Jarric

Haha, love it! My cake's almost that big too!

Yesterday was a good day. The WOD at Crossfit was fun - for time: 9 cleans, 3 rope climbs, 6 cleans, 2 rope climbs, 3 cleans, 1 rope climb. I really enjoy rope climbs, so I flew up those, and the cleans weren't too ugly either. That was followed by tempo front squats, which kind of suck but I got them done. For most of the day I did a lot of nothing - watched some Acquisitions Incorporated and generally chilled out. In the evening we went to my parents house for an early birthday dinner. Between the Chinese meal, a large amount of birthday cake, and half a bottle of wine, I totally blew my calorie target. After that I went home with WW and watched Crit Role until it was time for bed. Hip stretches were done, teeth were done, exercise was Crossfit, so I hit those goals.

Yeah, you're right, I should be able to push through next weekend regardless. I fully expect to be no good to anyone after next week's race, it just caught me off guard a bit this week! And thank you man! Well I hope it helps, let me know if it does push you into the gym. To be fair I could have stuck to lower ground, going up on the Downs was pure hubris! And thank you, that gif is glorious! The image won't load for me . Thank you though! Yeah, I think I was surprised how bad I felt because it was only 10 miles. But your right, effectively having blocks of ice on the ends of my ankles and wrists definitely adds a lot more for my body to recover from than just the run.

Wow that's a lot of reps, no wonder your legs still hurt! Keep on rocking it man.

So clearly the VR was an excellent choice for your fitness levels

Friday was a good day (I think - it was a while ago!). Crossfit was done, hip exercises were done, calories were tracked and in budget, hip exercises were done and teeth were brushed. I did forget to do any extra credit exercises. The weekend was a bit of a mixed bag. I turned my alarm off for the weekend knowing that I had plenty of time to relax, and that was nice. Saturday morning I woke up naturally and spent the morning chilling. On Saturday afternoon I went out for my long run - 10 miles across the South Downs in Storm Jorge. The first 5 miles weren't too bad - the wind was ridiculous but slightly behind me. But turning round for the run back I was running into the wind, and in reality not doing much running at all. Then the hail started, pelting one side of my face and freezing my hands. By the time I got back to the car I had to sit for 10-15 minutes thawing my hands out before I was safe to drive. Even then parts of my feet were totally dead until I got a chance to get them to a warm shower. After that things went a bit to shit. Those 10 miles pretty much broke me, and for the rest of the day I wasn't good for much else. This is not a good omen for running Nuts Challenge next weekend, where I'm hoping to do 28km (~18 miles). I ate over my calories by quite a way, though I'm not surprised about that as long run days have no business being low calorie days. I did managed to do my hip rehab, but no extra credit exercises. On Sunday I was still broken. I got out for my run, only a little 4 mile route, and I felt dead by the end of it. I ate well over calories in the hope that it would help me recover. Other than that I did nothing, I couldn't even bring myself to do my hip exercises or brush my teeth. I'm not really sure what's going on with me - I still don't feel right today. Week 2 Wrap-Up Hip Rehab - 6/7 - Other than my weird Sunday this was fine Tooth Care - 6/7 - See Hip Rehab Exercise - 5/7 - Missed my Wednesday run, and no points for my Sunday Calories - 4/7 - Must try harder. I averaged 2,837 calories per day compared to my target of 2,650, so that's not great. I weighed in a bit late this morning, after breakfast and a workout, so can't draw too many conclusions. That said I weighed in at 11 stone 10 (164#, ~74.4kg), which is 1lb down on last week. 2,837 is about a 9% calorie deficit, so a 1lb loss is about what I'd expect. Week 3 Today and tomorrow I have off work, and tomorrow's my birthday. That means sleeping in and going to Crossfit at 09:30 instead of 06:30 Wednesday is a 2 mile run before work. Thursday and Friday are yoga before work. All this winding down is because I'm running Winter Nuts on Saturday, and I want to be in good shape for it. I'm at my parents tonight for a birthday Chinese takeaway, I've got D&D tomorrow and Thursday, and I've got snooker Wednesday, so I'm going to have to take my sleep where I can get it. I'd hope this weekend and two days off work would set me up well, but honestly I still feel like shit so I'm not sure what's going to happen. Ideally high calorie days are Wednesday and Saturday, but it's my birthday week so I'm just going to try not to go overboard in general and play it by ear.

