[Ranger Hal]

I’m Ranger Hal. Normally I would say that I hike, snowshoe, scramble, climb, and do search and rescue, but the last few months have been kind of light on all those things. Motivation to exercise is very low and my mental health is a bit of a mess (mostly lonely for IRL friends I think, especially nerdy ones).

 

If I want to be able to do the outdoor things in the summer without being super slow, I need to start getting in some regular exercise (something that actually gets my heart rate up). I was right that it didn't happen last challenge, but I feel like I'm getting closer.

 

I did start going to the climbing gym last challenge. It ended up being roughly once a week, but once my punch card runs out and I get a membership, that might increase because then I can go as often as I want and won't be "paying" extra (the punch card was paid for a couple of years ago, so it's not like it's money coming out of my bank account now, but I still feel the need to make each session "worth it").

 

I want to use the treadmill or elliptical at the gym to get in some cardio, but for that to happen, I need appropriate shoes (climbing shoes are not appropriate footwear for that sort of thing and my regular hiking shoes are dirty because of gravel and dirt trails). I have some old running shoes that might work, but they're covered in spider webs, so I need to clean them first. I was really hoping to make that happen in Zero Week, but things got busy and it's Friday morning and I'm not going to be home until late Sunday night because of stuff. So much stuff. Because it is Lent. And will be for essentially another six weeks.

 

Here's the challenge:

1. Light a candle for morning prayers

2. Walk - This has pretty much defaulted to 0.6 mile walk because I don't get up early enough to not be in a rush for work

3. Eat broccoli (or other veggies)

4. Cardio at the gym 2 days a week

     4a. Rescue shoes from spider webs

     4b. Pack gym bag

     4c. Do the cardio

 

And my nerdy thing right now is Critical Role. I'm in Campaign 2 (somewhere in the mid 40s episode). I'm loving the "new" animated intro! Fun thing is when I went to comic con a few weeks ago, I showed up at a Critical Role meetup and they were handing out these ribbon things you were supposed to stick to your badge (I thought it was kind of weird, so I didn't stick it to my badge, but I did keep the ribbon). The text on the ribbon was a line from the song, but I didn't know that until it showed up in the episode I was watching a week or two later!

 

I ordered five books and a set of dice from the Critical Role shop last week. I was super impressed that they shipped the same day I ordered. Is it normal for companies to ship that fast? I think maybe I order too much discounted outdoor gear where they take their time processing the orders (like 8-10 business days plus shipping time), but it sure makes it fun when something arrives so quickly! I haven't read through most of the books (one and most of another will have to wait a while because spoilers), but I'm really excited to have the big fold-out maps! I love maps! And the dice are so pretty, dark blue with silver numbers!

[Harriet]

You can never have too many shoes. But you can definitely have too many spiders, namely any amount equal to or greater than one. Happy climbing! And I hope the cardio is at least mildly amusing or satisfying. 

[Elastigirl]

Here to cheer you on!

[Ranger Hal]

17 minutes ago, Harriet said:

You can never have too many shoes. But you can definitely have too many spiders, namely any amount equal to or greater than one.

Unfortunately, I have many spiders. It would probably help if I cleaned the house more. Cleaning is on the list of things I was thinking of adding for this challenge, but I was worried about adding too much and then not doing it, and I have decided I'd rather focus on cardio right now. The good news on the spider front is that most of the ones we have around here are fairly harmless, just annoying. I get rid of the ones I see (unless I'm busy or they're in a really inconvenient location), but they still seem to make a lot of webs.

 

27 minutes ago, Harriet said:

Happy climbing! And I hope the cardio is at least mildly amusing or satisfying. 

Thanks!

 

22 minutes ago, Elastigirl said:

Here to cheer you on!

Welcome!

[Sovalis]

Hi Hal!!

 

Yay Campaign 2!!! So good!! And yes, that's very fast shipping, even for them. Nice surprise though! 

 

Here to follow along!

[Mistr]

Good to see you!

 

You could make new gym shoes a reward for meeting one of your goals. I'm sure your old shoes will work, but it would be nice to have clean shiny indoor-only gym shoes. At least, it is for me. My gym "requires" indoor-only shoes, and it is gratifying how they stay looking nice.

