Jarric

Well you're obviously going to catch me up on squats, so come at my deadlifts bro. 137.5kg x 5 as at 24/05/2021. And then maybe at some point you and @Starpuck can come after my pullups Challenge looks good man; all SMART goals, all things that you can achieve if you're willing to make them a priority.

Still busier than is in any way reasonable. Yesterday I couldn't be bothered to cook, so I ordered pizza and sat on the sofa drinking beer and watching Questing Time. They had a guest player - Mark Meer who voices Commander Shepard in Mass Effect. He was playing a character called Captain Commander LD Shepheard (the LD standing for 'legally distinct'). It was good fun. I feel a bit more focussed and a bit less tired today, but I have no idea how I'm going to get all of my work done on time.

I think that's pretty normal - that's why there's so much talk about accountability here on the forums and on Nerd Fitness in general - it's harder to tell someone else you haven't done the thing that to tell yourself.

Struggling today for some reason. Just ticking off the requirement for posting here.

Whereabouts in your back does it hurt? I find I get a tight lower back from walking or running sometimes, I think because those muscles are compensating for lack of strength in my glutes. It's really noticeable that where I have a weak left glute my left hamstring is tight, and my lower back is really tight on the right.

Monday - week 4, day 1 Wormy - HP: 140/175 Crossfit in the morning was fun. We started with earthquake bench press (where you weight the bar by having kettlebells swinging on resistance bands. That's always a good laugh, because it's really hard to stabilise them. After that we had a 20 minute EMOM, which was 5 rounds of: 1st minute - 3-5 strict handstand pressups 2nd minute - max distance handwalk 3rd minute - 3-5 strict chest to bar 4th minute - max duration l-sit All fun stuff to practice (not that I can properly do any of it other than the chest to bar), and a nice way to start the day. 1/10 for the week so far. Wormintrude - HP: 66/175 Plan for the week is 4 days at 2,250kcal and 3 days art 2,880kcal. Yesterday was a bank holiday here, which meant WW had time to do some baking and play with her new stand mixer. She made the most amazing focaccia I think I have ever tasted, so I had a bit of that to try it and also a bit with dinner. She also made a rhubarb and raspberry crumble because we had rhubarb and, honestly, what else are you going to do with rhubarb? So I had a bit of that too. For dinner I made garlic chicken with no less than 46 cloves of garlic - it was proper good and less garlicy than you might expect. After all that I finished the day at 2,500kcal exactly. Not a disaster, particularly given the baking occurring in my presence, but I'll need to find those 250 calories elsewhere in the week. Slimey - HP: 105/175 Yes! I got a few things done yesterday. My guitar stings came so I re-strung my acoustic, put it out on display, and put the case and my bass guitar away in storage (a little sad about the bass, but I'm never likely to randomly pick it up and play it like I will with the acoustic). I also cleared off the dining table for the first time since we moved in, and almost cleared off the stairs. Plenty more to do, but it was nice to be able to eat at a table last night. 1/1 for the week so far. Tiberius - HP: 175/175 Late evening I continued working on my current project. I'm a bit concerned that my next session will almost certainly fuck it up entirely, because I don't really know how to draw the concept I'm going for, but we'll see how it turns out. 1/2 for the week so far. Sir Reginald - HP: 135/175 Yep, teeth done, 1/7 for the week so far. William - HP: 145/175 Yep, checked in here, 1/7 for the week so far. Yesterday was a good day. As it was a bank holiday here I had a lie in, and went to Crossfit at 8am instead of the usual 06:30. It was mostly a pretty chilled out day, but I got some clearing out of things done as mentioned above. Whilst I was doing that, as well as a ton of washing up, WW was baking and food prepping. We had a lot of veg we didn't want to go bad, and now we instead have 6 portions of aubergine and chickpea curry and 9 portions of bolognese in the freezer. We also have quite a lot of focaccia, and rhubarb and raspberry crumble, leftover, so that'll keep me well fed for the rest of the week. It was also really lovely to get my guitar out and have a little play. I haven't picked it up in too long, but I was pleased to see that I haven't forgotten how to play it (even if I have forgotten most of the songs I once knew!). I can't see myself playing seriously again any time soon, but at least if it's out in the open I might randomly pick it up and mess around a bit.

Yes, that makes sense. I thought you were doing either deficit deadlifts or reduced depth deadlifts, and I couldn't work out why you'd be doing either. What you're actually doing makes a lot more sense! I better get moving then! (I won't increase as far as you, but I think I can hold you off a little longer

Last sessions were 100kg x 3, 90kg x 5, 80kg x 7 on squats, and 137.5kg x 5 on deadlifts. What are you doing for warm-up sets? A bit more volume in the warm-up might give him more time to practice the movement, without adding load? I may have missed this earlier in the thread, but are the plates on the platform, or is he? And why?

