks.

 

The 5 pillars

So I don't really have any big goals in the same way as I had in previous years. But I've been thinking recently about what's important to me, and I worked out that it falls quite well into 5 pillars. And then I worked out that I could map the 5 pillars to RPG stats, which made it much more exciting. So my goal for the year is to advance as much as possible in the following:

 

Exercise (Strength) this includes everything I do physically - climbing, OCR, lifting, crossfit, running etc. I really enjoy seeing progress in all of these areas, and as long as I stick with them I'm bound to improve. I couldn't really separate what would fall under STR and what would fall under DEX, and I don't think it's really a useful distinction for the kind of things I do, so I just chucked everything under STR.

 

Nutrition (Constitution) this is about putting the right things in my body (you heard!). That includes food that fuels me well, but also things like moderating caffeine and alcohol intake, and generally balancing anything else I consume.

 

Creativity (Charisma) being creative is really good for me, and it's a side of myself I want to foster. That includes drawing, playing music, and writing. I still want to write and publish some basic D&D stuff, so hopefully I can incorporate that at some point.

 

Self-care (Sanity) this is really just about doing the basic stuff that I know keeps me ticking over - cleaning my teeth, cleaning and tidying my house, keeping in touch with friends. Really basic stuff, but it has such an impact on the way that I feel, so it deserves its own category. Arguably I could have stuck with core D&D stats and put this under WIS, but SAN makes more sense to me for this goal. Also, I'm a super low-WIS person; I have very little awareness a lot of the time, and it's not something I'm really interested in working on (or even know how to work on) right now.

 

Learning (Intelligence) I feel like it wouldn't ne Nerd Fitness without an INT goal. I want to get through the professional qualifications I'm doing (which feels easier said than done right now, as I've somehow ended up working on three units concurrently). I also just love learning things. I'd like to get back into learning French, which I did a good chunk of on Duolingo for a while last year. Really, all learning is good.

 

Under the hood

The plan is that my goals for each challenge will have stats assigned to them, and over this course of this year I'll try and get each of these stats as high as possible. I'll start everything at 0, and hopefully by the end of the year I'll have a decent looking stat array. To tie this in with my previous format, I'll be looking at levelling up backwards compared to most systems. Every stat point will be equivalent to 5XP under my old system, and every 20 stat points I will level up. That should mean I can gain 3-5 levels in a year, which feels about right.

 

I don't have to hit every stat every challenge (though I am for the first challenge of the year as it happens). If I want 3 STR goals one month or need all my goals to be SAN based another month, that's all fine; it'll work itself out over the course of the year.

 

 

July edit: I have a new mechanism with this. I've previously tried to bet money on my goals, but that falls down at the end of the week or the end of the challenge when I don't have the cash to pay the bet. So, new plan: I've budgeted £250 per month to bet on my goals. On payday each month, I'll take that £250, plus any leftover money in my account, and bet it against my goals over the past month (using only the full weeks since last payday). For the percentage of challenge goals I hit, I get to spend that money, or put it in my savings. For the percentage I fail, I use the money to pay off my mortgage. This means that the bets won't line up with challenge dates, but they will line up with me having money and that's more useful.

 

 

Here's how I fared last challenge:

 

Spoiler

Challenge wrap-up

The Chosen - +3 CON

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Score: 6, 7, 5, 4, 5, 7 = 34/42

80.95% = +2 CON

 

Despite not being a perfect score, this was a resounding success. Splitting my weekly calories into 8 worked really well, giving my 7 daily targets and a floating beer/snack budget (I even occasionally used it for things other than beer). If I had hit my target weight loss of 0.75% of my bodyweight each week, my weight would have dropped from 175lbs to 167.27lbs. My actual weight after 6 weeks? 167lbs. Spot on.

 

Next challenge I'll switch to bulking, using a very similar strategy

 

The Wronged - +2 STR

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Score: 7, 6, 6, 6, 5, 5 = 35/42

83.33% = +2 STR

 

This started to slip as the weeks went on, but I definitely saw the benefit. My knee is substantially better (if not totally better), and my shoulder is on the mend.

 

Next challenge I'll be switching this up, but hopefully bearing it in mind for my aches and pains.

 

The Expert - +3 INT

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Score: 5, 4, 3, 3, 1, 6 = 22/42

52.38% = +2 INT

 

So I started strong on this (well strong-ish), finished my first essay, and then lost a bit of momentum. The hard thing is that it's so close to what I do for work, that when work gets busy I don't feel like doing it. Then it got urgent in week 5 and I jumped right back in. I've pretty much finished the second essay, barring about an hour of editing and submitting it for marking, so the goal sort of worked?

