Jarric

Thank you. It is a strange feeling isn't it? But I suppose his books were a big part of my life, so in a way it makes sense to feel that loss.

Well done on signing up for BMF, it's always good to try something like that when it scares you. I looked up my local one out of interest but it's far too far away. I thought that was the plan. Albeit without the quitting. Also this^

Love the D2 theme (and the Druid was an awesome character at that)! Following.

Love this challenge, absolutely following along. My main character in D2 was a barbarian. His name was Jarric. I think I might have to jump into this idea too.

Great challenge man, and I hope the leg feels better soon. FWIW I think you're definitely making the right choice in being cautious with it, better a little time off now than a lot of problems down the line.

To be fair, you've done a lot and been through a lot of change this year. It's really inspiring to see how you've pulled yourself through it all though, and how you are building yourself a better life piece by piece. Good stuff; keep on grinding - it's working.

I've done this a few times and never got Titanium, so I'm going full for it this time round! Also, we need some (more) previous champions here: @Geek On Fire, @RocketbikeNinja, @zeroh13, @Alcnedlor, @Magicman, @mom2sjm

Sounds good! Think it could work well with my own challenge when I put it up.

Thanks man. Emotions are weird.

Challenge Wrap-Up Good Blood - 25/28 = 13XP This went pretty well, though I'm pretty disappointed to have not hit 100% on what was the easiest goal. Still, I have lost about 4# this challenge which is marginally more than nothing, and I've made a decision to start on protein shakes (thanks @Cheetah for the recommendation on those) which i think will be a good addition. Now the plan is to keep losing weight over the Christmas period. Hang Out - 20/28 = 7XP This is a good plan; even with only hitting 70% of my sessions I feel stronger and I hit 5x5 pullups a couple of times this challenge. I need to keep this up going forward. Superhuman Speed - 8/12 = 6XP I didn't do this reliably enough to find out if it's helping, so it will be back next challenge. I figured out in week 3 that if I do it inbetween sets of my leg raises (above) then I actually get it done, so that will probably be the format next time round. Vampyre Diaries - 19/28 = 3XP Must try harder! I know this works for me, so I'm going to make an effort to do better going forward. Bonus Goal - Start planning out my race calendar for next year. I did indeed do a chunk of planning, and even registered interest in volunteering at TM 5k. Bonus goal for next challenge will be actually booking some things in! Also, I hit level 10! That means I get to spend my hard-earned change jar on some fitness stuff soon, which is good because my running shorts are more hole than short!

Well, challenge over! Here's the last couple of days. Thursday evening was indeed a chilled one, though I didn't get on here much. Friday I slept in late and missed my gym session . After work I quickly got in my leg raises and ankle exercises and drove down to Salisbury with WW. She'd paid for the night away for me as an early Christmas present. We got dinner out whilst we were there and then grabbed a couple of beers to have in from of the telly at the hotel. Saturday we went to Salisbury museum to see their Terry Pratchett exhibition. It was really interesting and a really lovely thing to do, but also pretty somber. It feels really bizarre that I can mourn the loss of a man I never actually met, and who died over two years ago, and yet I was in tears for most of my time there. Still very glad I went. We were blessed with good traffic on the way home so I just had time to get in an easy 5 mile run. Then i had to get off to run a karaoke night at what was my old local social club. A fun, busy and rather beery evening. None of my actual goals were met this day due to a combination of busyness and laziness. Sunday I did nothing. Nothing at all. Got out of bed just after midday, cooked a bacon sarnie, sat on the sofa reading webcomics and other bits and pieces, cooked pork tenderloin wrapped in bacon, sat on the sofa browsing the internet some more, went to bed. It was actually really nice to do nothing, but I feel somewhat guilty for skipping out on my 14 mile run I should have had, and on all of my challenge goals. Final Scores Good Blood: 25/28 Hang Out: 20/28 Superhuman Speed: 8/12 Vampyre Diaries: 19/28

That looks amazing, do want. Nuts Challenge, 3rd March, if you want to start your year off cold, wet and muddy

You can say that again. That hill is The South Downs - the capitals are well deserved here I think.

