Jarric

I'm here for this, love the goals this time round. How amazing does the power rangers animation still look btw?

Have a fantastic break and a fantastic wedding man.

Mid-Week Icebreaker If you had to have the head of an animal, on your body instead of your own head, what animal would it be? I think for me I'd go with a Siberian tiger - it's got a kind of khajiit vibe going on and also they just look really cool.

I'd call rattlesnake pretty exotic! And bear and coyote for that matter - when you think about it we don't often eat carnivores. I don't actually know why though.

Update - Wednesday W0-I D3 Another good day. Hit the gym in the morning for squats - top set again was 8+ reps, done at 70kg. Hit 9 which I'm pretty happy with. Also it pushes the weight up just enough that I should be hitting bodyweight on my top sets next month. As a result I do not have ALL THE DOMS, but it was worth it. Got home and managed to fit in the daily dare (40 climber taps) and have couscotto for dinner (couscous cooked like risotto). Then it was snooker in the evening which was pretty fun. Had a few beers and a laugh but decided to leave earlyish at 10 so I could get myself sorted and in bed around 11. Less points than Monday or Tuesday due to actually doing something in the evening, but still smashed it was a score of 28. Budget Bonus: After the beers I have £60.50 remaining this week. Running Bonus: Rest day; nailed it.

Any of the best artists in history have stacks of work that are just copies of other artists. Imitation is a great way to learn.

That's exactly how wars start

I'd be more than happy to agree a standard system for all of us. As long as you all agree to do it my way.

That's a great epiphany to have. And you're right, that was bullshit! We are what we believe we are - keep telling yourself how strong you are and you will do strong things and become even stronger.

Update - Tuesday W0-I D2 Quick update because I'm running out of lunch break! Yesterday was a cracking day. Got up and went out for my run - 3 miles easy + 3 strides. Legs felt very heavy to start with and didn't completely recover all the way through, but I got through it for a total of 4.01 miles including the cooldown walk. After work I cooked roast chicken legs for dinner, serves with roast new potatoes and green beans, and tidied the house a bit whilst I was cooking. I also printed what I could of my travel docs for Ireland, and printed my Ocean Colour Scene tickets as I'm going to see them in a couple of months - which is really exciting! Got in my pull-ups - I've really lost some strength here and only managed 5, 5, 2, 3, 2 compared to the 5x5 I was gunning for a couple of months back. Hopefully with consistency these will come back pretty fast, particularly with how useful they'll be for Tough Mudder. Went and did a big grocery shop and filled the freezer. Rounded out the day with loads more points again on avoiding soda, spending and other nonsence, plus hit my full evening routine which all together is worth 10 points. Huge score of 35 for the day. Budget Bonus - Nothing spent (grocery shopping isn't part of this) so still £77 remaining. Running Bonus - 4.01/100 miles so far.

Fish pie I can manage with a good sauce in it, but a lot of fish on it's own is too much. Also, the slightest suggestion of a fish bone stuck in my throat makes me want to throw up! See I don't like peanut butter (please don't shoot me everyone!) so that's be a no-go for me. Crisps (potato chips) are always good in sandwiches though! Good to have you man! I've never had any insects - I would imagine the chocolate helped a lot though! you're not really selling it With all the awesome Europeans round here that really is a compliment . Oo, never tried that. What's it like, it looks slimy I had to google those things. Durian would be interesting - I think Balut is testing my limits of what I would try though! That's such a list I don't even know where to begin! A bug platter sounds like an interesting meal to try though. I don't think I've ever had or seen anyone have squid ink here, although I think I might have seen it on a menu once. Does it taste of anything or is it just used as a black colouring?

Glad to see you being awesome as ever Wolfman - looking forward to seeing you rock this one.

Well up for this. I may also have added a ranking column - not that I have any illusions of finishing above anyone (and especially not if @Xena is joining us!)

Following along! As other have said feel free to talk lots about BreakPoint, we're all excited to hear about it. Also, the hype for Ranger Weekend is strong!

As always, but especially as I'm off to Ireland in a couple of weeks... Pint of the black stuff barkeep.

Update - Monday - W0-I D1 Hit the gym yesterday morning for Bench. It's the end of the 8s wave which means I was going for a top set of 8+ reps at 55kg. I managed 3 . Guess that's what lack of consistency does for you. I've had to fiddle the numbers a bit for the 5s phase so that the formula doesn't subtract a load of weight, so I'm hopeful with work I'll get back on track over that period. Otherwise a very good day. Was always going to be high scoring as I gave points for posting a new challenge, making a new tracker in my journal and wrapping last month's challenge on top of all the normal stuff. What went really well was a chain of stuff I avoided for the day: I bought no food or drink, drank no soda, had no caffeine after 4pm, consumed no processed food, consumed no alcohol and was on time all day. I've set these things up to chain up - you can see that if I bought a coke on my way home from work I would have scratched off 3 points in one drink! It's a pretty good incentive. Budget Bonus - Spent £1 on some eggs from work (my manager keeps chickens) and chucked £2 into a collection for a colleague who's about to have a baby, so £77 remaining for the week. Running Bonus - Rest Day; Nailed It

That's still interesting! I've had squid (calamari) but never octopus. I'm not big into fish either, but other seafood like prawns, calamari etc. I'm fine with. Me too! Because of the way the web address looks (barreloflaps) a few of my friends have taken to calling it Flappy Barrels Probably a fair shout! Excellent, my work here is done!

