Jarric

Got 12/12 stretches yesterday evening, though I stayed up a bit late doing it. Today I'm at 3/12 after Crossfit, will get the rest when I get in this evening. Yesterday morning at Crossfit we had yoke picks from a squat. I worked up to 150kg (~330#) but stopped their as my form was getting dodgy. Then we had a WOD of thrusters and toes to bar. During the second round of toes to bar I suddenly got a splitting headache right up the back of my head, to the point where I could barely stand. It eased off enough over the next 10 minutes for me to drive home, but it still hurt all day yesterday and a little when I got up this morning. Not ideal; wish I knew exactly what had caused it. I took Crossfit easy as a result this morning. Deadlifts were 100kg (~220#) x 3, 90kg (~198#) x 5 and 80kg (~176#) x 7. Then we had some sandbag carries and some SkiErg. In other news my SIM card in my phone seems to have broken, and I had no idea how debilitating not having a phone would be. I tried to buy a temporary gym pass online today and couldn't do it because they need to text me a code to verify the purchase. So I can't go to the gym because my phone's fucked! #firstworldproblems Work is also mega busy, and I am very very stressed right now. To end on a positive, I'm going out tonight for food and drink with some D&D friends, so that will be cool.

Friday I didn't get any exercises done at the hotel, so finished on 2/12. Saturday I did nothing. Sunday I got back on track with 12/12. None so far this morning, but I have plenty of time this evening as long as I make this a priority. Thanks dude, Friday night was really good! Saturday unfortunately we all had an absolute nightmare of a day, so ended up not meeting up. It would be funny if it wasn't so depressing! ===== Had a wonderful time at my work Christmas do on Friday night. Given that we immediately started drinking when we arrived, and then I had to change into my tux and get back to the event, exercises did not happen. I could have made time for them, and I failed to do that. Saturday I felt a bit like I'd drunk a boat load of alcohol and then passed our for 5 hours, which isn't surprising as on Friday I'd drunk a boat load of alcohol and then passed our for 5 hours. Couldn't meet up for my Ranger Christmas night out which was a real shame, but we'll make it up some other time. Instead I mostly sat on the sofa and tried to stay conscious. Sunday I was feeling much better and more productive, so I tidied the house, did a bit of cleaning, sorted myself out for the week and cooked a roast dinner. WW's got a really painful neck - we're not sure why but it was so bad she couldn't get dressed on Saturday - so I was on fetch and carry duty while she relaxed on the sofa. Actually quite a good day in a weird way. The one thing I failed to do all weekend was run. I hadn't planned when I was going to run, and you know what they say, when you fail to plan...

12/12 exercises again yesterday, in front of the TV watching Knights of the Everflame. I'm on 2/12 today (as usual getting a couple of bits in after Crossfit). I won't be able to make all 12 as I'm going to our work Christmas party straight from work and staying in a hotel tonight. Hopefully should be able to do most when I check into the hotel, but I won't have access to a foam roller or massage ball. Has I thought of this earlier I could have done those bits this morning and left everything else. ===== Good to have you as always, Wolfman. *raises glass* ===== So can I just start by apologising for the result of the UK election today? I don't know why we did it either, and I feel more and more like I'm in some weird dystopian future. I promise we're not all feckless, arrogant, ignorant, bigoted, racists cunts over here, we just seem to vote for them. Aaaanyway, last night was nice and chilled, watched Knights of the Everflame and Critical Role, packed my tux up ready for today, and then got an early night. Crossfit this morning was 2 second pause squats at 85kg (~187#) for 3 x 4. Felt better than my triples at the same weight at the start of the week, which is good. Then we had a 15 minute EMOM of 1 clean, ascending weight. Doing this with power cleans is one of my favourite workouts, and with full cleans it was still fun (though I'm not as good at them). I started at 30kg (~66#) and finished at 65kg (~143#), as it turns out I should probably have started heavier, but I mathed badly and thought the numbers would go up faster than they did. Tonight is my work Christmas do - a meal and drinks at a hotel, all in black tie, with an Oscars theme. Should be really good fun. Tomorrow I've got a Ranger Christmas do with @Charlie_Quinn, @jonfirestar, @Rhovaniel and WW. We're going climbing and then out for craft beer; should be really good fun. I just hope tonight doesn't take too much out of me!

Glad you're enjoying running again dude. I have a feeling you're gonna do really well at RRDW next year.

12/12 exercises again yesterday. Did the majority after I got home from snooker and after quite a few beers, so I ended up going to bed at half midnight again. 2/12 so far for today as I did a couple after Crossfit/before work. Tonight will be a quite night in, so I'll get the rest done early and get some sleep! Snooker last night was good fun, and we won both matches 4-1 which was a bonus. Crossfit this morning was good, but man my shoulders are going to hate me tomorrow! The WOD was 6 rounds of 6 deficit handstand pressups, 8 dumbbell snatches and 10 double unders. My handstand pressups were down to a couple of mats (deficit is a bit beyond me!), and I had single unders as I can't do double unders. I think I managed 4 rounds and a rep before the 9 minute time cap, and I spent almost all of that on the pressups. That was followed by bench press, for sets of 3-3-5-5-7-7. I got over-ambitious on the first set (given the beer and lack of sleep particularly) and went for 70kg (~154#). I only got 1 rep at that and failed the second, thought it might be a new 1RM at least! Remainder were done at 65kg (~143#), 62.5kg (~137.5#) and 57.5kg (~126.5#) respectively. Tonight is an early night as mentioned. Tomorrow won't be as we have our office Christmas party in the evening - should be fun but it tends to get heavy!

