TourdeForce trains with the Black Widow

[TourdeForce]

We all know the Black Widow is a bad-ass assassin, and since that’s what I want to be when I

grow up, who better to learn from? Sure she uses weapons sometimes, but her mad skills include 

incredible agility, super-strength, super-human constitution and a crazy intellect, so that’s where 

we’re gonna start. I am going to work on a financial reward for myself this round, to see if it 

will give me added motivation, and when I’m training I can think of fun new tattoos for when I 

finish up with all of the money.

 

(Side-bar - I'm going to be incommunicado til July 31st, so challenge will be officially starting a few days late, but will push it past the end date too)

 

1. Agile Ballerina Skills – even though I loved doing ballet as a kid, this is not the path for 

me right now – instead I will do yoga for at least 15 minutes 6 days a week. Classes are on 

Thursdays and Saturdays, the rest of the week will be short-to-medium programs from a yoga 

app/youtube. I really want to get better at this, so daily practice will help!

 

• $1 in the kitty every day I do yoga ($42 max)
  

 

2. Super-Strength – To augment the new-found bendy-ness of my limbs, I need to grow my 

muscles. I still have a fair amount of extra weight on me, so I will use that to my advantage, 

doing the Bodyweight Brigade on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. I’m currently level 2, but 

by week 3 of this challenge I will level up to 3 (mmmmm symmetry). 

 

• $1 in the kitty for every day of BWW ($18 max)
  

 

3. Rock-hard constitution – I need to kick start my health a bit, and since I’ve been doing pretty 

well following a primal diet, I want to go whole-hog and get completely clean. So from day 8 (4th August) to 

day 38 (2nd Sept) I will be Whole30-ing, and then I will see about slowly reintroducing some of my vices, 

like red wine and dark chocolate. Sweet milky tea, I will break your vicious hold!

 

​EDIT - work is going to get in the way of total diligence here, so instead I'm going to stick with it as much as possible, and for every day I have something that doesn't comply (including for work) I will take a dollar from the kitty.

 

• No money here – just do it, no exceptions. Reward is the knowledge of one’s iron will. (- $1/day)
  

 

4. Crazy-smart intellect – when I move back home at the end of the year I’d like to open my 

own wine-bar-bookstore-mahthingy. As is clearly obvious from its lack-of-title, I need to start 

scrapbooking more concrete ideas, but more importantly I need to start work on a business 

plan, and finances and all that terrifying grown-up real-world stuff. I’m smart, but I need to be 

smarter. So, twice a week I need to spend some time researching, learning about how to create 

a business plan and all the things I will need to take to a bank, or a lawyer, or someone else in 

a suit. And start a file. And try and remember that one semester of accounting I did in first-year 

university many moons ago.

 

• $1 for every hour spent working on the plan (max $infinity...mwahahaha! No, maybe I should keep aside some cash for proposed business!)
  

 

These are small little changes that will get me closer to being a bad-ass assassin – I’m an 

impatient person who wants ALL the things NOW, but it’s gonna take time. I let my body get to 

this state of unfitness over many many years, so I can’t expect it to just be all awesome after 1 

day of weight-training! BUT, every day is a step closer to fitting into that black Kevlar-like jumpsuit.   

[Asa Pond]

Another Black Widow lover. <3

 

Looks like a great plan and I love the financial rewards investment you have going. Wonderful motivation!!

 

Good luck on your challenge!

[Elastigirl]

Love Black Widow and your goals.  Fun challenge. If you can find some Whole 30 approved coconut milk, it is very tasty in tea. I bought some orange cinnamon spiced tea, with the spices I don't feel like I need sugar, and a bit of coconut milk, makes a very nice treat

[RedPandaOne]

Fun challenge! And love that you are rewarding yourself with some money. Always a good motivator.

 

I hope you are having fun on your vacation. And I'm subbing so I can follow when you get started

[Tanuki]

This is a great challenge And I love the wine-bar-bookstore idea.

[Hiroro]

Yay workout clothes shopping! Love your theme 

[Musuku]

Love the business idea, I would definitely visit that if I would ever get in the neighborhood. Good luck

[Leothil]

Your challenge looks wonderful! It will be great to follow you once again.

[Batwoman]

YAY. Black Widow! Kick some ass!

 

[Cledbo]

Fantastic stuff, I love that you are committing to starting a business - I'm doing the same (grain-free bakery - paleo FTW ) and I know how tough you'll have it. Studying regularly and doing incremental work is definitely a great way to go about it.

 

Subbing!

