Thank you for your kind words, and you are very fortunate to have that chance.
I also try to make the best of the hand I'm dealt, often times life chooses that for me.
But at least I can still be creative, still be immersed. Sometimes we all need a break from reality for sure!
Wanna know how I started this writing thing? Well, it's all Darebee's fault, actually. I've been writing short stories since high school, but my imagination really took flight when I started training.
It was, and still is, my way of getting out of the discomfort, embodying the characters. So training time is writing/playing time.
Maybe I'm not so much after making a profit from writing anymore as much as I want people to just read and comment on my work. To show interest and talk about it.
There's a quote that says it's better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self. I try to remember that and write what I would want to read. It would be nice, to have a public though.
Ooh! Yes! Tough to hold for 53 seconds. Would have to follow with a hollow hold (also an excellent post and challenging--for me at least--to hold for 53 seconds).
Thank you!
Fit December - on hold Fighter's Codex day 25 (Yes, I've skipped over day 24. I'll do it tomorrow with day 26.)
running: 3 km
hiking: 6km with Shelby
writing: DAREBEE, short story research, reading for upcoming workshop, actual work on short story, brainstorming
new fiction words: 235 - hey! it's a start!
fiction YTD: 235
new consumable words: 1121
consumable YTD: 2832
French: Netflix
GOBOT
GBOT
FC report:
Skipped over day 24 because it and day 26 are both short. So I figure I can double them up tomorrow.
This was the 2nd-to-last push-ups day in the program. Only 50 push-ups in total. But I did them all as full push-ups in straight sets of 10 with no breaks and did not take breaks between the workout sets either. I think I only did 2 extra double bounce squats in my push-up avoidance counting errors. (This workout was challenging to rep count overall. I counted most of the 5th exercise reps out loud to help me stay on track!)
Lots of fun kicking in this one too. Even my legs felt tired when I was done.
writing: work on short story, research
new fiction words: 300
fiction YTD: 535
new consumable words: 300
consumable YTD: 3132
French: Netflix
GOBOT
GBOT
FC report:
Day 24 = balance training. My jam. Balance is still better on my right leg than my left, but I could do the blind balance hold on both legs.
Day 26 = speed training. Short and sweet and also fun.
This was a productive day overall. I did some more kitchen de-cluttering and cleaning, washed most of the dishes, got out for my run (harder now, because the weather has turned colder--not unbearably so, but enough to require an extra layer of clothing and the vaulting of a mental hurdle to get out there), and Shelby's walk (we saw Sheltie Molly and Golden puppy Bear up ahead of us in the woodlot, and Shelby was very determined to catch up to them, so I guess she doesn't mind Bear's friskiness at all!), and did two days of Fighter's Codex. Spent a fair bit of time on my writing study and research too. But I left my writing until late in the day again and once again netted too few words as a result. I need to write first and leave the easier work for after dinner. (I've said this before, I know. I know what I need to do. I just need to do it!) Anyhow... I did get some new words for the day. So this is good. Also: Angie from Boreal wrote a nice letter back to me (in response to the thank you note I had written to them), and my friend (the one who has promised to keep me and Shelby off the streets) messaged me to check in on how I am doing, so I chatted with her for a bit. So a good day overall. I just need to write more!
writing: work on short story, research, craft study
new fiction words: 524 - slowly ramping up here
fiction YTD: 1059
new consumable words: 1071
consumable YTD: 4203
French: Netflix
GOBOT
GBOT
FC report:
So. Much. Counting. Likely did considerably more than 3000 punches because everytime I lose track of my count, I always choose the lowest # I think it could possibly be. And I lost track of the count a lot during this workout.
I also made multiple columns for participants on the spreadsheet. Because sometimes two or more people want to gift me with the same exercise.
(I would still only do each exercise once, for the 53 reps or seconds. I need 53 different exercises to complete the workout. But if people want to celebrate with me by doing the same exercise as someone else, that is fine too.)
Yeah! It's still predicted to be cold and windy on the 13th where I am. So it will be nice to have some company to help me actually get out there and do the run!
This, along with pretty much all seated poses (except for navasana/boat) and supine poses (except for setu bandha sarvangasana/bridge) are restorative poses and do not count for the workout. I will do it as part of my post-workout stretching/cooldown session though. So thank you.
@Mamatigerj 's gomukhasana/cow face pose is also largely a stretching pose. However, I've included it as one of the workout exercises because it does require core and back strength to be able to sit up straight in the pose. (Technically all poses in which you're trying to sit up straight require some core and back work. But I think cow face is one of the strongest in this regard. Also: transitioning to the other side by keeping one's feet in place and twisting the rest of the body, all without using one's hands is just too much fun!*)
For the more active yoga poses, think: arm balances, standing balances, anything that would be challenging to hold for 53 seconds due to muscular fatigue.
