Jarric

Love this, keep telling yourself that because it is true! Great start to the challenge, following along again of course!

Happy Nerdiversary man! My dinner tonight, and my favorite meal, homemade Swedish Meatballs:

Good to see you! That picture is creepy as hell by the way! Cheers man. Yeah, it's going well thanks. Providing I can get through a couple more drunken nights out I should be able to get through just about anything - I really don't have the urge to smoke at any other time anyway! Thank you, good to see you! And glad to hopefully be a good influence . I'm so far behind with everyone at the moment, but I'm going to catch up with your challenge ASAP! Combining lifting and swimming could work... I'd have to get up hideously early... Yeah, thanks, I'll think on that one. Also glad to have you along for the ride Wolfman Excellent. The more Flashheart I have in my life the better!

Loving the story still, Janine's treachery at the end of the last challenge was a real shock! Follow along again . Also, did I see you're about to hit your own body weight on your squat? Congrats in advance man!

Heya, loving the challenge as always, following again!

So quickly, here are my initial thoughts on training planning. Please do chip in with any help, advice or anything else you want to add! I want my main focus to be strength for the time being, as I feel it's an area in which I am seriously lacking (and lifting heavy shit is really cool). So I'm thinking I need to incorporate at least 3 lifting sessions per week. I'm loving climbing, but due to location and timings I can only go once per week which should be easy enough to fit in. I don't want to lose the running ability I've been building up since July, so I need to keep a bit of that. So probably a long run (would have to be Sunday to have time), and a short run? A couple of short runs? I'm enjoying Parkrun, which is 5k on a Saturday, so would I be ok just running Saturday and Sunday and then not all week? I also really want to get back into swimming, at least two if not three times per week. Mostly because I just really miss it, but it also seems to be really good rehab/prehab for other activities. So, 4 lifting sessions, 1 climbing, 3 runnning, 3 swimming. Can we make the week 4 days longer? Better yet 5 days longer and then I can have a rest day? Any ideas on how to find balance with all of this?

Week 1 Final Stats Move: 5/7 Track: 6/6 Brush: 4.5/6 Sleep: -68pts (didn't track the weekend) Budget: Finished in budget by £1.25 Freedom: 15 days smoke free Ranger Mini: 2.55/2.50km swam Daily Dare: MTWTFSS Warrior Run Rangered! - 02/10/16 Week 2 Final Stats Week 3 Final Stats Week 4 Final Stats Challenge Final Score

Actually, no I haven't, but I need your help to formulate one for this challenge. For the past 3 challenges I've been training towards my first OCR, Warrior Run Brighton on 2nd October. Once that's over I have nothing specific to train for, so it's an ideal time to put together a new, sustainable, training plan for the winter I'll do a post about my first thoughts on that below, but for now this challenge looks to be shaping up like this: Week 0 (what's left of it) - Business as usual Week 1 - Taper week Week 2 - Recovery as needed Weeks 3 & 4 - Trial run new training plan and tweak as needed In the meantime, I need some simple goals to get me though, so here we go: Move - 15XP What? Move every day Why? Because it's good to move, and this challenge I just can't be more specific How? Just move every day. Any activity is fine, lifting, climbing, running, walking, swimming, yoga, whatever. Just keep moving. Track - 10XP What? Track my food Why? Because I've discovered that I can't tell cigarette craving from hunger at present, so I need positive confirmation of how much I'm actually eating. How? Track all food with Fitbit. The general idea is to break even on calories eaten and calories burned (which is actually a slight bulk because Fitbit is a bit generous on calories burned), and also to get a general idea of how much protein I eat whilst doing so (IIFYM reckons I should be around 120g, which I'm pretty sure I'm not hitting at the moment). XP is just awarded for tracking though, no pressure to hit any numbers Brush - 10XP What? Brush my damn teeth!! Why? Because otherwise they'll fall out How? Twice daily, at least once with electric brush, and floss at least once daily. Sleep - 10XP What? Plan bedtime and rise time to keep my sleep regular Why? Because it suits me to workout in the mornings, but that requires some bedtime and morning discipline How? In bed by 11pm each night, or within 1 hour of getting home, whichever later. Get up at 7am on weekdays. +1 point for being on time, +1 point for every 10 minutes earlier, -1 point for every 5 minutes later. Goal is to at least break even each week. Budget - 15XP What? Get control of my spending Why? Because I have no savings, and I would like some. In fact, in would be nice to buy a house in the next couple of decades. How? Start every week (on a Sunday) withdrawing £80, when it's gone it's gone. Any change left at the end goes in a jar at home, so we'll see how much I can accumulate this month. This idea has been lovingly pilfered from @Starpuck. (Card can be used for petrol, groceries, climbing gym entry. Basically essentials and fitness, but not snacks, drinks etc.) Freedom - 10XP What? Track number of days smoke free Why? Because I've recently quite smoking and could use the accountability How? Simply confirm number of days smoke free on my updates here So that seems like a lot of goals now I look at it written down (and I've cut two as well!). I will also be trying out Bullet Journal to keep track of all of this, after seeing @iatetheyeti's amazing journal planning skills. Wish me luck!

Well done on the OCR. Between Hang Tough and the Travelator it sounds like you we're competing in Gladiators! Glad you're feeling better now

That is the most random collection of food, but it sounds absolutely awesome! And $4? That's mad! I think our humour can get along very well! And yeah, it's my favorite meal (but Mrs has to make the sauce coz I don't have the skills) I definitely need to see this film!

