Jarric

Mine is mostly variations on the theme of metal: I've actually been listening to Radio X all day while working, so most of the music I've listened to in reality is Brit Pop . Spotify is basically for workouts for me, and I need a good bit of metal for a workout.

Hey man, I had no idea how much you had been going through this year - rooting for you. Love the idea of workouts themed to different guilds too.

Wow, your Spotify playlist is very different to mine. I think Halestorm are the only artist we had in common. Hope you get some good rest, and that the panic buying calms down soon

Great progress on zero week! I feel like you're totally justified in counting an hour's walk followed by yoga as a workout, that's longer than most workouts you'd normally do.

Week Zero update I've had the week off work this week, so it's felt like a proper week zero! Monday I worked out first thing - upper body pull workout. We then had a 2 hour conversation with the bank about getting a mortgage for the new house, which all seemed to go very well. They still need to survey, but other than that there should hopefully be no issues. I honestly can't remember what I did with the rest of the day. I think we cleaned the kitchen? In the evening I cooked roast chicken for dinner, and we chilled in front of the TV. Tuesday I ran first thing, followed by a short pullup workout and some handstand practice. We may have cleaned the bathroom, and I may have done some D&D prep? I know I did some studying at some point. In the evening we played D&D, and having killed some horrible undead things in our Rise of the Runelords campaign we finally levelled up to level 15! We must be near the end of this campaign now, which is kind of sad, but given our group's propensity for dropping the plot and fucking off onto another plane for several sessions who knows when we'll actually finish it! Wednesday I got up late, and did my workout after breakfast for a change. This was a leg workout - I've just started playing with rollup pistol squats (starting lying on my back and rolling up into them), and I'm really enjoying them. I need to get them looking a bit less messy though! Another day of D&D prep I think? My memory of this week is obviously a bit shaky! Thursday I did nothing all day. We really just sat on the sofa all day watching Acquisitions Incorporated: The C Team; it was glorious! Late afternoon I went bouldering for the first time in over a month (gyms have just re-opened here after a 'fire-break' lockdown). It was amazing to climb again, but more than that it was amazing to see Hopalong, MG and their son, who I've barely spoken to for the past month. In the evening we played D&D, our Mummy's Mask game: Friday I got up early and did a workout - upper body push. My handstand pushups seem to have taken a step backwards since last lockdown, so they need a bit of focus. In the day I think I did some D&D prep? In the evening we watched a D&D stream of UK comedians playing for comic relief, which was bloody brilliant and utterly bizarre. I thoroughly recommend watching it, and apparently it's already on YouTube: Comic Relief Plays D&D Episode 2 - YouTube Today I'm having a hangover from the beer I drank last night watching that stream, doing some more D&D prep, and catching up round here!

I'll be returning to the character I ran last time, Guglug the muscle wizard. Guglug is the half-orc bouncer at the Fiery Grog tavern, but he's left his job working the door to seek out a more adventurous life. Far from an average half-orc, Guglug works the door shift at the roughest bar in Port Meranda in order to pay for his tuition as a wizard. Attacks: Greataxe - 10XP Guglug hits a thing with his greataxe (he is a muscle wizard after all). For this goal I need to complete my workouts 7 days per week. I will deal 1 damage per workout after the first 2 (I deal no damage if I only do 2 or less workouts), plus a bonus point if all workouts are as prescribed, for a maximum of 6 damage per week. I've currently paused my gym membership until after I move house, to save a bit of money and because I can't be certain if it will be allowed to open or not at any given time. That makes it vital that I stay disciplined in my home workouts. I've added the bonus point for doing all workouts as prescribed, as I've got into a bad habit of waking up late and cutting sessions short as a result. Catapult - 10XP Guglug magically flings an unattended object in the direction of an enemy, likely in a comedic fashion. For this goal I will need to make sure I have my protein shakes 7 days per week. If I hit 7 days I'll deal 5 damage, 6 days will deal 3 damage, or 5 days will deal 1 damage. In previous challenges I've had a proper protein tracking goal or a calorie counting goal. This time I want to keep it simple, and I'm not too worried about letting loose a bit for Christmas. Last challenge I discovered that my protein shakes make up a huge proportion of my total protein intake, and that it's almost impossible to hit my protein goals without them, so that's where I'm focussing my energy. Thunderwave - 5XP A wave of thunderous force sweeps out from Guglug, hurting foes and blasting them backwards. For this goal I need to create something 3 times per week. It could be doing some drawing, or writing homebrew D&D content, or what ever I feel like. I'll deal 1 damage for the first creative session, 3 damage if I get 2 sessions, or 5 damage if I hit all 3. The creative stuff really helps me to unwind, particularly after a stressful day. In previous challenges it's just been drawing, but I don't see that it's necessary to pigeonhole myself like that, anything creative should be a good thing. Green flame blade - 5XP Guglug's greataxe is magically enveloped in green flames, which leap from his target to an adjacent enemy. For this goal I need to brush my teeth twice per day, every day, and use the electric brush and clean between them in the evenings. I'll deal 1 damage for each day after the first 3 (3 days or less and I deal no damage), for a maximum of 4 damage. This is something that I do easily when I'm feeling good, and if I'm feeling stressed or anxious it slips. So keeping on the straight an narrow here might be good for my mental health. If not, it'll definitely be good for my teeth! Defence: Guglug has 9hp, and as a half-orc also has relentless endurance. Guglug can use the following abilities to avoid damage: Absorb elements - 10XP Guglug's spell captures some of the energy of an elemental attack against him, which he can use to empower his next attack. For this goal I need to complete 3 foam rolling sessions each week. I'll take 1 damage for every session missed. This is something that seems to really help with my dodgy hip, and with general aches and pains. It would help a lot more if I was more consistent with it, hence the goal. Dodge - 5XP Guglug dodges the enemy's attack. For this goal I will also need to keep on the protein shakes. For every day below 5 that I have protein shakes I will take 1 damage (1 damage at 4 days, 2 damage at 3 days, and so on). If my catapult goal is the carrot for protein intake, this is the stick. General stuff I'm currently in the process of buying a new house, which is slightly stressful but so far has gone pretty smoothly - I'm hoping we'll be moving in January if all goes well. In the meantime I still want to make progress with my fitness, in the hope that obstacle course races will be on next year. In theory my first race is in February, so really there's no time to spare. My workout plan consists of 4 runs per week and 5 home workouts. Tuesday and Thursday are short workouts after my runs, with full workouts Monday, Wednesday, Friday.