 

With that said, little and often and working on stuff every day was definitely the way to go. It helped to keep what I was doing in mind and stopped the idea of working on it being overwhelming. With 2 more essays to write, ideally in the next couple of challenges, this goal's here to stay.

 

The Monstrous - +2 SAN

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Score: 7, 7, 6.5, 7, 7, 7 = 41.5/42

98.81% = +2 SAN

 

This worked really well! I actually don't know why it worked so well; I made a rule with myself that I couldn't take my evening hayfever medication until I brushed my teeth, and I think that helped the evening habit (which is the problem one). I'm keeping this as a goal for a couple more challenges, because I'm finding it hard to believe how well it went and I want to be sure it's bedded in.

 

The Spell-slinger - +2 INT

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Score: 7, 7, 7, 6.5, 7, 7

98.81% = +2 INT

 

Some days I've enjoyed this challenge, some days I've made a token gesture, but it's getting done and I'm pleased with that. I'm finding it fascinating too, not least because I've been inspired by Language Transfer to spend more time looking at the etymology of words to help with remembering vocabulary. (Did you know that the French verb montrer, meaning to show, is linked to the word monster? Because monsters of old, which would have been deformed looking animals, were seen as a sign from the gods. The gods were demonstrating (another word rooted in montrer) something through the monster, hence the name).

 

Anyway, this goal is here to stay. I'm liking the new Duoling layout too, which is handy.

 

Overall a very good challenge, I'm happy how it all turned out. Work has been exceptionally busy, which has been an obstacle, but I've had some good conversations with my manger which I'll talk about more next challenge, and I'm hopeful for the future.

 

 

Well, it's the last few weeks of the year, and I'm up for finishing strong. With that in mind, let's meet our cast

 

The lich +3 STR

 

This challenge I'll be working on Literal Immortality. Literal Immortality is a GMB programme that I purchased a month or so ago, and I've not had much luck at making time to actually do it. I want to give it a proper chance, and want to not have wasted my money, so the plan is to do this 3 times per week, after I run. Exemption for Tuesday, week 1, as I have to be up at arse o'clock to go to a meeting.

 

The muscle +2 CON

 

Having spent last challenge cutting, I'm now on a slow-ish bulk. The aim is to increase my body weight by 0.25% each week (about 0.4lbs at the moment). In order to do that I will set my target calories for the week, and divide by 8 to give myself a daily target plus a floating 8th day for beer/snacks/whatever.

 

I don't have a way of weighing myself that precisely, so the plan is that if I lose weight in a given week I'll up my calorie target, and if I don't gain at least 1lb for 3 consecutive weigh-ins I'll also increase my calorie target. My weight increase goal will also technically increase over time, as it's a percentage of my body weight, although realistically because it's such a small percentage it'll always be pretty similar.

 

ETA: the other part of this goal, which I forgot, is to write down how many grams of protein I eat every day. The plan is to eat at least 150g, which I think should be fairly straightforward as long as I get in a protein shake every day. No requirement to actually hit that, but writing it down so that I know I'm intentionally monitoring it.

 

The documancer +3 INT

 

I submitted my essay during zero week! Which is good news, as it was due in by 6th December and I was getting dangerously close to that. I now have 2 more essays to do, and then I get some new letters after my name and can take a break from study for a bit. The goal, then, is to work on my next essay every day. Some days I should be able to do an hour, other days it might be 10 minutes of edits and that's fine. I found last challenge that little and often was definitely the way forward, as it kept it in my mind and my brain could passively work on it between times.

 

The translator +2 INT

 

I've been working on Dutch and French, and both are going pretty well so I'm going to keep doing it. Dutch will be Duolingo. French can be Duolingo, Language Transfer, or the Duolingo podcast. Or something else really, now I think of it, but I will work on both every day.

 

The face +2 SAN

 

Brush my teeth, twice per day, interdental brush in the evenings. This went absurdly well last challenge, and I'm going to stick to it for a few more challenges until I'm absolutely certain this is a proper habit.

 

Well, looks like we've got a classic D&D adventure cast ready to go. Roll for initiative!

[Sovalis]

Looks like a solid plan! Get after it!  

[Jarric]

Zero week update

It's been a good week so far. On Monday I had a good chat with my manger about my workload, which has been a bit silly for a little while now. I feel like there's light at the end of the tunnel, and I'm definitely going to have some work taken off me at least. We also talked about my career longer-term and some of the changes I would like, which will take a while to be discussed internally but could lead to really good things. I've been working absolutely stupid hours this week, but part of that has been gathering information to try and get some career changes so that's good.

