Jarric

Looks like you're doing awesome despite illness, well done on a good dance workout! Good luck with your busy busy day today! I'm green with envy right now. $198k equates to just shy of £150k, for which I could get a 1 bed apartment in a bad area round here, or a 2 bed retirement flat if I was over 65. And I live in the countryside - I couldn't buy a beach hut for that in the city!

This year I'll be off roaming the guilds, and trying to learn some things. I'll always keep checking back in here though, lest the barman forget my order in my absence! Pint of the black stuff barkeep.

Year of the Aramenté Last year I wrote out a road map at the start of the year, and then I basically didn't look at it for the rest of the year. I kept my goals in mind though. Number 1 was to find a better work life balance, so I quit my job and moved to something much more rewarding and much closer to home. Goal 2 was to run 4-5 OCRs in the year. I ran at least 5 races, although they were not all OCRs, so I think that counts. Goal 3 was to get out of debt and start saving. I made no progress on that until October, at which point I worked hard on it for a couple of months before Christmas hit and I slid right back to where I started. Guess which goal's coming back this year? The Aramenté In the style of Keyleth from Critical Role, this year I will be undertaking my own Aramenté. I will be travelling to each of the tribes of Nerd Fitness, completing tasks, and ultimately growing as a person. The inspiration for this comes from something that @Tanktimus the Encourager said a long while ago in the Ranger guildhall. A ranger was asking if it was still ok to hang out there, as they were challenging with another class this time round. And Tank pointed out (paraphrasing heavily) that in order to be a good ranger and do allthethings, one must experience different ways of doing things and expand ones horizons. From there I decided that I should become a better ranger, and a more rounded person, by travelling to visit all of our friends in other guilds and stealing their powers learning what I can from each of them. In addition each challenge should be relevant to my overall goals for the year. The Goals 1 - OCR World Championship This year, the OCRWC is coming to the UK. It is my aim to qualify for and compete in it, as it sounds like the most awesome thing to do (especially having heard @EricMN's experiences last year). Realistically it's going to be a long time before it comes back to Europe, let along England, so it's not an opportunity I'm prepared to miss. To qualify as a journeyman all I have to do is compete in 4 other races over the course of the year. That it of course pretty easy, it's just a case of buying a ticket and getting round. But I don't want to just get round, I want to finish well. I'm going to train hard, eat well and try to sculpt myself into a serious amateur OCR athlete by the time October rolls around. 2. Get out of Debt. Start Saving. I really want to own my own house one day. I don't want to still be working a full week to pay shockingly high rent in a shitty 2 bed house in 10 years time. So to do that I need to be more financially responsible. It's not really about earning more (though I shall still try to forward my career), it's about spending much, much less. I fell totally flat on this last year, so this year every single challenge must have at least one goal specifically relevant to becoming a better saver or less of a spender. And that's it, those two things are what I really want from my year, so I'm going to go out and take them. Outlook Before I go I need to mention the amazing things I already have planned for the year. On my birthday, March 3rd, I get to get cold and wet and muddy at Nuts Challenge with @jonfirestar and @Charlie_Quinn. Two weeks later I'll be running a half marathon with those two (and, correct me if I'm wrong, getting to meet @Big_Show too?). I've got volunteering places set up for Tough Mudder where I'll get to cheer on Jon and @Rhovaniel, and with that and volunteering at Spartan I'll have a lot of free tickets under my belt to crush all of these OCRs. Not to mention that I've got Wolf Run in April to add to the collection . When I post my next challenge (this weekend) I'll get the goals up here too. If all goes to plan (unlike last time) I will post all my challenge goals and results here, and track them against my two main goals for the year.

The one in Henley on 28th April? Indeed I am. I'd like to run it but I've got Wolf Run on 29th and I don't want to wreck myself for that one! I'm also volunteering on 24th March at the Olympic Park in London. Should be an interesting event if you (or anyone) are looking to earn a free-ish TM ticket.