Looks like perfect weather for a barbecue to me.

Tune! Sounds like a good plan - when life gets busy make sure the foundations are solid man.

Haha, love it. And thanks, there's been a couple of stumbles but generally I think it's gone rather well. Excellent, I will let you know mate. Agreed on the running with others thing, it's definitely more fun but I'll try and get at least 1 or 2 races solo as well this year so I can test my timing out. That hill is The South Downs - the capitals are well deserved here I think.

Update for the first half of week 4: Monday I lifted (bench day) and had a hard but decent session. Ate a bit too much, or the calories might have been high from a couple (3) beers at snooker. Did leg raises, ankle routine and bujo. Tuesday I ran in the morning, 6.3 miles in total. Had a chilled night in so I got to watch a bit of the coverage from World's Toughest Mudder, and some of Critical Role playing Honey Heist which is just the most ridiculous thing in the world. Got my pullups and bujo done. Yesterday I lifted in the morning (squats which i can very much feel now), and had snooker again in the evening. I had driven to save money and beer calories. I still managed to eat a load of crap at work though, followed by a load more crap at snooker even when I wasn't hungry. I don't usually get like this but I feel like any self-control I have is being sapped by how busy work and life in general are at the moment. It still "only" came out at 3k kcal for the day, but I burned very little all day somehow so it worked out pretty poorly. Got home and though it was late I made sure to get my leg raises and ankle routine in. So far this week I'm running perfectly on all my goals, so let's keep it up! Stats at W4D3: Good Blood: 23/28 Hang Out: 19/28 Superhuman Speed: 7/12 Vampyre Diaries: 17/28 Today I ran first thing. Had to cut it "short" as I miscalculated the time it would take, but still managed 7.25 out of the 8 I had planned. My protein powder has also arrived so I'll be trying that out and seeing how much it helps my numbers. The flavour isn't great but I think I can get used to it Tonight will be a chilled one so I'll catch up on here if I can.

Wow, I've been really bad at updating and catching up on here every weekend. Part of it's being busy doing fun things, and I think part of it's being busy at work and not wanting to look at a screen when I'm out of the office! Wither way, here's the end of week 3: Friday Deadlifts in the morning, work, climbing in the evening. As mentioned above I was late to climbing and din't score too well, but I had an awesome time. No ankle exercises, did not bujo. Saturday Parkrun first thing, in a very slow and very tough 28 + something minutes. Quick turnaround to go out for a massive fried breakfast with my parents and sister. In the afternoon I went bouldering again and totally killed my shoulders, but again had loads of fun - this time with Hopalong and MG. In the evening the rugby was on so WW and I drank beer, cooked fajitas and watched Australia trounce Wales (though it was a very good match). Between the beer, two massive meals and a load of snacks whilst watching TV I was well over my target calorie deficit. I think I was just tired from a couple of really busy days, but i had no self control at all and just ate what was there. Not ideal. The only small win is that I didn't go out to buy more beer when we finished it. No ankle exercises, did not bujo. Sunday On Sunday I was due a 13 mile run, so I decided to run to Brighton and meet WW there. The only slight problem is there's a bit of a hill in between here and there: Funnily enough, it doesn't look any less steep when you look at the splits: Dist Pace Elevation 1 mi 10:06 -18 2 mi 10:49 32 3 mi 10:48 22 4 mi 13:06 -34 5 mi 13:28 66 6 mi 11:26 32 7 mi 17:46 488 8 mi 12:23 -172 9 mi 10:09 -150 10 mi 10:35 -171 11 mi 11:03 -103 12 mi 10:13 -28 13 mi 9:51 -41 All in all I got lost twice on the way to the downs, and once as soon as I got into Brighton on the other side. I stopped a few times for map/GPS reading purposes, but still got the 13 miles done in just over 2 and a half hours, so I'm confident that a sub 2:30 half marathon should be possible on a flatter route (and without getting lost!). The rest of the day was pretty chilled - wandered around Brighton briefly until WW was ready to go home, did a bit of meal prep at home and got to bed reasonably early. No ankle exercises, did not bujo. Skipped pullups too, but after two days bouldering in a row and knowing I had bench Monday I think it was the best decision for my shoulders. Stats at End of Week 3: Good Blood: 20/28 Hang Out: 16/28 Superhuman Speed: 5/12 Vampyre Diaries: 14/28 This week i'm aiming for perfection, and if I get it those numbers will look alright come the end of the challenge.

