Jarric

Yesterday was a good day. Crossfit in the morning started with a workout of pullups, dumbbell press and dumbbell snatches. Really early on I went to do a snatch and something just went in my lower back, just a sudden, tight ache. I immediately stopped the workout and took a break, and then started trying to do things to ease it off. After that we had dumbbell bench press and banded v-bar rows. I subbed the latter for dumbbell rows and kept both fairly light to protect my back. I won't lie, I wrote the above mid-afternoon. It's now ten past 7, I've had dinner, and my brain has turned to mush. I can't remember what happened in the day yesterday, so it presumably wasn't exciting. In the evening I cooked dinner - pork and pak choi stir fry with rice. It was pretty good. I somehow managed the energy to boil some eggs for the week's breakfasts, and do some more stretching for my back. I really didn't want to do any drawing, but I did some anyway for the goal. After that I just zoned out a bit, and ended up getting a bit introspective and watching TV until half past midnight. I seem to be struggling a bit this week. I don't know why; the pressure at work has eased slightly so I feel like I ought to be feeling better, but that's not happening. Hopefully it'll be a short lived thing.

Thank you! I certainly hope it will

Oo, that is interesting. I really need to remember that naps are an option; I've been knackered recently.

I see a lot of similar goals to mine here, so I obviously approve - I like the lower-pressure-but-still-organised approach.

Ah, I've just realised I'm not going to catch any of the climbing live! That sucks, I've been really looking forward to that. Ah, that sucks. Whereabouts are you? In the UK we get it on the BBC, so no adverts at all. The only downside is they tend to prioritise events where Team GB have a medal hope over events I enjoy watching

It might be worth trying with your left side first next time. That would help you determine if you have a weaker side, or if the second rep is harder from fatigue. And if you do have a weaker side, it's probably best to do that side first so that you guarantee you are doing at least as many reps on the weaker side as on the stronger one. Very pleased to see the phrase "No judgement" in here. You obviously needed the sleep, and allowing yourself that to recover is a good thing. I very much second this.

I know! The gold medallist in the women's did a front flip, and how she didn't just smash her head into the ground I will never know.

Just put together the most minimal challenge tracker I can think of. Space for 175 answers (5 challenges x 5, 7-day weeks), with 6 lines and 6 words.