 

I also told her that I'd like to start working 4 days per week, and to my amazement she just accepted that without question. It has to go through a formal process, but she was really supportive. I guess I shouldn't have been so surprised, given that she works 4 days and has been through the same process. I've stuck in the paperwork for that; it wouldn't be effective until September if it is agreed so it's not an instant fix to anything, but it'll hopefully be something to look forward to. 

 

I also set some basic goals for zero week, here's how those are going:

• Submit essay: done! Glad to have this off my plate, and I'm doing no study for the rest of the week in celebration.
• Calories (bulking): 3/4 so far. It's weird suddenly having an extra 350 calories per day to play with, and I haven't quite found the balance of fitting them in yet. I'm pleased I can start eating fruit again though!
• Teeth: 4/4 so far - the habit keeps going.
• Duolingo: 4/4 so far - the only goal this week is to keep my Duo streak alive between challenges

The other thing I did was buy Warhammer: Dawn of War II, with all of the expansions and DLC, in Steam's cyber Monday sale. I play computer games so rarely, and I'm really looking forward to it, so now my challenge is posted I'm gonna go and do that!

[Jarric]

14 minutes ago, Sovalis said:

Looks like a solid plan! Get after it!  

 

Thank you! I'm gonna!

[deftona]

Yay! 4 day working weeks are the future, I swear. What is your plan  - to drop hours or condense them?

[Elastigirl]

Here to cheer on your ADVENTure! I  really like Literal Immortality, but also haven't spent as much time on it as I'd like. Following you will hopefully give me inspriration.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

I work a four day week and it's awesome.

[Jarric]

14 hours ago, deftona said:

Yay! 4 day working weeks are the future, I swear. What is your plan  - to drop hours or condense them?

 

Yeah, I think in the very long term, as we move towards an eventual post-capitalist society, rather than people not having to work everyone will just find themselves working less. In the shorter term, I can see more people like me getting fed up and choosing a 4 day week. Particularly with the way tax and NI brackets work, losing a few hours once you enter the 40p bracket is much less expensive than losing them otherwise (though I didn't quite manage to hang on that long in the end).

 

I'll be cutting hours. Currently I'm paid for 36.25 hours per week (though I'm not paid hourly, so that's a bit arbitrary when work needs to be done). I'm hoping they'll let me add half an hour to my remaining days, so I'm only dropping to 31 hours. If not I'll drop to 29.

 

13 hours ago, Elastigirl said:

Here to cheer on your ADVENTure! I  really like Literal Immortality, but also haven't spent as much time on it as I'd like. Following you will hopefully give me inspriration.

 

Hopefully we can inspire each other! I think I've only done 3 sessions, and it feels like a waste having bought the programme.

 

13 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

I work a four day week and it's awesome.

 

It certainly sounds it, and it seems like more and more people are doing it.

[Harriet]

Four days is very civilised. Excellent! Good luck with the brushing, bulking, languaging and essaying!

 

Also, what time is arse O'clock?

 

00 hours?

[Jarric]

9 hours ago, Harriet said:

Four days is very civilised. Excellent! Good luck with the brushing, bulking, languaging and essaying!

 

Also, what time is arse O'clock?

 

00 hours?

 

It does sound civilised. And thank you!

 

Arse o'clock is just very early. Although to be fair, I might be being dramatic; I need to leave home for the meeting about 07:20, so I can probably get up at 06:00, run, shower, change, and leave on time. I just don't want to wake up before 6 to get in Literal Immortality as well as a run.

[Jarric]

I've edited the challenge to extend the muscle goal. The other part of this goal, which I forgot, is to write down how many grams of protein I eat every day. The plan is to eat at least 150g, which I think should be fairly straightforward as long as I get in a protein shake every day. No requirement to actually hit that, but writing it down so that I know I'm intentionally monitoring it.

 

Friday - week zero day 5

Friday was a good day. Crossfit was a series of intervals of seated sled pulls and max reps log press, which was really good fun. Got up to 80kg (176#) on the sled pulls, but only 37kg (81#) on the log press - the difficulty I found is that the bigger log is not only heavier, it's also wider, and that makes you lean back further and changes the biomechanics of the movement. Nice to play with some strongman stuff though. Followed up with some seated dumbbell press and some ring support holds.

 

Work was busy, but I was working from home so I got a chunk of stuff done, and finished not too stupid late. WW was working late, so I cooked myself an oven pizza and played Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II for a while. It was really nice, and reminded me how long it's been since I just played a proper computer game on my own.

 

All 3 zero week goals nailed. Calories were good, I had a single gin as someone at work had given me a miniature, and that was well within budget, teeth were done and Duolingo streak maintained.

