Into the Fray - Level 1

[Jake1989]

I'm a day late and a septim short, but here goes.

 

QUEST - ONLY THE FEARLESS WILL PREVAIL

My main quest, which will take more than just this first challenge, it an overall, general, abstract idea on who I want to be. From a fitness perspective, I'll be faster, stronger, dexterous, and more flexible than I've ever been in my life. (Perhaps more than I was in college alpine racing for a D1 school.) I'll be happy and content with my job, looking forward to challenges that come with it. My friends will be just as fulfilling as any relationship I've been in (or the one I'm currently in). I don't have a way to measure when I'm there, but I do feel as if I'll be able to recognize it once I've arrived.

 

 

LEVEL 1 - INTO THE FRAY

 

Quest Mission 1.01 - Persistence, Perseverance, Passion

Objective: Complete 5 gym sessions per week and 3 three-mile runs per week

I understand that this seems quite ambitious for a first-time objective, but I currently go to the gym 4-5 times a week as, is. The key here to really for me to run while also maintaining the gym regularity. I'm an avid runner, and do adventure/obstacle racing all the time. But with no race scheduled in the near future (mostly because the ones I love to do cost an arm and a leg), I want to be sure that I stay on top of running.

Reward: +3 STR, +2 DEX, +2 STA

 

 

Quest Mission 1.02 - Fueling an Assassin

Objective: Eat 2,175 good calories, 6 days a week (150g protein, 75g fat, 225g carbs)

Getting in the right food is easy during the work week, mostly because eating out in Beverly Hills is expensive, and I always feel underfed. On the weekends I tend to go ape for anything I can shove in my face. If I can make either Saturday or Sunday a successful day, I'll take it. If anyone actually reads this and is interested in how I came up with the numbers, let me know. I'm happy to share.

Reward: +3 CON

 

 

Quest Mission 1.03 -  Pushing the Basics

Objective: Complete 60 push-ups in a row

I've noticed that my weak areas tend to be in my chest and shoulders. Starting with the basics, I'll tackle push-ups on this one. I probably should have a base as to how many I can do in a row before setting this, but I honestly don't know off-hand. If I had to guess, I'd say between 25 and 30. I have no idea if 70 is really pushing the boundary on what's possible or not, so I'll chalk this goal up as the most difficult this first time around. I'll come up with a daily push-up routine outside of the gym to accomplish this one.

Reward: +1 STR, +1 STA

 

 

Side Quest 1 - Merchant's Beginning

Objective: Stay under budget for September and October

This is pretty self-explanatory. I know that the challenge only runs through 10/27, so I'll just extrapolate out my expenses for the last few days (or perhaps just run this particular objective out a bit longer).

Reward: +3 WIS

 

 

MOTIVATION

I wish I had something super amazing to put here, but I think my motivation is a combination of a lot of things. I'll start with the greatest: myself. I've really gotten back into my own health (on a broad scale) the past two or three months, and I've already noticed a lot of great changes. I've completed a 1/2-marathon obstacle course race through the mountains, joined a new gym that I'm obsessed with, leaned out and even had some people notice, and have a new invigorated mentality toward health. Secondly, outside of myself, I'm constantly motivated by my competitiveness and my previous status as a collegiate athlete. Lastly, who doesn't like to look great on the beach? Living in a city like Los Angeles, there's plenty of people to be motivated by. While the town can sometimes have an unhealthy level of narcissism, at least it moves people to take care of themselves.

 

 

 

Measurements: I'll measure everything on a straight percentage system. Pretty basic.

[Jake1989]

Day 1

16 Sep. 2013

Hit the gym today, but my legs were still massively sore from last Friday's workout (which was 7 sets of 20 front squats followed by a 400m run). I had taken the weekend off to recover since I haven't been that sore in a while. No cheating on the food issue here either.

 

Day 2

17 Sep. 2013

Missed the gym today, which isn't normal for me at all. Typically I take Wednesdays off, not Tuesdays. I was way too tired to get out of bed. I thought about making one of my goals sleep-oriented, but that seemed a bit too advanced.   Again, I stuck to the proper food. I still haven't figured out my base for my push-up goal, so that will (hopefully) be on Day 3.

