Jarric

A wood elf enters the tavern, accompanied by a blast of icy wind which he hurriedly shuts out. Though bent and bowed under the weight of his pack, he seems to grow slightly taller as the warmth of the hearth reaches him. "Pint of the black stuff, barkeep," he says, settling into his bar stool as a smile slowly creeps across his features. "Nice to see so many people here already."

My gym doesn't have heating, and it's just a bit metal shed, but it rarely gets below 0°C here so it's never enough to stop me going.

Can I suggest that you try to post every day, or regularly, whether or not you feel like you've done something beneficial? That way you won't forget to post about the good stuff, and you can use this challenge as a tracker of how often you have done beneficial things. Also, if it helps you to stay in contact with people, this is one way of doing it.

Extremely excited to see this on the list for you.

Deadlift day done! 50 reps at 77.5kg, which is just over 100% bodyweight. This was a bit ambitious to do all in one set; I ended up with sets of 17, 12, 12, and 9 Next year I'll aim for 50 reps unbroken.

That's properly awe-inspiring! Nice one! Damn, that's a lot of reps. Amazing work!

2022 wrap-up Well, it's that time of year, and with no more challenges to go my final stats are as follows: Level 17 Wood Elf Ranger STR: 12 - CON: 10 - CHA: 3 - SAN: 7 - INT: 11 Before I talk about each stat, it's probably worth recapping on what they mean: Strength: 12 I think this went fairly well. I don't feel a lot stronger than I did at the start of this year, but that's probably because I injured my knee around March time and spent a lot more time rehabbing than I did progressing. Still, I am in better shape than I was for most of the year, and that's good. I did run Rat Race Dirty Weekend, though I had to cut it short because of my knee issues, but it was still an excellent weekend. I also ran the Spartan European Championships and the Super and Sprint that weekend, and I even got to run one of those with @Rhovaniel which was wonderful to do again. I've got stuff booked for next year too, and running is progressing slowly but surely towards that. On reflection, one thing that has really improved this year is my climbing. I can see it, and friends have commented on it as well. Maybe that's a good reason to focus more on this next year too. Constitution: 10 I've started tracking calories again, and very easily lost about 8lbs. The plan is now to do some bulking, which has been weirdly more difficult that I expected over Christmas. I might need a proper plan, beyond 'eat more'. Alcohol-wise I've been pretty conscious of what I'm drinking and not going too overboard. It's not been a challenge goal directly all year, but with some difficult times throughout the year I've kept an eye on how I use alcohol (generally successfully I think). Charisma: 3 Clearly I haven't given this one as much attention as other goals this year. Or, maybe I haven't weighted my goals towards creativity throughout the year, so I haven't missed the goals so much as not set them. Either way this is something I want to focus on more next year. Sanity: 7 This has been quite needed this year. Most of the points have been from managing to brush my teeth, which I feel like I've finally started to crack. I think next year I need to focus on some of the other elements of this goal. Possibly work/life balance should be included in here, because that's certainly been a challenge for me. Intelligence: 11 This has been ok. I'm not quite as far through my professional studies as I would like, but I'm still on track to complete them early next year. Following that I'll be taking another qualification, but I might have a few months break first until life is less exhausting. Then again, I might be better off keeping momentum and getting straight on with it? I'm really not sure. Languages are going pretty well too. I'm finding Dutch really interesting, and the way I'm thinking about languages is changing a bit. I love those little moments when you realise that something you take totally for granted in English isn't automatically a construction in another language, or learn a cool bit of etymology that brings together a whole load of interesting history. I don't really have an overarching closing statement for this year. I'm looking forward to planning for next year though,

