Jarric

You can definitely insure for this - I'm really shocked that some races don't seem to! If that's the Wolf Run on 29th April in Sussex, I'm doing that one!

I often feel like this! This whole intuitive eating thing sounds really interesting - will be interested to hear your take on it.

Dude, well done on your Rx workout! That looks tough as hell.

Are you the Traveler? O.o

Forgot yesterday's dare in the end Got the flutter kicks in after my run this morning though. No EC - those things are surprisingly hard!

So I can't tempt you back then?

Heya, following along again. Now I want to try hammer holds to see how hard it is - that sounds pretty tough.

Calling @Xena, @NeverThatBored Who else haven't we got yet?

Sounds cool, I'm up for giving this another go! Thanks for tagging me @IAmInfinite

To be fair, that's 90's business attire designed for a larger man Hope your cold clears up soon.

I've not seen much X-Files but WW is well into it (she watched all of it back online last year). What I have seen looks good anyway. As long as I can get there I don't mind! I'm getting the train though, so if they shut Reading station again I might be in trouble Also, I hope you mean 1st and 2nd September, because I've just signed up to marshal Saturday and run Sunday too

Ah, I've just re-read what I wrote and it's not actually what I meant ! I'm supposed to be volunteering at that Spartan - so hopefully I'll see you there but I won't be able to run it with you. I can't even find out what time shift I'm signed up for at the moment though, so I'm not sure what's happening! If there's a chance to volunteer and run on the same day I might do that. It's ok, by 10th April sunrise will be back to where is is today . Related, this is a cool graph: https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/uk/london

Fair enough. I think I would carry it if I had a decent running pack - I get annoyed carrying anything in my hands for that long.

Solid challenge dude. Look forward to seeing you in Reading (and also to seeing you again at the Spartan if they ever send me details of where and when I need to be for it!).

It's weird, it never seems to bother me at all. I drink about 3-4 litres of water a day generally, but at the end of a 13 mile run I feel thirsty but never that bad from it. That is from running that far in winter to be fair, but still.

Well done on getting your domestic rangering done man. I had a flat week exercise wise last week too, but keep pushing on! I'm with you on the caffeine as well - I'm always well and truly caffeinated at all times, so I can't see myself getting much of a boost from it for a race. Then again, I also never eat or drink anything whilst running, so hopefully some water on the way round will do it for me.

Sorry for dropping off the radar for week 4 everyone! It's been mega busy at work, and I've been out doing things almost every night, and I've had personal stuff to sort which I've been doing on my lunch break instead of being on here (things like buys a tux, sorting my car insurance, booking WW's car in for an MOT, all boring things. Stuff from week 4: I missed most of my running, but I did get out for Parkrun Saturday morning. I missed lifting on Monday, went Wednesday instead, but then missed Friday so I'm still behind. I could have gone Friday evening but I was so excited about being able to set up my new PC that I did that instead. Went out all day on Saturday to watch the rugby in a pub and have a late birthday thing with my friends. It was a really great day (not least because Ireland won #teamofus!). Much beer was consumed but got home around half 9 so that wasn't too brutal. I've been listening to podcasts of playtests of the new Pathfinder second edition - I'm really interested in what they're doing with that. I had a great climbing session on Sunday morning despite being much the worse for wear from Saturday, and I completed a 6A+ route for the first time ever! I also pulled my shoulder doing it however, so swapped my lifting for a run this morning and will lift tomorrow assuming it feels ok by then. Final Challenge Stats Prepare for Battle: 21/28 (75%) Do Battle!: 21/28 (+1 bonus session in week 1) (75%) Star Fleet Rations: 15/20 (75%) Gold Pressed Latinum: 2/4 (50%) Ten Forward: 15/28 (54%) I'll do a proper write up on this later, but the short version is that things started well and then as I spent less time on here and less time concentrating on my journal they got worse. This week therefore should be time to do some forum cardio, catch up with everyone and get some proper goals together for the next leg of my Aramenté.

Yeah, but it's always good to stop for sweets and hugs! I can't believe how many people said I was their first hug of the day. Even with less people running, I still think that's something to be proud of! Top 30% of finishers if you want to look at it like that; that's still really good. I might do Fallout in November. It does sound like rather excruciating fun . I'm still not looking at buying socks for it now though . You certainly will mate! I'm looking at getting the train up, getting into Reading station around half 8, so I'll drop you a line and come say hi before the race if I can.

I dunno, it looked like you had a fair bit more in you. Did you know you came 4th in your gender/age category by the way? That's pretty damn cool! 2 laps would be good next year. Depending how fit I'm feeling though, and which side of my birthday it falls, it might be tempting to look at a qualification attempt on 4 laps. I may have a way to go between now and then to achieve that though! Good to know on the socks. To be honest I'm not planning to do anything quite so cold again until next year now, but I'll bear them in mind again. It certainly will be . I just need to get some speakers and a webcam for it now and it'll be properly useful. My monitors arrived today though, so I've set it up and it's so much nicer than messing around on a laptop. It's also somewhat larger; I need a bigger desk! Yeah, I briefly considered waterproof shoes about a year ago, before I realised that that would mean they hold the water in! I kinda love being out on a race thinking "I must be mad for doing this" though. I don't know why!

