Hello and congrats for eeverything, wishing you two a long, strong, supportive, gentle married life!
Lovely pics of Japan, brings me back nice memories.
this looks like a place in Rise of the Ronin video game, which might be pretty obvious, as it plays in Japan somewhere around Kyoto... but I it just catched my eye...
this looks like a place in Rise of the Ronin video game, which might be pretty obvious, as it plays in Japan somewhere around Kyoto... but I it just catched my eye...
Ooh, that one would be fun to play! After we got home, my husband started playing with Ghostwire: Tokyo, which has modern-day Shibuya modelled. He found several places that we visited.
To show how (un)structured my training is nowadays:
Sunday, May 4
Midday
-- 62 min run | I could finally fit in a run after a long weekend spent working in front of a screen...
Monday, May 5
Before breakfast
-- 44 side bends | day 29 of Posture
-- 3x54 chest expansions | day 30 of Posture
During work
-- 9 min balance hold in one go | day 25 of Balance | It's tough to keep my arm up for so long... I let it rest for a few seconds when changing legs midway, and I didn't keep it quite as neat and straight as it would fit the tree pose
-- Rotator Cuff
-- Hand Mobility
-- Knee
-- Ankle Recovery
Afternoon
-- Day 29-30 of Daily Crunch | hard
-- Day 22 of Momentum | lvl II
-- 3x1 min flutter kicks | day 24 of Cardio & Abs | not that I can actually do 1 min of flutter kicks with good form
Late afternoon
47 min run:
-- 10 min warmup
-- 3x: 7 min threshold pace | 2 min recovery
-- 10 min cooldown
As you can see, I'm not consistent with anything I do (maybe apart from running). Nowadays it sometimes takes me as much as three months to complete a single challenge or program. But I still like the variety of doing more of them at the same time. I don't claim badges anymore either, it would feel unfair to those who diligently work on them every single day. But that's fine, luckily I don't need the badges as motivation anymore.
My new job is still mostly done from home. I go to the office once a week at most, if at all, so I can have a short break almost anytime I'd like, and I try to fit in a micro workout then. That's what the "during work" label means, and the items listed there are usually spread throughout the work day. I need that, because with my side job and other projects (I'm organizing two LARPs right now! ), and all the socializing I've found myself doing recently (I'm very, very grateful to have so many like-minded friends, but spending quality time with them comes at the price of my introvert social batteries draining very quickly) that's often the only option I have. Unless I go to sleep late, of course, which I don't like doing. Mainly because the earlier I go to bed, the sooner I get to be left alone with my thoughts.
We spent most of the rest of the day playing Twilight Imperium. Our host wanted to play again on the 25th, but we managed to convince him that two whole days spent playing a board game in a single month is too much for the rest of us.
I've slowed down on the workout front in the past weeks, in part because I had some injuries. My right hip began hurting the exact same way as the left one was... two years ago, I think, when I had to step back from a half-marathon race and was completely unable to run for two or three months. This time I was careful and stopped aggravating the injury, and now it feels good again. A stiff neck was also keeping me from working out much. It was due to poor form when sitting in front of the screen throughout my work days and an ergonomic pillow that apparently just makes things worse for me. I'm now back to my old, flat pillow, and it's much better.
Monday, 2 June
Late morning
-- 33 min run
Tuesday, 3 June
Morning
-- 33 min run
Afternoon
-- 40 min walk
D&D evening with my husband as the GM.
Wednesday, 4 June
Evening
-- 43 min run
Thursday, 5 June
Midday
39 min run:
-- 10 min warmup
-- 19 min threshold
-- 10 min cooldown
Friday, 6 June
Afternoon
-- 33 min run
I spent the evening celebrating a friend's 40th birthday.
Saturday, 7 June
Hangover from the previous night's birthday party. Then, in the early afternoon we set up and went to the Hungarian Tolkien Society's spring summer meeting.