 

---

 

Gym: 1/30

3.33%

3.33%

Quest Mission 1.01

 

Run: 0/18 

0%

0%

Quest Mission 1.01

 

Food: 2/36 

5.56%

5.56%

Quest Mission 1.02

 

Continuous Push-up PR: 0/60 

0%

0%

Quest Mission 1.03

[alfredop13]

what a nice post!! keep the good job!

[JessFit]

I love the way you laid out your goals. You're so numerically precise! I'm super impressed. And it looks like you've had two really good days already. Congrats!

[Jake1989]

Day 3

18 Sep. 2013

Hit the gym this morning for an abnormal Wednesday workout, and totally got my butt handed to me. I've actually felt a bit stagnant lately. I still feel sore, but I don't feel like I'm moving as quickly, efficiently, or pushing as much weight around. (I'm not lifting heavy weights on a regular basis, but it is a part of crossfit.) I won't be running tonight, as I have a networking thing I need to attend. I should have ran yesterday, so now I'm going to have to squeeze three runs into 4 days.

 

Food was a success today. I still have dinner but it's ready to go since I made it at home.

 

I did my base for my push-ups today and came up with a measly 25 without rest. To be fair, I am a bit sore from working out already. (So maybe my actual, fully-rested measurement should be off of 30. For now, I'll stick with 25). So, I'm almost half-way to where I want to be in five and a half weeks. I'm wondering if I should be measuring my success off of the 35 I need to add, rather than the 60 I want to do total. Because as of now, my goal looks like I'm already 42% of the way there. Anyone have thoughts on this?

 

Thank you, JessFit and alfredop13 for the words of encouragement!

 

---

 

Gym: 2/30 

6.67%

6.67%

Quest Mission 1.01

 

Run: 0/18 

0%

0%

​Quest Mission 1.01

 

Food: 3/36 

8.33%

8.33%

​Quest Mission 1.02

 

Continuous Push-up PR: 25/60 

41.67%

41.67%

​Quest Mission 1.03

[Jake1989]

Day 4

19 Sep. 2013

Oh man was I close to skipping the gym this morning. I was up much to late watching the finale of Big Brother and the Survivor premiere (anyone, anyone?) But, I managed to get up, mostly because I know that those bars below won't fill themselves.

 

The food situation, again, was totally cool today, but the weekend will be tough. With football comes junk.

 

My knee was bothering me a bit from the workout this morning (probably because of the impact from box jumps.) But I ran a 5K in 25:49, which isn't terrible considering I haven't ran in over a month. Mark one down!

 

---

 

Gym: 3/30 

10.00%

10.00%

Quest Mission 1.01

 

Run: 1/18 

5.56%

5.56%

​Quest Mission 1.01

 

Food: 4/36 

11.11%

11.11%

​Quest Mission 1.02

 

Continuous Push-up PR: 25/60 

41.67%

41.67%

​Quest Mission 1.03

[Jake1989]

Day 5

20 Sep. 2013

Today's workout incorporated a 4-mile run, so I killed two birds with one stone. That said, my chest is super sore and my body aches. Not necessarily in a bad way, but in a way where it's definitely asking for recovery right now. If I feel worse tomorrow, I may have to miss the 5th gym session of the week.

 

---

 

Gym: 4/30 

13.33%

13.33%

Quest Mission 1.01

 

Run: 2/18 

11.11%

11.11%

​Quest Mission 1.01

 

Food: 5/36 

13.89%

13.89%

​Quest Mission 1.02

 

Continuous Push-up PR: 25/60 

41.67%

41.67%

Quest Mission 1.03

[JessFit]

Recovery is super important! You're pushing really hard so don't neglect that. And a 4 mile run? WOW! I'm lucky if I can run for 4 blocks.

[Crimsonnicole]

I love your bars. That's a great visual to keep track. Keep up the good work!

