Jarric

Glad you had a good weekend! It's totally understandable to feel down or stressed with appointments and tests coming up, but don't worry, you've got this.

Hope the stress gets better soon, and that your event at the weekend goes well

This is a real win, the way you acknowledged how best to handle your low energy and just got on and did it is great.

Oh Ravar is going to be seriously cool man - that picture is epic! I think liver tastes great, and liver and bacon is even better (even better with mashed potato, but I suppose that defeats the point in your case). Some people have an objection to the texture of liver, but YMMV. If you want more variety in your meats, heart is amazing. Will be interested to see how the carnivore diet goes for you. I love fruit and veg so it sounds weird to me, but if you don't try you won't know how it feels.

Monday - Week 4 Day 1 Is it week 4 already? Wow. Anyway, yesterday was a good day. In the morning I had Crossfit - bench press with 65kg (~143#) for 3 reps, 60kg (~132#) for 5 and 55kg (~121#) for 7. After that the workout was a 12 minute AMRAP of 6 d-ball to shoulder (at 40kg/~88#) and 6 handstand pushups (I scaled with 1 ab mat under my head). I finished 4 rounds and 5 reps, which I'm pretty pleased with given I haven't done handstand pushups in a minute. I seem to have hurt my neck over the weekend - possibly when I fell at the start of the race - but it didn't cause issues other than being sore. Work was ok, we're having a reshuffle of staff as my manager and her manager are leaving, but it all seems to be quite sensibly thought out. By 5pm I had totally crashed though, no energy at all, and so I finished on time and just vegged for a while and finished the day's Inktober. Lunch was leftover soup from Saturday. For dinner WW made a chicken pasta bake with some leftover roast chicken from Sunday. After that we just chilled out in front of Critical Role, which we're trying to catch up on after missing a couple of weeks. I did not do the foam rolling or hangboarding I should have done, I was feeling tired and couldn't bring myself to get up and do it, so that's going to make this week hard to catch up with now. Teeth were done though, and whilst I probably should have got an earlier night I was in bed by a somewhat sensible 22:15. Calories were good at 2,210.

Thank you mate! On that note, here's today's:

Welcome to the Rangers @tdrgabi, it's always good to see new faces round here!

As the battle rages on, Tsaraji flies at the foul, pulsating, fleshy form of this creature, dealing significant blows with both her sabres and her claws. She takes the brunt of the energy bolts flying from the mindwitness for her trouble, and dives away to quaff a healing potion before launching herself back into the fray. Teq'neek hangs back, inspiring the others with his sick rhymes and tearing the creature down with mockery and magical charms. When an opportune moment arises he strikes out with the Wu Tang Sword, slicing deep into the creature's flesh before dancing away again. Meanwhile Guglug dodges between eye rays, slamming his flaming greataxe into the creature. Rolling away he focuses on a lump of rock across the room, perhaps some shard of a ruined altar, and magically hurls it to smash against the creature's back. "Do not attempt to resist," the abomination's voice appears in the party's heads once more, "we cannot be defeated." Even as the words appear the creature is beginning to look bloodied, but it isn't defeated yet. * * * By my count the mindwitness is down to 32/75hp with 2 weeks to go. Tsaraji is on 10/12 hp, Teq'neek on 7/9 and Guglug on 8/9. With a big push this is still a fight we can win.

Inktober so far: Turns out it's not that hard to link these from my phone, so I thought I'd share the lot!

Thank you! It's all in building up slowly though, adding exercise sessions really slowly over a long period of time. It's taken me years to get to being able to workout every day.

Oh I love the narrative! Well done on a cracking week.

I like that you're doing everything ESO for Inktober. I'm not sure if it makes it easier or harder, but it's fun. Great job on last week, well done.

Did you realise this is at the top of all of your updates? Great job on this week man, looks like it was almost perfect! I feel you on that! I will try and write something ...at some point?

Week 3 round-up Catapult/Dodge: Average calories 2,441. Finally nailed this goal, and as a reward I've gained 1lb since last week! I'll assume that this is an anomaly and stick to the plan, and if the weight's not off by next week I'll revise my targets. No damage taken and 1 damage dealt. Green flame blade: 7/7 for teeth brushing - 2 damage dealt again. This is still going really well. Even hit the 2 weekend mornings where I was up really early and could have easily forgotten. Greataxe: 1/2 hangboarding sessions last week. I've scheduled in my sessiong for this for week 4, so hopefully I can do better True Strike: Split stretches were done! +1 damage to the green flame blade attack. This nearly didn't happen, and I did it over the weekend in the end I think? Thunderwave: 5/3 drawing sessions, so 1 damage dealt. Inktober's really given me some incentive to get drawing, which I like! Absorb elements: 3/3 foam rolling sessions complete, so I take no damage. Scheduling what days I was going to do this one was a lifesaver. Damage done to Mindwitness: 5 Guglug current hp: 8/9

