[SymphonicDan] and the world of possibilities

[Lara]

Sorry to hear you hurt yourself. I hope you'll be better soon.

 

9 hours ago, SymphonicDan said:

so the project won't take place in the UK - in fact the title of this battle log thread vaguely refers to the project

Are you going to travel around the world?!!

[raptron]

Darn ankles! Always twisting on us. Omg, I want to do that obstacle course! It looks awesome.  

[Mad Hatter]

Ha, that obstacle course looks way more fun than any of the running ones.   

 

And yeah, I'll be back in challenge mode next challenge, now that life's going to settle down a bit.  Before then I'll be battle logging.

[SymphonicDan]

5 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

Ha, that obstacle course looks way more fun than any of the running ones.   

 

And yeah, I'll be back in challenge mode next challenge, now that life's going to settle down a bit.  Before then I'll be battle logging.

 

And hopefully involve diving into a cold lake twice, like when I did the Spartan Run back in 2014! And found your battle logarithm again so I've followed you again

 

 

On 6/3/2016 at 3:20 PM, raptron said:

Darn ankles! Always twisting on us. Omg, I want to do that obstacle course! It looks awesome.  

 

Hah, when I was reading the description of the race, I was thinking "Wow, this is the sort of thing that Raptron sometimes does and looks so fun".

 

 

On 6/3/2016 at 7:54 AM, zenLara said:

Are you going to travel around the world?!!

 

You've guessed it  Well, you're close enough. My basic idea is that when I compete in Memoriad in Las Vegas in November I wanted to extend the trip a little and see some more of the American southwest (some of: Yosemite; Grand Canyon; SF; LA; Sequoia; etc.) afterwards...

 

But now I'm contemplating extending the trip much more, to do some solo travelling/backpacking elsewhere beforehand - maybe Central America. This means I could do my final training for the competition while hanging out in cool places. Maybe one day I'll spend the morning swimming in the warm sea, then train square roots for a couple hours in the afternoon, before meeting some other backpackers in the evening and speaking in Spanish. Maybe another day I'll study memorization techniques on a bus to a new destination, and then spend the next couple of days on a guided tour. And maybe one day I'll end up somewhere boring in the rain and at least I'd have something productive to do in my hostel room.

 

Obviously, if I end up not competing in Memoriad, then my plans change considerably! And I might decide against this travel plan at any moment, or change it, or add new destinations or projects into it... so many possibilities!

[Lara]

Wow! That plan looks fantastic!! I hope you get to the competition!! How long do you plan to make your trip?

[SymphonicDan]

3 hours ago, zenLara said:

Wow! That plan looks fantastic!! I hope you get to the competition!! How long do you plan to make your trip?

 

That's one of the things I really haven't decided yet. Minimum would be just one extra week in the USA. Maximum would be from the beginning of September but travelling indefinitely  My deadline for deciding will be at the end of July.

 

Yesterday I finally took my gymnastics rings out again, because I've been slacking a lot with strength training. I've done nothing this past month except for climbing and football. My strength has decreased, but hopefully that's mainly from the muscles not having as much water as when they're regular doing strength work.

• support hold: 30 seconds, quite manageable
• ring dips: a couple sets of 5, again quite manageable
• muscle-up: hard work but can still do them. False grip needed more warming up than usual
• skin the cat: mobility was good but not the strength for the second part of the move

Felt good afterwards

 

I've also started sleeping randomly late, rather than my usual strict bedtime of 1am, and I'm less energetic as a result. And I've also been eating too much sugar, justifying it by "I need it to perform well at <work|football|whatever>" when actually that's not true. Therefore until I fix this, I'll calculate each day how much sugar I've had, and post it here along with the time I slept. Aiming for 01:00 or earlier every day.

 

Sat 04:

• slept: 01:20
• sugar: 70g

[Mad Hatter]

Ooh your travel plan sounds really cool!  I do hope you'll get in. Have you heard about Germany yet?

[SymphonicDan]

9 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

Ooh your travel plan sounds really cool!  I do hope you'll get in. Have you heard about Germany yet?