Challenge wrap-up Score: 1/8 = no stat increase. This just didn't happen. The point was to get up in time to do both my morning run and Literal Immortality, but that never happened. I'm going to have to have a think about how I fit this in, or whether I just drop it for a little while. Right now the running, and hip stretches and training to stop me injuring myself running, are really the priority. 6/21 = +1 CON Week 2 of this challenge was particularly difficult, and I stopped tracking altogether. The other two weeks I tracked but was fairly unsuccessful at hitting my calorie goal. The surprise here really is that I didn't gain a lot of weight - I was planning to bulk over Christmas because I thought that would just naturally happen, but I've actually lost 1lb since week 0 of this challenge. As it turns out, bulking might be harder than I thought, and I might actually have to plan for it better. 1/21 = no stat increase I did bugger all on this all challenge. Work was busy, I was stressed about work and about life in general, and I did not make time for it. Quite obviously this will come back as a goal, because I need to get these essays written! Hopefully this unintentional break will do me good? 15/21 = +1 INT I'm plodding along ok with this.. French has slipped a little, but I'm still finding it interesting and that's good. Dutch meanwhile is fascinatingly similar to English, so I'm really enjoying that. 20/21 = +2 SAN I still don't understand why this is working so well, and I'm loathe to believe that this is a solid habit in case I slip up, but even on really low days where I really didn't want to do anything I managed to do this. Slip ups were not buying new interdental brushes in time, and missing a morning workout, and therefore a morning shower, on a weekend. Overall this challenge has been a tricky one. I've been dealing with some quite negative feelings, some bad anxiety, and some stressful situations both in and out of work. Week 2 was a particularly low point, and I do feel a lot better now than I did then. Given that, and the inevitable disruption of this Christmas period, I'm not actually too concerned with how I did this time round. I've got a few days now to reflect and rest before the first challenge of 2023.

Week 3 wrap-up It was a good week. I don't remember what I did on Thursday, which suggests that I didn't do anything. I did get in a couch to 5k run I believe. Friday I had a long chat with my manager about my workload. I'm now less optimistic that things are going to improve in the short term, but also I think I can do more to make that happen by talking to people other than my manager. That was all quite stressful, but work was a half day, so I went to the pub with a few colleagues and got pissed. That was really nice, and because we started at lunch time and I had to go home to cook dinner I ended up finishing at a sensible time and not feeling too rough on Saturday. On Saturday I had a short lie in, and then we went out to deliver some Christmas food hampers for a charity, which was quite a nice way to spend a morning. The rest of the day was mostly spent wrapping and delivering Christmas presents, but I did get out for my 3rd run of the week. I also cooked a turnip and apple, cheesy pasta bake, which was... interesting? Sunday was Christmas day. WW got me an ottoman for Christmas (wow that's a middle-class, middle-aged sentence!), which I can keep my art stuff in so it's more accessible when I'm sat on the sofa. Maybe (hopefully) it'll mean I find more energy for art. She also got me some classic novels - Mark Shelley's Frankenstein, Bram Stoker's Dracula, and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and other tales and fables by Robert Louis Stevenson. If I get to read them all I can make myself feel a bit more intelligent - failing that I'll put them on a bookshelf behind me to look more intelligent in Zoom meetings. The rest of Christmas was good - I spent the day at my parents eating a massive roast goose meal and drinking a lot of wine and dark beer. I had been a bit nervous about it for various reasons, but there were no arguments and no drama, and I actually had a lovely relaxing day. Today isn't technically part of this challenge, but I wanted to quickly mention my morning workout. My gym is closed, but I managed to get a free 3-day pass for the Pure Gym round the corner so that I could take part in squatmas. I've never done squatmas before, but it felt fitting this year somehow that now Willy isn't here to badger me to do it I should actually do the workout. I managed my 50 reps at 50% bodyweight (I went for 40kg, which is more like 53% of the 11 stone 12 I weighed in at this morning). I did them all in one set, which was a pleasant surprise, and so after a rest I decided to do something heavier. 60kg (almost 80% of body weight) for 10 reps, 70kg (93%) for 8 reps, and finally 80kg (106%) for 5. I followed that with some rotator cuff exercises, delt flies, tricep extensions, and bicep curls. The lich 1/3 - I managed to do a little yoga on Tuesday after my run, but very much got up too late on Thursday and just plain forgot on Saturday. The muscle 2/7 - I managed to track every day, which was good, but most days I made no effort to hit the right calorie numbers. I finished at 23,078 kcal against a target of 20,944 (about 3,297 per day, against 2,992 per day target), and I gained 1 lb, which seems to be about right. Protein was weirdly 149g/day average, which is 1g off target, albeit I had a couple of days that were lower than I would like. The documancer 0/7 - fuck it, work's busy, I'll start again in January. The translator 4.5/7 - again, I've been busy and I haven't given this the attention it needs. I managed Dutch most days, thanks to Duolingo shouting at me, but French has slipped. The face 6.5/7 - very happy with this; given the break in routine of the last few days this is a pretty great result.

