Jarric

Congratulations man, that's awesome!

Clenching done with EC. Walking around and talking to people really helped distract me from this

That sounds awesome - there's literally nothing Pokémon related close enough to my work that you can get to it without a car! Also, awesome job on the primary goal, that's a lot of green!

So I don't know what the hell was going on in my head yesterday. Hadn't been feeling too bad at work (apart from a bit bored - it's been a mega quiet week). Got changed to go to the gym, and then sat down and learnt some Russian on Duolingo (did I mention I'm learning Russian, French and Spanish at the moment, across Duolingo and Memrise? I must be mad). Anyway, I spent 20 minutes doing that, locked up the office and went to the gym. When I got there, I don't know what it was, I just really didn't want to get out of the car and get in the gym. I ended up sitting in my car playing games on my phone for half an hour, before giving up, having a cigarette and driving home. So obviously I felt stupid for going to the gym and not working out, and embarrassed and frustrated and angry at the situation I was inflicting on myself. And I haven't got the slightest idea what's cause it either! Mrs cheered me up a bit when I got home - we got fish and chips from the local chippy and chilled out watching TV and generally relaxing. She thinks I'm pushing myself too hard. I'm not sure I agree, but she's convinced me to take it easy for the rest of the week. So I went to bed at 10:20 last night, and slept in today rather than getting up and making up for yesterday's missed run. This week is now a wright-off challenge wise - I literally cannot complete any of my goals for week two. So new plan: I will try to embody the spirit of the challenge for the weekend but with no pressure, marshal some willpower and some discipline, and come back for week 3 stronger than ever. So in the spirit of the challenge, the following things are potentially on the cards but no pressure if I don't meet them: 2 runs this weekend Do some house cleaning on Sunday Climbing or gym on Saturday Keep up with Daily Dares Squat jumps for the mini Try not to smoke too much Try and find time to get some sleep Remember to weigh and measure self on Sunday Week 2 stats at W2D4 Blind Man - ??? not done this week Final Countdown - 0/7 days, 25 smoked Still of the Night - 0 days, too many burpees imposed, too few done Runnin' Wild - 1/4 Killer on the Loose - 0.5/2 A Better Man - 0/5 Daily Dare PvP: MTWTFSS - 50 Climbers (EC), 50 Ninja Lunges (EC), 100 Shoulder Taps (EC), 2 minutes T-Jumps (EC) Rangers Gonna Warcraft - 61 Squat jumps*1.5 = 91.5

Thank you, it's not been ideal weather to say the least! The burpees will definitely help if I could just bring myself to do them! Me too man, I fully plan to get on it at the weekend, and definitely thrash it in the last two weeks of the challenge! Great song, and very appropriate Cheers man. Sorry to hear you're feeling bad too. Still, over half a challenge to go, we can recover it!

T-jumps done with EC

Sorry dude, completely missed your tag on this. I'm game though; will start it on Monday. How's it going for you?

Glad you got so much out of your trainer session; that's really exciting!

Ok, so week 2 so far has been less than stellar. Here's where we are: Rule changes for week 2: Final Countdown - No stopping on the way to/from work just to smoke Still of the Night - Late to bed is now 10 burpees, plus 1 per extra 5 minutes Late getting up is now 10 burpees, plus 1 per extra 5 minutes, 5 per snooze and 20 if alarm tuned off A Better Man - rules basically unchanged, but I now have Mrs on board and we have it written up on a whiteboard so it might actually happen! Monday Decided to have a lie in on Monday after the festival - no burpees; I needed a recovery day. Felt properly awful all day, just tired and hungover and rubbish. Broke smoking rules, had 3 at work and 6 for the day. Tuesday Woke up late, but also turned my alarm off, and was late to bed Monday night. Under the new rules I awarded myself 46 burpees for the day! Went for a run, 3 miles plus strides. All went pretty well except I thought I only had to do 3 sprints, not 4! Went like this: NAME PACE CLIMB 1 mi 10:10 -17 2 mi 10:34 15 3 mi 10:04 8 0:20 5:11 -1 2:00 10:13 -11 0:20 5:36 -2 2:00 11:00 1 0:20 5:31 -1 2:00 11:59 6 0:20 7:37 2 2:26 18:38 4 At work I ended up smoking again. No hangover to excuse me this time! 4 were had at work out of 6 total (the last 2 on an evening Pokémon walk). Went to the gym (which was packed) and did my burpees. Then did some squat jumps for the mini. By that point I was feeling really weird and shaky and anxious, and my right leg in particular was shaking a lot. Tried briefly to start my workout proper, but promptly gave up and went home - really pissed off about that. Crappy mood continued into the evening, and instead of going to bed at 11 as per the challenge, which I absolutely could of done, I decided to come on here and catch up with people' threads. Think I went to bed about 01:15 in the end. Wednesday Obviously I woke up late, and feeling a bit of a dick. A shitload of burpees were imposed for Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, and to be honest I didn't do them nor do i plan on trying to keep the debt running. Might have to scale it back as too few and it's not enough of a challenge, but too many and I won't end up doing them/it will end up interfering with my normal routine. Again smoked at work! I can get through past lunch fine, but by about 2pm I really just want to get out of the office and I'm looking for any excuse to do so. Guess I just need to man up and deal with it. Came home to a slow cooked Spanish chicken casserole the Mrs had made - it was probably the highlight of my week to be honest, absolutely lovely. Then went for a friendly game of snooker at my old club, and a couple of beers were had. Pokémon walked both ways, and on the way back I caught 3 Pinsir's in succession in the same park, which was pretty cool. Went to bed slightly late so 12 more burpees for me to do. Week 2 stats at W2D3 Blind Man - ??? not done this week Final Countdown - 0/7 days, 19 smoked Still of the Night - 0/6 days, 85 burpees imposed Runnin' Wild - 1/4 Killer on the Loose - 0.5/2 A Better Man - 0/5 Daily Dare PvP: MTWTFSS - 50 Climbers (EC), 50 Ninja Lunges (EC), 100 Shoulder Taps (EC) Rangers Gonna Warcraft - 61 Squat jumps*1.5 = 91.5 Today Woke up really late and didn't go for my run. Not happy at all and not a good start to the day! I'll have to I will make up for it tomorrow morning instead. I also owe 35 burpees for late getting up - to be done after my workout if I can so that I don't spoil my gym session again tonight. Onward and upward then, let squeeze something good out of this week!

