Jarric

Thursday - W0D4 Yesterday was a good day. I went swimming first thing, did a 200m breast stroke warm-up, 400m front crawl, and a final 200m or breast stroke. I was a bit careful kicking off at each end, but other than that it seemed to be fine on my knee. Work was crazy - I tried really hard to catch up with everything I've got going on before having time off, and that was a real struggle. I had to leave at quarter to 7 because the directors wanted to lock up and go home, so I then went and logged on at home until about 8pm. But hey, I cleared a lot of stuff, and now I have a 4 day weekend! In the evening we watched Sewing Bee and Taskmaster, and then went to bed. Didn't get my drawing done due to the lateness and WW being ill, so I'll have to do that today. Physio and teeth were done, no beer, study is done for the week, no drawing.

Yeah, I think today is the warmest day of the year here at 19°C, which is 66.4°F, and I'm really looking forward to the nice weather! Love this jingle; that's going to be stuck in my head now!

Sounds like a good plan. You've got plenty of time to train, so just take it slowly and I'm sure you'll do great.

Oh wow, that's great! When's the race? I'm sure that can be arranged

My thought on this would be that you can already read music and keep time, so you can probably figure out bass using free resources. (And you might know a friendly bassist if you need to ask any questions ) From a technical point of view, I don't think you need it. With that said, if it's going to help you with your motivation to play, then I say go for it - a structured programme sounds good if you're going to find it fun.

Glad you're feeling better! Is there any reminder that you can leave yourself now, that you'll see next time it happens?

I don't know why, but this gif is really stressing me out

Wednesday - W0D3 Yesterday was a good day. Physio first thing, as mentioned in my last post. Work was crazy busy - I'm desperately trying to get ahead before two days off work and three days away at a conference, and so far everything is coming in much faster than I can possibly deal with it. I finished work at 6, which isn't mega late (albeit we close at 5), but I was so shattered I couldn't manage anything more. When I got home I was so tired I just slumped on the floor for a while. WW cooked bacon and eggs on toast while I did some washing up, and then we watched Questing Time and went to bed. I did manage to do my physio exercises (though I realised this morning I may be doing them slightly wrong), and my teeth got done. I usually drink beer with Questing Time but I held off as I know it'll be a boozy weekend after the race. No drawing, and studying is done for the week.

Great to have you! I hope so too! the similarity wasn't lost on me Some of your momentum would be really helpful, thanks! I'm excited for the art - hopefully I'll have something to share at some stage. Need to do some tonight actually... Wise words on the knee. I know logically that I don't want to push too hard - identifying how hard is too hard might be, well, that might be the hard part. I'll let you know how it all goes. It's so much fun - really worth a play if you ever get a chance. I really believe there's a game for everyone, whether it's a really numbers based system that's almost a board game or a really narrative-based system with almost no rules whatsoever, or anything in the middle. And you're 100% right - I'll try to be careful. that's a really great description actually.

Ah, I'd love to go to Iceland. Are you going to try and learn Icelandic? Apparently it is an infamously difficult language. Is that a pun?

Tuesday - W0D2 Yesterday was a good day. First thing I went for a very short run - my knee felt weird and I was super aware of it, but it didn't really hurt, so that's encouraging. Got in an hour of studying at work and submitted my assignment for marking; I should get the results by the end of this challenge. I really hope I pass - if I fail I have to re-do the whole module, which is 3 essays that I don't want to write again! After work I rushed home to cook dinner, but WW wasn't feeling well and didn't want to eat much. We opted to have cereal and I had some fruit, and to get out on time for D&D. D&D was great fun! We've just started a new Pathfinder 2e campaign, set in a Greek mythology inspired setting, and it's a blast. I'm playing psyche, an elven cleric of Aphrodite. She's all sunshine and light and very sweet, and then all blood and murder when it comes to combat; I'm very much enjoying playing her! Officially our party are on a pilgrimage to tend to a sacred flame that protects civilization from the wild lands, but Psyche also has some other things she wants to find out there. The rest of our party: - Phoebe, a sphinx monk and scholar who has gone seeking knowledge of her goddess (Selene, I think?) - Ish'Kabel, a human sorcerer who believes he is fated to take the journey - Anathmodes, a human(ish) wizard who is basically treating this as a research trip for him university - Jasper Overalls, an orc barbarian who has little to no idea what's going on, and accidentally wandered on stage when acolytes were being selected Yesterday we had a lovely session of starting our exploration across the wilds, and discovered a forest that had been entirely turned to stone. We don't understand why this has happened, but we also met a dryad who inhabits this forest, and the leafy parts of her have turned to stone and are causing her great pain. After scaring her off when she attacked us, we sought a way to deal with this curse. We have discovered that a pack of cockatrices live in the area, and whilst we can't see how they would be able to petrify a whole forest, we've set out to hunt and kill them anyway on general principles. Teeth were done, studying now complete for the week, no beers yet, no life drawing/physio. This morning I had a physio appointment for my knee. Their verdict was it's likely torn cartilage in the knee joint. They recommended that I stay away from running for a few more weeks, and weren't terribly impressed with the idea of me racing on Saturday, but just told me to be careful when I do race. I've got some exercises to do twice per day (single leg bridges, banded hamstring curls, chair pistol squats), so now I have something actionable for my physio goal at least! I must also try not to explode my knee this weekend - that would be bad.

