Grayspeed joins the Assassins

[Grayspeed]

Greetings! I'm Grayspeed and this is my first challenge with the Assassin's Guild. I've been looking froward to this since I joined the forums. I'm gutted I missed out on the Lord of the Rings themed mini challenge!

My first challenge with the Recruits in linked in my signature below if anybody wants a peek. My workouts focus on two areas:

• Bodyweight training - augmented with a few kettlebell drills and occasional dumbbell exercises.
• Cardio - usually using a stationary bike, but I recently started trail running which is a lot of fun

I enjoy the creativity and freedom of using your body and environment to get in shape, "weird" workouts are the best workouts.

 

Anyhoo, enough back story. Let's jump in!

 

Literally..

 

Main Quest: My main quest is to develop my confidence and physical health/fitness to the point where my low self esteem no longer holds me back from getting what I want out of life. Too vague..? 

 

Quest 1 - Resistance workouts at least 3 times a week. +3 STR, +2 STA

Do at least 3 resistance workouts every week - these are usually a combination of bodyweight and kettlebell, but I occasionally use dumbbells as well.

 

Quest 2 - The Push-up test. +3 STR

Be able to do a total of 60 push-ups over 5 sets. My current best is 55 over 5 sets, but a more realistic average is more like 52 at best.

 

Quest 3 - The world is my playground. +3 DEX, +2 STA

This is a two-parter.

1. Go trail running at least once per week, no matter what the weather is doing. Pretty self explanatory.
2. Navigate 2 objects a day in an unusual way - jumping/climbing over/across obstacles, basically. Vaulting fences, jumping over puddles. You know, fun stuff.

 

Life Quest - Be more productive. +2 WIS

Or at least be organised in my lack of productivity.. 

Write down a To-Do list every day. Even if I only have one thing to do. General adulting is hard and I'm not doing myself any favours at the moment, time to get organised. 

 

 

[shaar]

Weird workouts are THE BEST workouts!! Yes!!

 

 

1. Navigate 2 objects a day in an unusual way - jumping/climbing over/across obstacles, basically. Vaulting fences, jumping over puddles. You know, fun stuff.

 

YESSSSS I LOVE THIS.  You might be interested in Uncaged Human, a blog done by primal movement-ist Jonathan Mead.  I met him at Camp NF and I'm pulling from a lot of his stuff for my challenge and it's definitely a great resource for "weird movement"!!  (For example, this past week in the Facebook group, he gave us some mini-challenges to move weirder and more organically like bending your body to avoid trees in the forest, not using sidewalks, etc.) Great stuff.

 

Welcome to the Assassins and ENJOY!!

[Lilith]

Very nice challenge, I like your goals! Adulting is always hard *sigh* as I'm posting this there are also other things I should be doing. How often are you going to retest the pushups? 

[Grayspeed]

Very nice challenge, I like your goals! Adulting is always hard *sigh* as I'm posting this there are also other things I should be doing. How often are you going to retest the pushups? 

 

I'm thinking every Friday at the moment. I probably wont be too strict though, as long as no more than 10 days go by between tests.

[Lilith]

Yeah, being too strict can work very badly, I noticed that too! Was just curious, so thanks for answering  

[SaffronTurtle]

 

Trail running looks EPIC! I imagine it would take quite a bit of co-ordination, and really strong ankles. I would be tripping over every tree root and getting a face full of spiders. 

[Grayspeed]

It's definitely a lot of fun    I'm still getting used to the weird places my legs ache after - never before did I think you could get DOMS in your ankles!

[Grayspeed]

First hiccup of the challenge: 

You know when trail running isn't fun? At night, when you don't have a light,and it's been raining all week. Pretty stupid idea. Shopping for running/cycling lights as I type this... 

 

That silliness aside, everything is going well so far.

Q1 - Going well, this shouldn't cause me too much trouble

Q2 - Will test on Sunday

Q3 - Done my trail running for this week. I'm having a lot of fun jumping and climbing over random objects, this is my favourite quest 

LQ - This could be the most troublesome of my quests. I need to put up a little sign somewhere reminding me to write a to-do list

[SnowOwl]

Post-it notes on your bathroom mirror are hard to miss

[Lilith]

Yes post-it notes work! Or you could set an alarm on your phone with the message "make to do list now" and set it for a time you are home and able to do that!

[SaffronTurtle]

I have a big whiteboard outside my room where I write up my daily to do lists. Walking outside my bedroom is my 'cue' to stopping and writing my 3 goals for the day, it's super satisfying to get this huge chunky pen and cross out these goals as I finish them! #unsolicited advice

[Grayspeed]

Putting a whiteboard above the desk in my room sounds like a fun way of doing it. I'm definitely realising that I need to make this sort of thing fun in order to keep mysel finterested

[Grayspeed]

Tested my push-ups and got 54 in sets of 13|10|10|11|10. I'll shoot for 55 next week, if I go for an improvement of one rep per week I think I'll be able to squeeze out just one extra push-up in my final test.

