Jarric

Same here - I answered to the best of my ability, but some of the questions I'm thinking "how should I know, I've never tried?" (fighting and American sports, mostly).

I did not know that - I'm well aware of the Riker maneuver but I just thought it was a weird character choice

Really like the checklist for the year, lots of good stuff in there. What's the plan for working on the handstands?

Well done on the 1,000 miles man! I like how simple and clear your goals are this challenge - no need to overcomplicate it. (Couldn't find the gif I wanted, but there's never a bad time for this one)

Look forward to seeing what this challenge will be.

Ah fair enough. I'm with you on the cognac, my dad has a bottle that gets one glass poured every year at Christmas. I'm similar with whisky, I'll have a single glass every few weeks so a bottle lasts a long time.

Ah, that makes sense. I'm never sure when an omelette becomes a frittatta, but that sounds like a good definition.

Great goals - lovely to see that you got this up ready to take on the new year

Hope the back heaps up quickly man. Your dinner, as always, sounds amazing - I haven't cooked a big omelette like that in too long.

I love this concept, cultivating a garden is a wonderful way of envisaging what you want to achieve.

Sounds like a lovely way to ring in the New Year. Hopefully you beating pandemic is a good omen!

Thanks, good to know it's not just me. That's interesting, I didn't know that about you. You drink beer though don't you? Just not to the point of drunkenness?

That's interesting. I took the first test and got STR 13 DEX 12 CON 14 INT 13 WIS 12 CHA 10. High CON high INT sounds right to me. I'd probably put INT a fair bit higher (16-17 based on the second link), and WIS a fair bit lower. WIS is tough though, because it represents common sense and decision making, but it also represents perception and general awareness. I think I make reasonable decisions, but I'm often oblivious to my surroundings!

Talk to yourself, that's what I do I can never get a heart rate monitor to read a sensible number either. My max on that formula should be 189, but I've hit 199 on a run once! In the end I just looked at the numbers I was actually hitting, and then adjusted to heart rate zones to match the figures. (It might sound backwards, but I'm assuming that my watch is reading an incorrect figure, and hoping that it's consistently incorrect.) Rings were the best thing I borrowed from my gym back in March (and haven't returned yet ), they get a lot of use. You can use them for dips as well (banded as necessary).

At some point I'll hopefully flesh this challenge out a bit more, but for now I just want to get something down. Hi, for those who don't know me I'm Jarric. I'm a 30something ranger from England, and I've been knocking around the forums since February 2016 apparently. I live with my fiancée, Wonder Woman (usually referred to as WW), and out cat Bagheera. My main fitness goals revolve around obstacle course racing (OCR) and bouldering (rock climbing without ropes). I've spent a lot of the last couple of years going to a Crossfit gym as well, although that's on hold for a couple of months for financial reasons, as I'm hoping to buy a house in the next few weeks. My nerdyness is largely directed towards TTRPGs these days; I started a long D&D campaign with some fellow rangers this year, I play in a couple of different Pathfinder groups each week, and I spend a not insignificant amount of time watching High Rollers, Critical Role, Questing Time, and Acq Inc: The C Team. The uncommonly good-looking half orc in my profile pic is Guglug the muscle wizard. He's been my avatar for the last few challenges, and if I get round to doing a theme this time he'll probably be involved. * * * Last year was a good year. No really, I mean that. Bad stuff happened in 2020 and I can't change that, but I can choose what I remember 2020 for and I choose to remember the good stuff: I started running a regular D&D campaign, and have had amazing fun doing it I achieved one of my major fitness goals, running 4 laps of The Nuts Challenge I managed multiple reps of ring muscle ups, learned to handstand walk a couple of steps, and got much better at handstands in general I was introduced to Questing Time, a brilliant comedy D&D show, and joined an amazing community of geeks through that I got a pay rise and a bonus, in a year that I wasn't expecting either I saved so much money by not going out over the summer that I'm somehow in a position to buy a house. WW and I found a place we love and got a mortgage approved * * * For this year I have some more big goals (which you can find in my 2021 road map), but for now lets focus on goals for this challenge: Run 116 miles - 10XP Simple one, run 116 miles this challenge. My goal for the year is 1,202 miles (2021 backwards), so 116 miles in this 5 week challenge is on track for that. Will be simple if I don't miss any runs. Foam rolling - 10XP Do some foam rolling at least 3 times per week. I am in considerably less pain when I do this regularly, and I like not being in pain, so I need to knuckle down and do it. Protein - 10XP Drink my protein shakes every day. I've yet to find a way to get sufficient protein without them (and without eating a million calories), so these need to be had. Teeth - 5XP Brush my teeth twice daily, and clean in between them in the evenings. Because apparently I'm a trash person and can't get to grips with this. Because I have a real mental block about this. I don't know where it comes from, or why, but when I get stressed or depressed I fall out of the habit very quickly. Create - 5XP Draw something, or do something else creative, at least 3 times each week. I think this is good for me mentally, and I enjoy it, and I want to get better at drawing because I enjoy it more when I'm improving. * * * Icebreaker It feels like a time when a lot of people are coming back to the forums, and with mixing the guilds I'm seeing more of different people, so lets get to know each other a bit more. So tell me, what incredibly common thing have you never done?