I will absolutely do that if I get the opportunity again

Yesterday was a good day. Crossfit was tempo dips on rings - 3 seconds down, 3 second pause, 3 seconds up. Had to break my sets into 1s and 2s, but I'm pretty happy with how I did - 18 months ago I couldn't do a dip at all. The WOD was handwalking (I did handstand palm raises instead), elevated ring rows and American swings - it was surprisingly tough. When I got home I did some of my hip exercises, to take a bit of pressure off doing them in the evening. At work someone brought in cake for their birthday. I decided to have a tiny sliver of the extremely chocolaty thing, and was astounded when I put it into my phone and came out at 257 calories! WW had the day off so she'd cooked for me again when I got home. I was feeling a bit weird so I didn't do any washing up - it's piling up to disgusting levels now - and relaxed on the sofa for a bit. I was revived a bit by WW's butternut squash and red lentil soup, made with stock she had boiled from the carcass of the chicken we had on Sunday. Then it was out to D&D. We're currently exploring a very evil tower, and spent the evening fighting trolls and golems and talking total nonsense - it was a good time! The soup was pretty low calorie, so despite the chocolate cake I also had a slice of rocky road at D&D and came in at 2,409/2,410 calories - nailed it! When we got home I did the remainder of my hip exercises, brushed my teeth and went to bed around half 11. The one thing I've not managed to do this week is my extra credit exercises, so I'll need to do those tonight, tomorrow and Sunday to hit my goal.

Well he might not be quite that kickass. Less that ^^ and more this: And thanks man. Did even better yesterday (details to follow). Depends how you define "exercise"

Yesterday was a good day. Having done my hip exercises after D&D on Tuesday night I got to bed at half midnight, so when my alarm went off at half 5 I decided that trying to run, and potentially missing my train, was a silly idea. I went back to sleep for half an hour and got suited up to go to London. I went to a really interesting conference in London. It was a long day there though, and with and hour and 45 minutes commute each way it felt even longer. For lunch I had the food they provided - a lamb curry with rice and spinach and ricotta cannelloni. It was lovely and I went for a brief walk around London afterwards. I was feeling a bit hungry, and putting an estimated lunch into my phone I came out low on calories, so I went back for seconds. What I should have done was tracked the seconds before I ate them. What I did was grab a load of food, wolf it down, and then discover I'd had a 1,055 calorie lunch! When I got home WW had cooked dinner for me - gnocchi with tomatoes, courgette and mozzarella. It was lovely and I'm very lucky to have her doing that for me. It was also pretty low calorie, although not enough to counteract lunch. I went out to snooker in the evening and had a couple of beers there. The guy I was playing was having a shocking night so it was an easy, if somewhat unfulfilling win. When I got back I got down on the living room floor and started doing my hip exercises at about 11:30. At about 12:30 I woke up on the floor, wondering what had happened! I did get my last couple of stretches in (I may have rushed a little) and brushed my teeth for bed, so a pass on those two goals and a fail for exercise and calories (the latter being tracked but over). Calories for this week so far: Monday: 2,379 / 2,410 Tuesday: 3,208 / 3,250 Wednesday: 3,385 / 3,250 According to MFP I have also logged food for 55 days straight, which is pretty good.

Just remember that actors can make it their full time job to look like this mate, whereas you already have /two/ full time jobs! Work hard, but get your sleep too and don't over train.

Good to see you kicking arse in all of the things Puck. Glad you got that therapy appointment sorted too.

Ah, fair enough! I don't think the majority of people over here even know it's linked to lent, or that it's called Shrove Tuesday. It's just pancake day to most people! Thanks mate! It's all relative though, one woman in my class finished that workout in just over 14 minutes! There's always something to strive for. I think the pressups are difficult because there's a lot of them and you have to do them strict, whereas kipping the pullups you can at least save yourself a lot of strength. You'll definitely get strong enough to complete Murph. I don't know how long it will take, but as long as you stay on that journey you will arrive in the end.

