dragon slaying

[ebm1224]

i liked this most recent article for a number of reasons but it got me thinking.

i don't know that i've ever had a dragon to slay other than "i want to look good and feel good."

also, once i get to my ideal weight/body composition, i'm not sure what my next dragon will be. i'm considering signing up for some races in order to give my workouts some direction. i'd also love to learn to kayak, hike the appalachian trail, and be able to go on trips where i ride my bike to the destination. i'm actually thinking of adding in some smaller dragons in the meantime because, honestly, some days the idea of being able to wear a swimsuit without fear just isn't enough.

so i'm curious:

what dragons have you gone up against?

have you failed or triumphed?

are their any dragons you were training to fight and then decided you didn't want to fight them?

what dragon are you currently training for?

and (most importantly) how did you pick your next dragon so that you didn't get complacent?

[SusieBlu]

My dragon was my physical training test and push up. I spent two and a half months training and killed it. I have to face it again (and again and again) every six months unless I score above a 90% and then it will be every year I will have to fight it. So as long as I am in the Air Force I have a dragon to fight. I have a set weight lifting goal of a 500 lb combine lift and that keeps me from just focusing on pushups, situps, and running.

[Anivair]

I thikn I'm going to call pull ups my current dragon. I'm actually taking this whole challenge off them in order to get myself there. I'm doing a hardcore diet and a stronglifts 5x5 and getting well rounded and big and lean and THEN I'm going to try for the pull ups. That is, I'm going to get myself into pull up shape without doing pull ups. It's like a good experiment.

[Strickland5]

what dragons have you gone up against?

Getting to a healthy weight/body shape, being able to really run

have you failed or triumphed?

I triumphed - presently at 230lbs and still working. I have run two half-marathons and multiple other races

are there any dragons you were training to fight and then decided you didn't want to fight them?

Not yet, though Pull Ups are looming on the horizon

what dragon are you currently training for?

My third half-marathon! After that its going to be shifting gears to more of a general fitness - aka pulls ups!

and (most importantly) how did you pick your next dragon so that you didn't get complacent?

I think about what I want do next.

[The Tin Man]

I feel like I'm constantly babbling about this but I am definitely training to slay the Boston Run to Remember half marathon. I haven't slain any recently but am already thinking about what I might want to go after when the race is done. Full marathon, Tough Mudder, heavy lifting, increasing vertical leap, something Crossfit-related (now that I got an awesome Living Social deal) are all in there as possibilities.

[Corbab]

One of my major dragons has been appearance -- I followed a number of terrible programs in search of abs, and only started getting close once I stopped caring about it and focused on my diet and lifts.

Right now, my dragon is pounds on the barbell. I've been training hard since January, and I'm finally starting to see results. I also row, which sets up a whole bunch of dragons in the form of PRs. Actually testing them is hellish, but it feels great to know that hard work I've put in elsewhere leads to results across the board.

[empeg9000]

I am fighting to slay my dragon still. I am trying to get down to 220 by my wedding in May. My next will be to get to 200. I haven't been 200 since I was just out of high school. I will also be trying to slay the pull up dragon during the next 6 week challenge. I am sure it's not realistic but I have been pretty dedicated and I am going to give it my best.

[LeoDiablo2]

I'm still working on slaying my second dragon. The first one was beating the odds that me as a deaf girl can do it in a hearing world especially in martial arts. I was a nervous wreak throwing myself in a group of speaking-English with not being able to hear. But I slayed the dragon damn good and so far it has been 3 years.. *thumbs up* My next dragon I'm trying to prepare myself is to committ to my 6-weeks challenge. I have never been the one to be able to commit to a PLAN -numbers of week challenge. That's my area of weakness, I tend to give up too easily. I need to be able to stick it through and at the end of 6 weeks, I can look back and see my triumphs!

[BlackChrystal]

I have decided that the dragon I would like to slay is my jeans. I have been wearing the same size jeans for the past 4-5 years. They are getting uncomfortable; I've been having that lovely phenomenon called a "muffin top" going on laterly. Plus, I just don't feel great in them. I end up throwing on a pair of my yoga pants asap after I get home from a day out.

I just want to feel comfortable in my jeans again. That is my first step. Get rid of the muffin top and feel confident that I look good in my jeans!!!!

My husband and I just finished the "beginner body weight" routine this morning and I'm sweating like crazy. I'm amazed, it would take me a 1/2 hour at the gym before I even sweated a drop. I was panting after doing the warm up. *sad* I had no idea I was that out of shape. Now that I have a great resource to use to keep me going I think I'll be feeling comfy in my jeans in no time!

[Rivanariko]

Right now, for me, it's less about the dragon that I'm after, and more about the courage to really get serious in training for fighting it, and then going and slaying it. I've been practicing at home, mostly at night, in secret, with my wooden sword and a poor tree that really doesn't deserve the amount of abuse that it gets. And there is a lot of improvement that I can make that way, but it isn't going to get me a dragon head on a pike. Eventually, I'll have to go public with my dragon-killing ambitions and face the possibility of ridicule. I can hear people jeering in my head. "Who are you to go after a dragon? You are a tiny little girl."

So right now, it's the courage to start. It's knowing in my gut that my destiny involves dragons, and that I'll get there, no matter what anyone says. Everyone is just... really scary. And it's taking a lot of effort for me to get over how much scarier those people are than the actual dragon.