Sunday, 8 June
Medieval dance workshop in the morning, practicing how to crack a whip in the afternoon.
Monday, 9 June
The spring summer meeting ended, we went home. The DOMS from the whipcracking caught up to me by the evening.
Evening
-- 54 min run
Tuesday, 10 June
Late afternoon
-- 22 min walk
Skillet concert in the evening! This was the first time I saw them live.
I still exercise almost every day, and I still keep track of it with the intention to post it here, but then I blink, and months have passed without posting. Anyway, this is what my last week looked like exercise-wise:
Late morning
-- 65 push-ups in total (regular, knee, and wall) | day 18 of Push-Up Streak
-- 35 push-ups in total (regular, knee, and wall) | part of day 19 of Push-Up Streak
Midday
-- 35 push-ups in total (regular, knee, and wall) | part of day 19 of Push-Up Streak
I have no injuries, my hip's fine! Possibly also because I run much less than before. I'm not preparing for any races right now, but the next one, and possibly all the others I'll enter in the foreseeable future aren't going to be road races but obstacle trail runs. They're more fun, and I think preparing for them allows for a more balanced training, as it's not just about running and then running some more on pavement, but on the one hand I'm motivated to look for opportunities to run on trails, and on the other hand I have to do a lot of strength work, on all muscle groups. It seems like this approach helps avoid overuse injuries.
I've been to one such race called Fighters' Run this September, and I loved every second of it, even when my heart rate went up to 200 while crawling up one of the many steep hills ~90 minutes in, or when my husband came up to me near the finish line, at the last obstacle, and all I could tell him was "I'm dying, I'm dying." What I loved the most was how willing the participants were to help each other. An experienced participant gave advice on a scary obstacle while we were recovering from an uphill segment, and when we met later, he remembered me, and asked how it went. At one of the most difficult obstacles – it's like a slip wall on a Spartan* race, but steeper and curved so that the top part is fully vertical – very few people were able to get through without help, so those who were already on top helped pull up the next ones, while the people still waiting to start pushed them up. And when the ones climbing reached the top, the roles were passed on, so they were now the ones to pull up the next row of people. That's how I, along with two girls about my height and weight pulled up two men who must've both been somewhere between 80 and 100 kg in weight. When I told the men "come on, come on, you've got this, we'll help", I really wasn't as confident in our ability to pull them up as I sounded, but it worked.
*We do have Spartan races in Hungary, but I chose Fighters' Run (a Hungarian brand) instead because the smaller number of participants and the lack of international "hype" around it made it seem cozier and less... macho, if you get what I mean. I also like the theme of Fighters' Run races; their logo has a wolf on it, and they call themselves and all participants of their races "pack members". They also have "Wolf Pup" races for children between 4 and 14 years, and that's very cute!
Yesterday was pleasant, despite having to work. My husband gets a day off every year for his birthday, but my company offers no such thing, unfortunately. And today's a work day too! As a compensation for having Jan 2, normally a workday, off. But it's not too taxing, none of my Vietnamese colleagues are working, and the Hungarians don't feel like rushing anything either. So no one cared that I left home office for a little while to pick up my birthday cake. It will be for the celebration tonight!
Thank you, @TopNotch and @CODawn!
The celebration was great, a lot of people could come, and it seemed like everyone genuinely had a good time with fun conversations. I'm happy, because I think this party helped strengthen some ties within our little community.
The following is what I've been doing exercise-wise in the new year. The intensity isn't high, but the effort is constant.
Today was a slow day, in part due to a mild hangover. With the friend I was celebrating with (also born on 9 January, just 9 years later than me), we emphatically told the guests not to bring us any gifts. The result? Many of them felt compelled to buy as drinks at the place instead. I managed to politely dodge some of the offers, but apparently not enough, considering the amount of vodka my chosen cocktail for the night contained.
Full rest. I slept very badly, I'm not sure why. It might be because of stress. Or maybe a lingering illness I thought I had already recovered from. Whatever the reason, hopefully I'll get more rest tonight.