There is so much awesome in this one picture I don't know where to start...

Well you've picked the right time for it, the weather's actually really nice here for once! If you wanted something else German related for your morning routine, would it be worth just picking up something else even if it's less structured? Reading an article from an online German newspaper for 5 minutes or something?

Shoulder taps done with EC. It would seems like alternating would make more sense than 50 right followed by 50 left, but what do I know! EDIT: Congratulations @RocketbikeNinja on being first to hit Silver!

Thank you . And it was great - report is now up (I started writing it about 2 hours before you replied, it just took me that long to finish!)

Ok, a quick review of Ramblin Man, here we go... Saturday Holy nineteen-eighties Batman, what a hell of a day! Weather was beautiful (and very hot) when we arrived and all day long, so shorts, t-shirts and sunglassess were very much the order of the day. First up on main stage were Inglorious, a band I'd seen before but couldn't remember much about. They described Rainbow as one of their favourite bands (and played a Rainbow cover), and the lead singer announced that David Coverdale was his hero, so that should give you some idea of what they're like. Very good fun british rock, and definitely a band I would see again. Next up were The Dead Daisies, a band I knew I wanted to see. This band is a mish mash of musicians who have variously played in Mötley Crüe, Thin Lizzy, INXS, Guns' and Roses' (over the years, not all at once), and they roll out with a brand of music that sounds exactly like it would fit with the 80s bands they come from. On paper it sounds like it could be a parody of itself, with musicians formally in greater bands coming together to relive the good old days, but it's just so good that it works. Every member is incredibly talented not only as musicians, but as performers and front men, and I can't help but lover this band. The day quietened down a bit after that. Caught City of Thieves on the Rising stage, and I definitely thought they were a band with promise who I might see in a bigger slot one day. Europe were everything I expected; funny, over the top, and a good laugh. Thin Lizzy were a great show with the crowd really behind them, although I'm still not sure if I feel right calling a band "Thin Lizzy" without Phil Lynott or Gary Moore - maybe they should have stuck with Black Star Riders. And for the finale, Whitesnake! It was odd seeing this band with such a small crowd watching (maybe 3,000-4,000 as a complete guess), but still they never fail to disappoint. It was ludicrous, over the top and madly silly, and I wouldn't have had it any other way. Everyone had their own solo, even the bassist, and I've got to say I think the bassist was the best of all! I have never seen so many effect on a bass, or a bassist use a loop pedal to solo, but by God it was cleverly done. And David Coverdale; the man has buckets and buckets of charisma - I can't fault it. I think he might be my hero now too!. Sunday This was the day of perfect festival weather. I mean seriously perfect. It was cloudy, warm, with a gentle breeze - no rain, no sunburn, just perfect. Th music wasn't bad either... First band on for the day were Wicked Stone. Opening act for the Rising stage is not exactly the most prestigious of places to play, but they were seriously good. I'd bet my left testicle that they're Black Stone Cheery fans, there's definitely a lot of that southern US rock in their playing. I got a chance to have a chat with a couple of the band afterwards, and they said that this was only their 7th gig together, but to me they looked so polished I would have believed they'd been together for years. I got a free CD from them so I'll be remembering them for a while to come, and I hope they stick around. If you want to check them out there's a couple of tracks free to download on their website. Nothing too much to report for a while - we caught a few bands in the background while chilling out and chatting to random people. Next band of note were Von Hertzen Brothers. I'd heard the name before, and as it turns out I did know one song ("Flowers and Rust"). Turns out they were a really good mid-heavy rock band, and I should definitely listen to more of them. They were on the Prog stage for some reason - I think the management were finding a hard time finding enough prog bands to fill that as I really wouldn't say they're prog even if they do bear some similarity to Riverside. Watched these guys from the disabled viewing platform after many beers, which was a lovely chilled experience. And then the final three bands on main stage really made the night; Airbourne, Thunder, and Black Stone Cherry. Airbourne were excellent, as they have been every time I've seen them. They were also loud as hell. I was sat near enough at the back of the crowd, wearing earplugs (yeah, I'm sad), and they were still far louder than the headliners on either day in the front few rows. Good raunchy rock music, beers being smashed on the singers head (not standard for these guys), and the singer climbing up the side of the staging over the crowd were all highlights. Thunder are not a band I'm so familiar with, but I was surprised by how much I did know and Danny Bowes certainly knows how to captivate an audience, They might have fitted better between Europe and Whitesnake on the Saturday, but it made for a nice change of pace towards the end of the day. And finally, Black Stone Cherry. I absolutely love these guys, but I must confess that I wasn't sure if they were really ready to be headliners yet (and I believe this was their first ever festival headline spot). I shouldn't have worried, they really brought it and rose to the occasion and despite a few technically difficulties (a failure on the acoustic guitar led to half of one track being sung acapella) and at least one occasion where they forgot the words, they thoroughly entertained the crowd and got more out of them than I had seen all weekend. Overall a thoroughly enjoyable weekend, and I would definitely go back. It feels oddly small for some of the bands playing, and it's certainly an odd crowd (a bit too much filming on phones and a bit to little singing and dancing for my liking), but absolutely an experience to be repeated. --Note: I'm not going back to proof read all that, so take it as you find it; sorry!--

