Jarric

My character for this challenge will be a half-orc named Guglug. Guglug works as the bouncer for the Firey Grog Taven, and when newcomers in town first see him at the door his imposing stature, huge greataxe, and monosyllabic speech are enough to keep trouble to a minimum. Guglug is more than he seems however, and uses his wages from the tavern to pay for tuition as a wizard. One day he'll be a powerful muscle wizard, but for now he's killing rats in a basement and trying to work out how his axe and spells work. Attacks: Catapult: Guglug magically flings an unattended object in the direction of an enemy, for 2 damage. Can be cast once each challenge week. To cast this I need to keep my average daily calories under 2,520 for the week. Green flame blade: Guglug's greataxe is magically enveloped in green flames, dealing 1 damage. Can be cast twice each challenge week. To cast this once I need to brush my teeth twice daily for 4 days, to cast a second time I need the full 7 days Greataxe: Guglug hits a thing with his greataxe (he is a muscle wizard after all), dealing 1 damage. Can be used once each challenge week. To do this I need to complete 2 hangboarding sessions in the week. True Strike: Guglug imbues his weapon with magical energy, improving his chances of hitting. Add 1 damage. Can be cast once each challenge week. To cast this I need to do split stretches once in the week. Thunderwave: A wave of thunderous force sweeps out from Guglug, dealing 1 damage. Can be cast once each challenge week. To cast this I need to complete 3 sessions of drawing each week. Defence: Guglug has 9hp, and as a half-orc also has relentless endurance Dodge: Guglug dodges the enemy's attack. Take 1 damage if my average daily calories for the week exceed 2,630. Absorb elements: Guglug's spell captures some of the energy of an elemental attack against him. Complete 3 foam rolling sessions each week. Take 1 damage of each session missed. Current status: HP: 9/9 Damage dealt: 0

I'll pass thanks . It's actually been lovely down here for the last few days, hope we can send some sun your way soon. that's... I have no words

It had seemed such a simple quest; just kill the rats in the basement. Standard fair for any would-be adventuring party, a simple job to earn some coin and test out their skills. One silver for every rat’s tail they returned, that’s what they’d been promised. But then a different rat came, one with its brain exposed, and glowing faintly. The little bugger had escaped into a large wardrobe in the corner of the tavern cellar, and what’s worse is that it had taken one of the tails the party had been so careful to collect! Chasing after it, our noble heroes found themselves flung into another place entirely, with no clear way to get back. On the plus side, there were a lot of rats here, and exposed brains or not those tails were still worth something. Following the first principle of adventuring*, the party gathered as many tails as they could. They reckoned that they were on for a decent haul if only they could find a way back to Tofdir, the gnomish fellow who’d sent them down here in the first place. After many tunnels, all of which only seemed to lead deeper, and innumerable rats, the way opened out into a larger chamber. Far from the cramped, dank conditions of the previous tunnels, this was grander. Perhaps it was once a temple of sorts, or perhaps a court of some great subterranean king. Whatever the purpose of this place, the party did not have long to contemplate it, for in their minds came a voice unlike any they had ever heard. “You are trespassing in our terrain,” said the voice†, “however you should provide adequate sustenance for us.” As though the voice were not troubling enough on its own, its owner soon emerged, floating in from a high tunnel like the world’s most disgusting helium balloon. A fleshy mass of tentacles surrounded a large, milky white orb, which could have been an eye. The lower tentacles lashed through the air as it moved, making a wet, whipping sound. The upper tentacles were far worse however, as they held more milky white orbs which flitted back and forth disconcertingly. Were these more eyes, or an entirely different feature of this alien creature’s anatomy? As the creature emerged a beam of energy lanced out of one of the small orbs, picking up one of our noble heroes and tossing them across the room like a rag doll. Immediately doubt set in for the party, was this a fight they could win? *Take everything that isn’t nailed down †If said is the correct way to describe a voice beamed directly into one’s consciousness * * * So this challenge @Raxie, @Starpuck, @DarK_RaideR and myself wanted to try a group challenge, and being us it’s of course D&D themed. We will each be creating 1st level characters, and pitting them against a vicious foe, with completing our challenge goals meaning we do damage to the monster. Our monster this round will be the mindwitness: I chose this as it speaks to a lot of the difficulties we sometimes need to overcome when we take on a new challenge. It can cause aversion, fear, apathy and inaction, all things which can get in the way of our goals. Also, look at the thing! That’s one cool monster. And so we will face the monster together, both literally and figuratively, and update on how we’ve done here for our mutual entertainment. A mindwitness has 75 hp, so to defeat this monster we will need to do at least that much damage between us over the next 5 weeks. We will also need to avoid taking damage to survive the fight, and each character will have their own ways of dealing and avoiding damage.