[rjam]

Recovery is super important! You're pushing really hard so don't neglect that. And a 4 mile run? WOW! I'm lucky if I can run for 4 blocks.

 

I second this! No point in pushing yourself to the point of injury.

 

I'm also liking those progress bars, did you make them yourself?

[Jake1989]

Day 6

21 Sep. 2013

It took a lot of effort to get to the gym this morning, despite me being able to go in later since it's the weekend. And once I got there, I got my butt handed to me... it was a rough one. If anyone out there does GSX type workouts, you know how rough it can be.

 

I ate well until the Utah-BYU game started when there were beers and burgers. Dang it. I knew the weekends were going to be rough.

 

 

Day 7

22 Sep. 2013

So Sunday is pretty much the day off from everything. A day where I can eat what I want, skip the gym and just do whatever I please. All I'm supposed to do is get in a run... which I didn't. I ended up going to a festival two hours north for the day and by the time I got home I still had work to do to prep for work on Monday and it just didn't happen. I should have planned better.

 

I also have gone over-budget for the month of September. Not by much, but I still have gone over. If I can offset that amount through the end of October, I'll still get the full points. (However, since Halloween is definitely my favorite holiday, this won't be easy... there are a lot of events I love to go to.)

 

 

Day 8

23 Sep. 2013

Hit the gym this morning despite some chest soreness and it ended up not being too bad. Maybe I'll tack on a 5K tonight to mark one of the three I need per week. I think I'm pretty close to breaking my front squat PR, too, which is pretty exciting. Legs are easily my strong suit. (I don't know why most people loathe them!)

 

Now that I'm back at work, the food situation is under control. The work-week makes it pretty easy to eat within my goals.

 

Thanks JessFit and Crimsonnicole for the continued support! JessFit, I have a running background, so four miles isn't too bad. We all have our strengths.

 

rjam, there's an option when you reply to add a "progress bar." You can find a color by doing a search for HTML color cods.

 

---

 

Gym: 6/30 

20.00%

20.00%

Quest Mission 1.01

 

Run: 2/18 

11.11%

11.11%

​Quest Mission 1.01

 

Food: 6/36 

16.67%

16.67%

​Quest Mission 1.02

 

Continuous Push-up PR: 25/60 

41.67%

41.67%

Quest Mission 1.03

[rjam]

...

 

rjam, there's an option when you reply to add a "progress bar." You can find a color by doing a search for HTML color cods.

 

...

 

Ah! Thanks, didn't even think to look there.

[Jake1989]

Day 9

24 Sep. 2013

I used today as a skip-day at the gym for the week. I should have ran instead... but I didn't. I find it really, really hard to go running once I'm home for the night. I can't go in the morning because I'm at the gym. And I especially cherish my one skip day where I can sleep in an hour earlier. I need to figure out a way to muster up the motivation to go running at the end of the day...

 

 

Day 10

25 Sep. 2013

Hump day! Gym was good, eating was good, etc. etc. Alas... no running. Tonight was Survivor night and I'm really digging this season, so I sat on my butt to watch.

 

 

Day 11

26 Sep. 2013

Today was amazing, gym-wise. Typically, there are about 4 people in the early 6:30 class, Today there were 13. It just so happened that a lot of people showed up, which really changed the dynamic in the box. It was an amazing change of pace, something that really got me invigorated. Also, I saw this workout on YouTube, and I'm dying to try it. (But I'll be scaling down the men's weight a bit.)

 

So, time for a progress report on where I'm at. As far as due-diligence in the gym, I'm doing well. I'm right on schedule to hit my 30 total sessions (5x/week).

 

However, my running is very sub-par. I managed to get 2 of the 3 scheduled runs in last week, but one of those was a lucky 4-mile track built into one of my gym sessions. The problem I'm having here is night-time motivation. I say I don't have time to run in the morning, because I'm up at 5:30 already to get to the gym on time. And I never seem to have the motivation at night to go. If I woke up at 5:00, I'd have time to run, but I'd be sub-par at the gym later on. I need to develop some sort of accountability system to get my butt running when I get home from work.

