Nerd #12916 signing in

[Aranan]

Hey, everyone. I assume I'm the 12,916th person to register here (which is awesome!) due to my profile URL.

 

I'm a 29 year-old dude, married to the lovely marybelle, and I have always been a nerd. My preferred nerdy hobbies are probably wargames (particularly Warmachine/Hordes), board games (Neuroshima Hex!) and card games (started with Magic, but I'm also a fan of Dominion, Ascension, and looking to try the LotR card game). I also play a fair bit of PC games (Blizzard's trinity and Portal lately).

 

As for the fitness side of Nerd Fitness, I was a couch potato for most of my life. Whenever I could get away with it, I'd sit on the bleachers in PE with my friends and either play games or talk about games. I dreaded the yearly mile run for the fitness test and wound up just walking it fairly often. This lifestyle suited me until I graduated college. Then, for reasons still unknown to me, I decided I wanted to do something to get in shape. In hindsight, it's probably because I had graduated college and wasn't happy with my job, so I wanted to see improvement somewhere. I decided to run. With the help of resources on another large forum, I managed to stumble my way across the awesome Couch to 5k plan and, after a few repeated weeks, complete it. In this time, I read Born to Run and the concept of minimalistic running really clicked with me, so I snagged a pair of VFF KSOs as my first running shoe. To celebrate completing the program, I signed up for a local 5k, not realizing it was a mountain trail around a lake. Man, those hills were brutal compared to my relatively flat street that I trained on. But I managed to do it!

 

By this time I had found that I enjoyed running, so I did the logical thing--I signed up for a marathon. Looking back, it'd probably make more sense for me to have done a few more 5ks, 10ks, and a half-marathon first... but oh well! I completed my marathon on November 2011. Having completed that goal, I then... stopped. I took a month off to recover, and never really resumed. Sure, I started a few things (lifting plans, running plans), but I'd only stick with it for a week or two and then lapse. Last November, I realized it had been a year since I had really done anything productive physically and it started to bother me. I poked around online and found a link to Nerd Fitness from one of the running blogs I had been following. "Hey," I thought, "this is a great way to approach fitness!"

 

Since finding NF, I have started up the beginner body weight routine, picked up some new shoes and resumed my running, and have started giving the Paleo diet a try.

 

Oh yeah, I also joined the US Army. So now that I'm posting here, I guess I'm a member of two armies!

 

I was unhappy with where my career path was (not) taking me, and I wanted a radical change. I managed to get a spot in intelligence working on all the cool toys they use, so I'm kind of looking at it as an ideal blend of the new me--techy nerd stuff plus an emphasis on physical fitness. 

 

Short Term Goals: Be able to score above the minimum standards (a 60) for the Army personal fitness test. This means 39 push ups in 2 minutes, 45 sit ups in 2 minutes, and a 2 mile run in 17 minutes. I'm pretty sure these are doable, so I might bump the target up to a 70 (49 push ups, 54 sit ups, 2 miles in 16:06). 

Be able to do 10 perfect form pull ups in a row. Right now I can do about 5.

Stick with paleo until I leave for basic training in April. I realize once I'm there, my diet will not be as flexible and that's fine. I just want to see how paleo works for me in the meantime.

 

Long Term Goals: Before the end of the year, I'd really like to run another marathon. Before the end of 2014, I want to have ran a 50k.

A much less ambitious goal, but I'd like to be able to do one-legged squats. They look so easy, but daaaang. 

 

My goals are mostly running related because that's what I've done the most of. I also have a strong desire to do some strength work, but nailing down some specific goals for that are a little harder for me since I don't have the experience. I'm unsure about target numbers, but I'm eager to begin proper barbell workouts. I'm mostly interested in seeing how high I can get my deadlift, squat, pull up, bench press, and military press weights (woo for compound exercises!).

 

That was a lot of words, and if someone actually reads it all then I applaud you.

 

TL;DR: Hi, Nerd Fitness!

[Laureleye]

I read it all.  Hope you can meet all of your goals.  Welcome to our army.

[Jakob Kopfeld]

Hello Aranan

Quite nice to sign up here with you wife. Looks like you got a clear plan ahead of yourself of what you want to do, and when you want to accomplish it. That is great! I wish you the best of luck in reaching your goals!

 

Welcome to the Rebellion!

[Aranan]

Thanks for the welcome, you two. It's been a weird week with family issues cropping up and I skipped a workout (boo), but things are back on track. Gotta say that paleo is working great for me so far. This is way better than my brief attempt at vegetarianism!

 

Now if only I could kick this sugar monkey off my back and stop craving candy...

[JustAStudent]

Great work with the diet and workouts so far. The sugar cravings will get less over time, and you'll end up wondering why you wanted it in the first place. I find it gets better for me after about a week or so cold turkey from sweet things. Just keep going and don't give up!

[Aranan]

Great work with the diet and workouts so far. The sugar cravings will get less over time, and you'll end up wondering why you wanted it in the first place. I find it gets better for me after about a week or so cold turkey from sweet things. Just keep going and don't give up!

 

I certainly hope so. Between soda, sweet tea, and candy, I can really pack away the sugar. I've gotten a lot better about the drinks, but I'm still struggling with cravings for Skittles, etc. Doesn't help that where I work we have a big ol' candy jar that's always full. Argh.