No worries man. If you do decide to go to it I'll be driving to it so I'm quite happy to pick you up from the local train station (which appears to be Holmwood) or some other station like Three Bridges if that's an easier journey for you. That is a little way from 5th, yes . The only one I have to compare was Tough Mudder Sussex, where I took over twice as long to get round as the 1st place runner (not that TM's a qualifying event. but I think it's a good indication). For both of us i think we're looking at years to be qualifying standard rather than months. Thank you! I'm actually getting slower on them, but I'm happy to live with that for the increased distance. And the bolded bit? I'll take that as a compliment

It does. Now go run.

Welcome back dude, good to see you again.

Well if you can make it, it'd be great to run that with you. I'm looking at exactly the same plan. I don't know how fast qualifying time will be yet, but I do know I'm nowhere near it! Deal!

1 or 2 probably. Doubt I'll be up for more than that - I want to enjoy it rather than just survive it! (I think though that if you're looking for an early OCRWC qualifier then you would have to do the Sunday, and have to do 3 or 4 laps :/ )

Firstly, belated Happy Birthday mate! Sorry i wasn't here to say it at the time, but sounds like you had a good one. Secondly, that race sounds incredible. Totally stupidly difficult, but just incredible! Great write-up man.

Cross post from my thread, am I overthrowing this? : OK, so I've done some work on my long list race calendar. Have a look below and let me know what I'm missing, what I need to add and anything else I should be thinking of. I doubt I'll make all of these events, but I'd like to start with a long list and narrow it down. A couple of questions first, 1. 3rd March is my birthday, and I'm going to run Nuts Challenge. I'd love to see some of you guys there so would anyone else like a stupidly tough winter event? And what distance would people want to do? 2. I seem to remember that people were looking at doing Strong Viking next year. Is this still a thing? And if so which event was it? March 3rd - Nuts Challenge - birthday event! 18th - Reading Half Marathon 23rd 24th - Tough Mudder London 5k - not really interested in running this, so it's ideal to volunteer at instead April 7th-8th- Spartan South East - likely run one and volunteer one 14th - The Reaper - could run day and night 28th - Tough Mudder London West - probably volunteer this one 29th - Wolfrun Sussex - Booked May 5th-6th - Tough Mudder London West - maybe run 1 volunteer 1 12th - Rat Race Dirty Weekend - Booked 19th-20th - Nuclear Rush - could run 1 volunteer 1 26th-27th - The Elements June 2-3 - Wolfrun Leicestershire 3 - Mud Monsters 8-10 blocked off for Download Festival 22-24 Spartan South West - mix of running and volunteering 24 World War Run 30-1 either walk London to Brighton or Ramblin Man Fair July 7-8 Tough Mudder London North - volunteer 1 run 1 13-15 Spartan - Mix of volunteering and running 21-22 Tough Mudder Ireland (probably not in reality, but it was fun last year) August 17-18 Barrel of Laps September 1-2 Nuts Challenge 1-2 Wolf Run Warwickshire 8 Nuclear Blast & Blackout 17 Only Fools Ride Horses 22 & 29-30 Tough Mudder London South - a definite as it's so close to me, both run and volunteer 29-30 Wolfrun Sussex October 6-7 Spartan Windsor 19-21 OCR World Championship November 3 Nuclear Fallout 3-4 Wolf Run Leicestershire