12/12 exercises yesterday. Didn't do any when I got in from work and had to stay up past midnight to get them done, but they were done. On 2/12 so far today - got a couple in after my run/before work. That's my usual plan too! Not that I'm not still doing stuff this time round, but I think one challenge focus will do me good. Thanks man, it's appreciated. Thank you! It was really good fun actually - not my favourite band but hilariously weird and they put on a great show. Of course you are ===== Work yesterday was stressful - we're busy at the moment so when people send me stupid things it really winds me up. Did a bit of ranting and hopefully when I get back next time will be what I've actually asked for. The gig was really good fun. As I mentioned to Terra above I'm not a massive Darkness fan (WW really is), but they're weird and upbeat and I know enough to sing along a bit. On their new album they have a whole song lamenting the loss of a deck chair, all good stuff! When we got in I stuck on Acquisitions Incorporated; The 'C' Team and did the rest of my exercises. Took about 40 minutes, and I got to bed about 20 past midnight. This morning was supposed to be a 7 mile run, but I lost a mile to getting up late and a mile to running to slowly (and therefore out of time). Seemed like everything was going against me - lack of sleep, DOMS from squats, a bit of a cold, soft ground, headtorch light fading. So in imperfect circumstances I'll call 5 miles a success and move on. Tonight my team have two snooker matches to play simultaneously, both against a team we're pretty friendly with. Should be a good night!

*fistbump* It was so cool to meet you too man, hope we can make next year work! Welcome to the party Ranger Hal! Not everything's going to stick, and certainly not everything at once, but it sounds like you're on a good track

Yeah, you had a challenge (maybe a battle log?) where you wrote as a representative of every faction in Sigil and had them react to things that were happening in your real life. It was a fascinating introduction to Planescape, an insight into your psyche, and thoroughly hard to follow!

A wood elf steps slowly to the bar. Surveying the scene of this grand gathering of the Rebellion he smiles softly, and starts to work he way through the crowd. He face displays an ease which is betrayed by the pronounced limp on his left side. Pint of the black stuff, barkeep, he says, and the barman allows him the ritual of the request before producing the drink from below the bar. Turning to face no-one in particular, as though staring into a camera that isn't there, he speaks. So you want to know how I got here, eh? Well, let me tell you a story... Honestly I'm not sure how I found this place. I suspect it started with seeing a Darebee workout on Imgur, and then looking up superhero workouts, and then to the blog post and free resources before finding the forums. I'd lost all of the weight I wanted to when I got here, I was looking to get strong and so I joined a gym and joined the Rebellion I think in February 2016. I'm a lot heavier and a lot stronger now, and the fittest I've been in my life thanks in no small part to you wonderful nerds

Exactly! 4/12 exercises so far today, which I managed to get in at the end of Crossfit. Plan is to do 3 more as soon as I get home, then the remaining when I get back from a gig tonight. Crossfit this morning was ok. First we had 5x3 back squat - I planned to do this at 95kg (~209#) but my hip hurt and form wasn't great so I stopped at 85kg (~187#) for the working sets. Then we had a couple of attempts at the following WOD: 10 burpees over rower 300m row 500m air bike Just under 3 minutes of disgustingness each time. My hip is pretty angry after all that, but I expect it to get worse for a few days before it starts getting better with consistent work. Tonight I'm going to see The Darkness with WW (Wonder Woman; my fiancée). They're her favourite band so this was my early Christmas present to her.

I've been seeing people talk about this challenge, and this time of year in general, as a time to step back, take a break, and plan for the year ahead. And I guess this time of year means very different things for different people. For me it's silly season; Christmas parties have begun, there's a lot of late nights and social engagements in my near future, and work is going to be mad as we try to get everything done before the country shuts down for a week from Christmas to New Year. So rather than taking time to make plans and get ready for the year ahead, and probably thoroughly overwhelming myself in the process, I'm going to focus on just one thing. I'll call it the Way of the Single Mind, because that sounds like a monk archetype for D&D and that's pretty cool. I've always had dodgy hips, and in January of last year I hurt my left hip quite badly doing a yoke carry. I got some physio, and got given lots of exercises and stretches to do to deal with the issue. And my hip got significantly better, almost totally better, at which point I got distracted by life and stopped doing all of those things that made it better. And now it hurts. So all I'm going to focus on this challenge is doing my rehab exercises and stretching. They come first, before social events, before sleep, before everything. All of my physical goals rely on my body working correctly, and this is the foundation that that rests on right now. I'll give myself 25XP for completion of three weeks of exercises. There'll be lots of other stuff going on over the next three weeks, and I'm sure I'll talk about it here once they have happened. But I'm not talking about plans for any of them, I have only onw goal this time round. I've got 12 exercises/stretches to do in total each day. Today is day one, and I've got 12 out of 12. Bring on tomorrow.