 

Thanks - it'll be a bit anti-climactic if I'm not selected now lol :S I'm expecting to hear about Germany in the next few days though! In 2012 the deadline was the same and the participant list was announced on June 7th. They'll also be announcing a new "surprise" category - but they haven't said that it will be calculation-related, so maybe we'll all be dropping down for a push-up competition?

 

Unrelated: in the video for the obstacle course I'm doing next month there's a salmon ladder  I hope it's in the venue we're going to because it's been my dream for years to have a go at one of those!

 

Today: went bouldering with a couple friends. Felt moderately weak but nevertheless conquered (or got close to conquering) a few 6a+/6b grade routes (usually 5+/6a is my limit) and I think I'd've finished more of them if I were fresh. The routes will be up for another month so I can try again  Also stopped for a couple sets of pull-ups on my way back.

 

Tracked 100g of sugar today, which I think is slightly too high. Lots of mine comes from milk (37g) but the majority is from sugar in sauces, and a token 5g from fruit/veg. Ate a protein- and fat-rich diet today and it felt good.

[Lara]

7 hours ago, SymphonicDan said:

They'll also be announcing a new "surprise" category - but they haven't said that it will be calculation-related, so maybe we'll all be dropping down for a push-up competition?

 

Maybe you have to calculate your square roots while doing burpees

[Rooks]

I'm gonna sneak in here and follow along.  Been getting super into gymnastics stuff lately, and watching your video seemed darn impressive sir.  

[Mad Hatter]

Maybe you should try chess boxing next?  

[lucky fire dragon]

All the exciting news and plans  wow, so cool! Is your back well again?

 

[SymphonicDan]

On 6/6/2016 at 5:04 PM, Rooks said:

I'm gonna sneak in here and follow along.  Been getting super into gymnastics stuff lately, and watching your video seemed darn impressive sir.  

 

Good to see you here, Rooks  and thanks! Gymnastics is lots of fun and I'm glad you're getting into it

 

 

On 6/6/2016 at 8:18 AM, zenLara said:

Maybe you have to calculate your square roots while doing burpees

 

Haha, if it were that I think Freddy Reyes and I would get super competitive at it. Most of the other competitors would probably rather sit out than do burpees

 

 

On 6/6/2016 at 7:52 PM, Mad Hatter said:

Maybe you should try chess boxing next?  

 

Ahh, I've been intrigued by this for years! I used to play chess competitively until I was 20 (was never amazing) but in recent years I've lots interest. Never tried boxing but I'd be too scared of hurting my opponent and so it's definitely not the sport for me

 

 

22 hours ago, lucky fire dragon said:

All the exciting news and plans  wow, so cool! Is your back well again?

 

 

My back and foot are still both slightly injured but I think now they're both fine for all sports again

[SymphonicDan]

BIG NEWS: today I found out that I've qualified for the Mental Calculation World Cup in Germany in September  They haven't released the list of participants but there will 40 of us competing.

 

I've continued tracking sleep and sugar, as promised:

 

Sugar: 70g / 100g / 110g

Sleep: 0120 / 0115 / 0120

 

I didn't sleep well on Sunday evening - maybe from having had a lie-in? Maybe from being warm? Maybe cortisol from climbing? Anyway, since then I've been getting nearly 8 hours, and I have a busy couple of days so I should sleep early tonight. Sugar seems fine but I want to slowly reduce it.

 

Might go back to gymnastics tomorrow, to see whether my body is ready for its return to flips and handstands....

[lucky fire dragon]

Whooohoo congratulations for being accepted!!! That's awesome

I'm not surprised really, but so excited for you!

 

 

[Lara]

So cool!!! Congratulations on getting into the competition!

[raptron]

Hells yes!

 

[Mad Hatter]

Woohooo!  

[SymphonicDan]

Wednesday: brief training session with gymnastics rings - dips, tuck levers, skin the cats and the occasional muscle-up

 

Thursday: end-of-academic-year dinner with the gymnastics club - which I'm glad I went to but ended up sitting with a clique of people I had little in common with (except for gymnastics) rather than my friends there that I know best. Met a couple of cool people there though.

 

Friday: football tonight - first time I've played since I injured my ankle. The ankle is clearly not 100% fixed yet but it's enough that I could play at full capacity. I thought I was having an ineffective game but a couple of people separately told me they were amazed how much I can run around during the game, so I must be doing something right fitness-wise.