 

I'm doing okay with my food intake. I missed one of the 6 days last week, but overall, I'm doing okay. The weekends are rough because cooking feels like work and the last thing I want to do on the weekend is more work. My gym is also doing an October challenge regarding eating well according to our goals and daily activity. It costs extra money, so I don't know if it's worth it to me, but I'm going to a talk tonight about it to learn more.

 

My biggest problem: push-ups. I haven't done much to really improve my base number. Most of last week my chest was really sore, and I'm still feeling a tiny bit this week, which is c r a z y !!. By the end of this week, I need to develop a routine to get myself up in terms of my continuous set numbers.

 

I went over on budget this month, but not by too much (about 2.5%). I tell myself I can make up for it next month, but it will be difficult.

 

Bahhh.... it really feels like it should be Friday!

 

---

 

Gym: 8/30 

26.67%

26.67%

Quest Mission 1.01

 

Run: 2/18 

11.11%

11.11%

​Quest Mission 1.01

 

Food: 9/36 

25.00%

25.00%

​Quest Mission 1.02

 

Continuous Push-up PR: 25/60 

41.67%

41.67%

Quest Mission 1.03

[TimboD]

Hi Jake, 

 

Re the motivation to run, the best thing you can do for yourself is to have all you gear out and waiting for you when you get home from work.. That way, you come home, change, and head back out straight away before you've had the chance to lose motivation looking around for the stuff.. I find that the second my butt hits the couch (especially after a 90 minute transit home from work), that's me done for the night! 

 

Re pushups, you'll need to give yourself a good 48 hours rest to let your chest recover from gym work before you can really test yourself.. If you can do 25 continuous while you're sore, you'll smash it when you're rested!! 

 

PS - I'm liking the progress bars.. I'll be using that one for my next challenge for sure  

 

Tim 

[Jake1989]

Day 31

16 Oct. 2013

I haven't dropped off of this! I've just been MIA in updating my stats. It was partially interrupted because I started a challenge at my gym having to do with dropping body fat % while maintaining current weight. (As of 9/29, I am at 15.25%; I'll be measured again at the completion of the challenge on 10/29.)

 

I've been to the gym quite a bit, and my food has been on point since I started the challenge at the gym... that's most of the battle. I haven't been running, and I've pretty much failed that aspect of this 6-Week Challenge, unfortunately. Even if I ran every day to the end of challenge, I would only hit 14/18. Still, I should probably try and get a few more. Even if I get half, it's better than nothing.

 

My budgeting is doing... decent. It's a bit early to tell, but it looks like I might go over again by a bit for the month of October.

 

Good job to everyone else for keeping this up! It's not easy. I'll try and post on here more regularly for the remainder of the challenge... only 11 days left!

 

---

 

Gym: 25/30 

83.33%

83.33%

Quest Mission 1.01

 

Run: 3/18 

16.67%

16.67%

​Quest Mission 1.01

 

Food: 23/36 

63.89%

63.89%

​Quest Mission 1.02

 

Continuous Push-up PR: 25/60 

41.67%

41.67%

Quest Mission 1.03

[JessFit]

Glad to see that you're doing well!

[TimboD]

Nice work mate! 

[Jake1989]

Day 38

23 Oct. 2013

Only four days left! I have some very mixed feelings about this whole adventure right now. On one hand, I've done very well at getting to the gym at least five times each week. I've also done a decent job at eating well, especially considering how much room for error I gave myself.

 

However, I pretty much ignored running. Considering this was half of my main goal, it means I didn't do very well in "leveling up." Part of this is because I think my priorities changed. I joined a month-long challenge at my gym and became pretty wrapped up in that, which consisted of eating a lot of good calories and getting in a lot of sessions. Honestly, a big part of me totally forgot about running.

 

Secondly, I never made a schedule to increase my push-up count. Weirdly, I feel as if it's gotten more difficult to perform push-ups and I have no idea why. I haven't gained weight and I've lost body fat. The only thing I can think of is that I've gained muscle but not in the areas that would help with push-ups, thereby making the push-up load more difficult... but really it can't be that much of a difference over the course of 42 days... can it?

