mom2sjm Unleashed

[mom2sjm]

Main Goal:  to prepare myself for the 2015 Unleashed at Stadium Bowl.  

 

This event happens August 2nd and is held at Stadium High School in Tacoma, Washington.  The race will cover the entire Stadium Bowl, ‘weaving the stairs’ by running up one staircase, and down the other. Total steps climbed 814, total descended 814 for a grand total of 1,628 steps.  The event raises money for the rescue animals of Kindred Souls Foundation. Kindred Souls Foundation provides sanctuary to abandoned, abused and neglected dogs and cats, a holistic approach to their care, and education on the rewards and responsibilities of animal companionship.

 

Mini Goal 1:  add 1 day weekly stair training to my exercise routine.  +3 STA +2 DEX
will record my workout in a journal and post the summary page here weekly.  

 

Mini Goal 2:  maintain body fat percentage between 18-20%.  +2 WIS  +3 CON
will record my meals daily in MFP (keeping meals to macronutrient goals of 20% carbs, 50% fat, 30% protein).  also, no eating after 7:30pm.  will post my efforts/results (ie:  from weigh ins) here weekly.

 

Mini Goal 3:  3x ring rows before Crossfit Amped class.  +3 STR
this is a holdover from my last challenge (One. Freaking. Pull Up.) I think will benefit my Unleashed training by ensuring that I stick to my regular exercise routine.  If I am unable to use the rings before my classes at the gym I will do BWRs at home.  I will record my workouts in a journal and post the summary page here weekly.

 

Life Quest Goal:  post artistic endeavors 2x weekly.  +2 CHA
This fits in with the Unleashed theme in that the definition of unleash is "to free from restraint or control."  I rarely put my art "out there" for others to view.  I'm just now, within the past six months, opening myself up to sharing. I'll post here or on the Artistic and Creative Accountability forum.  

 

[Elastigirl]

Following!

[mom2sjm]

Before the challenge begins I thought I'd introduce myself since I am new to the Assassins this round.  

 

I'm 46 years old and a SAHM to three boys (15 yo twins and 11yo) - formerly an elementary school teacher.  My husband works in technology and we live in Bellevue WA.  I've been on Nerd Fitness since 2012, mostly reading Steve's articles but eventually started doing the challenges every now and then.  This will be my 7th challenge and I usually keep a paper/pen journal to record my progress.  Here is an example of how I keep track of things:

 

 

I do crossfit twice a week and yoga (at my crossfit gym - it's a different vibe, but I like it) once a week.  I like to take walks to clear my head.  love to doodle.  do it all the time.  love to play with mixed media collage.  I can knit a mean dish cloth and I do sew occasionally (a la Junker Jane monster dolls).

 

can't think of anything else to share but am happy to be here with the Assassins.  let the challenge begin!

[mom2sjm]

I'm taking an online art class called Year of the Spark with Carla Sonheim and Lynn Whipple.  I'm a little behind with the lessons and that's why I put an artistic challenge as a life quest goal so I could catch up (post two artistic endeavors weekly).  So here's me catching with lesson #5 "Wire & Fiber Wrapped Animals.  I started with a craft-type bird, a bag of fabric and some wire as seen here:

 

 

and after a few hours of wiring and wrapping I ended up with this!  A bird with bunny ears, sort of a belated Easter theme.

 

 

I hope everyone has a great start to the challenge!

[Cinderellis]

Following along for doodle and art magic! Hope you have a great challenge

[Ciara]

Love your challenge. Love your doodles too, they're really sweet. Hope the start of your challenge went ok. I'm following you! 

 

That sounded creepy...

[Elastigirl]

Ha-that bird bunny makes me laugh, very cute.

[mom2sjm]

Been doing okay on this challenge until yesterday when I woke up with a sore throat.  As the day progressed my stomach cramped and made these horribly weird sounds fighting off whatever bug I caught.  In bed today, not moving.  very ill but hard to sleep with the stomach concert going on.  Isn't that weird?  Who knows what is wrong with me but for this challenge I know it means I'm not going to make all my goals - I had my second set of bwrs scheduled for yesterday and my stair training for today.  Also I was hoping to make more progress on my art before posting photos but I'm going to go ahead and post the progression pics.

 

Lesson 7 in my Year of the Spark Class is "Textured Painting on Wood."  Basically you paint your picture with gesso entirely before adding color.  the gesso adds the texture.  My photos show that this week I started with the base preparations.  It takes a while because you have the let the gesso completely dry in between layers and I'm not working on this stuff in a solid time block but here and there over the course of this week.  I'd hoped to complete the final layer today and start laying down some color tomorrow but it appears this will have to wait until next week.  I will be brave however and post my progression photos to keep up with my challenge goals.  It'll be cool later to look back on where I started and ended up but for now - not too exciting...