Hey man, I love the concept of a gratitude challenge. And I'm with you that D&D and free resources have been an absolute lifesaver this year!

Hey, looks like you've got a really solid plan to ride out the year. I particularly like how meticulously you've planned the weight loss goal!

Congrats on the pay rise, that's exciting! I think you've got a really good approach to adding one goal at a time, particularly with all that's going on for you right now.

The muscle wizard keeps fighting This challenge I'll be taking part in a group challenge with @Starpuck, @Raxie, and @DarK_RaideR. You can find out more about that here: Welcome to the Underdark - 2020 December / Holiday Challenge (Dec 6 to Dec 26) - Nerd Fitness Rebellion I'll be returning to the character I ran last time, Guglug the muscle wizard. Guglug is the half-orc bouncer at the Fiery Grog tavern, but he's left his job working the door to seek out a more adventurous life. Far from an average half-orc, Guglug works the door shift at the roughest bar in Port Meranda in order to pay for his tuition as a wizard. This challenge sees the party facing a group of grimlocks, and each of my goals will either allow me to deal damage to these dangerous foes, or to protect myself from injury. FYI, this is a grimlock: So, without further ado (I like a little ado, but enough ado is enough), my goals are: Attacks: Greataxe - 10XP Guglug hits a thing with his greataxe (he is a muscle wizard after all). For this goal I need to complete my workouts 7 days per week. I will deal 1 damage per workout after the first 2 (I deal no damage if I only do 2 or less workouts), plus a bonus point if all workouts are as prescribed, for a maximum of 6 damage per week. I've currently paused my gym membership until after I move house, to save a bit of money and because I can't be certain if it will be allowed to open or not at any given time. That makes it vital that I stay disciplined in my home workouts. I've added the bonus point for doing all workouts as prescribed, as I've got into a bad habit of waking up late and cutting sessions short as a result. Catapult - 10XP Guglug magically flings an unattended object in the direction of an enemy, likely in a comedic fashion. For this goal I will need to make sure I have my protein shakes 7 days per week. If I hit 7 days I'll deal 5 damage, 6 days will deal 3 damage, or 5 days will deal 1 damage. In previous challenges I've had a proper protein tracking goal or a calorie counting goal. This time I want to keep it simple, and I'm not too worried about letting loose a bit for Christmas. Last challenge I discovered that my protein shakes make up a huge proportion of my total protein intake, and that it's almost impossible to hit my protein goals without them, so that's where I'm focussing my energy. Thunderwave - 5XP A wave of thunderous force sweeps out from Guglug, hurting foes and blasting them backwards. For this goal I need to create something 3 times per week. It could be doing some drawing, or writing homebrew D&D content, or what ever I feel like. I'll deal 1 damage for the first creative session, 3 damage if I get 2 sessions, or 5 damage if I hit all 3. The creative stuff really helps me to unwind, particularly after a stressful day. In previous challenges it's just been drawing, but I don't see that it's necessary to pigeonhole myself like that, anything creative should be a good thing. Green flame blade - 5XP Guglug's greataxe is magically enveloped in green flames, which leap from his target to an adjacent enemy. For this goal I need to brush my teeth twice per day, every day, and use the electric brush and clean between them in the evenings. I'll deal 1 damage for each day after the first 3 (3 days or less and I deal no damage), for a maximum of 4 damage. This is something that I do easily when I'm feeling good, and if I'm feeling stressed or anxious it slips. So keeping on the straight an narrow here might be good for my mental health. If not, it'll definitely be good for my teeth! Defence: Guglug has 9hp, and as a half-orc also has relentless endurance. Guglug can use the following abilities to avoid damage: Absorb elements - 10XP Guglug's spell captures some of the energy of an elemental attack against him, which he can use to empower his next attack. For this goal I need to complete 3 foam rolling sessions each week. I'll take 1 damage for every session missed. This is something that seems to really help with my dodgy hip, and with general aches and pains. It would help a lot more if I was more consistent with it, hence the goal. Dodge - 5XP Guglug dodges the enemy's attack. For this goal I will also need to keep on the protein shakes. For every day below 5 that I have protein shakes I will take 1 damage (1 damage at 4 days, 2 damage at 3 days, and so on). If my catapult goal is the carrot for protein intake, this is the stick. General stuff I'm currently in the process of buying a new house, which is slightly stressful but so far has gone pretty smoothly - I'm hoping we'll be moving in January if all goes well. In the meantime I still want to make progress with my fitness, in the hope that obstacle course races will be on next year. In theory my first race is in February, so really there's no time to spare. My workout plan consists of 4 runs per week and 5 home workouts. Tuesday and Thursday are short workouts after my runs, with full workouts Monday, Wednesday, Friday. You can also expect this challenge to be scattered with D&D talk, updates from the campaigns I play in and the one I run, and quite a lot of general rambling.