Squatmas achieved! 50 reps at 40kg (~53.1% of body weight). Surprisingly I got through it all in one set too Still working on whether I can do deadlifts tomorrow. Nice one Rho! If you wouldn't mind adding mine that would be amazing.

I really love this goal, it really made me smile. I'm intrigued. Stocks and shares? Boiled bones and leftover veg? Medieval punishment devices? I really like the idea of running your challenge with the seasons too, feels properly rangerly.

Yeah, I was really pleased they were doing a random 3 day pass; my normal gym will be closed (and even if it wasn't, trying to find an open gym session is a pain). Of course! I might have to get you to post my reps too My phone is very unhappy with the spreadsheet right now.

Sorry you had to cancel your plans man, that's no fun. I hope that Little Bit gets better soon.

Right, I've signed up for a free trial at the local PureGym, so now I have somewhere to do it I'm officially on for Squatmas! They're closed Christmas Day, so will be Boxing Day squats (maybe deadlift challenge on 27th?)

@Artemis Prime wonderful job in putting this together. I haven't worked out how yet, and my phone is rebelling against the spreadsheet right now, but I'll be doing this.

Wednesday - week 3 day 3 Yesterday was a good day. Crossfit was a fun one - we had 45 seconds to do 5 front squats and then max distance air bike. Then, after a rest, 45 seconds for 4 front squats and max air bike. Then again for 3, 2, and 1. I didn't really get enough time to warm up and my knee was giving me issues so I started too light, but after a couple of sets and some foam rolling I got into my stride. Result was 60kg x 5, 62.5kg x 4, 70kg x 3, 77.5kg x 2, and 82.5kg x 1 on the front squats, and 313m, 357m, 376m, 377m, and 459m respectively on the bike. Work was busy, as we hurtle towards the end of the year at breakneck speed. When I got home from work I was shattered. I sat on the sofa, which was a mistake, because there was no way in hell I was getting back up after that. Rather than cooking I ordered some pizza. It was really good, and would have been alright if I'd have planned to have it. The problem was that I'd spent all day working really hard to eat enough, so the pizza put me massively over. Better than under though. Probably. I managed some Dutch before bed, but no French. Teeth were done. No studying. 1.5/4.

Thank you! I shall continue to do so. That's interesting. I'm not really a baker, and I thought it would have more of an effect. Consider me corrected.

Tuesday - week 3 day 2 Yesterday was a good day. I went for my couch to 5k run in the morning - we're now up to 25 minutes of solid running. The rest of the programme is very slowly increasing that - a week of 25 minute runs, a week of about 28 minutes I think, and then a week of 30s. I'm hoping that will be slow enough that my hips stop punishing me. I got up too late to do much afterwards, but I managed a 7 minute yoga video. Work was ok - working from home allowed me to plow through some of the mountain of work. In the evening WW made a chicken and tomato pasta, and then we went to play Pathfinder. Having nearly all been killed by a sentient cloud of blood last session, we had a nap and bimbled around the keep we're currently exploring. We found an amphora with 8 women painted on it and a space for a 9th, and wondered if the 9th had come alive and become the sentient blood cloud. The vase had also been filled with blood at some point in history, which was suspicious. It was overall a very chilled exploration session, apart from a short encounter with 3 bleeding skeletons which our barbarian absolutely annihilated. Calories were low - I'm determined to eat more today and get this back on track. No studying done, but languages and teeth were sorted. 3/5 for the day.

