Thanks @Maegaranthelas!


Saturday, 2025-05-17, Streak: 76
:v: Hike, 14.7 km
:v: Pathfinder, Chapter 3
:v: Dead Hang, Day 17


Ten minutes of high knees was brutal after my hike, even though I was allowed to split it into manageable sets. Maybe I'm still mildly sore from Wednesday's 5K run. Still, I did it. "We need to keep on moving" if only for my survivors' sake.

Watered all my survivors, obviously.

Survivors (5): Jenna, Lee, Jade, Mia, Jamal
 
Thanks @Mamatigerj!


Tuesday, 2025-05-20, Streak: 79
:v: Pathfinder, Chapter 6 +Opt
:v: Dead Hang, Day 20


I've got five survivors and have to collect all the fire wood myself? Maybe they're tired from all of last chapter's walking. Still, I did it all.
I've also freed mama bear. Let's hope she's thankful and leaves us alone for the night. I want to keep my survivors even if they're not the fire-wood-collecting type.

Survivors (5): Jenna, Lee, Jade, Mia, Jamal
 
Thursday, 2025-05-22, Streak: 81
:v: Pathfinder, Chapter 8
:v: Dead Hang, Day 22


Uh oh, scary situation. And a difficult choice. I do want to save people, as many as I can, but these two? They haven't made a good first impression. Should I give them a second chance?

Okay, fine. I let them join the group. These desperate times do things to people, make them act unlike they would normally. They're probably good citizens. And maybe, if I'm lucky they will help collect firewood this evening.

Survivors (7): Jenna, Lee, Jade, Mia, Jamal, Art, Luca

In other news, Dead Hang is getting really hard. I'm not sure if I'll be able to hang on for 2 minutes by the end of the month.
 
Monday, 2025-05-26, Streak: 85
:v: Gym: strength circuit, 2 rounds
:v: Pathfinder, Chapter 12
:v: Dead Hang, Day 26


How many photographs will it take to convince people, who are intentionally ignoring what's going on in the world around them, that their world is falling apart?
I took all 5 photographs. Not sure if there is any number that is enough.

Why can't I ask the kiddo pathfinder and his mom to join my group?

I did the dead hang for 1m40s as specified for today. It was insanely close though, I couldn't have held on for a second longer.

I tried to analyze what's going on during the hang two days ago and today and it's not me, it's not my muscles that are giving out. What happens is that I start slipping, not constantly, but piece by piece, millimeter by millimeter, which then leads to me hanging less optimally, in configurations where I'm not strong enough to hold out the two minutes. So in some way it is my muscles that are giving out, but those muscles are ones that I don't really want to train in this challenge. (I don't want to dead-hang from my fingertips. The bar is too big to be hanging from my fingertips anyway.)

Wednesday and Friday will be the remaining two long hangs. I plan to do these at the gym (I've been doing all hangs up to now at home); my gym has several pull-up bars and at least one of them is textured (unlike mine at home which is just plain wood) and so maybe that'll help against slipping. If that doesn't work, the next escalation would be going to the climbing gym and using chalk to dry out my hands. However my hands won't like any of these options.

I don't see why I shouldn't be able to hang for two minutes, now it's just about finding an environment that lets me do it.
 
Tuesday, 2025-05-27, Streak: 86
:v: Pathfinder, Chapter 13, Option A, +Optional subquest
:v: Dead Hang, Day 27


The Council didn't believe me. Who would have guessed? But Ted eavesdropped on the meeting, understood what's going on, and asked to join my group. Of course I let him. I set out with the distinct plan to save everyone, didn't I? And so my group grew to eight.

I chose to climb the rock face. When climbing we need to get up maybe two meters to let the herd pass below us. Running would mean a lot more meters to cover.
And of course we're trying to warn those who come after us.

Survivors (8): Jenna, Lee, Jade, Mia, Jamal, Art, Luca, Ted
 
Friday, 2025-05-30, Streak: 89
:v: Gym: strength circuit, 2 rounds
:v: Pathfinder, Chapter 16 +Optional subquest
:x: Dead Hang, Day 30


So, that did not work. I got to 1m30s before giving up. I tried a second time and got even less.
I'm less confident in Monday's analysis now. Maybe I do need to train grip strength or general upper-body strength before trying again.
Annoying that I'm missing only one day.
 
Thanks @graoumia!

When it comes to Dead Hang I've decided to restart that challenge at a later date. I might want to do some exercises specifically for grip strength, but I'll figure that out at some point.