[CalvinHobbes]

I must slay the pull up dragon. Then I'll come up with more I'm sure.

[cline]

My dragon: torn tendon and broken ankle on a trip in 2007. Surgery in 2008. Surgery in 2009. Major knee and ankle surgery (still same problem) in 2011. Doc says athletics are out and if I was a pro (which I'm not... Lol) career would be over.

I'm doing so well!

This week I'm slaying the dragon: going back to the place where I hurt it and I'm going to repeat the activity. Fingers crossed for saturday....

[Ryan Sannar]

Addiction.

I need to pull a paladin and get God's help on this one though.

[Red1263]

My dragon's name is MCAT, and I'll be slaying it in June, I've already begun preparing for it since mid-Jan.

O.Chem was my last Dragon as it had beaten me before, but I faced it again and vanquished it!

I know I have to eventually face the Spanish dragon in the future, hopefully I'll be able to slay that one as well.

After the MCAT Dragon, I'll be facing the "Applying for Medical School" Dragon, who's strength is proportional by how well I slay the MCAT dragon.

[Damy]

Every challenge I slay another dragon. This time it's the "Pistol Squat"-Dragon and he doesn't have a chance! If I'm not able to kill him this challenge, I'll kill him in the next. I'm not doing this out of cruelty. I just want to get my reward and my reward isn't a damsel in distress, my reward is my Indiana Jones hat. I want to earn that hat. Let's be honest, a broad-brimmed fedora looks stupid on small shoulders.

[Quickdraw]

I'm glad to see that post resonated with others, because honestly it really hit a chord with me.

My life is a series of progressively mightier dragons.

what dragons have you gone up against?

Reenlisting this past summer was probably the most recent major one; the quest to get there was extremely drawn out, and the competition was fierce. Before that, learning Arabic was a real beast, as was Boot Camp before that. I'm gonna say college is far enough in my history that I don't wanna include it; I'm not the same guy these days.

have you failed or triumphed?

So far I have, but only because I'm the guy who always has another plan. I set my sights on slaying Reenlistment years in advance, and had to work EVERYTHING over the previous 4 years in that direction. Arabic was the hardest academic endeavor of my life.

are their any dragons you were training to fight and then decided you didn't want to fight them?

I have backed off putting in my paperwork for Officer Candidate School several times because it honestly kinda intimidated me. There have always been legitimate reasons for doing so (this deployment needed me) but way down deep the motivation has always been "I don't wanna go through that."

what dragon are you currently training for?

OCS. As it now stands, I will be in an excellent position to apply in about a year and a half, after some follow-on language training. In fact, while I've been delaying partially out of intimidation, the delay has enabled me to level up substantially (physically and otherwise) to better challenge it. I may have been right to fear the dragon before, but now I'm on the path to its cave.

and (most importantly) how did you pick your next dragon so that you didn't get complacent?

The Marine Corps is great about this: progression, if you want it, is a constant treadmill of things to accomplish. There's ALWAYS a drive to excel, especially if you surround yourself with the right people. There's always another rank to achieve, a physical goal to accomplish. Physical fitness tests every 6 months, annual weapons and language qualifications; it's a rare month where I'm NOT being required to prove myself somehow.

[TeaKwonDo]

Great thread. Since high school I've got enough dragons up in here to make George R R Martin cry.

Food Dragon: How the fuck to be paleo and social at the same time. Usually I've got the excuse of, "Sorry, gonna grab dinner at my place/bring my own lunch because I'm a poor student and it's cheaper," but last night was a party--and you can imagine how that went. A year ago I would have massacred myself for binging and wallowed in emotional hell for days, but today I got up, leisurely did my Monday workout, and I'll just wait until I'm hungry again and it doesn't matter when that happens. I'm calling the party a learning experience and I'll handle that kind of situation differently next time--that's all. The dragon is far from being slain, but at least it's mortally wounded.

Strength Dragon: Unassisted pistols (currently using a door), unassisted 1-arm pushups (currently using a chair), and legit pullups. I'll be happy with 5 in a row of each--for now.

Health Dragon: A problem-free lower back.

Discipline Dragon: Putting in that one more rep no matter what. I don't get the most out of my workouts because I don't push myself enough, so I add on supplementary intervals and exercises, but I shouldn't have to do that if I really went all out during the initial routine, right? I'm constantly checking and tweaking my form due to Health Dragon, so that detracts from speed, power, and efficiency. Every week feels like I'm re-learning technique.

Final Boss Dragon: Be 100% comfortable in my own skin. Ideally, I'd love a sixpack, and I idolize bodies like Zuzana Light and the Bodyrock,tv hosts, but it's healthier to love what I've got at the moment rather than anticipate loving it only when it resembles my ideal.

[Morrigainz]

Current dragons: find a balance - a way to eat paleo/primal without alienating/pissing off my husband; DL and squat my bodyweight, eventually do a pullup

Dragons I decided weren't worth fighting: getting to 125 lbs; running a half marathon (for now...just not enough time)

Future dragons: 300# DL and squat (may be unrealistic, I don't know); 20% bf; having a happy and balanced life (I complain way too much); GRADUATING COLLEGE WOOO