UH60Guy battles Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica.

[UH60guy]

Jim Halpert to Dwight Schrute:

Question. What kind of bear is best?

That's a ridiculous question.

False. Black bear.

That's debatable. There are basically two schools of thought--

Fact. Bears eat beets. Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica.

 

The Main Quest:

To run the Marine Corps Marathon on October 27.

 

Summary of steps to accomplish:

(Details further below)

Bears: Follow a specific running program for 13 more weeks.

Beets: Eat well, as I need to have the energy to run, plus keep the weight down to make the running easier.

Battlestar Galactica: Cross train with weights on non-running days to keep up a good level of fitness, and be prepared to fight Cylons.

 

Life Quest:

Help out my pregnant wife more.

 

 

Yeah, yeah, yeah, but how exactly are you going to do this?

 

 

Bears. Be prepared to escape nature’s unholy killing machines. Stick to my training plan for the Marine Corps Marathon by running the planned 3 runs per week. These are specific runs from the FIRST to the Finish Training Program. This challenge will progress throughout MCM Week minus 13 to W-8. In a slight modification to this plan, on September 1 (W-9) I will run the Rock n’ Roll Half Marathon in Virginia Beach. DEX+2, STA+2 (6 weeks: A, 5 weeks: B, 4-C, 3-D, 2-F)

 

 

Beets. I will focus on my diet to make sure I'm properly fueled and taking care of myself. My problem isn’t so much the usual meals (though we sometimes go out to a restaurant more than once a week), but the snacks or desserts around the house. I will score my diet as follows, though it is partially subjective.

• 1 point: Each “healthy†meal, with the goal of keeping things as natural and unprocessed as possible, up to three meals per day. Can’t go the full nine yards of paleo or completely unprocessed due to needing carbs for energy for the running, but I will make the judgment call for each situation.
• -0.5 point: Each snack (non-healthy ones) or dessert.
• 0 points (no change): Unhealthy meals or meals with lots of processed food. Don’t want to train myself through punishment to starve rather than eat something mediocre, but don’t want to reward the habit either.
• 0 points (no change): Energy gels, bars, or sports drinks ONLY the morning of or during runs over 10 miles. Any situation other than before/during a 10+ mile run will be considered a snack.

Maximum score over the challenge is 126 points, graded as follows: A: 100+ points, B: 90+, C: 80+, D: 70+) CON+2, CHA+2

 

 

Battlestar Galactica. I’ve been conducting correspondence training in case I get called up for the Colonial Fleet. Before I can report to my CAG, Lee “Apollo†Adama, I need to get in top fighting shape just like him. I will randomize the list of exercises I’ve been doing, also varying intensity to keep me guessing (have to be prepared since you will never know when the Cylons will attack), and do three gym workouts per week. One final bit of preparation involves getting back in the cockpit and getting at least one flight in a Viper Mark II, Viper Mark VII, Raptor, or Cessna 172 before the end of the challenge. STR+3, WIS+1 (Weeks with 3 gym visits and grade: 6-A, 5-B, 4-C, 3-D, 2-F. 1 WIS for the flight).

 

 

Life goal: Dwight Schrute has a saying: “Women are like wolves. If you want a wolf, you have to trap it. You have to snare it… and then you have to tame it. Keep it happy, care for it, feed it… lovingly, like an animal deserves to be loved. And my animal deserves a lot of loving.†Well, I need to tend to my wolf- er wife- more lovingly. She’s starting her third trimester of pregnancy with our first child and could use some more support from me. I will make it my goal to give at least one honest and non-generic compliment and do at least one chore in the house each day. (35 days: A, 28 days: B, 21 days: C, 14 days: D) WIS+1, CHA+2.

 

Finally, what is my motivation? I need to be prepared to be the best father I can. I am also running the marathon right about the time the baby is due. I’m using some ultrasound pictures pinned to the wall at my desk (bottom left, blocking the organizational chart) to motivate me. Both because the run is the same time as the birth, but also to remind me of my life goal.

 

[darkfoxx]

Those are some fantastic goals. Beets and Battlestar FTW! Oh, and have you heard - and this might be pure nerdy conjecture, but there *may* be a Battlestar reboot in the works .... 

[thekatisalie]

-frantic flailing- I THINK YOU ARE MY NERD FITNESS SOULMATE!
 

*ahem*

I mean, YES! Doctor Who and homebrew!… and then I come here and you’re all The Office and Battlestar Galactica… and, and, and…

Hai.

[tenaciousglee]

Excellent goals and very well put together!  Did you know there's a fellow NFer on here whose screen name is BearsBeetsBSG?

 

Also, hi from Virginia Beach!  I ran the RnR Half in 2003 and had a good time.  Flat course supposedly equals fast times, but you'd have to ask the Kenyans about that.

 

EDIT: Wait! You're already in VB! I just saw that on your profile!  Cool, cool, cool!  There are a few of us in Hampton Roads.  We should start plotting a meet-up!

