Thalianost - Training with the Rangers

[Thalianost]

Greetings, Rangers! 

 

I am Thalianost, Knight Banaret of the Order of the Gules Oak.  I have been training and feasting with the warriors for most of the winter but now that spring is just around the corner, as is swordplay season, it is time I start getting more active and putting my strength to use.  This challenge my plan is to ease out of weight training mode and into combat mode. 

 

The Plan:

Main Quest:  Increase mobility while maintaining strength. 

 

Q1:  Workouts

Since I don't want to loose all my hard earned strength between now and next fall, I am going to keep lifting but only 2 days a week, rather than 4. The other two days I will be doing The Biggest Loser Boot Camp DVD to try to get my endurance and mobility back.  Also, as I have been neglecting my core, I will be adding a shorter Core workout on Friday's (the day I have the least amount of workout time).

So It will look like this: 

Monday:  Lift, chest and shoulders

Tuesday:  DVD workout

Wednesday:  Lift, arms and legs

Thursday:  DVD workout

Friday:  Core

 

Q2:  Diet

I decided toward the end of the previous challenge not to get too caught up in the numbers on the scale for a while.  I am planning to just put in the work and trust that the numbers will take care of themselves.  On that note, even though I am flabbier than I would like to be (currently 29%BF).  I am not going to be shooting for a caloric deficit this challenge, I am going to aim to maintain.  My last challenge was a cut challenge in which I was aiming for less than 2700 calories and a minimum of 260g protein, not an easy task.  I have noticed that this help teach me to eat leaner proteins and cut out a lot of carbs and junk, so I feel I might end up eating well under my goals anyway.  This challenge I am shooting for less than 3500 calories a day while consuming a minimum of 255g protein. 

 

Q3:  Stretching

I have developed, over the past few years, a bad habit of not stretching after my workouts.  This must stop.  My goal will be to stretch after every work out. 

 

SQ1:  Chainmaile

In my spare time I am an amateur craftsman, making stuff out of chainmaile.  I am considering doing a craft fair this summer and need to build up my stock.  My goal for this challenge is to complete 20 bracelets and 5 Head Bands. 

 

SQ2:  Swordsmanship

This is more of a trial run for future challenges.  As a knight I need to cultivate and maintain good swordsmanship.  I don't have a good indoor practice space so training in the harsh northern Illinois winter is a bit of a challenge especially with a baby running around my feet.  My goal for this challenge is to spend 5 minutes 5 days a week "shadow sparring" using either my sword or my waster. 

 

 

So for those of you who didn't want to read all that:

Q1:  Lift 2x per week, DVD 2x per week, Core 1X per week

Q2:  <3500 cal per day, >255g protein per day

Q3:  Stretch after every workout

SQ1:  Complete 20 bracelets and 5 headbands Complete 5 bracelets and 2 neck ties (Edited 3/16/15) 

SQ2:  Sword training 5 min/day, 5 day/week

 

Though I don't identify myself as a ranger, I am still very excited to be working with you all.  Happy challenge everyone!

[Balthazar]

hey there

 

challenge looks great. With the lifting and scaling back to two days have you considered doing two full body sessions instead of a body part split?

[Noname123]

Welcome welcome  

 

Your challenges look awesome. Pics of your bracelets and headbands when you've completed them pretty please!

 

Also 2 things- I can relate with the stretching, I've been walking around on the balls of my feet for a week because I didn't roll them enough and weighted calf raises are the devil. 

 

Thing 2: 255g protein. HOLY CRAP. How???

[Thalianost]

hey there

 

challenge looks great. With the lifting and scaling back to two days have you considered doing two full body sessions instead of a body part split?

Thanks, I have considered it but unfortunately I barely have enough time to get the split sessions in.  In a perfect world I would be doing more. 

 

Welcome welcome

 

Your challenges look awesome. Pics of your bracelets and headbands when you've completed them pretty please!

 

Also 2 things- I can relate with the stretching, I've been walking around on the balls of my feet for a week because I didn't roll them enough and weighted calf raises are the devil. 

 

Thing 2: 255g protein. HOLY CRAP. How???

 

I will post pics when I get them, they aren't really fancy though, pretty much just galvanized steel in simple patterns.  The protein is a bear, last challenge I tried 270g on 2600 cal... I did not do well on that part of the challenge, rated about 45% completion.  255g on 3500 cal shouldn't be too difficult if I can keep away from the carbs and sweets.  I eat a lot of tuna and poultry, unfortunately I just ran out of protein powder, so this will be plenty challenging, but not impossible. 

 

I realize that 255g is a lot.  Someone pointed out to me last challenge that it is supposed to be 1g per pound of lean weight not total weight.  I misinterpreted the NF Blog post that covered that.  But I discovered that having a high protein goal helps keep me away from carbs and makes it easier to get the amount of protein I need even if I don't meet my written goal. 