I would've had time to exercise more today, hadn't I been slacking off on a creative project that had a deadline for today. Lucky that my main job is not too intense this time of the year, and lucky that I can work from home!
Could be any number of things. There's a difference between being productive and being busy - if your day was the latter and not the former then that would explain it!
But it could also just be you've got so much on your plate that the chunk you've done today doesn't feel like much in comparison. Maybe figure out which tasks will have the biggest impact on you feeling like you've done something and focus on those first, even if they're not the most important tasks. I find that if I clean the house or even just the kitchen I feel like I've done a lot more than if I've spent twice as long researching how to fix/build something or doing taxes or whatever.
Thanks for the advice, @agc! Thinking back, I think it also contributed that much of what I did was working on events I'm part of the organizer team of. That kind of stuff just never gets fully done until the event itself is over. On the one hand, I could determine milestones in a more structured way, but I wonder if learning to be more resilient in the face of the constant uncertainty that comes with this kind of volunteer work is more helpful on the long run.
Hi! I'm still here, still exercising! What I do nowadays is enough to keep fit, but not enough to get better. Though I recently had my second OCR race, and I certainly did better than on the first one, so maybe I am progressing, just not too fast.
Tuesday, March 31
Late morning
-- Days 24-25 of Epic Hold
-- Day 24 of Stacked
Midday
-- 3x8 knee-up twists | day 2 of Power Pull
-- Day 25 of Daily Dips
-- Days 26-30 of Epic Hold
-- Day 25 of Stacked
-- 8 chin-ups | day 3 of Power Pull
-- Day 26 of Daily Dips
-- Day 26 of Stacked
-- Verity | one set
Afternoon
-- 1 min butt kicks | day 2 of One & Done
Late afternoon
-- 1 min butt kicks | day 3 of One & Done
Wednesday, April 1
Before breakfast
-- 3x10 jumping jacks | day 1 of Jump Start
Late morning
-- 100 single-leg hops | day 4 of 100
-- 3x1 min flutter kicks | day 4 of Cardio & Abs
Midday
-- 60 bridges | part of day 5 of 100
Evening
-- 40 bridges | part of day 5 of 100
Thursday, April 2
Late morning
-- 3x5 jump squats | day 2 of Jump Start
-- Day 5 of Cardio & Abs
-- 100 knee-to-elbows | day 6 of 100
-- 140 flutter kicks in total | day 6 of Cardio & Abs
Midday
-- 1 min butt kicks | day 4 of One & Done
Afternoon
-- Days 5-6 of One & Done
Evening
-- Imperator | lvl I
Friday, April 3
Before breakfast
-- 3x11 jumping jacks | day 3 of Jump Start
Then we left to spend Easter in Pécs, Hungary on a little sight-seeing trip. My egyptologist sister has a temporary exhibition there that's open until the end of this month, and we didn't want to miss the opportunity to see it.
Saturday, April 4
A day spent sight-seeing. No intentional exercise, but certainly lots of walking.
Sunday, April 5
Before breakfast
-- 3x12 jumping jacks | day 5 of Jump Start
-- 100 punches | day 8 of 100
And a pleasant hike!