[5C0T]

Great goals. And I think I want to rock me those BSG T Shirts. Have to find me some.

[5C0T]

P.S.  Beets are awesome.

[darkfoxx]

@5C0T: Battlestar Galactica Replica Tank Top @ Think Geek or a black/olive tank top turned around backwards over a fitted grey tee (which won't be color-exact - for more on that, there are miles of Internet babblings about accurate costuming) 

[UH60guy]

Oooh, I may have to order that tank- And see about the BSG dog tags somewhere online. That outfit may be juuuust what I need when I meet my goal to get back in the cockpit and post the photo as proof.

[starpuck]

Hello nugget!

 

Just chiming in to say I am a fan of your challenge!    (And the suggestion to get the tanks and dogtags... ahem.  *nods toward her own profile pic*)   The ThinkGeek tanks are really a nice quality!

[UH60guy]

Gonna hit the gym in about 30 minutes on the first test workout of my BSG theme in preparation for the challenge starting next week:

 

Episode Inspiration: 33 (ep 1.01)

Theme: The fleet is fatigued after attacks from Cylons every 33 minutes.

Intensity: Medium weight. For each exercise, do 3 sets of 8 reps, one set of 9 (33 reps total). 33 seconds rest between sets.

Exercise 1: Pull ups (assisted as needed to reach reps)

Exercise 2: Box jumps

Exercise 3: Two-handed kettlebell swing

Exercise 4: Push ups (vary style/intensity to match ability, such as decline or side to side)

Exercise 5: Mountain climbers

 

I've been populating a big Excel sheet with similar info as above, and some randomize functions. I ran down the list of the first two seasons' episodes and it is set up to randomly pick one of these each time I want to go to the gym. So far most of the exercises tied to each episode are also randomly selected- over the weekend though I'll see if I can make a few of them fit the episode better

 

Of course, once I get a finished Excel sheet ready I'll post it here in case anyone else wants to try as well, or even adapt it to make it their own. Thansk to idealistinfire for the idea of a card deck of random workouts- I just went with Excel instead because I didn't feel like writing it all out longhand.

[darkfoxx]

That is some nerdy fantasticness  

[starpuck]

 

Episode Inspiration: 33 (ep 1.01)

Theme: The fleet is fatigued after attacks from Cylons every 33 minutes.

Intensity: Medium weight. For each exercise, do 3 sets of 8 reps, one set of 9 (33 reps total). 33 seconds rest between sets.

Exercise 1: Pull ups (assisted as needed to reach reps)

Exercise 2: Box jumps

Exercise 3: Two-handed kettlebell swing

Exercise 4: Push ups (vary style/intensity to match ability, such as decline or side to side)

Exercise 5: Mountain climbers

 

 

 

Holy cow - your workout looks really close to what I do!  Awesome!!!    I do mine at the local playground and do:

• pull ups (some unassisted, then finish the set with bands)
• box jumps (or high step ups)
• push ups (varied styles, -- spiderman pushups are some of my favorites lately)
• hanging crunches or hanging leg raises
• side planks

 

Hehehe, really really similar.   That's so cool!    You go get your work out in, I will ready the FTL drive!

[UH60guy]

Well, lesson learned- in a good way. By having that "theme" category in there it let me make adjustments as needed. Like halfway through the box jump I found it was too easy- was able to switch to 3 sets of 33, with 33 seconds rest because I knew my underlying theme to the random workout, not just "go do this." Same with the KB swing- only a 20 lb KB was available, so again, 3 sets of 33.

 

Mountain climbers OK as written, but I do four count exercises there (left-right-left-one, left-right-left-two), and I feel I can crank out regular pushups all day (my records: 76 in one set, 100 in two), so I did the side to side pushups from the Batman Bodyweight Routine as those are pretty challenging for me. I'll have to try the Spiderman pushups sometime- I've never tried those before and now that you mention them and I looked them up, they look challenging!

 

I picked most of my random events from the NF Build your own workout routine, maybe that accounts for some of the similarity? That article also lends itself really well to randomization in my case, though I've thrown a few other exercises on the list.

[Katinka]

You've possibly combined my two greatest (tv) loves in this challenge. In fact, I got hooked on bsg because for Christmas, I gave my husband (gummy) bears, beets, and the box set of bsg blu-rays (I watched the whole thing in under 6 weeks).

 

Also - 33 kb swings? That's awesome! I'm definitely going to be following your workouts. Good hunting!

[tracknut]

I LOVE the MCM.  Definitely in my top five of marathons.  Love the goals and the layout.  I always think that Dwight would have LOVED NF.  Work hard!  

[chickie.monkey]

Wow, the awesomeness of this.. I can't even...

 

I can't wait to follow your workouts.

 

*love*

[UH60guy]

OK, tried to upload the Excel document I'm going to use to randomize my workouts for others to use but apparently the forum says I'm not permitted to upload this type of file. Maybe later in the challenge I'll figure out a way to share it if anyone wants it, but in the mean time I guess this gives me time to update it more anyway. I kept it macro-free to make it more compatible and virus free, and instead use formulas heavily so it may take some Excel knowledge (or at least copy/paste) to suit to your needs if you want to change anything.