When we last left off, our noble party of would-be adventurers had been given a simple task. Tofdir Duflame, gnomish proprietor of the Fiery Grog Tavern, had tasked the party with hunting rats in his basement. They were promised a silver piece for every rat tail they returned with, and in the fashion of all great adventurers had gone about their task with much enthusiasm. So much enthusiasm, in fact, that they saw no problem in attacking that weird rat, the one with the exposed brain, which fled through the back of a large wardrobe in the tavern cellar. Chasing the creature into the wardrobe, our noble heroes found themselves flung into another place entirely, with no clear way to get back. Unperturbed, the party continued to slay rats and collect tails (a silver piece is a silver piece, after all), venturing further and further into the tunnels they found themselves in. Eventually the way opened out into a large chamber, where a voice spoke inside each of their minds. The voice warned them that they were trespassing on their terrain, but assured them that they would be put to good use as food for the colony. Only then did the creature emerge. A mass of fleshy, writhing tentacles surrounding a blind, milky white eye. The lower tentacles whipped through the air with a wet, swishing sound, as the creature hovered slowly closer to the party. Worse though were the upper tentacles, each of which held another cloudy white eye. This was to be the party's first encounter with a mindwitness: A terrible battle ensued, with the party slinging spells and slashing weapons at the creature, and the creature for its own part firing beams of energy from the horrible orbs embedded within its tentacles. Ultimately the party were able to destroy the beast, but still they were too late. Too loud, and too late. Just, barely, too late. As the creature finally fell to the ground, twitching and writhing like a jelly pot in a blender, a horde of creatures entered through the doors on the far side of the room. These creatures, much like the midwitness, appeared to be blind, their empty eye sockets covered by a sealed layer of skin. Their vaguely humanoid forms were grey in colour, and covered in and wiry, black hair. Wearing only scraps of makeshift clothing they carried primitive weapons made of bones, stones, and teeth. None of that though was quite as unnerving as the sound of these creatures. As they charged towards the party, a horde of sightless savages ready to tear them apart, these creatures made no noise at all. No battle cry, no grunts and goans of exertion, and scarcely a murmur of sound as their bare feet hit the floor. An eerie silence pervaded as the creatures closed. * * * So this challenge, @Starpuck, @Raxie and @DarK_RaideRwill be following up on our group challenge we ran two challenges ago. Last time we took the mindwitness all the way down from 71hp to 1hp, but failed to kill it in time before a new threat arrived. This time, rather than one large beast, we will be fighting a veritable horde of grimlocks: As we complete our goals we'll do damage to the grimlocks, and hopefully be able to slay the horde. Each grimlock only has 11hp, but there's a lot of them. How many? Well, I have to keep a bit of suspense for now And so we will face the monster together, both literally and figuratively, and update on how we’ve done here for our mutual entertainment. We have 3 weeks of challenge to defeat this threat, and so every goal and every point of damage counts. And with that, I will leave it to the players to introduce their characters and their goals.