Sunday was a good day. In the morning I went climbing. Following Saturday's late night beers I got up really late, so I had to cut the session a bit short. Still, I didn't climb horribly considering, and it gave me a chance to start breaking in my new climbing shoes. In the afternoon we had D&D. I was really nervous about running this one, because it's a new group. The usual Ranger D&D campaign is on hold for the summer while people have lives and things, so I've got together a group for a mini campaign. I'm still playing with WW, @jonfirestar and @iatetheyeti (who sadly couldn't make this session), but there's also one of my oldest friends who's never played D&D before, and two people I don't really know at all, so I was a bit worried about how things would go. I needn't have been; in true D&D style they spent a long time planning, immediately botched a stealth check, had a combat, and then eventually allowed me to lead them towards the plot. I think it'll be a fun game. Zero Week Reflections I'm not scoring for any of my goals in zero week; this is just to check in on how things went and see if I need to tweak anything before the challenge proper starts. And remember, 80% is a pass for any goal. Draw every day - 10XP Drawing is good for me mentally, or at least I feel better after 20 minutes drawing in front of the TV than 20 minutes of playing mindless phone games in front of the TV. And the more I draw, the better I get at it, and that's good (and in fact, one of my goals for the year). 4/7 = 57%. This goal is going to be tough, but I'm not going to change it. I think it's doable, I just need to accept that I might only do a 5 minute doodle some days. I also need to plan my day - if I know I'm playing D&D in the evening then I know I'll only have time to draw at lunch, so I have to do that. Brush teeth twice per day - 10XP It's amazing how bad I am at this when I don't have the accountability of the forums. This is something that's easy to do when I'm feeling good, and incredibly challenging when I'm struggling. I still haven't worked out if I can reverse cause and effect, and make myself feel better by brushing my teeth, but as a minimum it would be nice if they didn't all fall out. 5/7 = 71%. Not ideal, but the last few weeks before this challenge started were 0/7, so this is working to an extent. No sense in changing it on that basis. 6 alcohol free days per week - 10XP I've put on a bit of weight over the last few months. I'm still not overweight, and I'm the strongest I've ever been so that's good, but I'm at a higher body fat percentage than I would like. It's also getting to the point where I need to lose weight or buy more clothes, and I can't be bothered to buy clothes. The best way to deal with this would probably be to track calories, but I don't have the energy for that right now. Instead I want to target the two things that I do too much when I'm stressed - drinking alcohol and snacking. Just being mindful about those things should be enough to keep my weight in check, even if I don't really lose much. For alcohol, I like drinking with friends, but one day per week is enough, and I don't need to be drinking in front of the TV in the middle of the week. Part of this goal will also be to plan when I'm going to drink at the start of the week, so that I'm not blindsided by events at the end of the week. 5/6 = 83% - a success! I'll be honest, I'm expecting a lot of weeks to end up this way, and I've set the goal accordingly. 6 days alcohol free is the ideal, but 5 is still a pass. One snack per day - 10XP Following on from the goal above, I think it's reasonable to snack a bit, but it's not reasonable to snack every time I go downstairs to get a cup of tea (I drink a lot of tea), so one thing per day sounds good. 4/7 = 57%. This is an interesting one, as I'm still working out what to count. On one day I had dessert with lunch, so I didn't count that as my snack, but I feel like if I had a chocolate bar after lunch I probably would have counted that. Conversely, on Saturday I had a piece of fruit between runs, and a load of gels and a banana during my run, but I wouldn't count those as snacks as they were part of my running nutrition plan for the day. I'm also a bit worried that this will encourage me to have one snack, on a day where I might not have had any. Overall I think I'm just going to have to be as honest to the spirit of the goal as possible, at least until I can think of a better metric that is no more effort to track. Exercise every day - 10XP This is something I pretty much do anyway, but it's just to make sure that I don't skip a workout on a weekend, or that if I have to rearrange things on a weekday I actually do rearrange them. The general plan is Crossfit Monday, Wednesday, Friday, running Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday, and bouldering on Sunday, but as long as I'm doing something it's all good. 7/7 = 100%. All good here. I didn't run on Sunday, but as I climbed in the morning I still ticked the box for the day. Overall a decent zero week, and I'm happy to carry my goals forward into the challenge proper. Weight at the start of week zero was 12 stone 3 (171#, ~77.6kg), and at the start of week 1 is 12 stone 1 (169#, ~76.7kg). There's no way of drawing any conclusion from 1 week of data, but I'm still pleased it went in that direction.

It did! I wish it had rain half way through so that I could cool off and then dry out at the end of the run, but you know what they say about beggars and choosers. Thank you! Always good to have you here, of course. Now go get planning!

And no I very much want to buy this - sounds intriguing.

Welcome to the forums! I'm watching it (literally whilst writing this). I think it's each to their own - I really enjoy watching the badminton, but the dressage, golf, and football (soccer) all bore me to tears. Loving the acrobatics though, and the park BMX was brilliantly terrifying.

Friday was a good day. I managed 6 ring muscle ups at Crossfit in the morning, in sets of 1, 1, 2, 1, 1, very pleased with those . Then we had sandbag carries, sled pulls, and ring dips - was a fun session. Work was ok. In the evening I got a tiny bit of doodling in. Teeth were brushed, no alcohol was had, apparently I blew my snack goal but honestly I can't remember why. Saturday was a good day. Went to Parkrun first thing, for the first time in a couple of years (it's just restarted over here to be fair), and ran 5k in 27:29 which is fine. Then I drove up to the Downs and ran another 10 miles, which was a cool start to the morning. It was blazing hot when I went out, and was pretty good weather all the way until the last half a mile when it absolutely chucked it down with rain. So in the end I got back to my car totally soaked and had to drive home in the pouring rain, but it was nonetheless nice to get out. In the afternoon I did some D&D prep, and then went shopping for some stuff to take on a very stupid drawing project, which I started when I got home. In the evening WW and I went out to dinner with Hopalong, and then I sat up watching TV and drinking beer and generally chilling out. No snacks were had all day, miraculously, but I missed brushing my teeth.

You are not whining over nothing; the stuff you are having to deal with is much more than anyone would consider normal or would reasonably expect a person to do. Under the circumstances I think you're managing really well.

Thank you . It's the extra stuff I'm missing - for example yesterday's plan was to run, then do some handstands and a little hangboarding, but I started so late I only had time for the run. It's not nothing though, which is something. Crossfit days are easier - class starts at 6.30 with or without me, so I can't procrastinate for ages.