[Arya Sapphire]

I just about fainted when I saw your avatar and title. Black Widow is my baby and I love her and therefore I love your challenge a lot. 

 

I can't wait to follow your progress - and that wine-bookstore idea sounds lovely! Keep rocking! 

[vengefulpear]

This all sounds sooo coool!

I would definitely go to a wine-bar-bookstore-mahthingy! I am definitely looking forward to seeing how that progresses

And I just know you're going to kick some serious butt in this challenge

[Waanie]

Great challenge . I'll follow you to see how it goes .

[Rachy87]

Wooo this looks exciting you can do it!

[Cledbo]

How have your first couple of days gone? Has the Black Widow kicked your butt yet? :-D

All spelling mistakes are auto correct's fault, especially the dirty ones. Sent from Tapatalk.

[PixieKitten]

Your challenge looks, awesome, and I love your goals! I really hope it's started well for you, TourdeForce, and can't wait for an update!!

[Batwoman]

[TourdeForce]

aaah thank you wonderful people for following along and all the positive 'hey's' so far!

 

Just got back from my trip, which was amazeballs in every way! Street food and dim sum and MANY g&t's were consumed, although there was also a lot of walking in crazy-humid heat, so...it was fabulous! Very happy to have gone!

 

But back to normality - no food in the house today, but I did stop on my break to get green beans, eggs and tuna to make food for tomorrow, and then grocery shop and batch cooking on Saturday.

 

So plan is to start tomorrow with an "official" day 1, and in the meantime I will try spend some time checking out all the threads and stuff that I've missed so far!

 

Hope everyone else has got off to rocking starts!!

[Arya Sapphire]

You go girl, that sounds like such an awesome time! I can't wait to read some Black Widow updates from you, I've been dying for some badassery!

[PixieKitten]

I'm glad you had such a great trip!

[Leothil]

Aww that sounds so great! I'm glad you had a good trip! ^^ Looking forward to more updates now that your challenge starts!

[swaffe]

TourdeForce I love your goals!  I also like the monetary rewards and I hope it works for you.

[Asa Pond]

So glad to hear you had an awesome trip. 

 

Good luck with your official start date! Can't wait to watch your progress. 

 

Say hello to the Black Widow for me. I think I trained under her at some point.

[Batwoman]

Mmmm gin, a woman after my own heart

 

Preparing myself for awesome!

[TourdeForce]

DAY 1 

 

TourdeForce reporting for duty, Miss Widow...apologies for the tardiness fellow assassins, but, well, secret missions hey?

 

The first day was a lot of lessons about life, and how we respond to dangerous situations, and there was also a birthday party that may have involved a small piece of cake, but our pastry chef is Parisian, so....

 

Yesterday, after a good long talking to myself, I handed in my resignation notice to my immediate boss, who is lovely and understanding and kinda knew it was coming, so it was, all things considered, a very well-executed resignation.

 

Today, he handed the notice to my GM, and I was then summoned to a meeting. Much panic and heart-palpitations and inward groaning. It actually wasn't nearly as bad as my imagination had made it out to be (briefly, there may have been dragons, fire pits and R.O.U.S.'s, to name but a few). In fact, I think it was quite productive. (Who am I?)

 

Before the meeting, I was contemplating going home on my break to sit and ruminate on everything, but when I walked out his office I knew what the Black Widow wanted from me...in a stressful situation you have to let the adrenalin take over and use your body to get out of danger.  Sitting down with a cup of tea is not going to stop your enemies from killing you if they can. Lesson 1 learnt. Out of mind, into body. Off to gym - 

 

BWW 2B

Inverted Rows - 10/10/10

Lunges - 20/20/20

Close grip knee pushups - 10/10/7

Hip Raises - 10/10/8

Reverse Crunches - 10/10/9

Jump rope (s) - 30/30/30

 

Also, to add to the mini challenge:

Squats - 10/10/10

Box Jumps - 10/10

 

The week off, with bad bad food, really took its toll! My heart rate was high, I had to take breaks between each exercise, and I've gone backwards in my inverted rows  The box jumps were scary as all hell, and my legs were too jelly-like to do a last set...BUT I did it! I changed my immediate "fight or flight" response from "flight, run to tea and chocolate" to "fight, and get strong" YES 

 

Oh, and I also made myself do a quick, easy sun salutation program this morning because I had been reading all your awesomeness the night before and I wanted in! 

 

Day 1 Stats:

Yoga $1 of 42

BWW $1 of 18

Business Plan I resigned!!!! Good work Marine!!!