I did have a blast, thank you! Really good weather, but as a consequence no so much mud! Still, they did a really good job in making it COVID safe without making it rubbish, May have pushed a bit harder than I was planning, but only because I was enjoying it!

Well, busy work week is over and I'm now off for a week! There's never enough hours in the day but I think I got all of the urgent stuff that needed doing done before I left. I say left - I work from home right now - signed off I guess? This morning I'm running my second OCR in two weeks, and also my second in 6 months, Nuclear Blast! This one's generally a pretty easy, fast course, so it should be fun to go round that for 2/3 laps. I'm still a little beat up from Nuts Challenge last weekend, so I won't be pushing myself too hard. When I get back I plan to write some stuff for my challenge. Being away in the New Forest next week I'll probably have quite a gentile start to this one, but I still want to get it written out before I go.

Thought you'd appreciate that! Nice to see you dude! Good to have you man!

Hey Wolfman, nice to see you smashing all the things as usual! That BeastX programme sounds intense, will be cool to see how you get on with it.

Welcome to the Ranger corps, look forward to seeing you smash this challenge.

A ranger strides into the bar, taking up his usual bar stool. I'm off on holiday soon, but there's always time for a swift one. Pint of the black stuff barkeep. Hold the pumpkin. Looking at the drink presented to him the ranger smiles. An excellent choice. It seems @aramis has good taste.

@fearless 2.0, I just spotted your number of posts while looking at my thread, and thought you would appreciate it!

Super quick check-in. I've found out today what the plan is for me going back to the office. I would be in next week but I'm on holiday, so not in until the end of the month. We're only going in 3 days in every 2 weeks to start, so it should be ok to ease back into it. I was a bit apprehensive, but I can't hide away from the world forever. Last night I went out with my snooker team. First time I've seen them since March, first drink in a pub, first meal in a restaurant. It was really lovely to get back to something approaching normality, and I went home with a massive grin on my face. All the beer may have helped with that grin, and a decent curry didn't hurt either! It all feels a bit odd as I'm fairly convinced that we're going to see lockdown restrictions massively increase soon, but for a brief moment life is returning to normal and that's nice. Skipped Crossfit on Wednesday in favour of a very short run and some yoga - I felt I needed a rest day after last weekend's race and before this weekend's race. Back in today for d-ball loads, farmers' carries, and kettlebell swings. I'm still taking it easy this week between races, but I managed a 129kg farmer's carry nonetheless. That's like having a fairly small person in each hand.

Good to have you Thanks man! Welcome aboard! Glad I'm not the only one

That's exciting, what course are you applying for? I saw your picture of the moon puzzle on Instagram, it looks hideously difficult

Hey man, nice to meet you, welcome back to the forums! Believing it can be done is really important, so I think you're in a good position here.

Excited that you're getting back into Crossfit; looking forward to hearing all about your sessions.

So I wanted to explore this part of the challenge a bit more. I want to experiment with cutting and bulking over the next few months, because: I'm interested in seeing the results I want to look good, and I think an aesthetics goal would be kind of fun I'll be eating a lot in the run up to Christmas anyway, and I think that will work better if I'm tracking what I'm eating and training accordingly So the plan is to cut at about a 20% deficit for this challenge cycle (based on some numbers I worked out at the start of the year), whilst keeping up all of my normal training. Then I'll bulk for the next 2 challenges, which takes us to the end of the year. When I'm bulking I'll be adding some more volume of weight work to my weeks, probably by having some short additional working slots, and maintaining my running. Ideally I would probably cut the running out to give myself a chance to grow muscle without needed a million calories to do it, but I'll need to be able to run for races next year so I'm probably just going to maintain and be strict about not increasing time or distance. That will all be followed by a cut in January (when largely there's less social events and drinking to be had anyway) and I'll see where I go from there.

