[Wk 5] Improving in Fitness, Gaming & Music

Previous Weeks' Blogs: Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4.

About this blog:
I'm a professional musician and (very) amateur gamer.
Blogging about improving and sticking to a self-proscribed program is very effective for my overall progress!
Thanks for checking this out and feel free to leave any comments or suggestions!

Goals for the Week

Fitness Goals:
2 Weight-lifting (Starting Strength) sessions: [image loading]

2 Running sessions at desired HR (link): [image loading]

2 Cross-training or light exercise sessions: [image loading]

Gaming Goals:
Log Write-Ups of Blood Bowl and Dominions 4 games: [image loading]

3 WarOwl CS:GO practice sessions: [image loading]

                  Log CS:GO practice sessions, and Ranked results:
                  Log Hearthstone Drafts/Results:

            Personal Goals:
                  5 Mental Discipline sessions: [image loading]

1.5 Goal-oriented sessions a day: ( [image loading]

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Log daily food intake: (

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Week Preview: This week I'll be beginning to set the habit of logging food intake and charting my overall mood of the day while continuing the move towards fitness being an everyday undertaking. I'll still get a designated rest day and have two very light days, but I want to be more consistent with my activity.

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Monday 7/14: [image loading]

Today has been going quite well! The morning was somewhat lazy as I waited for the wife to wake up before practicing. The quiet time was spent trying out a Dominions build that failed hilariously badly. I sent my initial hero and army into an unscouted nearby area and got completely wiped by a indigenous naga commander. Oh man it was painful! But I completed a long and rather frustrating session upon her waking. We then washed the puppy and did some other small things around the house. In celebration of the new Dwarf Fortress being released, my brother called in to work so we won a CSGO together after those errands.

I've just knocked out my cleans lifting session (which again was awesome!!) and am about to start the goal-oriented practice and mental prep. 2 sessions and a mental prep should be too much to accomplish before drinks and dessert at a friend's house. Time to knock this out!

One session knocked out. Taking a baby break to watch Newbee continue their march.

Finished the rest of the sessions and knocked out a Dubya with the brother in CS:GO. Good stuff!

One last late night session of CSGO led to a loss in which I led the kills.... But I did log all my food for the day!

Tuesday 7/15: [image loading]

Today my new Roccat Kova+ comes in the mail and I'm suuuper excited! Cannot wait to play on a new mouse and see the difference between a good optical lens and the laser one I currently use. Okeedoke... going to go out and get all errands done before the mouse comes.

This afternoon's mental preparation was some beginner meditation exercises by Jack Kornfield. The overall presentation is very nice and straightforward. I'm finding it a bit more accessible and newbie-friendly than the Pema Chodron sessions I've enjoyed previously. I'll get more out of those exercises after establishing a base of practice. Meditation and self-hypnosis should be intermingled in the days/weeks to come as they are compliment and strengthen each other.

First goal-oriented session was very nice! Looking forward to another right now, and I'll follow that with a sunset run. I'm going to try out a new audiobook on the run: Hellhole, the first in a trilogy by the Herbert/Andersen duo that puts out a great deal of Dune canon, cashing-in on the elder Herbert's legacy. I'll give it a try. Some of the extended Dune books I've enjoyed, but largely I find them derivative and obvious money-grabs. We'll see what they come up with left to their own devices.

Tonight's run was harder than expected. I spent a good portion of the time with my HR above the target 160bpm. Whenever it spiked up to 170 I'd slow until it receded back into the slow range, but consistent elevation changes kept it relatively elevated. I was experimenting with a new route within some military housing and there wasn't a level plane to be found.

Wednesday 7/16:

Maaan, today was a lazy day... I had a bunch of work and scheduling related stressful stuff to deal with, so I declared the rest of the day void after getting in the bare basics. I did no mental prep or exercise (other than a longer walk with the dog), but I did keep track of all of my food intake, including the extra twizzlers at the end of the day. I'm particularly happy I did that and didn't allow myself to feel guilty.