Well last week got busy somehow! Wednesday I had squats at Crossfit, and worked up to 90K (~198#) for 3 reps. In the evening we had quick dinner and then went to the supermarket. By the time we were home from that nothing else got done. Thursday morning was power cleans, and a WOD of hang power snatch, chest to bar, and burpees over bar. At lunchtime I went out for a very nice pub lunch with the team at work - it's the first time I've socialised with them in person since lockdown. I also realised it was Inktober, which is a month of drawing prompts with the idea of drawing every day. Thursday's drawing: I won't put all my drawings on here because it's a pain in the arse, but I really like this fella. After drawing it was D&D time, and we had some new players joining us so it was fun to meet the new characters and introduce ourselves (even if I did lose a 300 gold piece bet and nearly get eaten by a dire crocodile). Friday I was back to working at home. Crossfit was awesome, we spent ages working on handstand walking and bar muscle ups, both of which are things I want to build on. I managed to get 1 bar muscle up and a shitload of bruises on my chest; it was a good time! Finished off with a bit of bodybuilding stuff - strict press, t-bar rows, weighted situps. In the evening I got my Inktober drawing done, but didn't feel up to hangboarding after a couple of beers on a work Zoom call. Got a really early night as I needed to be up at arse o'clock on Saturday. Saturday I was up at 4am, to drive to Essex and marshal Nuclear Rush. When I turned up it was chucking it down with rain, I was wearing loads of layers including 3 hoods which meant I couldn't hear much, the mask and hoods steamed up my glasses so I couldn't see much either (bearing in mind this was before sunrise and it was raining), so it was a bit like being in sensory deprivation! Once dawn came it was a really fun day, if pretty tiring being on my feet for quite a few hours, and I got to see lots of people getting wet and muddy and having fun. When I got home WW had a soup ready cooked for me, so I ate that in front of Questing Time, did my Inktober drawing, and got another early night. Sunday I was up at 6am, to drive back to Nuclear Rush but this time to run it. It was pissing it down with rain all day, but I had a really good time anyway. I fell off one of the first obstacles - 45° angles steps made of wood which were really slippery in the rain - and I was worried I might have ruined my race before it really began. After that I didn't push myself too hard, but it was really nice to get in one last race of the season and I completed all of the obstacles which is always a great feeling. Highlights were the death slide, which is just a big slide with a kicker at the bottom that launches you into a lake, and the warped wall, where I thought I was going to miss the top and slide down on my face but actually manged to catch the lip and pull myself up. In the evening I got some foam rolling done to make sure that goal was completed, did my Inktober drawing, had a lovely roast dinner in front of High Rollers, and boiled some eggs for breakfasts for the next week. * * * Week 3 round-up Catapult/Dodge: Average calories 2,441. Finally nailed this goal, and as a reward I've gained 1lb since last week! I'll assume that this is an anomaly and stick to the plan, and if the weight's not off by next week I'll revise my targets. No damage taken and 1 damage dealt. Green flame blade: 7/7 for teeth brushing - 2 damage dealt again. This is still going really well. Even hit the 2 weekend mornings where I was up really early and could have easily forgotten. Greataxe: 1/2 hangboarding sessions last week. I've scheduled in my sessiong for this for week 4, so hopefully I can do better True Strike: Split stretches were done! +1 damage to the green flame blade attack. This nearly didn't happen, and I did it over the weekend in the end I think? Thunderwave: 5/3 drawing sessions, so 1 damage dealt. Inktober's really given me some incentive to get drawing, which I like! Absorb elements: 3/3 foam rolling sessions complete, so I take no damage. Scheduling what days I was going to do this one was a lifesaver. Damage done to Mindwitness: 5 Guglug current hp: 8/9

The very same. But shh, don't tell anyone!

It's held at Kelvedon Hatch, which was a secret underground nuclear bunker, and now is a much less secret tourist attraction. One of their races usually has you running through the nuclear bunker, in the pitch dark, a long way underground, and then climbing a lot of steps to come out on the hillside. Most of the races are just in the fields around the bunker though. yeah, not the finest last thought!

That sounds like a wonderful day! Really pleased for you

You've got this Terra, if there's two things I know you have it's strength and patience. Hope you get the all clear from the doctors soon ❤️

Sounds like you're doing well man (even if you might not feel it?); food is going well, exercise is happening, and you're doing the right things for your kids for them to do well in school. Well done mate.

Tuesday - W3D2 Yesterday was a good day. Crossfit was bench press - still wasn't feeling massively strong but hit 5x5 at 60kg (~132#). That was followed by a bit of bodybuilding - 3-5 rounds of single arm dumbbell press, single arm cable pulldowns, and d-ball bicep curls, with 8-12 reps on each. After that I went to the office for the first time in months. It was a bit weird at first, and I was a bit stressed anyway as I had a client meeting first thing and I didn't know how that would work with technology in the office (we weren't really set up for video meetings before lockdown). As the day went on though it was really nice to see people again, and I got a reasonable amount of work done despite catching up with people. When I got home I did my hangboarding as promised. It felt good for the first time in a while, and I got 3 sets of 6 x 5 seconds on, 5 seconds off. Next time I'll try for 5 x 6 seconds on, 6 seconds off. I cooked dinner, pork chilli with the leftover pork from Sunday roast. It was bloody lovely if I do say so myself, probably the best I've ever made it. After dinner we watched Bake Off, and generally chilled out. I didn't really feel like doing any drawing, but I did it anyway and as it turns out really enjoyed it. I'm also really pleased with this one so far, hope I can finish it off to this standard. Forgot to mention calories yesterday. The plan this week again is 5 days at 2,300 calories and 2 at 3,070. Monday was a bit high at 2,347, but yesterday balanced that at 2,152. So yesterday teeth were done, and hangboarding, and drawing. With teeth and foam rolling done Monday this is a much more solid start to this week.

It's fine, I know what I'm doing! (I think those would make great last words)

Now that I think of it, it fits with my usual tradition of doing car work that will only last for a few hours to get it through the MOT. Like disconnecting the battery to turn the engine management light off, or sealing a blowing exhaust pipe with chicken wire and putty...

Don't feel obliged to post positive updates here. Your thoughts and feelings are valid, whether they're positive or negative or in-between, and this is a place to share those honestly. To put it another way, you aren't posting to entertain us, just to talk to us

I love the new challenge format, and magus are badass. Looking forward to seeing you develop your new character. What bass do you have? It looks really nice.