 

 

 

On another note I did join the Assassin's mini challenge "game of pawns"  I don't know anything about Game of Thrones, which is the theme of the challenge, but I jumped in anyway.  House Stark FTW!

[Elastigirl]

A little bit hard to see the pictures, but the effect looks pretty. Hope you feel better soon.

 

House Stark!

[mom2sjm]

Felt better this morning upon awakening and immediately pushed myself to add numbers to the assassin's mini challenge before it's closing (plus 2nd set of bwrs - dining room table style).  did some chores and was contemplating getting in my stair workout after all when I started to feel ill again.  nope.  not happening.  back to bed.  stay put.  rest.  hydrate.  saltines.

 

I'll post my summary later tonight but wanted to put a close up photo of my gesso work for the artistic endeavor goal.  This clip shows part of an arm and a heart and a bit of the sketching underneath for the body shape and face.  It is really hard to see but once I lay down some water color all the details I've been trying to create with the gesso will appear.  Well that's the theory.  We'll see what happens when I put it to test.  not going to worry about it today.  resting.  hydrating.  saltine-ing.

 

 

I hope everyone had a great week one!  Thanks for checking in on me.

[mom2sjm]

 

week 1 summary - did pretty good until illness struck, then I missed my stair workout and also snacked after 7:30pm on some saltines to settle my stomach.  not a horrible disaster but still, holding myself accountable and putting it out there.  everything else went good and goals were accomplished.  I also joined in the assassins mini challenge by becoming a member of House Stark and completing steps/lunges for +1STA.  more good news is, I'm feeling better.  Next week I'll be back at it.  Keep checking in - I appreciate your support and encouragement

[mom2sjm]

Got many nerdy things accomplished today!  Started my new summary page and worked on lesson #7 - added base water color layers - and now I'm posting pictures FTC (for the challenge).

 

 

 

I did 3 sets of ring rows during my crossfit class.  I logged all my meals on MFP and stopped eating at 7:30pm.  oh yeah.  I also killed a boar (105 squats), wounded a rabbit (25 sit ups) and grazed a bear (35 burpees) for House Stark (Assassin mini challenge week two - the Hunt).

 

 

[Ciara]

I love your illustrations - they're so whimsical. And don't worry about what happened while you were sick. It happens!! Just be happy knowing you got right back in the game

[mom2sjm]

 

Assassins mini challenge week two - the hunt.  Each day I've been setting aside time to earn points for House Stark.  Points work like this - 50 sit ups gets you a rabbit, 100 squats gets you a boar, and 250 burpees gets you a bear.  1 point per animal.  It's a team effort which is good especially when it comes to bears because each day the worst I've been able to do is poke the bear...  it's a running total individually and right now I'm at 285 squats, 140 sit ups, and 140 burpees so not too bad.

 

I have completed my regular 2x weekly crossfit classes as well as the tagalong bwrs.  I should probably reword the goal because it's not clear that on the days we do ring rows or pull ups as part of the WOD I'm not doing extra sets.  my idea was that if those moves weren't in the workout then I'd do a set before class to continue making progress on my quest to do a pull up.  but whatever.  I clarified it here so that's good enough

 

I need to think of a way to combine my saturday stair workout with "the hunt".  I might go with 15 minute workout - sprint up a set of stairs/30 secs of an exercise/jog down stairs/30 sec rest.  Or I could go with 15-10-5 - sprint up/15 squats-sits-burps/jog down/rest.  repeat for 10, repeat for 5.  I'll let you know...

 

doing good on the other mini  goals - recording my meals, not snacking after 7:30pm,  working on my art lesson today a little bit, more tomorrow.  will take some pictures and post them here later.  anyway, that's the hump day report!

[Elastigirl]

Makes sense on the pull ups. The point is to get the sets in,either as a WOD, or extra. Great job on the hunt. I just figured out that the burpees were easier than I thought. In the demo video, you don't have to jump afterwards, and the whole move was less explosive. I'm hoping to get a little bear hunting in tomorrow.

[mom2sjm]

Finally finished lesson #7.  I really struggle with painting.  I have a heavy hand and everything ends up muddy.  I was getting really frustrated today but I figured I might as well finish it, mud and all.  Here a picture from a couple of the finished pieces

 

 

and one close up...  time to step away from these for awhile even though there is some more pencil work that I'd like to do and I'd like to edge the wood but if I keep working on it now I'm just going to screw it up.

 

 

today is a rest day for me although I did round out my numbers for "the hunt" this morning (10 burpees, 15 squats, and 10 sit ups).  My upper back and tail bone are sore from the sit ups yesterday during the xfit class (high intensity, didn't have a mat).  I've decided to work burpees into my stair workout on Saturday.  I'm really close to bringing down a bear on my own and I so want to.  