Vanilla? I don't usually cook with vanilla, but isn't it a bit strong not to measure? (Weirdly though, I'm with you on garlic, which I guess is considered a strong flavour.)

Glad you and the kids are feeling better. It sounds like you've got a lot on your plate so I'm not surprised you're drained. Hope you get some more rest soon.

I really like the blue hair - looks really good!

I more meant I'd use weight rather than volume, but a handful does seem like an appropriate measurement

Thanks man. I don't know if there was a misprint in the recipe, and it was supposed to be tsps of flour and butter rather than tbsps - I tripled the milk so that would give the same ratio. It wouldn't be nearly enough sauce if I did that though. The difficulty I have with American recipes is that our cups are 284ml, whereas US cups are 236ml as you say, so I first have to ascertain the nationality of the author before I know if I need to convert it. All our measuring jugs/spoons/glasses have both metric and UK imperial measurements on them though, so using them interchangeably is pretty easy otherwise.

So, in my last update I didn't mention Literal Immortality, which shows you exactly how much work I've done on that. I'm switching this goal for week 3 to yoga, partly because I think I need the post-run stretching more than preventative exercise right now, and partly because I can do yoga in 10 minutes if I'm up late, rather than 40. I'll revisit GMB in the new year. Monday - week 3 day 1 Yesterday was a good day. Crossfit was deadlifts, and I felt pretty weak. I built up to 130kg x 5, which should be pretty light for me, but I thought that I was going to pass out afterwards so I called it there. Hoping that's just the lack of calories in the last few weeks, and better fuelling will improve it. Then we had 3 intervals of the following: in one minute, 50ft deadballs over shoulder, max distance ski. That was surprisingly hard work for 3 minutes work, but quite good fun. Work was ok - I spent the whole day with my head down finishing a report that I was working on most of last week. Despite promising myself that I wouldn't be working late for the foreseeable, I ended up finishing 50 minutes late, and 20 minutes after I would usually leave. Still, it's done at least. WW was working late, so in the evening I decided to do something I very rarely do and cook something for the enjoyment of cooking. I'm going to try and channel Tank here... I boiled some whole, unpeeled potatoes, parsnips, and carrots for 20 minutes until tender. Whilst they were boiling I wrapped some of WW's Christmas presents. When they were done I drained them and set them aside to cool. I also chopped 3 chicory in half and laid them in a casserole dish. I then melted 2tbsp of butter in a pan, added 3tbsp of flour, and cooked for half a minute to create a roux. To that I added 120ml of milk, as per the recipe I was following. I'm pleased that my cooking has come on a bit in the last few years, because I was very easily able to identify that what I had created was more of a paste than a sauce and could in no way be poured on to anything. I tripled the amount of milk and gradually combined until I had a thick, but actually pourable, white sauce, to which I added 2tsp of dijon mustard, and plenty of salt and pepper. I poured the sauce over the chicory, sprikled over 5tbsp of cheddar (I don't know what monster measures cheddar in tbsps, but that was the recipe), and put that in the over for 30 minutes. Whilst that was cooking I grated 200g of paneer into a bowl, then grated in the potato, carrot, and parsnip (the recipe called for 180g potato and 250g parsnip, but I didn't have enough of either so I bulked it out with carrot). To that I added 2tsp each of garam masala, turmeric, and coriander leaf, 5.5tsp of corn flour, and quite a bit of salt. I mixed the whole lot into a dough and separated it into a bunch of croquettes. When the chicory gratin was done I took it out of the oven to cool, and heated a pan with enough oil to half submerge the croquettes, and fried the croquettes for a few minutes on both sides until golden. I served the curried parsnip croquettes with the chicory gratin to the side. If I do say so myself, this was a pretty lovely meal, even if it took a while and generated quite a bit of washing up. The one thing that would have improved it was substituting the chicory for something else; turns out that it did nothing to enhance my mustard white sauce and cheese topping. The whole thing came to 900 calories, so I'll be dipping into my treat calories for the week already (it was a good treat though). After that I pretty much chilled for the evening. Languages and teeth were done, no essay writing, calories tracked at 2,971 with 159g protein.