*Ooh! I should totally do 53 hands-free cow face turn transitions for one of the exercises! Anyone want to do those with me? I'll make a demo video if anyone wants to try it.
*Ooh! I should totally do 53 hands-free cow face turn transitions for one of the exercises! Anyone want to do those with me? I'll make a demo video if anyone wants to try it.
Saw my brother today. He stopped by the house on his way home from visiting our mother.
They have not done the shunt surgery yet. Because now she has a blood infection. So she's on antibiotics to clear that up before she can have the surgery.
The spinal tap, which my brother authorized on January 1, he was told could be used to reduce intracranial pressure "temporarily" for 2 or 3 days. But this was done 7 days ago now and, as far as we know, has not been done again since.
Our mother did not speak while my brother was there today. He's not sure if she knows who he is anymore.
When our mother was first admitted to this hospital, we had to wear face masks to visit her. As far as I understood from the signage I saw, this was a hospital wide policy: all visitors had to wear masks while in all patient rooms. Now there is a sign at the entrance to our mother's room saying everyone must wear a gown, gloves, and mask to enter the room. (An instruction which my brother has multiple times witnessed hospital staff ignore. This lack of adherence to infection control measures on the part of hospital staff is, sadly, not uncommon here.--I was actually warned about it during my undergrad days when I volunteered to visit kids in the local paediatrics ward. The volunteer coordinator told us, "You will see doctors ignoring the posted infection control measures all the time. Do NOT follow their example.--One might have hoped Covid-19 would have changed this behaviour. But I guess not.) I asked my brother if the new protocols were because our mother is considered to be immunocompromised now or because she is considered to be a contagion risk to others. He did not know. He first encountered this change in protocol when he was there a week ago, asked about it, and was told the increased protection measures were due to another patient on the ward. But our mother was still in the ICU ward then. She has since been transferred to the neurology ward. But the increased protection measures are still in place.
No one is telling us what any of this means for our mother's prognosis.
A good day for a walk! Met up with ALL of Shelby's friends on the trail behind the school. Goldens Hendrix, Cody, and the puppy Bear, Sheltie Molly, poodle Randy, Maia, and a new friend, Irish Setter Stella. Did some extra laps around the woodlot and the Fit Park trail so Shelby could spend more time with her friends. Shelby was very happy. Two of the humans gave me exercises for my birthday workout.
writing: craft study
new fiction words: 0
fiction YTD: 1059
new consumable words: 163
consumable YTD: 4366
Spent a lot of time on craft study and reading this day. Unfortunately did not get to the writing as a result.
French: Netflix
GOBOT - up early for gaming with @'rin and @sleep_twitch
GBOT - stayed up late for... no good reason.
FC report:
Last stretching day of the program. I am glad. I do not like this high rep with no holds style of stretching. It makes my back tired and cranky. And I don't feel it's as effective in my body as static stretching.
Reverse warrior. Peaceful warrior. In BodyFlow we used to call it Sun Warrior. (I like Sun Warrior, especially in January, imagining the sun beating down on my upturned face when the reality outside is cold and grey.) In Sanskrit: Viparita Virabhadrasana (inverted posture named for the mythical warrior Virabhadra -- although all the warriors are most likely modern poses).
And yes, I am very happy for Shelby, getting to have all of these fun social times.
She has had a hard year too, losing Trudy and then my Dad, and now of course she knows even less about what is happening with my mother than I do.
It is great to see her coming out of her shell and being happy and excited to see her friends.
(Doubly so because Shelby was rescued from the streets. When she first came to us she was quite reserved and not trusting that people or other dogs would like her and want to be her friends.)
writing: craft study
new fiction words: 0
fiction YTD: 1059
new consumable words: 583
consumable YTD: 4949
French: Netflix
GOBOT
GBOT
FC report:
Did not do FC today because...
I did Shelby's walk and my run early in the day, because the weather was predicted to turn less friendly later on.
And then I did all the easy stuff: reading, craft study, swept all the floors, some Netflix in French, checked in with all my DAREBEE peeps.
And then my brother messaged me to say he was stopping in on his way home.
And then my evening began with 2 hours of talking with him about the situation with our mother.
Guess what didn't happen after that.
I was too stressed out mentally to focus on my writing. Too mentally tired to face the final push-ups day in Fighter's Codex.
So both those things got skipped. And I stayed up late playing Wingspan instead. (Way late. Which is not good. But at least I slept well when I finally did go to bed--which hasn't generally been happening after time spent thinking/talking/writing about the situation with my mother and all the crap my brother and I need to deal with as a result--so I guess that much was good at least.)