 

Sleep: 0115; 0120; 0130 (so too late) but I'll be earlier tonight

Sugar: 80g; 110g; 70g; 125g (so averaging just beneath 100g/day)

[Talvi]

Ooooo  Congratulations on qualifying!!!

[Lara]

How is it going?

[SymphonicDan]

Whoa, I've had a busy and tiring couple of weeks! (and it's not over yet)

• my 3rd driving test was cancelled with only a couple of hours' notice, so I've got that rescheduled for Tuesday. Shame, because I was ready for it and now I'll need to emotionally prepare myself for it again
• spent a week in the Italian Alps with some good friends from where I work. The scenery there is incredible - mountains that are almost vertical, forests and lakes between them, and quaint European villages between them
• we did a couple of via ferrata routes - basically bouldering but there's a wire and occasionally pegs and steps to assist the climb. Sometimes it's necessary to hold onto the wire to haul yourself up or abseil down, but other times you can climb up the rock just like on a bouldering wall. All the time you use carabiners and a harness to stay attached to the wire in case of a fall. The climbing is mentally very taxing because for much of the time you're double-checking everything in case you slip and fall several metres before the harness would catch you.
• On the second day, we climbed the Marmolada - a 3343-metre mountain with glaciers and via ferrata routes that's covered in snow even as late as June. One of our group is a qualified and experienced mountain ranger who has climbed this mountain before, so he guided us to the summit. Some key parts of the via ferrata were covered in snow and ice so we had to do those without the protection (we might have been the first group this year to attempt it). Luckily with crampons and ice axes there are safe ways of walking across steep ice slopes. Near the summit there was a snowstorm where we couldn't see anything except white! The only way to navigate was to walk uphill. We took a more direct route down, where our guide slipped down a slope, hit his head and after a few seconds of unconsciousness could not remember where he was or whom he was with  Since we had no way of navigating down and didn't know how serious the head injury was, we ended up calling the emergency services who eventually managed to airlifted us from the summit. So the first time I've called emergency services was abroad on a frozen mountain speaking partly in Italian... Luckily another member of our group is experienced with ropes and managed to rescue the guide (her Dad, actually) from the ledge he was on using the equipment we had available, so we could get back to the summit. He was taken to hospital overnight for extensive checks but quickly made a full recovery. So much more dramatic than we had anticipated, and probably enough mountain climbing to last us a long time!
• On the other days we did some hikes, casual bouldering, another via ferrata and visited some World War I caves where the Austrians and Italians hung out for a couple of years in the mountains fighting each other from man-made caves. You can still see the rubble from when they blew up part of the mountain that the opposing forces were occupying. Grim.
• So overall a very interesting holiday - lots of cool parts and new techniques, and some rather sketchy parts with more danger than I'm comfortable with. The Dolomites is a super nice area to visit - including for cycling and motorbikes and climbing and skiing.
• On the way back our plane was delayed by over 3 hours, which would usually be annoying but also meant that we missed all of the deadlines for voting in the EU referendum of whether the UK should leave  I'm personally very strongly in favour of staying in, so I consider it quite a shame that overall we have voted to leave. Almost everyone I know was in favour of staying (mainly young and well-educated people) so in my office and Facebook feed there's a strong feeling of doom. I wonder how long it is until the voters who wanted to leave realize that it was a stupid mistake...
• I also have a group of 15 people doing the Urban Ninja obstacle course with me at the end of July, so I'm looking forward to that!

Now I'm very tired, but have lots to sort out... Nerd Fitness has once again unfollowed me from literally everything except this thread, so I'll try and catch up with everyone soon

[Lara]

Sorry about the Brexit. It's quite upsetting

Sorry too for how your Marmolada climbing ended. I hope he recovered and is ok now. Nice to see you're back safe too.

Anyway, nice holidays. The Alps are such a beauty!

[Mad Hatter]

Welcome back!

 

Wow, that's quite the adventure trip! I'm so glad you all got out of the mountain safely, that's really scary. 

 

Brexit makes me sad about humanity.

 

 

[Mad Hatter]

Hey how was your week?