Monday was a good day. Crossfit was fun; we practiced handstands, bench press, legless rope climbs and l-sits, all of which are things I really enjoy and that I need to work on. The rope climbs are really coming on, and I even got a few seconds in a free handstand hold. Work was fine, and the evening was chilled. I started another Pub Draw lesson (drawing Cashaw from Crit Role campaign 1), WW made an excellent chicken, sweet potato and chickpea curry, and I got to bed at a decent time. Hip rehab, teeth and exercise all done, and calories on track. Yesterday was a good day too. Crossfit was front squats, I built up to 75kg (~165#) x 3, 67.5kg (~149#) x 5 and 60kg (~132#) x 7. That top triple is my body weight, which I'm pretty damn happy with for a front squat. The WOD was brutal. It was a variation on Cindy (paging @TGP) with a a heavy clean each round. Full workout was 10 rounds for time: • 1 clean • 5 pullups • 10 pressups • 15 air squats I used 65kg (~143#) for the cleans, which felt brutally heavy. The pullups felt great, which I was really pleased with, but the pressups just murdered me. We had a 20 minute time cap and I hit it at 9 rounds and 14 reps. Goal next time (if we ever do it again) will be to finish the workout! We had lunch with a client at work and everyone was having drinks and big meals, so I decided to indulge and take it as a high calorie day for the week. It was a really good lunch which reminded me how nice meeting clients can be. Having a high calorie day meant I also got to enjoy it being Pancake Day (do other countries celebrate Shrove Tuesday by eating pancakes), so after D&D WW and I had late night pancakes before bed. D&D was great too. We finished off some zombie cats and cleared the crypt we were exploring, coming away with a few good valuables. Then we headed back up to the garden of the manor where we were attacked by a two-headed dog which I finished off with ease. We then found 3 skeletons which attacked us on sight, but again we made short work of them. I'm really enjoying playing Volto, my teifling rogue, in this campaign. He basically doesn't deal any damage unless I can surprise my enemies or get into an advantageous position, so it's making me really thinking about good battlefield positioning, using hiding a feinting manoeuvres and generally opening up a bit more of the game than just "I walk over and hit it". It also means I get to play him as a dashing swordsman leaping past enemies and flitting through cover, which is pretty fun.

Thanks Puck! I feel like I'm doing alright Thank you mate! I like that. I like that a lot.

Well done on keeping the job search going dude, it's tough to keep going and looking at stuff day after day. I'm sure you'll reap the rewards soon enough.

I fully support and encourage this idea.

That really made me smile, thank you for saying that. For real though, you talking about staying behind at class to do extra ab work is badass, I don't have the determination to do extra work like that. Also, the WODs at your box always look totally insane.

Week 1 Wrap-Up Hip Rehab - 6/7 Actually not as bad as I thought - a bit of a planning fail on Tuesday so that's a good reminder to plan for difficult days better. Tooth Care - 5/7 Not ideal, but ok. I need to remember to do this on the weekends first thing, as it's a break from my usual morning shower routine. Exercise - 5/7 Didn't actually miss any of these, just lost points for failures on the floors below (i.e. the goals above ^ ). I did miss my long run, but runs will be shorter now as I deload towards Winter Nuts. Calories - 5/7 One day actually over, and the other miss due to failures below. Hit an average of 2,621 daily calories, against my target average of 2,650, so very happy with that. I started this year at 12 stone 2 (170# / ~77.1kg) and started this challenge at 12 stone 1 (169# / ~76.7kg). Last week I registered what I'm sure was an anomaly at 11 stone 10 (164# / ~74.4kg), and today I weighed in at 11 stone 11 (165# / ~74.8kg). So in the first two weeks of this challenge I've lost 4# - an average of 2# per week is a bit higher than I was hoping for but if I can sustain it that's great. I've been feeling a bit hungry recently, hopefully as my weight drops and my calories don't that should solve itself. Extra Credit - 2/3 I decided adding yet another workout to yesterday probably wasn't the greatest idea. Ideally if I can get one of these in in the first half of the week it will be easier to do without cramming everything in to the weekend. This Week Key points to be aware of: I have D&D Tuesday and Thursday, and snooker Wednesday, so evening time is limited. Need to prioritise hip rehab before games where I can, and hangboard on one of these days (ideally Tuesday) if time permits. If I can Hangboard Tuesday, Friday and Sunday will work for my other extra credit sessions. I'm also in London Wednesday, so need to be prepared to be eating food provided at the conference. Also need to plan when I'm waking up on Wednesday. Looks like I need to be on a train at 20 past 7, so for a 4 mile run I need to be out the door maybe 10 to 6. So 05:30 start I guess! High calorie days will probably be Wednesday and long run, which takes a bit of pressure off the eating at the conference.

Yeah, Sunday was good. I'm more disappointed about Saturday because I'd planned to do stuff; if I'd have planned to sit around the house all day I'd probably be ok with it!

