Mizbrek Battles the Burning Legion

[Mizbrek]

The portal flashed a bright light into the cold night of the desert. A quick observer would have seen daylight through the shimmering portal, a simple tavern, and then a small Hobbit dive through the portal, followed by a mug, which fell to the ground with a thud. Had that same observer listened closely, just as the portal closed, they would’ve heard a faint, distant yell of “And don’t come back until you can pay your tab….”

 

Mizbrek brushed off his leathers, picking up his staff and affixing it to his back. He blinked a bit and looked around. After a few* perfectly reasonable celebratory drinks after handling Challongia Cavern, and a few** celebratory rounds for the bar patrons, the innkeeper had suddenly seen fit to call in his entire tab. The very nerve! On his celebratory day!

 

Oh well, he thought to himself, I’ll just stay out of that dimension for a while. Azeroth is usually nice and safe, and they just got finished with their last major conflict. There’s usually a lull until the next one.

 

He looked around the Azerothian landscape, calming his mind and trying to not see double. He’d had to cast the portal spell quickly, but he had been aiming for Orgrimmar. They often mistook him for a some kind of local creature here, but after some detailed and reasonable explanations*** he usually was able to slip into the city and lay low in the bars.

 

And man, could the Orcs DRINK. He’d been hoping to catch up with Gamon and see what he’d been up to as well.

The cold shivering of the desert told him he’d missed Orgrimmar. There was a squat settlement up ahead. Something in the back of his mind waved a cue card and told him it was a Goblin city, and a quick look around and search of his memory told him he was in the city of Gadgetzan, in Tanaris, several hundred miles south of Orgrimmar.

 

Miz shrugged to himself. The Goblins generally knew how to party. And the hefty metaphorical weight of the gold from Challongia was burning a hole in his satchel. Surely it would be a quiet night with no surprises.

 

As he stumbled through the front gates of the city, the shadows were suddenly thrown into relief by a bright green light up ahead. He looked up, along with the rest of the city, to see a green portal high in the air. 

 

“Oh the Goblinity!” one of the local bruisers cried, grasping his sword and yanking it from his scabbard. “It’s the Burning Legion! Quick, Marto, run and wake Mr. Noggenfogger.”

 

“He was very clear not to be disturbed, Cap,” the other guard said. 

There was a sound overhead, like a large piece of paper tearing, and some kind of vessel came through the portal, followed by bright green meteors, three of which slammed into the ground around the city, their rocks breaking apart, and reforming into hideous, rocky, fel creatures, which started rumbling towards the Bruiser Captain.

 

“I think I’ll go find Mr. Noggenfogger,” the other guard said.

 

The Bruiser Captain turned to Miz, who’d been standing beside him, jaw wide. “You here to help?”

 

In response, Miz whipped a keg from his satchel, which somehow seemed to be bigger on the inside, and tossed it casually at the nearest rocky infernal creature. The keg broke, brew spilling over the thing, which started lumbering towards them. Miz broke into a run, leaping at the last second and landing on the creature’s chest, perching there and smacking it hard with the staff. The thing roared, batting Miz aside as he leaped back, casting an incantation and breathing fire from his mouth, the brew on the creature igniting. It screamed, and as Miz landed he gathered his energy into his hands and blasted the creature with a jade-green ball of lightning. It’s scream was cut off as it dissolved into its component rocks, whatever fel magic binding it together broken.

 

He turned back to the Captain, swinging his staff over his shoulder, as the infernal continued to crumble behind him. “I’m here to kick ass and drink beer. And I’m all outta beer.”

 

The guard, almost on instinct, replied “Actually, Gadgetzan has 4 lovely and clean drinking establishments that would be happy to accept currency at entirely reasonable exchange rates. I’d be happy to point you to them, friend.”

 

“No, man, it’s an expression, just…” Miz put his face to his palm, before looking back up. “Just, point me to the demons, okay?”

 

Several large demons of various sizes and shapes teleported in around them, materializing out of thin air, as the rest of the darkened city lit up and readied for invasion.

 

“That, I can do.”

 

Hi everyone! Mizbrek here, your friendly neighbourhood multiverse traveling Hobbit Brewmaster! My last challenge I did pretty well, though fell off a bit at the end and on weekends in particular. I managed to get a lot of workouts in, continue a good trend on that, and did a lot around the house. Here you’ll see a lot of similar themes, along with some new fun thrown in.