Good to have you! Will be cool to compare Crossfit notes

Challenge Wrap-Up I didn't really get on here to update in week 5. I basically dropped Crossfit, and spent my mornings doing yoga in preparation for Nuts Challenge. It was definitely the right call, and I'm glad I went into that feeling fairly strong. * * * Running - 15XP 15/20 (3, 3, 4, 3, 2) = 11XP Weirdly the runs I usually missed were on the weekend, rather than mid-week. I guess that weekends are getting busier! More importantly though, I completed 4 laps of Nuts Challenge at the end of this challenge! That was one of my 2 main racing goals for the year, so I'm awarding myself a bonus 20XP for hitting a big goal. Hangboarding - 10XP 3/10 (2, 0, 1, 0, 0) = 3XP I injured my finger, and skipping this goal was a smart choice. Nuff said. Splitting - 10XP 4/5 (1, 1, 1, 1, 0) = 8XP This was all pretty good. Even on the week I missed it I did lots of those king of stretches in yoga sessions. This should stay, it works well. Rolling - 10XP 10/15 (3, 2, 3, 1, 1) = 6XP I'm still convinced this helps me. Now I just need to convince myself to do it of an evening, instead of skipping it! Brushing - 10XP 17/35 (6, 7, 2, 1, 1) = 4XP This started off well, and then absolutely tanked. I've got a real mental block about this for some reason. Not doing it coincides with weeks where I was feeling stressed and mentally drained, so I'm sure there's a weird psychological link there. Weeks 1 and 2 show that I can do it though, so I'm just going to keep trying. Drawing - 10XP 10/20 (3, 4, 2, 0, 1) = 5XP Much like brushing, as I get stressed and run out of mental energy, this gets harder to do. Which is ironic, because I'm sure it helps me much more than mindlessly playing games on my phone, and that's what I find myself doing with free time when I'm stressed. Maybe I need something more focussed next challenge, rather than just a number of sessions. I am having ideas, but I'll keep them to myself until they're fully formed. * * * Next challenge will be a lot more of the same I think, but I'm also going to be looking at cutting weight (the meta-plan being to cut weight next challenge, and then bulk for the two after, just to experiment with the process for now). All that XP also bumps me up to level 13, which is nice. Off to change my signature!

Thank you

Looks like a sound approach dude, I'm here for it.

So this challenge I will be teaming up with @Raxie, @Starpuck, and @DarK_RaideR, to take on a terrible foe. You can read more on the situation we find ourselves in, and on how we plan to take on our enemy, in the accountabilibuddies section here: The upshot of this is that we will each be creating a character, and by completing our goals we will deal damage to the creature and protect ourselves from damage. My character for this challenge will be a half-orc named Guglug. Guglug works as the bouncer for the Firey Grog Taven, and when newcomers in town first see him at the door his imposing stature, huge greataxe, and monosyllabic speech are enough to keep trouble to a minimum. Guglug is more than he seems however, and uses his wages from the tavern to pay for tuition as a wizard. One day he'll be a powerful muscle wizard, but for now he's killing rats in a basement and trying to work out how his axe and spells work. Attacks: Catapult: Guglug magically flings an unattended object in the direction of an enemy, for 2 damage. Can be cast once each challenge week. To cast this I need to keep my average daily calories under 2,520 for the week. Green flame blade: Guglug's greataxe is magically enveloped in green flames, dealing 1 damage. Can be cast twice each challenge week. To cast this once I need to brush my teeth twice daily for 4 days, to cast a second time I need the full 7 days Greataxe: Guglug hits a thing with his greataxe (he is a muscle wizard after all), dealing 1 damage. Can be used once each challenge week. To do this I need to complete 2 hangboarding sessions in the week. True Strike: Guglug imbues his weapon with magical energy, improving his chances of hitting. Add 1 damage. Can be cast once each challenge week. To cast this I need to do split stretches once in the week. Thunderwave: A wave of thunderous force sweeps out from Guglug, dealing 1 damage. Can be cast once each challenge week. To cast this I need to complete 3 sessions of drawing each week. Defence: Guglug has 9hp, and as a half-orc also has relentless endurance Dodge: Guglug dodges the enemy's attack. Take 1 damage if my average daily calories for the week exceed 2,630. Absorb elements: Guglug's spell captures some of the energy of an elemental attack against him. Complete 3 foam rolling sessions each week. Take 1 damage of each session missed. Current status: HP: 9/9 Damage dealt: 0 Original challenge post:

Following along again - I always find some really good insights on your thread; I'll try and keep up well enough this time to actually comment on them!

I ran Nuts Challenge yesterday. Planning to put together a proper race report for it for you guys, but just wanted to say I hit the 4 laps (28km / 17.5miles) I was aiming for! Took me a shade under 7 hours and I'm feeling a bit beaten up this morning, but really pleased to have done it! I also owe you guys a proper update, and a challenge wrap-up, which I hope to do today or tomorrow.

My sister had cerebral palsey, it's a fantastic cause, good on you. Nice to see you back Yasha.

Aww, it's so tiny, but it looks like it's 104 years old!