 

Saturday - week zero day 6

Yesterday was a good day, Went climbing first thing with Hopalong, and had a really nice time. Managed to tick off some reasonably difficult climbs, and fall off some much harder ones. Got a chance to have a good talk as well, which is always a good thing.

 

When I got home I couldn't be bothered to do anything, so I didn't. In the afternoon I went to my parents house to try and sort out my dad's finances; thankfully everything is fine, he just has some bills going into an account that doesn't have income going in, so it should be easy enough to transfer stuff from one to another. Also confirmed that mum's taking him to get the results of his brain scan in a couple of weeks, so we should at least have a diagnosis to work with after that.

 

In the evening I played some more Dawn of War II. I'm now remembering why I don't play that much; I ended up getting sucked in and staying up until 1am playing

 

3/3 zero week goals done. I'm going to need to eat a fair bit today to not end up under calories; I didn't anticipate that this would be a hard target to hit. Teeth done and Duolingo streak alive.

[starpuck]

Always here to follow a Jarric link.

I seriously get so inspired just reading and following along with your adventures.

I have been recently  considering doing some GMB as I want to try something new and fresh in hopes of new motivation to get me into habit again.   Any advice or reviews you can lend my way?

Though... with your ADVENTure... I am surprised there wasn't anything paired up with this immortaliTEA program you were running.   'Do some GMB, finish with a tea!'

 

[Jarric]

7 hours ago, starpuck said:

Always here to follow a Jarric link.

I seriously get so inspired just reading and following along with your adventures.

I have been recently  considering doing some GMB as I want to try something new and fresh in hopes of new motivation to get me into habit again.   Any advice or reviews you can lend my way?

Though... with your ADVENTure... I am surprised there wasn't anything paired up with this immortaliTEA program you were running.   'Do some GMB, finish with a tea!'

 

 

Always pleased to have you here ❤️

 

I love GMB as a resource, and I've read loads of their guides for pullups, handstands, and the like. The reason I put off getting a programme is that a lot of it seems to be locomotion exercises, and I don't have the floor space to bear crawl/monkey walk/whatever around the house. Literal Immortality seems to do less of that (bearing in mind I've only done 3 sessions), which is why I chose it. It also gets me doing stuff that I've been meaning to do but never got round to, like learning how to fall over correctly. With that said, there's still stuff that I'm struggling to do in the space I have, so we'll see how it goes.

 

And you're right, I should have mentioned the tea advent calendar! New goal, I'll include reviews of my daily tea in my challenge posts. As a preview, yesterday's tea was called Snowball Hot Cocoa.

 

[Mad Hatter]

23 hours ago, Jarric said:

Although to be fair, I might be being dramatic; I need to leave home for the meeting about 07:20, so I can probably get up at 06:00, run, shower, change, and leave on time.

Nope not dramatic at all, this sounds dreadful! 
 

22 hours ago, Jarric said:

In the evening I played some more Dawn of War II. I'm now remembering why I don't play that much; I ended up getting sucked in and staying up until 1am playing

Know that feeling! Could be a lot lot worse though.

 

4 days a week sounds excellent! 

[Harriet]

23 hours ago, Jarric said:

Arse o'clock is just very early. Although to be fair, I might be being dramatic; I need to leave home for the meeting about 07:20, so I can probably get up at 06:00, run, shower, change, and leave on time. I just don't want to wake up before 6 to get in Literal Immortality as well as a run.

 

1 minute ago, Mad Hatter said:

Nope not dramatic at all, this sounds dreadful!

 

Yeah I think getting up at a very different time than what your body wants is always bad, regardless of exactly which wrong time it is.

[Jarric]

1 hour ago, Mad Hatter said:

Nope not dramatic at all, this sounds dreadful! 
 

Know that feeling! Could be a lot lot worse though.

 

4 days a week sounds excellent! 

 

Yeah, it's not ideal! And it could, but 1am bedtimes don't pair well with 6am starts

 

 

1 hour ago, Harriet said:

 

 

Yeah I think getting up at a very different time than what your body wants is always bad, regardless of exactly which wrong time it is.

 

To be fair, I get up at 6am anyway, I just usually have time to go to the gym and get ready at a fairly reasonable pace, rather than rushing around in order to do a short run and scramble to get out of the door.

[Mad Hatter]

9 hours ago, Jarric said:

Yeah, it's not ideal! And it could, but 1am bedtimes don't pair well with 6am starts

Fair. My mind blanked out the 6am start because eww.

[Jarric]

39 minutes ago, Mad Hatter said:

Fair. My mind blanked out the 6am start because eww.