[mom2sjm]

 

I did it!  I completed 250 burpees to take down a bear for House Stark (Assassin's mini challenge - the hunt).  It took the whole week but I got it done.  I combined that move with my stair workout this morning.  I did 10 sets of stair runs (sprint up stairs 2 at a time, bust out 10 burpees, jog down the stairs, repeat).  I'm also going to do some squat sets today to really give my legs a workout - aiming for 200 squats total (which helps out House Stark - 2 more boars).  Then I shall have earned a day of rest.  I'll post my week summary tomorrow but wanted to share that I got my stair work out in and you know, that I killed a bear.

[Natasha Romanova]

Awesome Job! keep it up!!!

[Natasha Romanova]

LOL also just realized.... my hubby one of your fellow Assassins, but he is in a different house. He is in house Baratheon.

[mom2sjm]

 

week two was much better than week one!  I accomplished my goals plus I killed 1 bear, 3 bunnies, and 5 boars for House Stark (assassins mini challenge - the hunt).  I wasn't 100% on all the goals, like the snacking goal.  I went out to dinner with the husband unit on Friday after 7:30pm, and last night my youngest brought me a brownie he had made during a cooking class.  who can say no to a homemade brownie - even if it is after 7:30pm?  not me.  I posted two art efforts here and a third over at artistic and creative accountability.  them be the highlights.  hope everyone had a great week!

[Elastigirl]

Great week!

[mom2sjm]

tbt - Art Edition:

 

I took a doll making class at an art retreat I attended during the last challenge.  I wasn't too happy with how she turned out so I started reworking her this week.  This is my artistic endeavor post for the week  (#2 - #1 I posted Monday over on Artistic and Creative Accountability forum).  What you see here is the original "finished" face of my doll:

 

 

The hair is super severe so I started to add some texture/waves to her hair using gesso last night and again today.  I sanded down her eyebrows and lips and just overall the face to make it a little smoother for painting (the head was made with creative paper clay).  the next steps will be to repaint the head in black, pencil out her eyes, paint her skin/hair and then go back in and paint the details (eyes/lips/highlights/etc.).  I'm hoping to start these next steps this weekend but I wanted to post my picture of how she is looking today...

 

.

[mom2sjm]

Well I just had a mini panic attack!  Today is the day to register for Unleashed and from the website it was revealed that this year they have added a "twist" - a two lap option for a total of 3256 steps.  My mom was trying to register the packs for the double lab - she was so psyched but I just about came undone!!  Luckily I made her calm down and read the fine print which clarified that the people who run in packs (which is how we do it - Junkyard Dogs FTW!) only have the option of running the single lap.  thank god.  1628 steps is quite enough for me, thank you very much.

 

Applied the black coat of paint to my doll today.  Going to add flesh tones tomorrow.  possibly hair color.  we'll see.   but for now here is a picture (photobombed by my youngest, of course).

 

[mom2sjm]

 like I reported yesterday, Unleashed has a twist this year - a two lap option for a total of 3256 steps!

 

'll

 

Luckily for me, I'm signing up for this event as part of a pack and pack runners are only allowed to register for the one lap option.  but this morning while doing my stair training my son suggests that we train as if we'll be running the 2-lap option.  so this week we ran 1680 stairs (I'm using the term "run" loosely here - it's more like a "wog" which is a combo walk/jog...) but next week we'll add another 200-300 steps, building over the weeks to the 3256 steps.  the idea being if we train for more, then the 1628 steps won't seem so bad.  well, that's the idea but look at the picture.  those steps are crazy high (plus there are 40 steps per row) and there are no hand rails.  now image a nice hot summery august day (no shade here!).  it's not going to be easy no matter how much we train

[Elastigirl]

 like I reported yesterday, Unleashed has a twist this year - a two lap option for a total of 3256 steps!

 

'll

 

Luckily for me, I'm signing up for this event as part of a pack and pack runners are only allowed to register for the one lap option.  but this morning while doing my stair training my son suggests that we train as if we'll be running the 2-lap option.  so this week we ran 1680 stairs (I'm using the term "run" loosely here - it's more like a "wog" which is a combo walk/jog...) but next week we'll add another 200-300 steps, building over the weeks to the 3256 steps.  the idea being if we train for more, then the 1628 steps won't seem so bad.  well, that's the idea but look at the picture.  those steps are crazy high (plus there are 40 steps per row) and there are no hand rails.  now image a nice hot summery august day (no shade here!).  it's not going to be easy no matter how much we train

Wow, that is a lot of stairs.