Anhoo... another day is done. Which means another fresh start and another opportunity to re-commit to my intention to do the hard stuff first. Because I know I'm living a life right now in which my mental strength and focus can be ripped from me on the turn of a dime due to forces outside of my control.
No running this day and only a short walk with Shelby because: rain, rain, rain all day. Poor Shelby would not even go outside to pee until 5PM! The weather forecast kept changing as to when things would finally dry up. I eventually chose 7PM for our walk, as it was only raining lightly when we set out, and the forecast was saying only "showers" for the next hour. But nope. Rain started to come down in earnest not long into our walk, and we ended up soaked. Shelby was very brave though. She would not allow a little thing like the weather to keep her from taking her best friend for a walk!
writing: craft study, short story, reading for workshop
new fiction words: 466
fiction YTD: 1525
new consumable words: 859
consumable YTD: 5808
French: Netflix
GOBOT
GBOT
FC report:
The last day in this program with push-ups is done! Push-ups in this workout were in sets of 15. I completed the first set in one straight unbroken set! Considering that when I first started Fighter's Codex I could do I think 6 push-ups in an unbroken set on a good day, this is huge progress for me!
For the later sets I could not do unbroken sets of 15. And I needed to get the workout done. So instead of taking my usual down dog breaks and pushing through until I'd completed all reps, I just switched do doing kneeling push-ups to finish out the later sets. I still got 7 or 8 full push-ups on each of the later sets, which is good for me considering how short the breaks between push-up sets were.
I will definitely be continuing my push-ups journey, and will likely look to a DAREBEE Challenge or perhaps a self-directed plan to continue my progress here. Something that will help me to progress my endurance without being too time-consuming or gruesome to do. (A lot of the push-ups days in FC got put off until way late in the day, and sometimes pushed over into the next day, because I had to overcome a lot of mental resistance just to make myself start the workout.) I will likely start this after my birthday. (Going to give myself a break for the last 3 days before my birthday workout. No one has gifted me with push-ups or burpees for that yet. But I expect they will come.--Unless I am getting too old now and no one wants to commit to having to do 53 reps of either of those exercises themself? )
No one has gifted me with push-ups or burpees for that yet. But I expect they will come.--Unless I am getting too old now and no one wants to commit to having to do 53 reps of either of those exercises themself? )
Hello Laura, on my side, it is rather that i don't want to do 53 burpees, no way, even for you. But if you really want i can join you for 53 puh-ups, on the knees
Hello Laura, on my side, it is rather that i don't want to do 53 burpees, no way, even for you. But if you really want i can join you for 53 puh-ups, on the knees
The rain is gone. The cold and wind have arrived. I had to return the Tivo box to the post office. (My mother had been paying over $100 a month for cable television which I don't have time to watch and which she currently cannot watch. So my brother decided to cancel the service.) Then I took Shelby out for her walk. We only saw one of her puppy friends, Stella (with her human bundled up even more so than I was), and her kitty friend Buddy. After that I had had enough of the cold. So running did not happen.
I need to start separating my run and Shelby's walk on days like this. There's only so much cold I can take at one time. Saturday when I need to do my 5.3 km is predicted to be about the same temperature but much, much windier. I'm going to need to dig deep to suck it up for that.
writing: craft + business study, short story, reading for workshop
new fiction words: 338
fiction YTD: 1863
new consumable words: 1397
consumable YTD: 7205
French: Netflix
GOBOT
GBOT
Woke up early. Then needed a nap later. Sleep schedule is still a bit off. But I'm still working towards normalizing things, fighting against them getting more out of hand.
Fighter's Codex is finally done! I started this program on November 20. So it took me what? 52 days to complete it.
Firstly my report on Day 30: The final day of the program is combos. Which is my favourite type of workout in the program! So fun to finish with the best part! With this day, and some of the other combo days too, I wasn't always sure which arm and which leg to use for the various parts of the combo. Part of me thinks: this program would be a great one to add follow-along videos to, to help clarify this. Another part of me thinks: it is good that the program isn't prescriptive re: which arm and which leg to use for combos, because this forced me to experiment and learn what worked best for me. The kicks, after all, can generally be done from the front leg or the back one. I imagined my opponent. Tried to think how best to attack them using the specified combination of moves.
My thoughts on/experiences with the other types of workouts:
Practice days: These involved a lot of counting. I do not like high rep counting. I lose track. I get bored. I end up focusing more on the count than on how best to execute the moves. On the other hand: these days definitely did make me better at executing the various moves. So I cannot argue against their effectiveness. A lot of the Practice days include push-ups as a "filler" exercise between each main exercise. So let's talk about those.