Hi, I'm Jarric. Welcome to my 2021 road map. This is where I organise my goals for 2021, to give myself a bit of direction, and a guide for the year ahead. These aren't necessarily SMART goals, but they're something to think about and measure myself against each month. Ideally I'll look at this list each time I start a new 5 week challenge to guide my challenge goals, and reflect on my progress against these goals at the end of each challenge. Part 1 - make a house a home With a bit of luck and a not insignificant amount of paperwork, WW and I should be buying our first house in the next month or so. The place needs some work doing to it, which means I need money to do stuff, and that I have a great opportunity to become a bit more handy with things around the house. My Dad was a carpenter and is generally good at all things construction, so I'm hoping to learn some skills from him while he's still able to help me with things. The goals are: Step 1: buy a house. There's not a huge amount I can do to influence this, other than stay on top of the process, but if it doesn't happen none of the following will apply! Step 2: put money into the house. Some of that will be into things like repairing the walls, replacing doors, putting in fire alarms, and some of that will be overpaying the mortgage when I can. Ideally if I'm reviewing how I'm spending and budgeting money every challenge cycle I should stay on top of this. Step 3: learn how to do stuff. There will be things I can't/won't do (plumbing, gas, major electrical works, replacing the porch). But I want to do the stuff I can, up to and hopefully including fitting carpets, replacing doors and windows, painting, putting up shelves etc. Step 4: record things. I want to write out a history of the house with the things I know from legal documents, and with all the work I do, so that I can give the next owner substantially more information that I had going in. I also want to document the work I do so I can remember how to do it in the future. Part 2 - bragging rights and party tricks Last year my big fitness goals revolved around races. I actually managed some of them, but with races being cancelled left, right, and centre, I thought it would be better to focus on goals that I can achieve alone. With that in mind, I've come up with a list of things I want to have done by the end of the year, because they're things I think are cool and I want to do cool things like cool people do Run 1,202 miles in 2021 (because that's 2021 backwards). That's 100 miles per month, which is very doable as long as I prioritise running. I fell in love with running properly this year as a way to get out more, so that helps. Bar muscle ups for reps. I've had a couple of very ugly reps of kipping bar muscle ups, but I want to be able to do them properly without breaking my ribs! Handwalk 4ft. It's an arbitrary distance, but I can only manage a couple of 'paces' at the moment so it's something to aim for. 30 second handstand hold. Another arbitrary target. I can manage about 6 seconds at the moment, up to 10 on a really good day, so this will be a good stretch. Pistol and shrimp squats for reps. I can almost get a pistol squat, and can't get a shrimp squat at all, but they seem like really cool things to be able to do. Add one thing to this list and cross it off. I'm hoping as I get through this list I'll discover new things I want to try, so I want at least one thing I haven't thought of already. Part 3 - create stuff I like being creative - it's fun. And it's something I want to stick with, because I think it's good for me too. This includes: Improve my drawing. A bit of an amorphous goal, but looking at pictures from this year in a year's time I hope to see some good improvement. Keep my D&D campaign going, and keep it interesting for everyone. Even playing a published adventure path it's amazing how much latitude you have as a DM to add some creativity. Publish something on DMs Guild/Drive Thru RPG. I'm not talking like a full blown adventure path/campaign setting here, but I'd like to get a little one-shot or some homebrew stuff up. It's fun, and it gives me something to aim for. I might come back and edit this between now and Monday, when I'll start my first challenge of 2021.