Saturday, 2025-05-31, Streak: 90
:v: Hike, 19.2 km
:v: Pathfinder, Chapter 17


With it being the 31st, it's a weird in-between day without a challenge, so I took the time to search for my next challenge. I looked at next month's challenge and while I like jumping jacks (there were some recently in Pathfinder and those were the first ones I've done in years), I don't really like wallsitting. There is a challenge that only contains jumping jacks and that is Good Morning, World; sounds like fun (for now). Additionally, because it's summer and hydration is important, I'll be doing First Thing Water.
 
Tuesday, 2025-06-10, Streak: 100
:v: First Thing Water, Day 10
:v: Good Morning, World, Day 10
:v: Pathfinder, Chapter 27 +optional subquest


My people just want to get lost, don't they? I've got to do everything myself. Once we get out of this -- and we will get out of this -- it will be despite how they're acting not because of how they're acting. And to think we started the chapter so hopeful.

Survivors (10): Jenna, Lee, Jade, Mia, Jamal, Art, Luca, Ted, Bob, Marjorie
 
Wednesday, 2025-06-11, Streak: 101
:v: First Thing Water, Day 11
:v: Good Morning, World, Day 11
:v: Gym: strength circuit, 2 rounds
:v: Pathfinder, Chapter 28


"Collapse", capital C. Why does that make it sound a lot more ominous?

Swimmers as exercise but the description only mentions washing off and talking? As a big cat that canonically loves water I'm definitely swimming a few meters.
 
Thanks @graoumia, @Mamatigerj, @Anek!

:completed:
True, I did complete Pathfinder yesterday. However the day was so full of things to do that I ignored the story and skipped straight to the exercises. Let's catch up with what's happening in that world today. And so here is the final spoiler-filled commentary block on Pathfinder:

Run! It was gonna happen. We've been waiting for it, we've been dreading it. The Collapse starts. But, we have the safe haven in reach.

And so we make it. Who made it?

Survivors (10): Jenna, Lee, Jade, Mia, Jamal, Art, Luca, Ted, Bob, Marjorie

My people and I made it. Everyone who joined me reached the safe haven.

You don’t have to save everyone - but you can try.
Click to expand...
... says the description. I mentioned back in Chapter 1 how I was gonna try to save everyone and I'm happy that I did.
Everyone that wanted to join me, that is. There are still people out there... It's good that more people join us in the safe haven every day. The people are going to survive.


It became obvious pretty soon that there are some days where the exercises are static and some days where you have to do one set per survivor and if you didn't do it then you didn't get to keep that survivor. More could have been done with the days that presented me with options, one choice taken could have had consequences at a later day, for example. Also I don't think I got anything from the optional side quests. It could be cool if there were a button I'd press if I did the side quest and it would be reflected in the story somehow. Similar to how the epilogue contains the pictures of my survivors, it could also have contained a paragraph like this:
Sharing stories of our travels to Haven became a regular occurrence around the evening camp fire. One Pathfinder who arrived with her group of 14 that morning remembered the mouth of a ravine they walked past: "But we saw several towers of rocks alongside the edge and more rocks on the ground spelled out letters. It wasn't complete anymore but we could piece together one word 'STAMPEDE'. We assumed it to be a warning and decided not to travel through that ravine." The Pathfinder then described their path and how it took them half-way up a nearby mountain. "And from there we could see down into the ravine just as a cloud of dust was traveling towards it. That cloud turned out to be a herd of large animals that thundered through the ravine. I was just glad we weren't caught in it at that time." She continued describing her groups adventures but I wasn't listening any more. The story brought a smile to my face.
Click to expand...
... if you did the relevant side quest in Chapter 13. Of course it would be even cooler if @Mamatigerj's actions in the program affected how my version of the program -- started a few days later -- went. (I can dream.)

I haven't decided on what's next. I like Pathfinder because it adds story to the exercises, so I do want to do another RPG program soon.

The story helps with motivation cause I obviously want to see how it ends. However you all provide a solid base of motivation by commenting on this thread and cheering me on (Thank you! :tuzki-love:) so it's not like I need to rely on the motivation provided by an RPG program to keep going.

Also I want a break from always putting spoiler boxes in my journal entries. I don't want someone coming across my thread to learn about the ending without choosing to do so but it feels weird: I write a long post and then have to squeeze most of it in a box. (Like today.)

I'll start the new program, whatever it'll end up being, on Monday. Since I don't want to only do my two challenges today, let's do the Workout of the Day.


Saturday, 2025-06-14, Streak: 104
:v: First Thing Water, Day 14
:v: Good Morning, World, Day 14
:v: WoD: I am In Charge, Lvl 3
:v: Hike, 5.2 km
 
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