Not too much more to say about Friday. I hit all goals, and stayed up a bit late watching TV. Yesterday was... a bit of a non-day to be honest. My alarm went off at 8, but I stayed in bed for ages and got up at 10. I was due to go for my long run, but I never managed to get myself off the sofa and go. I basically sat in front of the TV watching Acq Inc. - The C Team all day. Had scrambled eggs on toast for breakfast, cereal for lunch and a loose variation on carbonara with bacon, leeks and spring onions for dinner. Turns out you don't have to worry about calorie restriction on long run day if you skip the long run (I don't endorse this tactic). Late on I convinced myself to do a surprisingly intense yoga video on YouTube, so that I'd /technically/ hit my exercise goal. So exercise sorted, calories sorted, did my hip stuff after the yoga. Went to bed about half 10, and at that point I realised that because I hadn't exercised first thing, I hadn't showered first thing, and as a result I hadn't brushed my teeth in the morning. So /technically/ I don't get points for any of my goals other than hip rehab. Its a good thing I realised that so late, or I might have thrown my other goals out the window. Overall not a successful day, and a reminder that I don't do very well if I stay at home and don't get dressed or see anyone all day. Today I got up and failed to run, but I did go bouldering and had a great time there. On my way home the sun came out, and I was suddenly inspired to run, so I went and did 5 miles when I got back. This afternoon I watched the shocking display in the rugby, and did my Bard workout. So that's 2/3 extra credit workouts. I looked back at my challenge goals and /technically/ there's nothing to stop me doing two of these workouts in one day. I'm not sure I actually have the energy though, after bouldering, running, and the Bard (biceps, triceps, low abs) to also do the Fighter (pullups and pushups). We'll see if I feel inspired after dinner.

Oo honey sounds like a great choice, I'm going to give that a go next time. That's a fair point. Just trying to keep consistent, but as long as the average is ok it's fine.

Glad to hear your kicking arse at Crossfit C_Q, you've got a lot more grit than me. Sorry to hear about the anxiety, do reach out if you want to talk to someone, on here or on messenger. I love those! They remind me of my favourite quote about Irish summers (I may be paraphrasing), "Summer in Ireland is lovely, last year it was on a Wednesday."

Oh I'll marry her. I mean, we've been engaged for almost 11 years, and the plan is currently to win the lottery, buy a house, and then get married, but we'll get there. You too, hopefully we'll both feel better by Monday! It was good! The balsamic glaze was just 2 tbsp sugar and 4 tbsp balsamic vinegar brought to a boil and then simmered. Simmer for 3 minutes for a nice glaze, or 8 minutes for treacle. And thanks you, that's really sweet of you to say.

Yesterday was a good day. We didn't go grocery shopping, instead we grabbed just what we needed for dinner on the way home, and then put in an order for a grocery delivery today. WW cooked venison burgers with red onion chutney, crispy kale and home made chips. 'Twas lovely! I did get my hangboarding done - I still suck at it but that's the point of doing it consistently - and my hip exercises. I also emptied my change jar, where I put leftover change if I have it at the end of the week, and bagged it up to take to the bank. As that saving's supposed to be spent on fitness stuff I got myself some neoprene gloves (think those will be essential for Nuts if it's seriously cold this year), a massage peanut and a couple of running baselayer tops. Watching the last of Monsterhearts and the start of last week's Crit Role, brushed my teeth to hit 5/5 goals for the day, and went to bed. Not a super early night, but I was in bed by half 10 and got a solid 7ish hours to 05:40 this morning, then dozed until my 6am alarm. Calories were slightly on the low side at 2,285 - I'm undecided if I should have filled up an extra 100 somewhere to get closer to my 2,410 goal. Lower = faster weight loss (to a point), but I want to avoid under-eating. ====== Crossfit this morning was rough. Three workouts, each 15-12-9 of an acrobatic movement and calories on a cardio machine: Chest to bar, air bike Toes to bar, rowing Handstand pushups, ski erg I felt pretty grim, and still full of cold, so there was a lot of coughing and trying not to spit up phlegm. I also finished last on every workout, although to be fair I was the only one to do the first two Rx, and the only one doing handstand pushups on the 3rd (though I did them with 2 ab mats, so not Rx). All were done in their respective 12 minute time caps though, and sometimes when you're feeling rough just showing up's a win. Tonight WW is going to her parents for a couple of days, so I'm looking at a weekend on my own. Still thinking of things to do, but there's rugby to watch and I want to do some drawing and I'll have two runs and go bouldering and, well, I'm sure I won't be short of stuff!