Sorry for not doing real updates on here - mega busy recently! Firstly, I still don't have after pics of Nuts for you, but here's some during: And now for a quick version of an update: Last weekend was excellent. Friday night I had an early game of snooker and a drink (just 1) with Hopalong and MG. They wanted to give me my birthday present before Nuts, which was a Dryrobe! I think that may have literally saved my life keeping me warm after the race. Saturday I got up, did birthday presents with WW and drove off to Nuts, where I met @Charlie_Quinn and Stu. Unfortunately @jonfirestar was stuck in the snow with no trains, and that sucks as I was really looking forward to running with him, but I know we'll get plenty of opportunity this year. The race itself was great. The bigger water obstacles (lake swim and slide) were closed, and given that the lake was entirely frozen over I don't blame them for that! There were still plenty of streams and ditches full of water to run through, and they were cold as hell. Where volunteers had broken the surface ice on the ditches there were huge 2" thick lumps floating on the surface, and my shins are now a mess of bruises from bashing ice out of the way. At one point, after the initial onslaught of dozens of flooded ditches, I thought I had something stuck in the arch of my foot. On closer examination, however, I discovered that what I was feeling was the arch of my foot - it had got so numb that I couldn't feel it and it was like running on an uncomfortable lump! The course eventually opened out into a beautiful long run through the snowy forest, and I have never been so grateful for a run in my life as my feet slowly came back to life. It also gave us a chance for some bigger obstacles - walls and net climbs and the like - before going back through the streams and towards the finish. When we got to the end I actually felt like I could get through another lap, not that I particularly wanted to, so I'm pretty happy with how prepared I was for this in the end. For the rest of the day, despite having the heater on the in car and bathing my feet whilst in the shower, my feet never got back to a decent temperature. I seriously need to look at thermal socks or something if I do this again, as that was downright painful (and also driving a manual car without being able to feel your feet may not be entirely safe). That night I had a lovely time at a friends house with beer and a curry. The following day I went round my parents and had a birthday Sunday roast with them. They also bought me a computer, which is awesome and I'm very excited to play with. Just waiting for the monitors to arrive, which i may have spent an inordinate amount on to have two decent sized monitors in my life Gotta get back to work now, but i'll try and update this week at some point!

Sorry you got stuck in the ice man! That said, it's just occurred to me that I'll be seeing you in 10 days in Reading, so that's pretty cool! Ah, it wouldn't have been the same without it! I'll do what I can, but be careful what you wish for! *controls global weather patterns* Ok, so I forgot to take an after pic. Have a before pic instead:

Hey man, how's week 3 treating you? Keep moving forward, you've got this.

I can't believe week 3's nearly over already! Where does the time go? Last night I had a fun time at DnD (Rise of Runelords game), and we finished early so that we can level up before next session's combat (to level 2, we're pretty early in the campaign!). This morning I hit snooze a lot again (this may need to be a bonus goal next week), but I eventually got up and hit the gym for a short deload session: Joint Mobility Bench: 20kg x 2 x 5, 25kg x 5, 30kg x 5, 35kg (~77#) x 5 DB Row: 20kg/hand (~44#/hand) x 2 x 12 Defecit Deadlift (now on a 10kg plate): 40kg x 2 x 5, 50kg (~110#) x 5* DB incline: 14kg/hand (~31#/hand) x 3 x 12 Stretched *Even off a higher plate, deadlifts were just too light. Hopefully that's just because it's deload week, and I'll actually start feeling like I'm lifting something next time round. Tonight I'm going to a snooker match straight from work, home for dinner and Crit Role, and then an early night before Nuts Challenge tomorrow. And if I don't get stuck in the snow, and if I don't die of hypothermia on course, expect to see pictures of @Charlie_Quinn, @jonfirestar and myself looking exhausted and happy tomorrow!

Yeah, I think I got in 9 miles once but that was a real push. It's also that much easier in the summer when you just need to throw on shorts and a t-shirt, rather than layer up for the cold. You probably will need to get up to that level for your marathon training. I'm actually thinking of making my weekday runs shorter though (shorter than the plan I'm on anyway) after Reading. I've got Dirty Weekend to think about, but other than that I'm facing a load of 10k-10 mile races, and I think I ought to be looking at improving my paces over that kind of distance rather than running further. Probably something to focus on for my next challenge though. Yeah, there's some one-shots on the G&S channel that definitely hold up to the Crit Role standard, but I've not seen any series that are as good. Shield of Tomorrow is great to geek out to though; it's making me really want to re-watch DS9 and voyager, at least up to where they are chronologically in relation to them.

Yeah, I had forgotten that there was a lake swim, so I'm glad they cut that bit out! I think being under water in this weather could be dangerously disorientating.