 

The challenge at my gym ends on October 29th, so we'll see how that pans out. If I lose 2% of my body fat, I'd be super happy. I can see a small physical change, but I honestly have no idea what to expect. Even though this challenge ends on Monday night, I'll be sure to post back in here with the results of the body fat test.

 

Overall, I'm going to walk away with the attitude in that you can't succeed at something the first time you tackle it. My expectations for this were high going in, and I knew that. And I didn't do terrible. I think it was just a lot to balance. (Other aspects also go in the way, like my current hunt for the next step in my career. I also have a need for continuing education which led to me also taking online classes despite working 60+ hours a week.)

 

I'll be back to post on Monday when this is all over. Early congratulations to everyone who made it!

 

---

 

Gym: 29/30 

96.67%

96.67%

Quest Mission 1.01

 

Run: 4/18 

22.22%

22.22%

​Quest Mission 1.01

 

Food: 30/36 

83.33%

83.33%

​Quest Mission 1.02

 

Continuous Push-up PR: 30/60 

50.00%

50.00%

Quest Mission 1.03

[TimboD]

Mate, having 5 workouts per week over this time is no failure.. So what if you didn't run that often; you will still find that you gained a little fitness because of all the time your heart rate was elevated doing strength-work.. 

 

Give yourself a break for a few days before doing a pushup test.. If you going through DOMS or your muscles are just fatigued, there's no way you can push yourself to the numbers you are trying to achieve.. 

[Jake1989]

Day 39

24 Oct. 2013

This whole thing feels a lot longer than 39 days... just saying.

 

Thanks for the words of encouragement, TimboD. I'm pretty happy with what I've done in just six weeks, and I feel like I understand what sort of goals I'm capable of in that time frame. Going forward, I think my goals will be better suited to my ability now that I can gauge them a bit better.

 

Here's to the last three days!

 

---

 

Gym: 30/30 

100.00%

100.00%

Quest Mission 1.01

 

Run: 4/18 

22.22%

22.22%

​Quest Mission 1.01

 

Food: 31/36 

83.33%

83.33%

​Quest Mission 1.02

 

Continuous Push-up PR: 30/60 

50.00%

50.00%

Quest Mission 1.03

[Jake1989]

Day 40

25 Oct. 2013

Things are coming an an end and I think I might be ending on a slightly hyper-extended knee, so I won't be tacking on any last-minute runs. I'll head to the gym today (woo hoo! over the goal) but I'll be taking it easy on anything having to do with the knees. Today's workout consists of bench presses, pull-ups, some deadlifts, and ball slams. No squats or jumping, thank goodness.

 

We'll see how successful I am with eating through this last weekend.

 

---

 

Gym: 31/30 

103.33%

103.33%

Quest Mission 1.01

 

Run: 4/18 

22.22%

22.22%

​Quest Mission 1.01

 

Food: 32/36 

88.89%

88.89%

​Quest Mission 1.02

 

Continuous Push-up PR: 30/60 

50.00%

50.00%

Quest Mission 1.03

[Jake1989]

Day 42

27 Oct. 2013

Level Up! The first challenge is completed, as well as the first step on my first quest. Overall, I'm pretty okay with how I did, but there's definitely room for more improvement when it.comes to properly achieving goals. Below is the specific breakdown and my updated level is in my signature!