Cheers man, they were excellent! Nice to have you! Next festival will probably be Purbeck Folk. A bit different from my usualy thing, but I have quite a few friends going and it's a good excuse to wear fancy dress and drink huge amounts of cider Going to type up a weekend review NOW, honest.

Awesome job on everything so far (also yay, I'm still alive!). Sounds like you had an intense weekend too!

My local pool has it's own ones that come with the membership, and I've found them really useful. I can definitely see pace and stroke improvements since I started using them. That said I don't know how much I was progressing before I started using them because it was so hard to try and track any meaningful data! I would definitely say it's worth looking into - there's just too much info to try and remember if you're trying to keep everything in your head /and/ trying ti swim well at the same time.

Sounds like your doing well; probably better than it feels like at the moment! Good choice to rehash the morning routine, if the goals aren't achievable there's no point in dragging them out.

Well I'm glad I never got to seeing Batman V Superman now. It does make me worry a bit for Wonder Woman though. Glad you're recovering from the cold, hope your kicking week 2's arse!

Side squats done with EC

Had a great weekend at the festival! So much excellent music, quite a few great bands I will be checking out again tin the future, and perfect weather to top it off! Will try and get a full run-down of the whole weekend later today, but first I'll round up the challenge bits for week 1. Drank quite a lot at the festival, so that and being outside meant smoking a lot too. All within the rules, so an ironic pass on both days, but smoked 14 and 20 on Saturday and Sunday respectively. An ironic pass for the sleeping on Sunday too, and my only pass of the week on that goal, aided by the fact I didn't have to get up on Sunday and by the time I got home I was so knackered I fell straight into bed. Ran as mentioned above on Saturday, but decided against it Sunday morning. I think I could have got through the run, even though I didn't feel too bright when I got up, but I didn't want to risk ruining my day at the festival by being too knackered and achy. I think I made the right choice. Daily dares and mini-challenge kinda fell by the wayside over the weekend, so looking forward to getting back on those this week. Week 1 final stats Blind Man - 11st0, 16.02%BF (checked 17/07/16) Final Countdown - 6/7 days, 51 smoked Still of the Night - 1/7 days, 33 burpees imposed Runnin' Wild - 3/adjusted 3 Killer on the Loose - 2/2 A Better Man - 0/5 Daily Dare PvP: MTWTFSS - 40 Sit-ups (EC), 2' raised leg hold (EC), 60sec Squat Hops (EC), 20 single-leg push-ups (EC) Rangers Gonna Warcraft - 670 Mountain Climbers

Congrats on hitting bronze! I really dropped the ball on these this weekend; was in full festival mode and in no state to do much exercise (or even really get online to look up the dares!). Will make sure I get back on it today with the climbers.

Squat jumps I can do! Probably good as I have the 1.5x points this week! Lets get on with another victory for the Horde!

Every time I read your thread you never cease to amaze me with how well you are handling everything. Also, yay for DOMS!

Thank you, that really made me smile today ----- In the car on the way to Ramblin Man at the moment, about half an hour away, so quick update. Ended up smoking 7 yesterday; one dropping Mrs at work, one picking Mrs up, and 5 on my night out (not counting all the ones I gave away to mates). Had a fantastic night though catching up with mates, and discussing love, life, Pokémon, Street Fighter, fitness and all sorts of weird and wonderful things. Daily dare was also done yesterday - turns out after my worrying that one-legged push ups and not appreciably harder than standard ones. Did get up and run this morning, Run keeper called for 2 miles plus strides. The miles were about 10:15-10:20 pace, and the sprints about 5:30-6:00 ish. Very hot today, but it's definitely helped with the hangover . Really looking forward today, will try and check in later!