There's so much exciting stuff in this list! Glad things are going well for you. I'll be interested to hear how your personal Crossfit games goes too - that's a heavy day but it sounds like a fun one.

I think this is a wise choice - trying to concentrate on more than a couple of cues at once is probably going to make things harder for him, so better to wait until you see something important to correct. ...so how long until you overtake me again?

Consistency hasn't been 100% this challenge so far, but I've definitely made me peace with progress over perfection. I set some fairly lofty goals, so if I'm only hitting 8/10 workouts that's still 8 workouts in a week, and that's ok. Things are happening, even is it's not all of the things all of the time.

Week 3 roundup Wormy - HP: 140/175 8/10 for the week. Missed one from getting up too late, and the other from lack of energy. I'm ok with that, even if Wormy takes 14 points of damage - it's a lofty goal. Wormintrude - HP: 66/175 Average calories per day were 2,765, against my target of 2,520. Wormintrude takes another 27 damage, and it's touch and go whether she'll survive the challenge at this stage I basically blew this on Saturday, with significant over indulgence for WW's birthday meal and subsequent drinks. The rest of the week was good though, so I was able to not be took far over. Weight wise this appears to be working. I started the challenge at 12 stone 4, end of week 1 was 11st 13, week 2 12st 0, and yesterday was 11st 11. So I've lost half a stone (7#, 3.175kg) in 3 weeks even without fully hitting my targets. A couple of disciplined weeks and I should have good progress over the period. Slimey - HP: 105/175 This didn't happen this week, so Slimey takes a massive lump of damage. I shouldn't have kept putting it off, but it was a busy week and that's exactly what I did. Week 4 is guaranteed to be better though, because I've already started on this today. Tiberius - HP: 175/175 Yeah, I'm still enjoying this and it's a good way to de-stress, so hitting this goal has been ok. The main thing is just remembering to do it. 3/2 for the week and Tiberius is still unharmed. Sir Reginald - HP: 135/175 6/7 for the week. One late, drunken night on Saturday kept me off the perfect score, but 6/7 ain't bad. William - HP: 145/175 6/7 for the week. Given how busy I've been, I'm really happy that I scored so well, even if William takes another 10 damage.

Sunday - Week 3, Day 7 Wormy - HP: 154/175 Went bouldering first thing Sunday morning. Saturday's late night apparently didn't affect my strength, but it definitely effected my ability to think. I spent the session alternating between climbing some pretty tough routes, and being unable to work out how to get off the ground. I should have also gone for a run, but it's a long weekend and I didn't feel like it, so I didn't 8/10 for the week. Wormintrude - HP: 93/175 After the million calories I ate on Saturday I took it easy yesterday. Had a smallish breakfast, made a small chicken katsu curry for lunch, and WW cooked the traditional roast for dinner. Even with a couple of snacks I finished at 2,026 against my goal of 2,250. Slimey - HP: 175/175 I didn't do this. Well, technically I took WW's new stand mixer out of its box, but that doesn't really count. I knew I had time to sort some of the house out over the bank holiday weekend, but I put off anything of note until today. 0/1 for the week. Tiberius - HP: 175/175 I did a few doodles of worms before bed. 3/2 for the week. Sir Reginald - HP: 145/175 Yep, all good, 6/7 for the week. William - HP: 155/175 Yep, 6/7 for the week. Yesterday was a good day. I spent most of it not doing very much - I read the quickstart rules to a Dune RPG, because that looked cool. In the afternoon I had a video chat with @DarK_RaideR and @WhiteGhost to go through the West Marches style game of 5 Torches Deep he's planning to run. I think it's going to be a fun, dark, gritty game, and I like that. Very slowly starting to pull together some backstory for my character too - Séamus the halfling zealot. I'm planning on playing him as a druid, taking the druid archetype at level 3 (if he lives that long), so that should be fun. In the evening we watching some Critical Drinking (a new stream of people getting drunk and playing D&D) until the tech issues got too annoying, and then chilled on the sofa until bedtime.

I get that, but I would also argue that being able to push yourself to do it means that you're already in a better place. It may only be a first step, but is a good one.

Hope the camping trip's going well!