[Ranger Hal]

11 minutes ago, Sovalis said:

Yay Campaign 2!!! So good!! And yes, that's very fast shipping, even for them. Nice surprise though! 

 

Here to follow along!

Yeah, I ordered on Friday and it arrived Monday. I know the weekend helped with the shipping time, but arriving the next business day was very cool. It was so much fun opening a package from Shaun Gilmore at Gilmore's Glorious Goods! I couldn't bring myself to just throw away the box, although maybe later I'll just cut out the shipping label.

 

Glad to have you here!

 

5 minutes ago, Mistr said:

Good to see you!

 

You could make new gym shoes a reward for meeting one of your goals. I'm sure your old shoes will work, but it would be nice to have clean shiny indoor-only gym shoes. At least, it is for me. My gym "requires" indoor-only shoes, and it is gratifying how they stay looking nice.

Welcome!

 

I'm the sort of person that prefers to wear things until they have no more life left in them (and also I hate shopping). I didn't really stick with running all that much, so these shoes didn't see a lot of use and they probably still look reasonably nice (except for the spider webs).

[Artemis Prime]

3 hours ago, Ranger Hal said:

I'm loving the "new" animated intro!

Yes! I'm about 30 episodes ahead of you, and was super excited when I got to the new intro.

 

3 hours ago, Ranger Hal said:

So much stuff. Because it is Lent.

I feel you on the Lenten busy-ness. If you're comfortable chatting, I'd be interested in hearing more about your Lenten practices.

 

I'm also trying to talk myself into getting a gym membership for cardio purposes, but I'm going to put that off a little bit longer because this is prime time for me to get some outdoor running in. I'll do my 2 cardio sessions if you do yours!

[fitnessgurl]

Hi! Following along. 🙂

[Ranger Hal]

On 3/22/2024 at 3:49 PM, Artemis Prime said:

I feel you on the Lenten busy-ness. If you're comfortable chatting, I'd be interested in hearing more about your Lenten practices.

Spoiler

I'm not sure I want to go too much into it because Eastern Orthodox Lent is kind of a lot, plus I haven't been very good about some parts of it as an adult. Somehow it seems like it was easier as a child/teen. Now that I've moved out on my own, it's easier to make excuses for not doing things.

 

Lent is a time for doing more. More abstinence/fasting, more prayer, more church services, etc. The extra church services are what really adds to the busyness of Lent for me. Last week was the first week of Lent*, and there are services prescribed for every evening (not that I went to all of them). After the first week, things get a little easier and there are two weekday services that I should probably go to, although to be honest, if I make it to one, that's as good or better than most recent years for me.

 

The more prayer part is something I'm feeling some guilt over. I feel like I should be doing more, but for the last few months, I think it's the first time in years that I've had this regular of a prayer routine. I'm kind of scared of adding to it and messing it up.

 

* Eastern Orthodox Easter can be the same day as Western Easter or it can be as much as 5 weeks later depending on the year. This year, it's 5 weeks later, so our Lent has just started while yours is almost over.

 

On 3/22/2024 at 3:49 PM, Artemis Prime said:

I'm also trying to talk myself into getting a gym membership for cardio purposes, but I'm going to put that off a little bit longer because this is prime time for me to get some outdoor running in. I'll do my 2 cardio sessions if you do yours!

Looking at my schedule this week, I think two sessions might not happen, but I'll try for one. I saw your post this morning and it motivated me to rescue my shoes from the spider webs (so 4a is complete), but I last used them outdoors and there are too many tiny rocks and general debris stuck in the soles for me to feel comfortable using them at the gym. I started cleaning them, but didn't have time to finish before leaving for work. I'll keep working on that and hopefully they will be ready for a cardio session by the end of the week. Thank you for helping to keep me moving towards this goal!

 

22 hours ago, fitnessgurl said:

Hi! Following along. 🙂

Welcome!

[fitnessgurl]

2 hours ago, Ranger Hal said:

Welcome

Thanks!

[Ranger Hal]

Tonight was bouldering night. I did a bunch of V2s and made solid attempts on two V3s. Afterwards, a couple of us decided to do one roped route. It was a 5.10. We all made it to the top, but it wasn't pretty, lol! Our hands and arms were just too tired after bouldering. It was good.

 

My running shoes have been cleaned and are now drying.

[Artemis Prime]

16 hours ago, Ranger Hal said:

Thank you for helping to keep me moving towards this goal!