I also played a local Dominions game and am starting to feel more comfortable with the menu and setup of the game! It's such an ingenious and deep experience. I really like the semi-ordered chaos of the battlefield and the depth of the magic tree. One must really take into account the magic you're going to research and the age you're in before committing to magic tiers in your god. I tried to make a water heavy melee dragon God only to have him suicide himself on the approaching Abyssal forces after two battles

. He's a dumbie... Going to start another one with a different plan.

Played a couple of HS games that were frustrating, and won a CSGO game as well!

Thursday 7/17: [image loading]

Good work thus far today! I've knocked out two sessions, done a pretty good mage draft, a full WarOwl practice session, and my deadlift Starting Strength day. I'll keep it short for now as I'm still running around a bit. I want to get one more goal-oriented practice session in today, and I had a baby epiphany as to why it has been something of a struggle to get the sessions underway. I've been entering each session without and real goals, other than to just do the session. Today, I've prescribed several (2-4) goals in my practice to address in each session. Usually these are to address an excerpt and improve its rating slightly, get it slightly more comfortable. Entering the goal-oriented sessions with goals in mind is definitely imperative to improving motivation and intelligent practice.

Friday 7/18: [image loading]

Crazy busy day with a double rehearsal and a reveal that I would be sight-reading a new part for a concert on Saturday. I was fairly nervous about how exposed it was, but played well throughout the rehearsal.

Didn't log food or exercise today, but I'll give myself credit for a quality session for how I handled the part change.

Saturday 7/19: [image loading]

Nailed the crap out of the concert on the new part, practiced a good session, and went for a short- to medium-length hike with some friends. Good day overall.

Sunday 7/20:

The last two entries are brief because I was away from internet for the last couple days for a travelling gig. I was back today to enjoy the long day of Dota!! Good games!

Just one maintenance session for practice today, a mental prep session, and a nice long run to finish out the workouts for the week. Good day, but a lazy one largely.

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CS:GO Reference Section:

7/14: W; was carried... 4th on team. Played a game on Inferno with my brother. Don't really know the map that well and thankfully was carried. Had maybe 2 good rounds.

W; contributed, but was 4th. Last rounds people were farming bots rather than objectives and I didn't do that.

L; leader on the board. This was a terrible game in which two clannies played with my brother and I and sank the ship quickly.

7/16: W; only person with mic... ugh. middle of the pack kills wise. Not accustomed to the new mouse yet.

7/17: W; contributed, 2nd on the board with some idiots making tactic calls.

W; Gigantic 4-12 comeback for which I topped the board! wooooot!

Hearthstone Reference Section:

Mage Draft: ended 7-3. Had a couple of pretty crappy rows so I was happy with it. Lost to a rogue with 2 legendaries and a bunch of good cards, and a 5 elemental shaman later. Will review those games more.

#3 L vs. Shammy: No terrible misplays on my part. He actually got value out of that Doomsayer drop. Interesting play. With 4 hexes, 3 lightning bolts, 1 forked lightning, 1 Lightning Storm, two Fire ele's I just didn't have answers. Turn 10, I should've Harvest Golem'd over Ethereal Arcanist. The potential upside of Ethereal with the remaining two secrets I had in my deck was too much to pass on.

Shaman Draft: 7/15 + Show Spoiler [Reactions while drafting] +

#2: Omg... the first time I've ever gotten the option to take this weapon in all my shaman drafts!!
#4: That's more like it :-).
#5: Yea... of course after I complain about the previous row, the gods give me another...
#7: And another...
#10: Even a crappy Epic row.
#12: Hurray... another crappy row.
#22: And the hits just keep on coming... at least this is super easy to draft... no choices.
#25: An honestly hard row... went with the axe to keep tempo in this low low curve crap deck.

Loss v Mage... Wow... I totally deserved this loss... oh man, critical misplay at the end...