I've put down 2:10 on the website (which I assume dictates where they put you in the starting pack?). Honestly I have no idea - the programme I'm going through at the moment is designed to get you sub 2:15, but I only really run on trails so I have no idea how it'll translate to a road race. I will also say that that 10k course was the flattest of flat things. Woo! Yeah, I'm considering whether I'd be better off getting the train. Unless @jonfirestar happens to have parking for several cars

Reading half marathon place now (finally) booked! Look forward to seeing a couple of you there!

I just take mine off and go round fairly blind - I've never felt I've missed anything by doing that. I've been toying with the idea of prescription swimming goggles, but then I'd be sacrificing my peripheral vision. Or if you can get contacts you could get regular swimming goggles to use for the water obstacles and wear round your neck the rest of the race ( @DarK_RaideR did this at TM Ireland so he might be able to tell you how it was). Nice workout! I may have to pinch this as a benchmark test. Maybe this weekend... Well I'm running 4 times a week, building up to that half marathon in March (which I must book my ticket for!) and then adding a few more miles by May. Then I'm thinking Juggernaut twice per week, HIIT or circuits once per week, bouldering once per week (8 days training per week is fine, right?). Also try and get a handful of other races under my belt by then. Ouch! Good Lord man that's madness! I wouldn't worry about hitting the full 20 as a solid run. The common recommendation for a first marathon is for your longest training run to be 20 miles, and this is still significantly less than a marathon. If you can get as far as 15 that'd probably help, but I'm sure there'll be plenty of walking and waiting at obstacles anyway. A lot of people walk/run Parkrun, so as long as you could walk the distance I say go for it and see how much of it you can run. There's usually a few people who walk the whole thing, so I doubt you'd be anywhere near the back even. Also, see my training schedule above! You can do all the things! Though I would recommend adding them in one at a time and slowly.

Solid challenge, well done on hitting just about everything! The yoga retreat sounds like it will be great .

I should certainly hope we are. Guess it's time I got some cold weather training in!

Finally got round to getting my Mudstacle membership and booking my place on Winter Nuts. @Charlie_Quinn, @jonfirestar I'm booked in for 1 lap on the Saturday 10am wave. @Rhovaniel were you thinking of doing this one too or did I imagine that?

Hey dude, hope the cough has finally cleared up, and that you had a great Christmas!

Awesome that you can work out at home now man, I'd love to have the space to get something like that in!

Woo, 5 months to go hype!

Well done you, and well done to Stu for getting his first one too. 2 Parkruns on new year's day though O.o ? Even I think that sounds a bit mad! ====== Got my full gym session in last night - Deadlifts for 5x10 at £75kg (~165#). Deadlift cardio is hard! This morning I did sleep in and missed my run - guess I needed the sleep, and I probably should have just got to bed before 11 last night...

You have absolutely rocked 2017! There's so much awesome in there that I barely know where to start. Actually, I do know where to start: This might just me the most awesome bit of all, so impressed with you for facing this head on like you have.

I did it! Somehow I got round despite a very very heavy day on Christmas eve! How was yours? Thanks! I might get a small amount of time this week at least! ===== So things are still going surprisingly well now I'm getting my act together. I did indeed hit the gym for some (extremely tough) squats on Friday, and did Parkrun on Saturday followed by Christmas shopping and bouldering. Christmas eve I opted to go to the gym first thing for OHP day, then up to London to catch up with some geeky friends. Christmas day I got my Parkrun done (thanks in no small part to WW dragging me there) before opening presents with the family and eating and drinking far too much. Finally yesterday I got another run in before again eating and drinking far too much with family in the afternoon and friends in the evening. I'll be gymming again tonight after work and then I'll be back on track with runs and gym in the mornings as appropriate. Going to keep this thread going until the end of the year whilst I get my 2018 roadmap drawn up and my January challenge decided. Very excited to get into 2018 now!