 

 

Quest Mission 1.01 - Persistence, Perseverance, Passion

Objective: Complete 5 gym sessions per week and 3 three-mile runs per week

I killed the gym portion of this, hitting 31 sessions of a total 30 needed. However, I faltered on the running, only hitting 4 sessions. On a lighter note though, on that last run, which was about a week ago, I really was moving; my time was way better than when I started. So all the endurance at the gym (Crossfit) has translated well to any future running, which is great. [Calculation: (30+4)/48=70.8%; C-]

Total Reward Possible: +3 STR, +2 DEX, +2 STA

Total Reward Earned: +2.1 STR, +1.4 DEX, +1.4 STA

 

 

Quest Mission 1.02 - Fueling an Assassin

Objective: Eat 2,175 good calories, 6 days a week (150g protein, 75g fat, 225g carbs)

I'm going to be a bit lenient on judging this one. During the work week, M-F, the days I hit this were spot-on. On the weekends, if I was successful, it was because I was eating clean, not necessarily eating clean and hitting the exact above caloric intake. That said, I hit 32 of 36 days. Not terrible. [Calculation: 31/36=86.1%; B]

Total Reward Possible: +3 CON

Total Reward Earned: +2.6 CON

 

 

Quest Mission 1.03 -  Pushing the Basics

Objective: Complete 60 push-ups in a row

This was the most difficult, not to mention a goal that, from the start, may have just been too difficult. I overestimated my current ability at continuous push-ups. However, going forward, I feel like I at least understand what sort of strength goals I'm capable of achieving in 6 weeks. I also should have been much more diligent in my supplemental work with push-ups, rather than just relying on what workouts were already scheduled for me. In terms of grading, I'm not going to award myself based on my total pushups divided by 60. Instead, I'm going to grade myself based on where I started (25) and where I ended (30). So, really, I added 5 of a required 30. [Calculation: 5/30=16.7%; F]

 

Total Possible Reward: +1 STR, +1 STA

Total Earned Reward: +0.2 STR, +0.2 STA

 

 

Side Quest 1 - Merchant's Beginning

Objective: Stay under budget for September and October

Estimating out my expenses through this Thursday ($20 on gas; $15 on drinks), I definitely went over my budget for October... more so than September. However, I did have a friend visiting town that I had to entertian, as well as all the Halloween activities that I normally do every year. Overall, it could have been worse. [Calculation: 1 - ($ Spent / Budget) =  90.8%; A-]

Total Reward Possible: +3 WIS

Total Reward Earned: +2.7 WIS

 

---

 

Gym: 31/30 

103.33%

103.33%

Quest Mission 1.01

 

Run: 4/18 

22.22%

22.22%

​Quest Mission 1.01

 

Food: 32/36 

88.89%

88.89%

​Quest Mission 1.02

 

Continuous Push-up PR: 30/60 

50.00%

50.00%

Quest Mission 1.03

[JessFit]

I'm impressed by how much you did! I think that the fact that you can even do 30 straight is crazy impressive!

[Jake1989]

Thanks, JessFit!

 

I definitely faltered in accurately planning out the push-up component of my goals. I'm thinking about doing it again in the next challenge - I already created a 6-week push-up workout schedule for myself.

 

I also got my body fat % re-measured yesterday at the gym as part of a competition I was a part of. I know I've dropped at least a bit, but I won't know the extent until Saturday. I'll officially wrap this Challenge up with the results from that.

[Jake1989]

The Day After

2 Nov. 2013

I got my caliper results back today. On October 1st I was 15.26% body fat. Over the past month i dropped to 13.69%. Woo hoo! I'll take it. I'd like to get under 12% at some point.

 

However, this came with a bit of other confusing results. i also lost 3 pounds, which for someone like me, is a lot. When my weight was broken down into lean muscle vs. body fat, the results show that I lost almost a pound of muscle. is it even possible that this has happened with me being at the gym more than I've been in the last four years? I'm definitely stronger than I was a month ago... can you build strength while losing muscle mass?

 

I think it's probably important to note 2 things though.

 

(1) I look different than when I started. I think I look bigger, but maybe that's just a result of lost fat. But certain specific weak areas, like my shoulders, do look especially bigger to me.

 

(2) I was measured at two very different times of day. The first time I was measured it was 9:00 at night, about 2.5 hours after a light dinner. The end measurement was at 7:45 in the morning immediately after a workout.

 

I know that hydration. the time of day, and then last time you've eaten can have an effect on the results, but to what extent?

 

If anyone has any input, I'm all ears!! On to the next challenge.