[Old Man AL]

Mad respect for your diet goals Thalianost!  I hear what you're saying about the 1g per pound thing, but don't look at that as a hard number!  Every body and metabolism is different, and we are all going to have different exact needs.  I agree with it from a rough estimate perspective, but personal experimentation has led me to try and over shoot that number when ever possible!  Besides, lean protein is delicious!

 

Brace yourself, summer is coming.

[Thalianost]

Day 1 went very well, and it looks like the same for day 2 so far.  Did my DVD workout (though it kicked my @$$), stretching and sparring this morning and it looks like I am on track with my diet today. 

[Thalianost]

First bump in the road:  Computer failure.  The battery on my laptop appears to have reached the end of it's life which is a problem since my spreadsheet with all my workout stuff is on there.  This morning I did my workout from memory (hopefully I got the weights right).  Fortunately I have the basic plan I made up before the challenge saved to a flash drive so I just need to go in and figure out all the weights  and I should be good to go until I get a new battery. 

[Tixnleeches]

Hey Thalianost!

 

First of all, what part of Northern IL are you from? (I'm in Rockford)

 

Secondly the challenge looks great but I do agree with ItsDaniel a fullbody program would be a huge benefit! How much time do you normally do your split routine for? You can hammer out a solid fullbody routine in 30-45 mins by dropping down the rest time and/or supersetting. Sure you'd have to go lighter at first to compensate for the increased intensity of the overall workout  but it would benefit you so much better in the long run.

 

Muscles only need 24-48 hours to fully heal so 2 full body workouts is way better then 2 split work outs since by Wednesday your Chest and Shoulders will be fully recovered and you still have to wait another 5 days until you work them out again. Just food for thought. Let me know what you think!

 

-Tixnleeches

[Thalianost]

I'm over in Grayslake.

I am an admittedly slow lifter (honestly, it's not just lifting,I prefer to work at my own pace). I have about 45 min to workout and I have found,through experience, that even when I try to speed up I can't consistently do more than 4 lifts in a workout. So I built my plan around that.

I realize that my muscles are rested enough by 48 hrs. I did it this way because I am not concerned with building strength this challenge, more with not backsliding to much while I focus on endurance and core. If I notice a loss of strength over the course of the challenge I will make the necessary adjustments.

Thank you for your input though. Next challenge I will may switch to a full body plan depending on how this one goes.

[Erick the Red]

Great set of goals.  I'll be following your efforts.

 

Watch out for the frost giants.

[Thalianost]

Great set of goals.  I'll be following your efforts.

 

 

Watch out for the frost giants.

I do blame the frost giants for this exceptionally snowy and cold winter we are having. 

 

Hit a few bumps in the road yesterday and today.  Yesterday my wife had a bad commute/day and decided she wanted to go out to eat kinda last minute so I didn't have time to figure out what I was going to eat and ended up exceeding my calorie intake (oops!) I got the protein I needed though.  (Blaming the Frost Giants for that one too)

 

Today it is starting to look like the opposite.  The cupboards are bare and while I will probably meet my calorie intake goal, I probably won't get all the protein.  Also, I forgot to stretch after my workout this morning.  Can't blame the frost giants for that.  Will have to settle for Loki. 

[Thalianost]

Things haven't improved a great deal since Friday, I managed to keep my calories down on Saturday but didn't meet my protein requirements.  On Sunday temptation got the better of me and I blew my calorie count, though I got enough protein.  (Damn you cookie dough!) 

 

Today is looking better though, I got my workout, swordplay, and stretching in.  As long as I can keep my hand out of the cookie jar I will be fine. 

[Erick the Red]

Working on changing your diet is hard.  I know.  It is great that you are getting all your activities knocked out though!

[Thalianost]

Had a few ups and downs this week.  I got my workouts in but missed some sparring and stretching.  Also had some difficulties with the diet (cookies, cheesecake, milk shortage.)  I'm hoping to get back on track though.  The weekends are always a challenge for me but I am going to really try to focus on my goals this time around and hopefully eating out and family gettogethers won't trip me up. 

 

Also, I have been busy with some more pressing business over the past couple weeks and have fallen behind on my chainmaile.  Now that most of those issues are resolved I can hopefully get caught up. 

[Erick the Red]

Glad to know you are still in the fight.  Good work.

[Thalianost]

Successful weekend!   I managed to stick to my diet goals even with a family get together.  (Yay!) 

 

Unfortunate realization though:  Now that things are starting to thaw I am going to need to start preparations for my garden which will likely cut into my workout time.  (Boo!)  I am going to try to spread things out during the week so I don't loose a whole morning to it and do a lot of the work on the weekends but I am afraid my workouts will end up suffering no matter what.  The silver lining is that I don't have many power tools for my yard and garden so I will get some exercise out of it. 