 

For my personal theme, I’ve chosen to imagine Mizbrek facing off against an invasion by the Burning Legion in World of Warcraft. For those unfamiliar, this is actually an event currently going on in game, as a prelude to WoW’s newest expansion, Legion, which will be launching on August 30th.

 

Truthfully, this will be a challenge for me, but in a bit of an odd way. I’m a big WoW player, and for me this is Christmas and the Superbowl and my birthday all wrapped into one. I’ve taken time off from work, and I am SUPER looking forward to spending lots of time doing this. Now, obviously, spending days sitting around gaming is not super conducive to a healthy lifestyle! But I’m going to do my best to stay on track with it.

 

I’m also incorporating running into my workout regimen. So far I’d been doing pretty strictly NF Academy body weight workouts, with the occasional yoga and golf thrown in. Now I’ll be adding in runs twice a week (and subbing out 2 body weight workouts for it). I’m a bit nervous about this, as it’s been a long time since I’ve ran any distance, and the last time I did I was getting weird pains in my left foot after about a mile. So we’ll see how this goes. I’ll be using the Zombies Run! App to help motivate and push me a bit, and for some added nerdy flavour.

 

I’ve chosen to represent the goals by demons that Mizbrek would face during this invasion!

Calories under 2100 - Infernal

Here I’ll be working again to stay at around 2100 calories. I’ve done this pretty regularly and it’s not a HUGE challenge, if I’m being honest, but sticking with it is really the challenging part, through weekends and just for another month. I’ve been trying to do this for almost 3 months now, which is the longest I’ve stuck with anything like that! It may seem simple, but really this is the Big Daddy of it all. 

 

Workout every day (Bodyweight MWF, Run T/Th, Golf/Yoga/? on weekends) - Felguard

I’m going to continue my workouts throughout the week in the mornings, doing NF Bodyweight 2A or B (alternating) on MWF and going for a short run on T/Th. I’m not setting a specific distance goal, but will be trying to be out on the road by 5:45am and back in by around 6:30am, in order to have time to make and eat breakfast and get ready for work. This may end up, truthfully, being a simple power walk time depending on my aforementioned leg issues, but the idea here is to work on another part of my fitness. I’m in the Rangers for a reason, as my ideal level of fitness is not so much being huge and bulky or lean and quick, but somewhere in between.

 

Scoop litter box daily - Satyr

Continuing on the housework theme from last challenge, I’m going to set a goal of doing the cat’s litter box daily. It’s a simple thing but it’s a household task I often forget about, meaning when I do get around to it it’s a long, unpleasant process. Instead of putting it off my goal will be to do it on a daily basis and keep it clean.

 

Read the Economist Weekly - Observer

Besides physical goals, I am always trying to be more well-read and more knowledgeable about the world. I have a subscription to both a daily paper and the Economist, and I’m pretty good at getting the paper read every day, but I’ve been failing slightly at reading the Economist, and I’d like to get back to it. I don’t have a particular goal in mind for this, truthfully, or a solid way to achieve this, other than taking time to do this during times where I’d otherwise be mindlessly browsing reddit or the like. I do intend to skim a fair bit, as I’m not a fast enough reader to get every word in and have time for anything else, but I think this will help me achieve that overarching goal of having a better idea of what’s going on in the world at large.

 

Don’t Fall Off on Weekends - Succubus

While the calorie goal is the Big Daddy, this is the...er...big Grandpa? K the analogy kinda falls off here. But truthfully this is where I’ve been losing progress. It’s so easy for me to relish the time outside, sit out and read a book, knock back a couple beers, not do any exercise, and suddenly my calories are thrown to the wind and I’m sneaking snacks at the end of the night. I wake up feeling terrible and ashamed, and I don’t want that to happen anymore. Almost every weekend I seem to gain back whatever progress I’ve made over the week, and it’s not a good thing. So by this I mean stay in calorie goal, don’t drink too much, and get some exercise in over the weekends. I intend for one day to be going to the driving range, and another to be yoga, but we will see what happens. Could be a run, could be a body weight exercise too. But if I had to choose one goal to work on, that would have the greatest impact on my life, this would be it.