You're welcome! I did not do my cardio during zero week, so hopefully this week we can both make progress here.

[Ranger Hal]

I'm struggling a bit with scheduling that allows time for the cardio. Most of the time, I have Monday and/or Tuesday evenings open. Most times of the year, Wednesdays would be fine as well, but not so much in Lent unless I go to the gym late. Every other Thursday, I have SAR training, but a lot of things seem to get scheduled on the off weeks as well. Fridays are often open, but again, not so much in Lent. And I'm not sure that planning workouts for Friday evenings is the best idea given that Saturdays are my main day that I can do bigger adventures.

 

Given the issues with Thursdays, my schedule should probably be Monday and Wednesday. Which means that Wednesdays are going to be long and I probably need to pack extra snacks because dinner is going to be late. Ugh. This week, though, the plan is to go tomorrow (Friday). I'm tired just thinking about it. Please tell me it will be worth it.

[Mistr]

Doing cardio will be worth it. Would it help to put together a sound track and frame it as going dancing? 

 

Could you do a fast walk at lunchtime so that you can look forward to other things after work?

[Ranger Hal]

8 minutes ago, Mistr said:

Would it help to put together a sound track and frame it as going dancing? 

So, I'm kind of a weirdo. Basically, I haven't learned how to put together a sound track on my phone. I grew up with a Walkman and those little portable CD players (which I used long past when most people had switched to something else). Eventually, I had an iPod (older version, no internet connectivity, most of my music was copied from library CDs), but eventually, the battery gave up and wouldn't hold charge (and couldn't be replaced because aftermarket batteries were slightly too big; the repair shop tried, but they hadn't seen a device as old as mine in years). At that time, I didn't have a smartphone, so I kind of gave up on listening to music away from home except with my car radio. And now, even though I have a smartphone, I never really felt the need to figure out how to make it play music (in part because I assumed that would take a bunch of data and I try to minimize my data use).

 

I do need to remember to throw my headphones in my bag because I have figured out podcasts on my phone, so that is something I could do at the gym.

 

42 minutes ago, Mistr said:

Could you do a fast walk at lunchtime so that you can look forward to other things after work?

Between trying really hard to pretend I don't work in a big city, wanting to get my heart rate up higher than I can with just walking, having to change clothes twice at the office, and dealing with a pretty good chance of rain a lot of the year, lunchtime walks would not be my preference. I do take a short walk in the morning (at home, not in the city) because that's supposed to be good for my mental health.

[Artemis Prime]

On weeks you have SAR training can that count as cardio?

[Ranger Hal]

14 minutes ago, Artemis Prime said:

On weeks you have SAR training can that count as cardio?

Unfortunately not. There's plenty of SAR training that could definitely be considered cardio, but this specific training is more along the lines of tying knots and creating pulley systems. Important to practice, but not something that's a workout most of the time.

[Ranger Hal]

Did my cardio! 20 minutes on the elliptical plus 5 minutes cool down. I got all nice and sweaty! Then I did a bit of bouldering. It felt good.

[Artemis Prime]

On 3/28/2024 at 9:04 PM, Ranger Hal said:

Unfortunately not. There's plenty of SAR training that could definitely be considered cardio, but this specific training is more along the lines of tying knots and creating pulley systems. Important to practice, but not something that's a workout most of the time.

I suspected as much, or you wouldn't be looking for more cardio, but sometines it's worth asking the obvious. 

 

I don't know what your preferences are, or your church's expectations, but I know I don't try to make every Lenten service. It's a lot, and imo, once it starts to feel like too much it's not beneficial. So I do my best to make all I can and don't fret about the ones I miss. All of which is to say, could you alternate Wednesdays and Fridays with gym time and church time to find a balance that works for you?

 

12 hours ago, Ranger Hal said:

Did my cardio! 20 minutes on the elliptical plus 5 minutes cool down. I got all nice and sweaty! Then I did a bit of bouldering. It felt good.

Nicely done! I got my run in as well. Look at us killing our cardio goals!

[Ranger Hal]

7 hours ago, Artemis Prime said:

I don't know what your preferences are, or your church's expectations, but I know I don't try to make every Lenten service. It's a lot, and imo, once it starts to feel like too much it's not beneficial. So I do my best to make all I can and don't fret about the ones I miss. All of which is to say, could you alternate Wednesdays and Fridays with gym time and church time to find a balance that works for you?