Also met all my other goals, week 1 has been successful.

[Lilith]

Very nice on the puhsups! One pushup extra per week will definitely make sure you keep pushing yourself! <3 I'm super happy for you your first week went great!

[Grayspeed]

Week 2 Update.

Quest 1

All good here, the Mini challenges definitely help motivate me to work out after a long day of work

 

Quest 2

Beat last week's score by 2! Sets of 15|10|10|10|11, total of 56   

 

Quest 3

1. Got my run in this week. As the sun set is so early this time of year I'll have to start running during the day on weekends. After about 10 minutes it was way too dark to safely run in the woods, even with my light.
2. Having a great time doing this, need to be a little more creative though, vaulting the sofa feels kind of lazy after a while.

Life Quest

Going surprisingly well now and starting to fit into my routine

[Lilith]

I am glad your second week is going great! Adn good to hear the mini challenges have such an amazing effect on you! Really shows the effort our leaders put into that is not going to waste!

[jrosto]

Awesome job with those push ups, looks like you are going to smash that goal  It looks like you are having a very productive challenge.

[Grayspeed]

Today I worked 8AM - 9PM so my to-do list was literally "go to work"

Still counts? 

[jrosto]

That is one long work day.

[Grayspeed]

That is one long work day.

 

Yeah, catering is a bitch some times (most times), my record shift is 15.5 hours. It's a weird thing to be proud of..

[Lilith]

Well you can't add more hours in a day.. If only.... so looks like it was a proper to do list!

[Grayspeed]

Week 3 Update.

 

Q1. Going smoothly, recently fallen back in love with kettlebell swings. Also thinking of getting some gymnastics rings in the new year.

 

Q2. Today's test I got 16|10|10|11|10 for 57 reps. I've decided 100 will be one of my 2016 fitness goals. 

 

Q3. Trail running was a bitch this week partly because of weather and partly because I did my sprints for the Mini challenge half way through - the run (stagger) home killed me    Still enjoy it though, which is the important part.

Still having fun climbing and jumping all over the place, surprisingly haven't broken anything yet...

 

LQ. Forgot on Thursday, otherwise all is ok here

 

Pretty good week, I need to set up my grading system during the next week though.

[Grayspeed]

Grading System:

Grade percentages: A - 100% B - 75% C - 50% D - 25% F - 0%

 

Quest 1

A - 6 weeks with goal met

B - 5 weeks with goal met

C - 4 weeks with goal met

D - 3 weeks with goal met

F - Less than 3 weeks with goal met

 

Quest 2

Based on push-up reps in final test.

A - 60 or more

B - 59

C - 57

D - 55

F - 54 or less

 

Quest 3

Both subsections must be completed for a week to be a success

A - 6 weeks success

B - 5 weeks success

C - 4 weeks success

D - 3 weeks success

F - Less than 3 weeks success

 

Life Quest

A - 42 days success

B - 39 days success

C - 34 days success

D - 29 days success

F - 28 or less days success

[Grayspeed]

Week 4 Update

 

Quest 1

Successful again.

I set this as a goal to ensure I kept up resistance/strength training during the coldest months of the year - last year I could barely get motivated to do more than a bit of cycling on my stationary bike. This year I'm finding it much easier to get motivated, this is partly due to joining NF and partly because I've learned more about warming up properly and looking after my joints. I'll set something a bit more challenging next time.

 

Quest 2

Really happy with this one. Got to 59 this week!

Sets of 15|12|10|12|10. Next week I'm going for 5 sets of 12 to see if that's easier or not. Pretty confident I can reach my goal as long as I don't break myself in some way before the last test.

 

Quest 3

Week 4 completed. Struggled with my run today, found it hard to run for more than 2-3 minutes without having to stop. Did some mobility/balance exercises on a fallen tree and met some really cute dogs, though - it's not so bad.

 

Life Quest

Still going well, got a special new notebook just for writing lists in   

 

​I'm pretty proud of this week so I'll reward myself with a lazy Sunday evening and a Fellowship of the Ring viewing. Extended edition, of course!

[Grayspeed]

Super lazy/rushed week 5 update

Quest 1

Complete.

 

Quest 2

Sets of 12|12|12|12|12. Let's see if I can do it again next week.. Gonna make 60 my bitch. Probably.

 

Quest 3

Trail running missed today, just wasn't feeling it. Still did 45 minutes on stationary bike so I'm not too bummed

 

Life Quest

Tuesday missed, otherwise all good