 

It's still very much a work in progress as I have only actually tailored four of the random events specifically for an episode- most just have the placeholder episode title and a formula to randomly select five exercises and an intensity. 

 

To fix that, I'll shoot for watching an episode a day- I adjusted my schedule a while back so I have 50 minutes to drink my coffee and eat breakfast every morning, which is exactly long enough for an episode a day on Netflix before work. Through this routine, I've already gotten up to date on Dr. Who and just finished re-watching ST: Voyager last week, perfect timing to get back into BSG in the mornings.

 

When I watch in the mornings now, I'll update the list of exercises as I am inspired by each episode. Some of them (such as the courtroom ones) may be a stretch, but in those cases, I'll stick to keeping it completely random. By the end I should both have fun and have a new sheet updated with specifics for each episode!

[UH60guy]

First day of the challenge! I can't tell if NF nerfed the forums or if they added more security to my work computer, but it looks like all formatting options for adding posts have disappeared on me...

Bears will be battled Tuesdays, Fridays, and Sundays.

Beets, I'm off to a good start with a healthy breakfast, packed my lunch for work, and plan on having a salad for dinner. Just have to avoid snacks and desserts; otherwise I'm well set up.

Battlestar Galactica workout will commence in two hours over the lunch break:

• Episode Inspiration: Water (ep 1.02)

• Theme: Sabotage causes Galactica to lose 60% of her water reserves. Join the damage control party with inspections and repairs inside the forward water tanks.

• Intensity: Heavy weight, 5-8 reps, 4 sets each exercise. High reps/speed for bodyweight exercise.

• Exercise 1: Step ups (climb into water tanks with the DC party)

• Exercise 2: Squats (move heavy debris out of the way)

• Exercise 3: Dips (lower yourself into tight spaces in the tanks)

• Exercise 4: Pull ups (inspect upper areas for stress fractures)

• Exercise 5: Planks (weld patches over holes)

Women are like wolves: Did my chore this morning with the cat litter box, will have to get the compliment in when I get home tonight just before bed.

[Katinka]

I'm having trouble with formatting this morning, too. At least you were able to get your post into paragraphs - I hit the enter button and see the breaks when I'm typing, but as soon as I post, it's all just one big block of text!

Amazing workout theme - I'm super impressed. I may do a similar workout tonight so I don't have to make the decisions of what to do (I swear, sometimes that's the hardest part of my workout).

Good hunting!

[UH60guy]

I had to write it in MS Word and copy/paste back here to get it at least readable. Double returns after paragraphs seemed to do the trick for line breaks- and then only after hitting preview post twice.

Thanks for the compliments! One of these days I'll figure out how to post my Excel random workout generator so others can use it- I have it pull random exercises from a list and then I go do it. However, with a little artistic license based on some episodes ahead of time lead me to the above.

[darkfoxx]

I've had luck sharing spreadsheets with Google Drive. My nutrient metrics sheet isn't fancy, but it shares just fine through a link. *grumble about posting being broken* Link here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AjZ_cUMX9Ti4dHFCRUJrdVZWbGk3Uk44Y1hQbHlJQlE&usp=sharing

[UH60guy]

Good idea with the Google Drive link. Here's my attempt at sharing my workout randomizer... though it may have lost something in formatting since I had to make some edits from my iPhone, since the work computer blocks Google Drive. I'll clean it up tonight when I get home. I'll also keep updating it as I go along with new workouts, so the contents of the link should change pretty regularly. Would love to hear if anyone is able to access it or use it- again can't tell until I get home- but any feedback would be appreciated!

 

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BzOxh7vTQG3gRU9ZdlBXZU5VUmM/edit?usp=sharing

[darkfoxx]

The sheet looks pretty great, though I think you'll have to change the permissions to enable the randomization. I wasn't able to type anything into cell A2. Saving a copy of the sheet worked and the workout was generated  

[UH60guy]

All right. Feeling it. Moving along. Maybe it's just first day excitement, but I'm trying to lock in as much as possible ahead of time! I know in the past I would blow off my runs- but a while back when I went online and found a day-to-day marathon training plan and painstakingly added every entry of 5 days a week for 18 weeks to my Google calendar, I was much more likely to follow it.

 

I've done that here now...

 

Bears- all my runs added to my calendar from now until the Marine Corps Marathon on October 27.

Beets- have my challenge tracker ready to count meals and mitzvahs for my wife.

Battlestar Galactica- have the workout generator built and I'll keep watching in the mornings for inspirations to add to it. Also, for the side quest, I called the airport and got on the flight schedule for the 10th. No Vipers or Raptors available, but the Cessna 172 was there for the taking

[darkfoxx]

Alrighty there, overachiever. I like it! Having all that set up ahead of time can only help.