 

Entirely reasonable

 

[Jarric]

Sunday - week zero day 7

Sunday was a good day. We slept in really late, and then I went out for a run. In the afternoon we put up the Christmas decorations with a minimum of arguments, and did a stock take on the presents we have so far and those we've yet to buy. It was a very chilled day.

 

In the evening we watched Questing Time, which was nice to do again. I was absolutely exhausted, and the show went on longer than I could manage, so I gave up a little before 11 and went to bed.

 

3/3 goals done. I had to eat a ton of snacks to break 3,000 calories and fill my target for the week, which was actually quite difficult. Teeth done and Duolingo streak alive.

[Jarric]

Zero week wrap-up

Calories: 6/7 days on track, and 19,235kcal consumed against a target of 19,264kcal. I only came that close thanks to a concerted effort to eat lots on Sunday, but we got there. Lots of Christmas partying in week 1 to come, so I don't think coming under target will be an issue again.

 

Teeth: 7/7 - still going strong here.

 

Duolingo: 7/7 - streak kept alive.

 

Essay: Submitted! Glad it's done, now on to the next one!

[Jarric]

Monday - week 1 day 1

Yesterday was a good day. Crossfit first thing was an interesting little workout of

 • 25 toes to bar

 • 20 deadball shoulder to overhead

 • 15 muscle ups

 • 20 deadball shoulder to overhead

 • 25 toes to bar.

 

I used a 20kg (44#) ball for the S2OH, and practiced muscle up transitions instead of full muscle ups, finishing in 10'40". Most everyone was using a heavier ball than me, so I'm half second guessing my choice there, but 30kg would have sucked so 🤷‍♀️. We did some assistance work of chinups and dips to finish off the session.

 

At lunchtime I went out with a colleague for food and a chat, which was really nice. He's a good guy to chat to, and I think we both needed to talk.

 

Work was busy. I managed to get a couple of my meetings postponed, in order to get some work done, but I still ended up working late and going home having not achieved what I wanted to achieve. It was a really tough day, and I was bloody exhausted by the end.

 

When I got home I inhaled 2 jam doughnuts, sat on the floor for a while contemplating dinner, and eventually got up and made enchiladas with Sunday's leftover roast chicken. They were really good, but that was 100% of my remaining energy for the evening. I sat in front of the TV for a short while and went to bed early.

 

As I was walking up to bed I contemplated whether I had hit my goals, and decided I probably had. That shows how tired I was, as I actually managed 1/4 for the day. Calories were way over, thanks to lunch out and jam doughnuts, though at least protein was also high at 226g. I didn't even think about essay writing or language learning at any point during the day. Teeth were done, which is the one saving grace for the day.

[juliebarkley]

20 hours ago, Jarric said:

As I was walking up to bed I contemplated whether I had hit my goals, and decided I probably had. That shows how tired I was, as I actually managed 1/4 for the day.

It sounds like you gave it what you had.

[Jarric]

3 hours ago, juliebarkley said:

It sounds like you gave it what you had.

 

Yeah, I think that's a reasonable assertion. In hindsight, I could have planned the day better, to facilitate my goals and to focus on the bit of work I needed to get done. Then again, hindsight is always 20/20.

[Jarric]

Tuesday - week 1 day 2

Yesterday was a good day. I woke up at 6am and fairly promptly got out for my run. Week 5 of couch to 5k is where everything ramps up quite a lot; 3 x 5 minute intervals yesterday, 2 x 8 minute intervals tomorrow, and 1 x 20 minute interval on Sunday. My hip aches a bit today, so lots of foam rolling needed to make sure I'm up to it.

 

Despite getting up about on time I'd really underestimated how long everything would take, and I ended up rushing for and subsequently missing my train. I eventually got to our other office, got the meeting done and finished the piece of work I had wanted to get finished on Monday.

 

When I got home WW had cooked beetroot soup for dinner ( @sarakingdom it did look like murder). I ate that quickly, then it was off to D&D where we had a really intense fight with a cloud of blood and 3 bloody skeletons. It was touch and go for a while, and I genuinely thought we might lose someone, but it was also one of those great, thematic fights that I wouldn't mind losing my character to.

 

A better day goals-wise - 3/4 scored. Calories were on track, though I did have 2 beers out of my allowance at D&D. French done on my walk home from the station and Dutch done late after D&D. Teeth done. Didn't get a chance to look at my essay, and exempt from Literal Immortality due to the early start.

[Harriet]

Everyone is talking about soups. It's getting kind of soupy in here. Is it a sign from the gods that soup is intended for our futures?