Thanks man, I'm certainly trying. ====== Tuesday I got out on my morning run; a slow 5 miles. Pathfinder in the evening, which unfortunately got a bit heated and ended badly, so a bit of a downer on our last session of the year. I probably could have done without the couple of beers that I polished off with dinner afterwards. Wednesday I got up and went to the gym, for the first time in quite a few weeks. It felt good to be back, and also like really hard work! Really glad I went though. In the evening I watched most of the final Critical Role/Talks Machina episode online - properly pumped for the new series next year now! Today I did get up for my run, but really wasn't feeling it and the whether was crappy. Managed 2-2.5 miles, then walked home for a total of 3.7. Not the 5 miles I wanted to hit but at least I got out in the first place I suppose. This evening will be a couple of beers with work colleagues, then aiming to go home at a sensible time and sort the house out a bit. Tomorrow I'll be hitting the gym for squats. I finish work early with a quiz, and pizza and beer in the office. Should be fun! Saturday I probably ought to finish my Christmas shopping and tidy the house! Also, Parkrun in the morning needs to happen, and if I get a chance I''d love to go bouldering. Sunday also needs a morning run, and then I'm off to London for my annual Christmas Eve meetup with friends!

Congratulations mate, looking back you've had a very successful year all round!

I'm definitely up for doing it again! I believe that hopalong and MG still have the barrel, so I'm sure we could take it back if we're allowed to. I wouldn't be surprised if they made us buy a new barrel again though TBH. If you are able to do the payment this year that would be great, thank you! As you say we can worry about it in Feb though.

Well I won't say I'm back on track, but The Captain's wedding was awesome and now it's over I'm feeling a bit less stressed. I just barely got out of bed in time for Parkrun on Saturday, and got round in just shy of 28 minutes so no real loss of speed there. Yesterday I set up my training plan for Reading Half next year and went on my first run for it - 10 miles steady pace. After nearly 2 weeks off I didn't think I'd make it all the way round and planned my route to give myself an early out, but it was actually ok (even if my legs aren't too pleased with me today). Yesterday evening I was feeling motivated, so I tried to use that to set myself up for a good start to the week. I prepped 3 breakfasts and two lunches and re-set my Juggernaut spreadsheet with slightly lower weights so that will hopefully be more manageable. I also got my pullups in, updated my bujo and flossed. I still slept in this morning and didn't make it to the gym, so not quite there yet, but I'm determined that I'm going to get up to run tomorrow.

Haha, thanks. I just need to take some lessons from RDJ on how to look that cool whilst doing it! I know you know about a crazy hectic life, so thanks for the advice. Thank you. Well I may have agreed to go for a Parkrun on Christmas day at 9am - that one might be interesting! I'll see if I can't knock out today's Daily Dare this evening.

Great stuff on getting back into it - earn all the points! I'd say that's worth about 5! Then again that's because that'd take me about 2 hours

Heya Puck, hope your staycation went well! I hear you on this being a frantic, difficult time of year. You've got this though, and as long as you make mostly good decisions most of the time you'll do great.

Thanks, good to have you! Hey NTB, good to see you! That is a very good question. See below. ====== The last couple of weeks have been busy as hell, and I've been lacking the mental energy to do much of anything or to try and keep up on here. Or I've been using busyness as an excuse for flaking out on things. I think it may be a bit of both. I dropped off my challenge here on Thursday of week 1, after a work related networking afternoon and a few beers. Then Friday-Sunday week 1 I was on The Captain's stag do. I had almost recovered from the lack of sleep and copious amount of drink when Friday of week 2 rolled round, which was my office Christmas party. That was a fairly heavy night, and then Saturday was snooker and then poker with the Captain, Hopalong and Hamster. For week 3 I have snooker tonight, the Captain's wedding rehearsal Tuesday, staying at his house Wednesday night, the actual wedding all day Thursday and recovery on Friday. Then I can start thinking about Christmas. On top of all of this work is absolutely mental at the moment, so half the time I'm skipping lunch to get more work done and the other half the time I'm off on all these commitments when I wish I was in catching up with things. Sorry, this is turning into a bit of a winge. Basically what I'm saying is for the last 2 weeks I've done no exercise and not looked at any of my goals. This week doesn't look promising either, but I will try and do something. Equally importantly I will try and look at some people's threads, because I've done none of that for 2 weeks either. Looking forward to getting past all of this and into a new year!

Nah I entered ages ago man! Looking forward to meeting you there. I am starting to question the wisdom of that decision!