 

Journal Daily - Eredar

This is a smaller one, but one that I’ve found, when I’m doing it, it’s great, and when I’m not, my mind wanders and I’m less focused. I use the 5 Minute Journal to work on gratitude and reflection, and my goal for this challenge is to get back to that habit, doing a short bit of writing in the morning and in the evening. I was into this habit for a long time and fell off it recently, so I think it’ll be good to get back to it.

 

Thanks for reading folks, and hope to see you back here!

 

Edit: Adding for easy reference, my goals for the Mini-Challenge!

 

• Strength Feat:  I will do NerdFitness Bodyweight 2A this week exclusively (no 2B) and do full pushups, as opposed to knee or assisted ones.

 

• Combat Feat:  I will head to the driving range 2 nights this week. Dwarves need to hit stuff with sticks, right? Golf is the same basic principle!

 

• Distance Feat:  I will replace one of my morning bodyweight workouts with an extra run (guess I'm doing this this week!).

 

• Recovery Feat:  I will meditate for 10 minutes as opposed to the usual 5 minutes daily.

[Leigh]

Oh this should be good! As a fellow die hard WoW player I'm doing the same kinds of things with real life as wow stuff.

Me and another Nerd over on the Adventure guild forum are doing similar things. I'll be following along for demons and shenanigans!

Good luck!

Sent from my LG-K210 using Tapatalk

[Mizbrek]

22 hours ago, Leigh said:

Oh this should be good! As a fellow die hard WoW player I'm doing the same kinds of things with real life as wow stuff.

Me and another Nerd over on the Adventure guild forum are doing similar things. I'll be following along for demons and shenanigans!

Good luck!

Sent from my LG-K210 using Tapatalk

 

Very nice, I'll have to check that out! It'll be tough to balance over the next little while (SUCH GOOD XP FROM INVASIONS, LEVEL ALL THE ALTS) but will do my best!

 

So far this has been going well. I've stayed under 2100 cals yesterday, read a bit of the Economist, did my workout and my journal! Even resisted delicious British chocolates a coworker brought into work! 

 

Today did my first run in a long time and it went really well! I had to start and stop a bit around 2.5km, but that's still awesome for me, and I was able to keep moving, even if it was at a quick walk. Used the Zombies Run app to great effect, it's a lot of fun. Might need to get up a bit earlier in the future on run days, it was a bit tight getting it in and getting back in time, but we'll see. I had a bit of a familiar issue where my left foot starts to go numb after a bit while running. I've never been quite sure if it's a matter of my gait (that's my bet) or some other kind of issue. May have to look into it at some point but for now I just slow down when that comes on and let it fade, which it does. 

 

Tomorrow is another body weight workout, which I'm looking forward to! Don't anticipate any huge hurdles for the next few days, but the real big one, the weekend, is coming up!

 

Also weighed in 1 pound down, which is nice. Still need to get another 2 pounds down to reach my low since I started this (gained back about 3lbs over the course of a couple indulgent weekends) but I'll get there I'm sure!

[Elastigirl]

Your stories always make me laugh, I love your humor.

 

Great challenge, glad you are back for another round.

[Mizbrek]

16 hours ago, Elastigirl said:

Your stories always make me laugh, I love your humor.

 

Great challenge, glad you are back for another round.

Thanks! Glad to be back! And glad to amuse!

 

Yesterday went well! I kept my calories well under 2100. I likely overcounted my run. Still trying to figure out how Zombies Run and MFP syncs up, seems a bit wonky, and how to count my runs. Trying to lean towards the smaller estimates. For some reason today MFP was pulling some super high number for my run, when it was actually a good bit lower. But the important thing is doing them - I'm trying generally not to eat back my calories, so for me that number isn't critical.

 

I forgot to journal last night but caught up this morning. Did do the litter box last night though so that's knocked off!

 

My run this morning was bit tougher. Because it's Distance Week in the mini (and I didn't realize this until Tuesday) I need to squeeze in an extra run, swapping one workout out for it. So I had to run yesterday and today. Today's wasn't as successful, ended up starting and stopping a lot, but did figure out a pretty good route I think. The Zombies Run app continues to be fun, and I'm catching up on my podcasts which is nice. I don't feel like the time or the distance is creeping by, which is how I often feel with workouts and runs, so it's great that way. Still went for 3.5k, about 2 miles for my imperial friends. So calling that a win overall. Definitely feeling it today in the legs though, and still feeling the pushups and workout from Monday!