[Paisley]

great to hear that you managed to stay on track during the weekend - that's always a struggle.  great work.

Maybe try thinking about your garden as an addition to your workout.  How much heavy stuff can you carry around etc.  Its all exercise of one sort or another.

[Thalianost]

great to hear that you managed to stay on track during the weekend - that's always a struggle.  great work.

Maybe try thinking about your garden as an addition to your workout.  How much heavy stuff can you carry around etc.  Its all exercise of one sort or another.

True, and a lot of the work will be a workout but then there is stuff like starting seeds which takes time to work on but doesn't require a lot of physical effort.  That's the stuff that is going to get in my way, since I have limited time in the mornings.  Best shot is to try to burn through that as quick as possible so I still have enough time for the workouts.  When I have to start digging up roots and turning over soil, then I might start substituting that for a workout, if I don't have time for a regular workout as well. 

[Thalianost]

The week has been going well until today.  Today, my "office" is celebrating Pi Day early with a pie baking contest, to which I contributed.  Obvious downside is the dozen pies begging to be eaten and the "peoples choice" award we can all vote for.  I decided to just take the day as a loss and "make an informed decision".  The second problem to go along with Pi Day is that I had to spend most of my morning putting the finishing touches on my pies which took up my workout time.  Maybe I can make up the workout tonight or tomorrow, we shall see. 

 

On the upside, I managed to get 5 bracelets done for my chainmaile quest.  Only 20 pieces to go. 

[Thalianost]

It's been a rough couple of days, poor eating choices.  But I made up for my missed workout by pulling stumps on saturday so there is that. 

[Thalianost]

Ok, so I am going to need to edit my chainmaile quest.  My wife and I recently decided to do a craft faire at the beginning of May, much earlier than the faire I had been considering.  In light of this, and after discussing with my wife, I have decided I need to shift my focus off of bracelets and headbands for now and work on chainmaile neckties.  So, I will be adjusting my goals to be 5 bracelets (what I have done already) and 2 ties.  It may seem like I am slacking off, lowering the total from 25 to 7 but trust me 2 ties in 3 weeks is plenty challenging. 

[Paisley]

Mmmm pi. Hope you enjoyed the pies, they sounds yum, wish I had some - I did contemplate making a pie for Pi day but ended up piking out - at least no pie is better for me I suppose.

Hopefully you can get back to eating well this week and get back on track.

The change of goal sounds fair - would love to see some photos of your work - it sounds really cool!

[Thalianost]

Mmmm pi. Hope you enjoyed the pies, they sounds yum, wish I had some - I did contemplate making a pie for Pi day but ended up piking out - at least no pie is better for me I suppose.

Hopefully you can get back to eating well this week and get back on track.

The change of goal sounds fair - would love to see some photos of your work - it sounds really cool!

 

The pies were very good, most of them were worth the calories, though a few were not.  Already getting back on track though, I even went on a 2 mile walk with my family yesterday. 

 

I have been meaning to post pictures for a while, and I just keep forgetting to do so when I am on my laptop.  If you will forgive my shameless self promoting you can check out some of my stuff on my Etsy shop.  Otherwise, I will try to remember to post next time I have my laptop. 

[Thalianost]

Still no pics   I have been doing well with everything this week so far, though today might be an issue as I don't think I will be able to get all my protein.  The dinner we have planned is not as protein rich as I would like and I am running out of my incidental protein sources (tuna, yogurt, etc)  plus I forgot my hard boiled eggs at home today. 

 

I also got a pedometer app and joined the Zombie mini challenge.  Turns out I walk over 2.5 miles just at work. 

[Thalianost]

I talked to my supervisor at work today about what I would need to do to get "promoted" and was given a list of areas to improve upon.  Most of them are areas I have been struggling with from day 1.  I have been talked to about them several times in the past and I usually improve afterward but I always end up back sliding.  So, as I was thinking over what we had talked about, it occurred to me, why not apply the 6 week challenge to this?  I know it is not a ground breaking revelation, but it is the first time I have considered doing this for work because up till now I had no real motivation to really work on these areas.  I was sort of in "scrape by" mode. 

 

I decided it was best to start sooner rather than later, so I am going to tack my work goals on to this challenge to track them.  I won't be grading them in the end but if I start now it will be a good trial run so I can work out the kinks before the next challenge. 

 

The three areas I wish to improve on are: 

Proactivity

Time management

Cleanliness (Not a hygiene thing.  I work in a lab and, admittedly, don't have the best housekeeping habits)

 

So the next step will be to brainstorm a little more and set up a spreadsheet for my various goals.  Once I do that I will post them here for all to see.