Shaman Draft: 7/16+ Show Spoiler [Reactions while drafting] +

#1: Oh baby! Nice start!
#2: Getting an unbound this early lets me build around it. I like getting the 3 over the 1 generally as well.
#4: Allright! Give me some overloads now :-)
#6: Yay removal and overload!
#7: Ditto
#8: Hmm... Going with Shattered as trump loves it and I have good 2s for free... Hard choice though.
Through 10 this decks looks pretty fricking solid! Great synergy and removal. Need a 2 or two.
#13: Wow what an awesome row... I need the top end... Going with Fire Ele...
Through 15... Low on true 2s... need some early value minions.
#17: Is this the first shit row?
#18: What a great row! Holy crap. Hmm... I have two taunts... low early drops (which lends itself towards drake usage early), but damn... Can't really go wrong with this row. No kodo as I have good removal already. I love Sunwalker... but I'm going with drake.
#21: Drake #2... okay I guess... grrr...
#26: I'm super low on 2s... but isn't the rockbiter better generally? Hmm damn. Taking the murloc because I need a true 2... Might be a mistake.
#27: Going to take the Silver Hand Knight over the Rockbiter, but it was darn close.... Might be another mistake... Ugh.

Mage Draft: 7/17+ Show Spoiler [Reactions while drafting] +

#1: Good row! Going Twilight drake as it's just a solid minion and mage has lots of draw options.
#2: Damn good row! I'm going to have to Harvest Golem over the Worgen just because it's so much more solid. The upside is great particularly for mage, but it's all-too-easy to circumvent.
#3: Give me beef! That is a nice 1-drop though.
#4: Odd... My gut has me leaning towards LotA, but Trump is valuing Razor higher... Early game too important.
#6: First bad row... Going to grab the 4 drop.
#7: Tough choice... but Sunwalker is really good... and higher valued.
#8: Can't really go wrong here... I like the upside of both, but I'm leaning towards finishing an opponent. Assassin it is!
#9: Another bad row... durr...
Through 13: Woah endgame! Let's get some early mobs.
#16: They really want me to take a Mirror Image eh? Ok... in this crappy of a row, might as well.
#20: Hard row... Right now I have ZERO removal... shitty options (other than that early blizzard I passed on). I could use more earlygame... but I have zero card draw too.... Gadget after looking at the gigantic 5drop hole in my curve.
#21: Tough choice... but Venture is so good.
#22: Tough choice... I love Blizzard... but need the quality 2-drop.
#27: After a couple awesome rows... back to tedium. Hmm... Amaz loves Billy so I'm choosing him.
#30: Blood Knight too awesome...

Mage Draft 7/20:+ Show Spoiler [Reactions while drafting] +

#1: Really don't like this rare row... never cared for wild pyro much... but we'll see how it goes.
Through 10 it feels strong early, but with no spells I'm getting a bit nervous...
#17: Hard choice... probably going to get the archmage because I have no late game...
so many crappy rows or rows with no real choice... oh well.... we'll see how it goes.

Loss vs Shaman: Coin a Water Ele turn 3 to get him removed via crazed alchemist.... I misplay turn 7 playing a Defender of Argus when BB Bodyguard would have been better. He draws mass removal and I don't. With 3 fire eles he also outdecks me.

Win vs Paladin: Turn 3 with Swordsmith and buffed recruit on the board, I misplay thinking mage hero power will trigger the Noble Sacrifice. There's no good way out of this turn, but I think waiting and pinging would've been better. Critical misplay turn turn!!!! Ping and Dark iron is much much much better than the poly/ping combo!! Wowzers. Glad I caught that.

Loss vs Paladin: Mad bomber wipes my two off the board sadly. Bad luck, but not unheard of. I have nothing to back it up though as my draw was shit... Acolyte dies to it. I should've just arcane intellected instead of Acolyte turn 3. I'm going to be taking damage and the ping sucks turn 4. He gets insance Argent Protector value and I just fucking die. My only play was setting up the Baron and even that wasn't enough with Argent Protector value. He drops a Guru that was the perfect counter and I'm dead... hurray. The guru was there to eat flame strike so it's not unexpected, but still there was nothing I could do. He deserved the win.

Loss vs. Hunter: Shit draw once again! Even when I draft 12 fucking <3 minions I can't get a good fucking curve. WTH! Coin Water ele turn 3 was probably the best play against taunt animal companion, but hard to know. Arcane shot takes care of it easily. After that questing adventurer gets out of control and I dont' draft ANY REMOVAL for 6 turns. My two polys stay hidden through over half my deck. I do fail to play around snipe on turn 5... That was a game-ending mistake on my part, but at that point I had little option.

[Wk 5] Improving in Fitness, Gaming & Music

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