Monday, April 6
Before breakfast
-- Tough Cookie | 2 sets
Tuesday, April 7
Before breakfast
-- Day 27 of Daily Dips
-- Day 27 of Stacked
-- Solid Core | two sets
Evening
-- 10 chin-ups in total | day 5 of Power Pull
-- Day 28 of Daily Dips
-- Day 28 of Stacked
Wednesday, April 8
Late morning
-- 100 flutter kicks in total | day 9 of 100
Thursday, April 9
Late morning
-- Days 6-8 of Jump Start
-- Day 9 of Cardio & Abs
Friday, April 10
Before breakfast
-- Days 9-10 of Jump Start
-- 100 jumping jacks | day 10 of 100
-- 180 flutter kicks in total | day 10 of Cardio & Abs
Saturday, April 11
Before breakfast
-- 3x15 jumping jacks | day 11 of Jump Start
-- 100 squat hops | day 11 of 100
-- 3x1 min high knees | day 11 of Cardio & Abs
Sunday, April 12
Before breakfast
-- 3x10 knee-up twists | day 6 of Power Pull
-- Day 29 of Daily Dips
-- 10 chin-ups in total | day 7 of Power Pull
-- Day 30 of Daily Dips
-- 3x10 knee-up-twists | day 8 of Power Pull
-- Day 31 of Daily Dips
This was the day of our parliamentary elections, so after breakfast we left to vote, spend some time at my mother-in-law's and then join some friends in the evening to wait for the results together. I absolutely didn't want to stay home this evening; this was a very stressful campaign period (hell, the past years were stressful with how unethically Orbán's government used the power the two-third majority granted them), and needed the company of friends to bear the tension, and so did my husband. And goodness, this was a cathartic night for sure, and this is not an overstatement. An empire built on lies, deception, and malevolence crumbled under its own weight in front of our eyes.
And it's not just us who were immensely relieved; when we left to go home at around midnight, we found crowds outside, partying on the streets, cars honking, strangers laughing with each other. We should've been home in less than half an hour, but it took two, because all the buses were so full that we literally couldn't have squeezed ourselves inside, and there wasn't a single available taxi either. We managed to get on maybe the 5th bus that arrived. Its route wasn't exactly ideal, but it was slightly less jammed, and we didn't want to risk waiting for the next one. Even so, at one point the only way to give space to a woman trying to get off was to sit on my husband's lap—and then I had no choice but to stay there because suddenly there was no space to move again. Half so many people would normally frustrate the driver to no end, but this night's bus drivers were very chill—cheerful even. I wasn't mad either that it took longer to get home by bus than it would've been to walk those ~7 kms. All of this evening and night was truly a euphoric experience.
Some of that euphoria is still with me. But my hope isn't even in Magyar himself, rather in the people who voted for him. Orbán's most loyal supporters are old people: they lived most of their lives under socialist dictatorship, where they were not allowed to think freely, they were not allowed to form their own opinions, they were not allowed to go and see what life is like beyond the country's borders, and, with the words of dictators etched into their mind, they still look for a strong, unapologetic leader figure who takes care of all their needs, who crushes their “enemies”, and who tells them what to think. But a generation has grown up that didn't experience this. We are still held back somewhat by the inherited parental patterns, but at least we grew up free. We've been able to freely move around in Europe, and see what's good and what's bad elsewhere. We have opinions, and we are less and less afraid to voice them. We care about where our country is headed, and we are willing to shape the course. And that's why I'm hopeful for the future: if Magyar fails to uphold those of his promises that convinced us to vote for him, he will be made accountable.
Monday, April 13
A rest day, because I didn't sleep much the previous night.
Tuesday, April 14
Late morning
-- Days 12-14 of Jump Start
-- 100 side leg raises | day 12 of 100
-- 3x1 min flutter kicks | day 12 of Cardio & Abs
Midday
-- 12 chin-ups in total | day 9 of Power Pull
-- Day 32 of Daily Dips
-- 3x12 knee-up-twists | day 10 of Power Pull
-- Day 33 of Daily Dips
-- 12 chin-ups in total | day 11 of Power Pull
-- 40 daily dips | part of day 34 of Daily Dips
from
France
Thanks for sharing your beautiful photos.
), and all the socializing I've found myself doing recently (I'm very, very grateful to have so many like-minded friends, but spending quality time with them comes at the price of my introvert social batteries draining very quickly) that's often the only option I have. Unless I go to sleep late, of course, which I don't like doing. Mainly because the earlier I go to bed, the sooner I get to be left alone with my thoughts. 
Congratulations on 30 days of cardio
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