I look away for a few minutes and you've got 69 (giggedy) replies already?!? Following along again of course W0lfm4n, and I know exactly what meal I'll be photographing tomorrow too

Oo, that is easy. Thank you chap, I will be trying that out soon

Wow, this thread exploded quickly! Following again of course!

Well done on a great week 1. Also, I love (and hate) burpees as a punishment. Off to catch the new thread now!

Wow, yeah, that did go fast. Well done on a successful challenge! Looking forward to your continued adventures through Kanto

Well done on the time man! Oh my god that chicken looks amazing. I'm gonna have to make that sometime soon.

Well done Xena. Although it's short of your initial targets, 68 miles, 191 push-ups and 36 negatives in 4 weeks is still damned respectable!

Awesome challenge man, well done. Did you get your official time for the 5k in the end? ^Also wanted to say that this is an excellent advertisement for a gym!

Good luck on this one! Really looks like a great way to start in your new home! Shouldn't it be smashing a bottle of Champagne? I've been staring at this gif for ages. Has he been photoshopped on a still background or what's going on? There's a shadow moving in the background but the guy on the left's in freezeframe?

Challenge Round-Up Looking through my stats for a month there's not a lot of green, and quite a bit of red. Not totally unhappy with where I finished, but lots of room for improvement next time around. Lets see where I got to anyway: Stick to Workout Plan - 30XP It was an ambitious plan, but ultimately I was never going to hit everything. Had some great fun climbing, I've increased my run distances and speed. Gym progress has been much worse, so this will be a focus after the OCR in a couple of weeks. Awarded - 15XP Get Free of Smoking - 10XP I've stopped, and now I just need to stay stopped. Will keep a track of this next challenge. Awarded - 10XP Weights and Measures - 10XP Utter nonsence, don't know why I couldn't remember to do this (or why when I did remember I still didn't do it. Awarded - Nil Sleep - 10XP Had some bad weeks, but I think I'm getting more into the swing of this and the last week finished strong. Will go for even more next challenge. Awarded - 3XP Don't Mow the Lawn - 15XP Well I only mowed the lawn once, so I'd say this was pretty reasonable. And the house was a lot tidier for a while. Mrs and I need to get on top on this again now, but I think we'll keep up the betting and see if it continues to work. Awarded - 10XP Clean your Teeth - 5XP I'm an idiot. This goal will be back. That is all. Awarded - Nil

Love the mega organised day planning, hope it works well for you! I'm going to have to investigate Bullet Journal now... With the sleep, can you sleep with music on? Personally I end up listening rather than sleeping, but it might be another alternative to white noise.

Great challenge again dude. Glad you're able to get back into things now. Enjoy your WOD today and be safe!

Cheers man, as above didn't last that long, but that just gives me something to beat this week! Actually it's an American holiday apparently? I've got a theory that there's a weird holiday for every day of the year, so I'm just Googling to be honest! Thank you so much (though I'm not sure I deserve it now, but I will strive to do so). Yeah, that's what I was told, but my dentist also reckons no eating or drinking for half an hour after brushing?? Yeah, thank you. I am definitely more concerned with the not smoking than worrying about calorie tracking. The thing is that although hunger feels the same, eating doesn't relieve nicotine cravings. So it's no so much about limiting myself as learning what is genuine hunger and, as you say, "regaining my intuition". Cheers for the tip on brushes too; I must get into the habit of using my electric one!

Ok guys, I'll do the bad stuff first. I fucked up. Saturday night we had a barbeque at a mate's house, and all got very (very, very, very) drunk. Without going into all the reasons/excuses, I ended up having half a cigarette (which I shared with another ex-smoker actually). I feel really fucking stupid, not least because I was about 2 hours away from having gone a full week at that point. I'm really sorry guys. I'm not going to wallow in this though; I haven't smoked since and I have no intention of doing so. So my progress is back to 1 whole day smoke free, and in a week's time I will have a new longest streak without smoking which will be nice. ----- Happy International Talk Like a Pirate Day m'hearties! So a quick recap on the rest of the weekend (challenge round-up and new challenge may be a few days off but will be coming). Friday night was out to see a band and have a few beers, which is always good fun. Can't remember when I got home or got to bed, I think I worked out I was -3 points there though. Saturday went out to Parkrun in the morning. Managed the 5km in 26:38, which isn't a PR but still not too shabby. Spent a good deal of the afternoon vegging, reading books and generally having a chilled time. Then picked up Mrs and went to my mates house for the above mentioned barbeque. Aside from the smoking thing it was really good fun, we spent a load of time dancing and singing loudly (particularly to 90s Nu Metal!). Sunday woke up on mate's sofa next to Mrs with a truly horrible hangover. We dragged ourselves out to the local pub for a fry up, and then went home to chill. After a couple of hours recovery we met up with the same mates again and went climbing. They had a little festival on at the gym so some of the routes were closed off for demonstrations and what not, but they also had some special skills climbs for us to try out. All in all a really good time, and managed to sweat out at least some of my hangover. Long run didn't happen; I think I would have killed myself trying. Chilled at home a bit more, then bar work in the evening which I was really far too tired to be doing. Then when I got home I needed to go straight to bed, so of course I sat up for over an hour reading instead! Another -2 points there. Week 4 update Sleep - To bed - A strong start to the week but not a good end. Still finished on +2/7. To rise - 10 Burpees total, which ain't too shabby really! Workout - Missed my long run and circuits in the gym, but otherwise a solid week. Non-Mowing - Won this week! Weights and Measures - 1/4. Will try and do challenge closing stats tonight. Teeth - 3/7 Smoking - 1 day smoke free.

Well done on the weight loss man. Keep that 2lb/week up, you'll smash your goal at that rate!