Hey Fearless, great to see you full of motivation! I'll be following along of course!

Following along of course - lets smash the end of the year!

Sounds like you're off to a good start Yeti! Your narrative is, one again, hauntingly good. I'm genuinely scared for that Yeti right now!

Thanks Deffy, that helps to know. Yeah, the thought of the money for the deposit even existing seems ludicrous to me, I can't imagine what it will feel like to give it to someone else!

Ok, now that's awesome. Paladins gonna paladin! Hey, I made it here on page 2, that's pretty good going! Hope the back heals up quickly man!

Following along for more badassery and more Pathfinder references, of course!

A wood elf pushes his way into the inn, pulling back his hood and removing his scarf as the warmth from the hearth welcomes him. A broad smile crosses his face as he looks around at friends old and new, before striding over the the bar. Pint of the black stuff, barkeep, he says, with a wink, and then settles into a bar stool to observe proceedings. Apparently in a particularly jovial mood, the elf raises his glass and calls out a blessing to the room at large: Next round's on me folks!

Challenge wrap-up Muscle - 10XP This started ok, and then I got busy and stopped tracking food. I probably did better than the score actually shows, but as I wasn't tracking it's impossible to tell. Overall I think I've eaten ok, though there definitely more crap food in there than I would like there's also a lot of decent stuff. This challenge also reinforced how much protein comes from my daily protein shake, so I can't be skipping that! Score: 14/35 (4, 4, 5, 0, 1) = 4XP Wizard - 10XP I had a plan, and then the UK went back into lockdown and the plan needed to change. So I changed it. With that said I hit most of my workouts for the challenge. What I'm missing is getting both runs in on the weekend, due to a combination of too much beer on Saturday nights and not enough time to prep for D&D games on Sundays. This is totally achievable however, I just need to decide if I'm willing to prioritise it. Score: 29/35 (6, 6, 6, 6, 5) = 8XP Athletics - 10XP I have not got better at this - more disciplined needed. Or perhaps better planning on when I do it? Who knows. Score: 9/15 (3, 1, 3, 1, 1) = 6XP Acrobatics - 5XP I did ok on this, by the simple method of making it part of my main workout plan. I'm thinking that could be an option for the foam rolling too, but workout time is an issue there. Looking at the scores though, this wasn't proportionally any better than the foam rolling. Score: 3/5 (1, 0, 1, 0, 1) = 6XP Spellbook - 5XP This went well on some weeks, and some weeks I got busy with work and other stuff and skipped it. That's ok, this is a hobby after all. I'm going to keep it as a goal, because I've drawn some stuff I'm really proud of recently and I want to stick at that. Score: 9/15 (0, 2, 3, 3, 1) = 3XP Prestidigitation - 5XP This is really easy under normal circumstances, and goes very poorly when I'm stressed. It remains a goal. Score: 20/35 (7, 5, 4, 2, 2) = 2XP Overall thoughts I've been pretty stressed this challenge, probably more stressed than I've admitted to myself most of the time. Still, I certainly haven't lost any ground during this lockdown, the rules are being relaxed a bit here as we head towards Christmas, and the house move is chugging along nicely which I hope will be a great start to next year. Next challenge will be very much more of the same, but with a theme and some companions joining me for a group challenge.

Wednesday - Week 5 Day 3 Yesterday was a good day. Did a workout in the morning, in which I tried rolling up to pistol squats for the first time. They were good fun - think I'll stick with them for a few weeks before going back to regular pistol squats. I also did some toes to bar, some single arm single leg planks, and some handstand palm raises (as the ground's a bit wet right now for handwalking). Finished up with my split stretches, so they're ticked off for the week. Work was pretty busy, and I was ravenous for some reason. When I got home we watched Dragony Aunt, and ended up cooking really late. I threw together a quick carbonara, and then just chilled in front of the TV until bedtime. Calories were a bit high as I was feeling snacky all day, but protein was good. Teeth were done. No drawing or rolling today.

Yeah, it's really nice! My commute was essentially 2 hours door to door each way, I hated it. Now it's 16.5 minutes, and soon it'll be 10 Shame you don't have that short commute any more, but I feel like your new house will be worth it!

As a suggestion, if you do your reps with your left arm first, and then limit the number of reps with your right arm based on what your left can manage, it will allow the left to catch up with the right. Not essential, but balance is good.

Well done on coming out to your D&D group! I'm glad you got a good response from them.

Bovril is the shit. Yeah, I'd almost forgotten about that. Now I'll be doing less commuting in a week than I used to do in a day, even if I ever go back to full weeks in the office. The luxury!

Great to see you turning it around already Puck! Not long until zero week and a new challenge now