I have nothing clever to say, just wanted to add my voice of support to the crowd. I hope things improve for you, and you are blessed with many spoons.

I'd never heard of pickleball before today - sounds like fun though!

Yesterday was a good day. After a fair bit of dragging my feet, which seems to be a thing at the moment, I got out for my run. It felt weirdly strong - it's the first time that I've run that route and not stopped to walk at any point, and over 4 miles I averaged 9'29" pace. Fastest mile was 9'13" pace. All in all I'm really happy with that one. Work was ok. Everything took longer than I had hoped, but stuff got done. In the evening we had Pathfinder, our Mummy's Mask game. We ran into a nasty combat with a bunch of ethereal tentacle monsters and the wife of the ancient undead pharaoh we're hunting, which ended up with all sorts of shenanigans of trying to fight in the dark, casting lots of weird spells like blood scent to find people, and general silliness in an almost 3 hour combat. Quite a few beers were had, so that's my one official drinking night for the week. I again didn't get round to drawing, so I'm not sure how this goal is going to go. Something to think about before week 1 starts Just the one snack in the day, and teeth were done.

You got me on squats! Nice one dude!

Yesterday was a good day. Crossfit in the morning was squats and yoke carries. My hip was feeling really crappy and a little painful, so I took both easy. Squats were 90kg (198#) for 3, rather than the 107.5kg (237#) I would have gone for, and I followed that with 80kg (176#) x 5 and 70kg (154#) x 7. The yoke was a 100ft. carry, and I tapped out at 165kg (363#) and did a load of foam rolling and lying on a massage ball. Then again, I'm always a bit wary of injuring my hip on yoke carries, so that's not as far off as it might have been. Work was ok; really struggled to get motivated in the morning and didn't get as much done as I'd hoped, but still ok. I'm starting to think that this snack goal will be an interesting one. I had the last of the plum crumble with my lunch, and because I had it with lunch I didn't count it as a snack. That meant I could have a snack later in the day. I don't want this goal to turn into me having dessert with every meal plus a snack, so I need to watch that what I'm doing makes sense. Nonetheless I failed this goal for the day; I had a snack before dinner, and then I was still hungry after dinner so I had an ice cream. No alcohol, so going well on that goal. In the evening I was just feeling knackered and a bit rubbish. I did some stretching to try and feel physically better, and then ended up lying on the floor for quite a while watching TV. Because of that I didn't do any drawing. By the time I went to bed I really wasn't feeling like doing anything, so didn't brush my teeth either

That's really interesting. I never learned the ins and outs of English grammar in school because we are bad at teaching our own language over here (or at least my schools were when I was in school). I've picked up more about English grammar trying to learn French then I ever did learning English. It also helps that WW is a massive pedant, and will pull me up on the difference between less and fewer, or who and whom.

Right here with you on this one - it's a battle we can win! Good job looking after yourself and your family. Keep being awesome Terra

Yesterday was a good day. I did not feel one bit like going out for running training, and I dawdled a lot first thing, but I got out in the end. Given the late start and lots of being distracted by my phone I managed to do the training drills, but not the running practice afterwards. Better than nothing still Work was ok again, though I didn't clear as much stuff as I'd hoped. My one snack for the day was some more of WW's plum crumble. I finished not too late, and cooked dinner. It was another recipe box meal - zesty lime chicken with Brazilian black beans and brown rice. It was bloody lovely, but it took about an hour to do and was a bit of a faff. After that we had Pathfinder, our Rise of the Runelords game. We arrived late, thanks to the faffy dinner, but then had a great time messing about with bad accents and talking the toot. We even played some Pathfinder, and came face to face with a room full of vampires. It turned out that the lead vampire was some kind of flying inter-planar squid thing, who was horrifyingly dangerous and caused us a great deal of difficulty. I managed to cast Feeblemind on it, which basically made it brainless and unable to cast spells, but still more than capable of grabbing us and drinking our blood. In the end we (barely) managed to defeat it, and next session we need to track it back to its coffin and make sure that it stays dead. Didn't get a chance to draw yesterday, but teeth were done and I avoided drinking whilst at the pub for Pathfinder.

Good to have you! Hmm, wonder if I can hit 150kg before you hit 130kg... And that's cool, that's the same weekend I'm doing Nuts! Though I'm only doing 1 day, at 14k.

You should be very pleased with it mate, you write much better than a lot of native English speakers I know.