Push-ups: For me, the push-ups are so much harder than everything else in the program, anytime they are included they become the central focus of the workout for me. The push-ups are the work.. Everything else becomes the "filler/breather/glorious-respite-between-the-gruesome-bouts-of-push-ups". At least 50% of my counting errors in FC can be attributed to push-up avoidance. "Wait. Was that 60 double turning kicks or 40? Let's go with 40. That'll give us a longer break between push-ups!" Push-up avoidance is also the primary intrinsic-to-the-program reason it took me 52 days to complete FC*. I will put off starting a workout when I know I'll have to do a high volume of push-ups in it. This frequently resulted in my leaving my FC workout too late in the day to be able to complete it.
The overall primary reason it took me so long to get through Fighter's Codex was extrinsic to the program itself. That was, of course, my mother's medical emergency. That threw everything in my life out-of-whack and cost me a bunch of days. Which then pushed FC into the time when I needed to focus on the gift exchange, when originally I would have been able to complete FC before distribution of the Secret Santa gifts. So further delay happened there.
When I did do push-ups, however, I gave them 100%. I frequently needed to take mini down dog breaks in the middle of sets to get through them. I often took longer than the specified break period between sets when push-ups were involved. But I did full push-ups for as many reps as I possibly could. I worked to the point of actual collapsing-on-the-floor-because-my-arms-cannot-do-this-anymore failure more than once. And I went from being able to do maybe 6 push-ups in an unbroken set on a good day at the start of the program to being able to do 15 in an unbroken set by the end.
Speed days: These are basically practice days but shorter and with no push-ups or counting. I loved the no-counting aspect of these days. I loved the exercises themselves. And I needed the respite from the push-ups. The only thing I didn't like about Speed days doesn't relate to these days themselves but to the contrast between them and some of the other days in the program. So let's talk about that next.
Variation in workout length: Speed days in Fighter's Codex are generally only 9, or in some cases, 6 minutes long. (I did not need to take any breaks between exercises, because simply switching the exercise every 60 seconds was enough of a break for me.) Contrast this with the program days with sets in them, which often took me 45 minutes or longer to complete, even on Level 1! (Day 15 of the program took me 64 minutes to complete. On Level 1. That's 64 minutes of actual working time. It doesn't include the extended breaks I needed to take between sets to get through that day.) I know DAREBEE programs are designed to have active recovery days built into them. But when a day's workout varies between 6 minutes and "I need my whole freaking day to be able to get through this", it's really tough to schedule that workout into my day on a consistent basis. This was the other intrinsic-to-the-program reason it took me so long to complete Fighter's Codex.
Because the Speed days in FC aren't really the active recovery days (the program has Stretching and Balance days for this) I think it would be better if the Speed days could be used like the Hall Passes in Fit December: not scheduled for specific days, but there for you to slot into the program when you need them. Some days you just cannot squeeze in a workout that is over 45 minutes long. But those days happen when they happen in your life, not when a regimented program specifies they can happen. Having 3 workouts in the program that are a "do these on days when you need them, to keep your hand in the game when you don't have much time" deal would make it much easier to stay on track with completing a program that includes primarily a lot of really long days.
Power / Endurance days: These are like Practice days, but with added squats. My legs are strong. The volume of squats in Fighter's Codex was not significant for me.
Stretching days: Bleugh! I did not like the style of high rep, minimal hold stretching in Fighter's Codex. The high volume of forward folding, in particular, made my back cranky. And this style of stretching is not as effective at improving my flexibility as long holds in static stretches. The only stretch which is held on these days is the side splits stretch, which is a.) one of the very few static stretches I strongly dislike, and b.) not something I can do in a way which actually increases my flexibility. To do a side split stretch standing like that, I need to remain quite a bit higher than my flexibility will allow so that I can hold enough tension in my legs to support my knees. (The danger of tweaking my knees is also the limiting factor for me in seated straddle stretches.) This made the work in this particular "stretch" beneficial to me from a strengthening point of view, but not from an increased flexibility point of view. (I absolutely understand the importance of having the strength necessary to support my flexibility. I appreciated doing the side splits stretch supported only by my own body for this reason. I'm just noting that, for me, it was strength training, not something that increased my ROM.)
Balance days: Balancing work is my jam. This is work that I love and that I was already very good at before I started this program. I train both static holds and slow, controlled transitions between poses regularly as part of my yoga practice. It was fun to mix things up a bit here, using kicks instead of yoga poses for the work. These days also incorporate nice tendon-strengthening work (as does my yoga balance training).
Challenge days: Too. Much. Counting. Please could these days at least be timer-based?
Overall: I enjoyed this program and will definitely continue with this style of training, including the push-ups, but not including the stretching--I'm going back to my yoga for that! The combat moves are for me fun and effective, and this program definitely made me better at executing them. Push-ups remain my nemesis. But I am determined to increase my endurance with them. (I just need to find a way to do so that induces less mental resistance, so I'll be able to train them regularly.)
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