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Hope you feel better soon!

Monday - W0D1 Yesterday was a good day. It was a bank holiday here, so I got up a little late and had a late (8am) Crossfit session. I'd gone a bit overboard on Sunday in the knowledge that I had Monday off work, so I was feeling a little hungover. Started with deadlifts, which I took fairly easy at 140kg (~308#) for 5 reps. Then we had 7 rounds of 8 dumbbell snatches, 4 weighted chinups, and 2 strict handstand pushups. I was pretty slow and felt pretty sick by halfway through, but I got a decent workout. I spent a big chunk of the day writing an essay, which I more-or-less finished with 3 hours of work. Meant to do 4 hours, but I got distracted by setting up my new challenge and my new notebook. Still, nice to knock a chunk out of that, as this one is due in a couple of weeks (and I need to finish it before starting the 6 other essays I mentioned in my intro!). In the evening we made pizza in our little home pizza oven, which was fun. I was intending to then finish the life drawing video I started on Sunday, but it turns out that after WW said she enjoyed the video and wanted to run through the series with me, she actually doesn't want to do that. The goal remains, but we might find another series of videos to work through, or I might have to do these ones solo. Teeth were done, 3 hours of studying, no beer so far this week, nothing to note on other goals.

Thank you! I'll be attempting the runs whatever, I just hope I can get to the end of them! Oh that's cool! Glad he's enjoying it. Smaug sounds like a cool challenge - I suck at drawing dragons (or dogs, or anything with a long muzzle, I can't quite get my head round the perspective), so let me know if he has any tips! I may well share some of my drawing here, when I finish stuff. Thank you! I've not been great at hitting my goals so far this year for various reasons, but the pillars help me to remember what's important.

I thoroughly endorse this approach - knowing what you actually eat and burn before making any changes is so much easier than picking an arbitrary calorie number. Also, I'm a big fan of small changes over long periods as a strategy.

Hope you get some better sleep tonight. Loving the Discworld narrative of course.

Following along Batman Wolfman

I will happily join you for a pint sir.

Welcome back! That's awesome that you're taking up sword training; can't wait to hear how it goes.

Wrap up from last challenge: Anatomy of an Orc So I'm coming into this challenge with some kind of injury on my knee, which is a bit of a bugger as I have a 20 mile race in less than a week (running Rat Race Dirty Weekend with @Mr_Willes). Then at the end of the week 1 I have a 12km race (Nuclear Rush). Oh, and a sprint triathlon at the end of week 5 On the other hand, I feel like there's a possibility that work might calm down over the course of this challenge (wishful thinking maybe) and I'll be able to keep up here a bit better. The injury is also no reason to stop me doing things I want to do, and particularly things I feel motivated to do right now. I've just started a new journal too, and I'm a little bit hyped about that coinciding with the start of a challenge. I continue to be inspired by my orcish muscle wizard, Guglug, so I've very loosely themed my goals around orcs. (I'm not good at themes - feel free to make my goals fit better and then tell me how!) Physio Rx - +3 STR An orc needs to be strong. On Wednesday of week 0 I have an appointment with a physiotherapist, to try and find out what's going on with my knee. I presume that that will lead to some kind of exercises I'll have to do regularly, so my first goal this challenge is to do whatever the physio tells me for 6 weeks. Life drawing - +2 CHA, +1 SAN An orc needs to understand anatomy, to know their own body and their enemy's weak points. I found a cool series of life drawing lessons on YouTube the other day, and I've got WW on board to do them with me, so I'm going to use them to help me pick my art back up. The goal is to complete a minimum of one video each week (they're a couple of hours each). The art of war - +2 INT An orc must study to compete with their peers and defeat their enemies. I've got to write another 6, 3,500 word essays for my professional qualification. The first one is due in June, but really I want it out of the way much quicker than that so I can get ahead on the others. The goal is 4 hours of essay writing per week. I get 2 hours study time at work, so providing I do that I only need to do 2 hours on evenings and weekends. Tusks - +1 SAN An orc should take pride in their tusks. I'm pretty good at brushing my teeth in the morning, and pretty poor at doing so before bed. I got on top of this for a while, and I want to get back there. Goal is to brush my teeth twice per day, including interdental sticks in the evening. Ale - +2 CON An orc should enjoy an ale, but not allow it to make them slow and fat. I have been habitually drinking a little more than I would like of late, so I want to put a limit on that. I have also gone from smoking when I'm drunk to smoking when I drink, which I'm not a fan of. I don't have the energy to address the smoking right now, but the less often I drink the less often I will smoke, and that's good. Goal is no more than 10 pints of beer per week (or equivalent alcoholic content).

Intense challenge man - here to watch you smash it!

The way you have conceptualised groundedness, both physically and metaphorically, sounds lovely. I hope it serves you well.