Friday and Saturday - Week 3, Days 5 and 6 Wormy - HP: 154/175 Friday was really fun, Crossfit was muscle ups, seated sled pulls, and overhead press. Muscle ups felt realistically manageable for the first time ever, and I even got two reps in a set, as well as three sets of singles. I've never done seated sled pulls before, but they were fun and I got up to 65kg (~143#), and I hit 52.5kg (~116#) on overhead press. Yesterday I went out for a long run. Well, it was mostly walking in the end, but I went out for 3.5 hours in the sunshine and that was lovely. I did get quite badly sunburnt. 7/10 for the week so far. Wormintrude - HP: 93/175 Friday I was really careful on calories, and with some surprisingly low numbers on some of my meals had a good low calorie day. Saturday was the other way. I had a few energy gels on my run, as well as a normal sized breakfast and lunch. In the evening we went out for tapas for WW's birthday meal. We had quite a bit of food, and a few beers, and then grabbed some more beers on the way home. And then I had a couple of whiskeys before going to bed at 2am. Slimey - HP: 175/175 Nothing, 0/1 for the week so far. Tiberius - HP: 175/175 Yes! On Friday I did a bit of idle doodling in front of the TV. On Saturday I was inspired to start working on another drawing, which I might share if it turns out ok, 2/2 for the week so far. Sir Reginald - HP: 145/175 Done on Friday. When I went to bed drunk at 2am on Saturday, I didn't feel like doing this. 5/7 for the week so far. William - HP: 155/175 Totally forgot to check in on Saturday, so 5/7 for the week so far (and this update will finish the week at 6/7). Yesterday was a good day. Long, long run in the morning, then a great chat with @DarK_RaideR, @Starpuck and @Raxie about our Ranger play by post game. It was really lovely to chat to those guys as always. Then a lovely dinner in the evening, and a silly late night to finish up. We watched the first 3 episodes of American Gods as well, which was bloody amazing. I've read the book, but they've done the TV series so well that I was getting déjà vu watching it. (I realise I'm massively behind the times on this, but I'm still excited by it!)

Glad to hear that man. That sounds like good news as an indication that you're moving to a better mental place, and hopefully as an impetus to keep moving forward.

That's interesting, I've never thought to make mashed potatoes in advance. Do you freeze them?

Ok, I'm going to have to insist that you demo this accent for us tomorrow! Also, I love everything about your Starfinder game already. Those characters are inspired, every single one!

Thursday- Week 3, Day 4 Wormy - HP: 154/175 Running yesterday - 4 miles at a not very fast pace. I procrastinated a bit getting out, and then I really wasn't feeling it (I'm guessing neither the 100kg squats on Wednesday morning or the beer Wednesday night helped here). When I got back I sat with WW whilst she opened her birthday presents, so between that and starting late I didn't do any hangboarding or handstands. 5/10 for the week so far. Wormintrude - HP: 93/175 Someone had brought lemon meringue pie into WW's work for her birthday, and she very kindly saved me half of an individual pie. I couldn't say no to that, and it was really nice. Dinner was slightly more calorific than I was expecting too - WW cooked chicken shashlik burritos and they came in at 870kcal. Add to that some (planned) beers whilst playing Pathfinder, and I finished the day 300 calories over my plan at 3,179. This is a bit further over than I'd really like, but it was used on good stuff at least. Slimey - HP: 175/175 Nothing today, 0/1 for the week so far. Tiberius - HP: 175/175 No time for this today, 0/2 for the week so far. I am rapidly running out of days on which to do this! Sir Reginald - HP: 145/175 Yep, teeth done, 4/7 for the week so far. William - HP: 155/175 Checked in (though it was a brief one given how busy I was) - 4/7 for the week so far Yesterday was a good day. In the morning WW unwrapped her presents; I'd got her a big kitchen mixer that she wanted so I sense quite a bit of cake in my future! Also some books, a Bake Off star baker apron and oven gloves, and some silly bits. Work was carnage, as usual. I'm trying to be relaxed about it, so whilst I'm finishing the day knackered I'm at least not stressing about getting the work done. I accept that I can't do everything right now, and I'm going to focus on doing the thing in front of me. Yesterday it was particularly tough to do that, because I had about 4 hours of virtual meetings and I could see my e-mails mounting up whilst I was in them, but I got there in the end. In the evening we played Pathfinder, our Mummy's Mask game. We had an amazing session, as we ended up fighting a geist and finding some haunts, which variously had abilities to cause fear, insanity, and to force us to eat poisonous lichen. It was great fun having to roleplay the stupid decisions that we made due to our fear and insanity. I am pretty sure that Urah, my bloodrager, will die next session though. He currently has incurable insanity, which renders him largely defenceless, and he's polymorphed himself into an earth elemental so that he could fight a geist inside a wall. There's an outside chance that he might come to his senses long enough to flee, but I'm not going to hold out too much hope! Ended up staying up a bit late and finishing my beer after the game, which probably wasn't the best choice but at the time I felt like I needed that to decompress before bed.

We do mate ❤️

Oo, a hot tub sounds like a nice idea...

Yesterday was a good day - Crossfit in the morning was squats, and I hit 100kg (~220#) for 3 reps. I'm pretty sure that was my 1RM, and it's definitely a new 3RM for me. Work was crazy busy, and shows no sign of letting up. In the evening I cooked chorizo and feta tacos, and we watched Questing Time while I wrapped WW's birthday presents and drank beer. Hit 3,016kcal vs the 2,880 I was aiming for. Just bought slightly more beer than planned was the issue. Not far enough over to be a concern though.

Well it's official, I need to bathe more! I have no context for how hot that would feel. It sounds hot. Guess I'll be sticking a thermometer in my bath next time.