You've got some great goals for this year - I have no doubt you're going to crush them. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Begin with a sentence, or even just a word. I strongly disagree with this. Two months ago you completed two laps of Oblivion for goodness sake, and that course was tough! I've seen your Crossfit numbers, I've seen you run, you are both fit and strong. By all means strive to be stronger and fitter, but don't sell yourself short. Don't hate to admit it, it's good to recognise your feelings and it's good to share them with people. Tank's given better advice than I ever could, and iagreewithtank™, but just know that we are here for you, and you're not alone.

I thought the idea of making a new character every day was cool when you first mentioned it, but the idea of then levelling up all of those characters in future challenges is epic man!

Looking forward to seeing you take your first steps into a new year.

Jarric wanders in to the... waitaminute... this isn't a bar? Shrugging he procures a pint of dark beer from somewhere, and heads over to hang upsidedown on the monkey bars. He swings there lazily enjoying his beer, not spilling a drop.

there should be, but I haven't seen any. I was expecting grinch memes - The Prime Minister who Stole Christmas Thanks man, I'm definitely proud of the muscle up. And you're right of course, doing something is better than doing nothing, even when it isn't ideal. And I'm very grateful that I'm still able to work, that I have excellent friends to socialise with here and via video software, that I've been able to play D&D and start my own group to keep myself going. In some ways it's been a good year, so silver linings are certainly important. Yeah, I think the announcement might have been the final straw on a lot of tension bubbling below the surface. Cockney-19 is truly terrifying! Thanks Rho, hopefully we can get back to muddy hugs soon! Thank you, that really does mean a lot.

Only a couple of weeks left of the year, and hopefully things will start to ease up for you. Hang in there *hugs*

Belated scores for week 2: Greataxe - 6/7 workout days = 4 damage dealt Catapult - 5/7 protein shakes = 1 damage dealt Thunderwave - 3/3 sessions of creating stuff = 5 damage dealt Green flame blade - 6/7 days teeth brushing = 3 damage dealt Absorb elements - 1/3 foam rolling sessions = I take 2 damage Dodge - missed 2 protein shakes = no damage taken A total of 13 damage dealt and Guglug is on 4/9hp @Starpuck @Rhovaniel @Red1263 sorry I've not kept up with you guys. How did you get on in week 2?

Belated scores for week 2: Greataxe - 6/7 workout days = 4 damage dealt Catapult - 5/7 protein shakes = 1 damage dealt Thunderwave - 3/3 sessions of creating stuff = 5 damage dealt Green flame blade - 6/7 days teeth brushing = 3 damage dealt Absorb elements - 1/3 foam rolling sessions = I take 2 damage Dodge - missed 2 protein shakes = no damage taken

I've been struggling these last couple of weeks. Work continues to be just insane - the end of the year is always a silly time of year but this is something else. House buying has been stressful - we had a survey on the place and that threw up a load of stuff that needs doing (including, but not limited to, making sure the walls don't fall down). So we've got a reduction on the purchase price which should mean that we can get things moving, but that's terrifying too because then we're going to actually buy a house and have to do it up and generally be adults? On Monday afternoon our internet went down. That meant I lost half a day of working from home. Also, with no internet we also have no TV and no radio, so being at home in the evenings was a bit shit. By Tuesday night I was so thoroughly done that I put on a DVD of True Blood season 1 and drank beer whilst watching that. The internet came on over night last night, so hopefully it'll still be on when I get home from the office. Motivation is very low. I've been sort of doing my workouts, but a combination of waking up late and the fact that I appear to have injured my shoulder, and my hip being generally janky, mean that I've not done much. I'm not sure why I'm writing a great long post complaining about things. I feel like maybe it's better than not posting anything and letting this challenge die? Will work out my scores for week 2 and get them up shortly. ETA: Christmas has also been cancelled in England, which might be part of why I'm completely fucking done with this year. I'll get to see my parents now on Christmas Day, but we were going to spend 4 days with WWs parents and now we can't travel anywhere that's out the window too.