 

Also down a pound in weight. About another half pound to go until I get back to the low I had a couple weeks ago, which will be about 10 pounds down from when I started weighing myself, a few weeks after I started NF!

 

One I've been failing at a bit is the Economist, so going to go squeeze some reading in before it's time to get back to work.

 

Thanks for reading all!

[Elastigirl]

Congrats on the weight loss!

[Mizbrek]

Wednesday finished well! Stayed on calorie goal, scooped the litter boxes. Didn't read much of the Economist, still need to work on how best to accomplish that goal. Might be a weekend thing mostly, but skimmed it a bit today at lunch, so that's something. Been journaling which is good. And worked out this morning, back to bodyweight which was a nice change.

 

Been feeling a lot of anxiety today. I thought about making this one of my challenge goals but am still trying to figure out how best to tackle it. I get these kind of panicky moments, not full on attacks, but where I start worrying about things that I can do nothing at that moment to change (paying off debts, finding the right career path, my workload at my job, etc.). And I can't get them out of my head. Normally I can listen to a podcast or something and kind of stop that spiral, but today I can't seem to shake it. I don't know why exactly. Any tips of managing anxiety (particularly ones that I can do while at work!) would be welcome!

[Mizbrek]

Quick update cause I'm almost out of lunch hour!

 

Rest of Thursday was solid. Was a tough day, and I beat myself up a bit emotionally, but I didn't give in to snacking or terrible eating, mostly. Boss had me buy cookies for the office and I had NONE, ZERO, NADA, which is pretty well unprecedented for me. Wife was very kind to make something somewhat indulgent though, so had a big plate of spaghetti carbonara, but this was homemade so not too terrible! Also had some ice cream, but according to my estimates I was still within the calories for the day. Could be I underestimated some things, but I think I was still mostly okay. Journaled and scooped the litter box. Amazing how much easier the latter is when you're doing it daily!

 

Went for a run this morning. Was tough, still lots of breaks to walk, but my overall pace was better, and I covered more ground than the last 2! So good times all around. So far pretty good in terms of calories for the day, and I journaled this morning as well. Did have 2 of the aforementioned cookies as a bit of a Friday lunch treat, but only 2, and logged them on MFP. If the calorie counter from Zombies Run is at all accurate then I'm still in very good shape for the evening!

 

Happy weekend all! I might give myself a bit of a break in terms of exercise over the weekend, just because it's the very last time I'll get to play WoW before Legion drops, and there are a few things I'd really like to accomplish before that. So we will see! The plan though is to still try very hard to stay within calories, and I think I should be able do that just by watching my food intake.

[Mizbrek]

Quick update as my lunch break ends!

Weekend overall went well. I kinda gave myself the weekend off from exercise, as I mentioned, as it's a big weekend in terms of WoW and I know I'd regret it if I didn't make the most of it. Was a bit over on calories but not too bad! Still need to figure out the best way to read the Economist, as it's not really happening as it is. But have been scooping the litter! So that one I'm doing well on.

 

I think this week, with the Legion release, will be tough in terms of exercise, but we'll see what I can do. I am off work so excited for some time off, but those days always throw a kink in my exercise routine, which is largely based on work. So we will see!

[Elastigirl]

+1000 points for willpower, actually having to buy the office cookies and not even having one! That's superhuman power right there.

[Mizbrek]

Hello again all! I'm still here, believe it or not! With the Legion release I fell off the wagon a good bit, but am back to the pre-Legion weight! Ticked up a bit as I took some time to relax and play (and ate less than wonderfully) but only a couple pounds. Been doing my best to follow along with the mini-challenge, and a bit better on weekends, but so far it's a mixed bag. I can tell that in other times this would be about where I dropped off, but after taking this morning to rest (and feeling really physically rough for it - apparently my body is used to exercise now, go figure!) I'm feeling better and well motivated!

 

Hope everyone is having a great challenge and I look forward to challenge #3 for me! Will do my best to keep updated here for the rest of this one, such as it is!