I can't imagine eating trotters, because in my head they don't have any meat on them. For that matter I can't imagine peeling a whole tongue. Yeah, I wouldn't have the slightest clue how best to cook it. When I had it it was a burger van in Holland - very nice though. Fair enough. I've never had squirrel, they don't look to have much meat on them though? I had to Google takoyaki. Dog biscuits on purpose or...? Thinking about it I did have dog chocolate once. I was about 15 and I thought maybe they'd just taste like cheap chocolate buttons. They did not. Oo, that sounds good. Like a good offal sausage - yes please. The key question - were those any good? I can sort of see the second one working somehow.

Well snap then! Though with 10-12 miles each weekend I reckon you'll get further than me. Seriously looking forward to this challenge, you're gonna crush it!

That sounds like fun, I'd probably come dead last but still. Glad your ankle's feeling better! Also I've not been around enough, sorry, and I missed all the Barrel of Laps talk. Massively looking forward to it, I'm thinking I'll aim for 4 laps but it depends if the beer gives us superpowers really!

Much less than a mouthful, yeah! I do like a good stuffed lamb heart though, that's excellent. Also the only heart I've seen in the supermarket now I think of it - I don't know why that is. Ox cheek's pretty unusual yeah. Think I've had sliced ox tongue as same which meat though. I don't understand the squeamish thing with offal either to be honest, I'll try anything once. Eyeballs? I've never had that! What are they like? Yaaaay! Sounds interesting. I didn't even know camel meat was eaten to be honest. I've had horse... Thanks! Good to have you.

Sorry you're ill, ear infections really really suck. I hope the recovery is swift for you - listen to your body, do what you can and try not to push too hard *hugs*

New challenge is UP!

Jarric's Super Six Week Level-Up Challenge Thingy! Ok, so I suck at titles. Anyway last challenge was a pretty decent success all round, so I'll be doing much of the same again, but with more running, more racing, more nerd meet ups, more weeks and more moreness! Cool Things This challenge I get to do a couple of cool things I'm really looking forward to. At the end of Week 0-II (which is the week after Week 0-I and before Week 1) I get to go to Ireland to run a Tough Mudder with the inimitable @DarK_RaideR. It's gonna be hard and great great fun and I'm seriously excited! Then at the end of Week 3 I'm going to Barrel of Laps where I get to run in circles, carrying a beer barrel, and probably getting very drunk with the wonderful @Charlie_Quinn and @jonfirestar. That should be a massive laugh and I'm smiling just thinking about it. Actions per Day As with my last couple of challenges I'm running my Actions per Day format. Basically every good thing I do, every self-care action, good meal, workout, whatever, I get a point. The aim is to get as many points as possible and chain up potentially unlimited good things. Workouts are worth 5 points, and it's as simple as that. Last two challenges I've said that a "perfect" week would average 20 points per day, so 140 for the week. A perfect challenge was then worth 50XP (half a level-up) and I get a percentage of that based on my percentage of a "perfect" score. Last week I proved I could exceed 140 points in a week, but I'm keeping it at that because this challenge is about doing loads of cool stuff and farming silly amounts of XP. Also, because it's 6 weeks instead of 4, I'll be awarding a proportion of 75XP rather than 50. Budget Bonus In addition to the normal actions per day I'm bringing back budgeting. Each week I take £80 spending money out of my account, and at the end of the week anything left goes in a jar which I will save to spend on... something. Probably something fitness related because that feels right. To work this in to the challenge, I'm going to give myself a bonus point for finishing the week under budget, and then a bonus point for every full pound I finish under. This is gonna be a tough one but I really need to get my spending under control. Running Bonus I wasn't kidding about farming XP! In addition to the above, I'm going to give myself a bonus 15XP if I can hit a total running mileage of over 100 miles for the challenge. My current plan has me at 17 miles each week, which would come in at 102 in total, so this is definitely do-able. Tough Mudder and Barrel of Laps mileage will count towards this, so as long as I don't miss a run I could actually get there! This is a pass/fail challenge, no apportioning XP if I get less than 100 miles - I'm still getting action points for every run anyway so that might be extracting the Michael. Icebreaker Finally, I like this thing so I'm bringing it back. It's good to get to know you lovely people better and it can lead to some fun conversations, so I'll be asking some random icebreaker questions (stolen from the internet) as we go through. So, without further ado: What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever eaten? For me, I think probably rabbit heart. I'm not too squeamish about eating organs and things but it's not often you get rabbit here let alone rabbit offal (this was during a camping trip when I was a Scout!). It was quite nice, but far to small to be worth doing really!

...that should work. Either that or I'll die, but it's probably worth the risk. Sounds brutally efficient! Thanks Wolfman. Love the gif too.