That's essentially what I did this week. I went to church on Wednesday and the gym on Friday. We'll see how next week plays out. I want to do both church and gym on Wednesday and I think the main problem is that I'll need food between them (without going home because home is in the wrong direction). If I can figure out the food, the rest of the plan should (hopefully) work.

 

8 hours ago, Artemis Prime said:

Nicely done! I got my run in as well. Look at us killing our cardio goals!

We did good!

[Ranger Hal]

Well, that was a weekend. Sunny weather for training was nice.

 

Spoiler for family stuff

Spoiler

A family member with financial problems (shouldn't be my problem, but they're asking for help which makes it feel like my problem, plus I really hate dealing with financial stuff) combined with the week after shark week (yay for hormones making things "interesting") and probably not helped by being less than emotionally stable for the last several months led to lots of tears. I'm struggling because I can probably afford to help some,  but it's putting some of my own financial goals on hold (like paying off the mortgage early, which is not necessary, but would be kind of nice). Plus family and money are always messy. I already didn't have much of a relationship with this family member (nothing particularly bad, we just went in different directions, don't have a whole lot in common, and almost never talk) and I'm worried that this will not turn out well. Part of me knows that I'd be well within my rights to say no to any more help, but that doesn't make me feel better.

 

Fortunately, the hormonal side should ease up over the next few days (while knowing that didn't particularly help in the moment, it was nice to know things probably weren't as bad as they felt) and I asked for help so that I don't have to deal as directly with the financial stuff. Still not happy about the whole situation though.

 

I did some yard work. Pulled a bunch of Herb Robert which haven't even begun to flower and produce seeds yet. Usually I'm late getting to them which means that there are more seeds in the ground to deal with in the future. There's still more "Stinky Bob" in the yard, but it was nice to deal with some of it. I also pulled some blackberries and a couple of bits of bindweed that were in the area I was working on. The war continues.

 

Went on a SAR call, but fortunately the subject was found about the time everyone was arriving at base. I was particularly happy because I'm not a big fan of urban searches. But with the search called off, I was able to stand around in the parking lot for a while talking with my friends. It was very good. Friends are good.

 

Tonight the plan is to go to the gym and go shopping for food. I'm out of apples and almost out of bread.

[Ranger Hal]

Sunday night I slept for 11 hours (I guess the less than usual sleep for the couple previous nights caught up with me), so yesterday I skipped candles and walk to get to my Monday morning meeting only a few minutes late. Cardio at the gym was good, although my legs felt a little tight. I stuck with 20 minutes + cool down. Then I did a bit of bouldering. I managed to complete a V1 I'd been struggling with. I don't have problems with most V1s, but this one has you hanging horizontally which was giving me trouble. I was very happy to get it done. I decided that was a victory and I wouldn't try the horizontal V2 that was right next to it just yet! Got my shopping done and headed home to make dinner (including the cauliflower I just bought for my vegetable).

[Mistr]

Yay for getting yard work and cardio done!

 

My sympathy on having to deal with challenging family stuff. I hope you can get to a good mental/emotional place with it soon.

[Ranger Hal]

Yesterday was pretty good. I skipped the walk because I was running late (as usual) and couldn't stay late at work because I had all the stuff to do in the evening. Went to church after work. When I did my grocery shopping a couple days ago, I picked up some hummus, so I packed hummus and pita chips for a snack between church and gym. That worked out pretty well, although I think I might have had an issue if I'd been doing a harder workout. My stomach was feeling just a little off by the end of cardio (20 min + 5 min cool down). A little more time between eating and gym might be good. Cardio was followed by a bit of bouldering. Most V2s are feeling pretty solid (although not always pretty), but V3s continue to be a challenge. Sometimes I can do a couple moves before I get stuck, but sometimes I can barely do one move. Got home kind of late, but still finished up the episode of Critical Role that I'd been watching.

 

Campaign 2, Episode 48, Homeward Bound

Spoiler

Yikes, that was a lot at the end there! All the backstory colliding combined with people who are probably going to notice their shenanigans at the beginning of next episode. I might have to re-watch the last 40 minutes before going on to the next episode. Sam looked so scared after they finished, it was hilarious!