Well that was more thought provoking than anything I expected to read today, thank you for sharing man. I'm glad you're making progress on finding what it is you really want. Also, in a way choosing your goals based on what's actually important, rather than doing what's expected, is very much in the /spirit/ of the Rebellion, if not the expectation. Also, also, you are the person who first introduced me to Planescape with one of your challenges a couple of years ago, so I'm really excited to see more Planescape again!

These both sound incredible and I want to see them. I'd count it; it's more mythology than it is a rulebook. Then again I've never set a reading goal so I may be the wrong person to give advice! I suppose it depends what you wanted to achieve when you set the goal in the first place, and whether MToF is in the spirit of that.

I've heard that before and applied it to some things, but I'd never thought of apply it to physical training. I will have to experiment with that now.

Yesterday morning crossfit was fun, yoke squat pickups, overhead squats and sled pulls. Man my hip hurts now though. Yes yesterday evening we pretty much just chilled out and watched Critical Role, and I got my stretches in. Gotan early night for an early morning today. Unfortunately I woke up at 2am with terrible stomach ache and took a while to get back to sleep. I decided to skip my 5am alarm and my morning run, and slept in until 6am instead. Today I'm volunteering at a Spartan Stadion race at Twickenham Stadium with @Rhovaniel , which should be fun. @Charlie_Quinn and Stu are running too so it'll be nice to see them. Got a train at 7am and I'm now almost there at 8:08 - might be a long day.

Hey Terra, hope you're recovered from the gluten by now? Well done on teaching those self defence classes, I'm always impressed by anyone who can keep a room full of teenagers engaged.

Have I? Am I missing something?

We didn't slay giants last night. After a brief disagreement on how best to climb a 50ft cliff face, we reached a cave that we hoped leads through the mountains. It was dark, but when I cast dancing lights and sent them through the room, we saw its occupants. 3 wyverns, hanging from the ceiling like bats. In the first round the things started grabbing people and flying out of the cave, giving them the horrible choice of die in their mouths or die from the fall. I cast fly on Linnie, our ranger, so when she broke free she could zoom about firing arrows. Liekki, our kinesticist, has so much health that he just blew up the thing with fire and took the 50ft fall in its jaws. Then the red dragon came out. We've met this thing once before and scared it off, so now it wanted revenge. It was quite a tense battle, but eventually all wingéd lizards were dead and smouldering. And then we found the dragons horde. 9,000 gold's worth of coins, mostly in copper. 9,000 gold is 900,000 copper coins, weighing in at 90,000# or just over 40 British Imperial tonnes (just over 40 metric tons, and 45 US imperial tons). There isn't a bag of holding in the world big enough to carry all that! In the end we took the statues and gems that were worth having, filled our bag of holding with 5,000 silver coins (only worth 500 gold), and got ready to move on.

They mouse does so much in PC games that it's hard to get the controls wrong I think. WASD to move and strafe, mouse to look around, left and right click for the main actions you are regularly doing. I think the trick actually is to avoid the temptation to use every key on the keyboard. Every time I pick up Skyrim again I have to pull out the manual to remember what keys do what because there's so many of them: https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/elderscrolls/images/f/f1/Kbd-elder-scrolls-v-the-skyrim.svg/revision/latest?cb=20180421181218

Well don't tell anyone, but I'm actually psychic. (Or maybe I just know how much you love LOTR )

Don't worry about getting everything done when you're busy, just make sure you know what's important and make time for that. Right now it seems like what's important for you is PT and work, so make sure those things get your attention and try not to stress about the other stuff. Also, your job sounds really interesting!

Well done on week 3 - particularly getting your physio in, I know that can be a challenge to add to a busy schedule! I've also just realised from your last post that it's week 4. I thought it was week 3. I feel like I've lost a week of my life somehow...

I've never come across this phrase before, but I really like it! I'm also a keyboard and mouse gamer. Particularly for FPS's, I can aim so much faster and more accurately moving a mouse than a stick on a controller.

You are Rhovanial. Wholly, fully and truly. You have an image in your head of Rho at 20th level, powerful enough to take on the gods, and that's great. That's your goal. Right now you're levelling up, so keep killing rats in the tavern cellar and clearing out goblin caves and know that with enough XP you will be that 20th level Rhovanial in the end. In the meantime you're still Rhovanial, and you're levelling up. And don't think you're level 1 either. You've grown so much as a person in the time I've known you - you are already on your journey. Progress isn't quick and it isn't linear; sometimes you'll take a wrong turn or spend time lost in the forest, or just take time to rest at the last homely house before pressing on. But know that you are still making progress.

"Fascinating," mutters Jarric, crouching down next to the creature. He touches the back of it's neck, gingerly at first, and then strokes it more confidently. "We could tie it up while it's out," he says, addressing the gathered rangers, "but I'd be worried about it hurting itself if it tried to break its bonds. Is there somewhere we can contain it whilst we calm it down?"