[Wk29] Improving in Fitness, Gaming & Music

About this blog/diary:+ Show Spoiler +

I'm a professional musician and (very) amateur gamer.
Blogging about improving and sticking to a program is very effective for my overall progress!
Having been inspired by Haulvern, I hope this humble blog can motivate another someone in need of positive change.
Thanks for checking this out and feel free to leave any comments or suggestions!

Week preview: The foundation is set for good lifting gains! I'll continue to implement the new cardio program while also gameplanning for the possible upcoming TDEE re-adjustment.

Goals for the Week

Fitness Goals:
4 Weight-lifting sessions (program): [image loading]

4 Rowing HIIT or LISS sessions (log): [image loading]

(opt) Running/Hills/Weighted walk sessions (log):
1-Month of 2kcal Slow Cut: + Show Spoiler +

Gaming Goals:
Log write-ups of my team's OCC Blood Bowl games (Current Standings): [image loading]

                  Log write-ups and session prep for my DND 5E Campaign (wiki):
                  Log Cardhunter Multiplayer Tournament/MMR progress and hit level 18: (log)

            Personal Goals:
                  4+ Self-Hypnosis or Affirmation sessions: ( [image loading]

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4+ Meditation sessions: ( [image loading]

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Log daily food intake: (log) (

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Quality challenge-seeking practice session: (

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Weigh-in regularly (log): ( [image loading]

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Previous Weeks: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28.

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Monday 2/16: [image loading]

Despite failing to get the next iteration of the blog post up, yesterday was actually a quick successful day! Driving the wife to her travels, while taking up a solid 2 hours of the day, didn't impinge too much on my scheduling. I got some quality practice in over the afternoon and enjoyed the first of many LISS rowing sessions while watching Netflix. Man oh man I miss slow easy cardio while watching TV. It just feels so good and I sleep so well after doing it. The old running heart rate monitor works perfectly for the situation. I find moderating and adjusting the heart rate easier with the full body workout of rowing much moreso than running.

My weight is maintaining at 190 with me eating 2k calories and working out 6 times a week.... This is troubling. I'm really going to have to cut down to 1600 or below to get the results I want in a timely fashion. One more week of super diligent 2k/week and then I'll take my queries to the TLHFI guys and see what they suggest. I'm thinking if I can cut down to 180 and then slowly recomp eating 2 to 2.2k/day that would be perfect.

My Blood Bowl team is off to a rocking start!!!! We're 2-0 this year! Yesterday the team barely survived the most intimidating team on the schedule. It was a fully leveled Orc kill squad with no less than 4 Mighty Blow characters plowing through my team. With 6 injuries, only two of them with impactful! My minotaur is going to Miss Next Game so that's too bad, but the other 0 SPP beast that drew MNG will just be fired and rehired. Perfect!

Tuesday 2/17: [image loading]

With the wife away, morning preparations took a bit longer. The dog didn't take too long to pee as the falling snow motivated him to action. Morning rehearsals were slightly more frustrating however. I wasn't solid on several of the pieces and my spoken section was scattered and unorganized.... Grr.... The first of these kiddie shows begins on Friday and I'm definitely going to gameplan for my lower calorie program. We'll see what happens.

The house is already prepped for the wife to come home! Pork is in the slow cooker, front room is cleaned. Still need to clean the kitchen, but that should be easy enough. Time to knock out Press Day and some self-hypno!

Both went quite well! My wife decided to come home early, but thankfully it didn't affect my schedule too much as I didn't procrastinate at all leading up to the sessions. I got two ok practice sessions in but missed on getting a third.

Wednesday 2/18: [image loading]

Because of the tactical nature of Cardhunter, I find it suffers less from the RNG-screwing aspects of other card games, but I totally got RNG'd this last league run. I was playing against a 3 mage squad with pretty insane damage, and kept getting screened nicely. My opponent played quite well. It came down to my last two players buttressing their low health hero with the first to act bonus. But. on the last turn, I drew exactly zero attack cards.... All i needed was one attack, but my two heroes drew their two support cards at that moment... of the 14 cards in my deck with 4 draws I drew the 4 that I didn't need.... it was amazing! Ugh... oh well. What can you do?

Today's practice has been going well! Pretty pleased with the effort! Nailed 7 reps on Deadlift Day today! "Butt down, Chest up" is such a great deadlift cue. I feel safer and more secure in the lift than I ever have. I'm goign to make the effort to use my practice journal more of late.... The frustration I feel in letting that slide has finally spurred me to action. R/GD is the perfect place to chart and reinforce that use too.

Good stuff!

Thursday 2/19: [image loading]

With a vague quaking DOMS throughout my posterior chain, I opted for some lighter LISS cardio instead of hard-pulling HIIT. This was definitely the right choice! LISS alleviates DOMS symptoms very nicely. The morning session clocked in at 35 minutes, so I'm gradually working up to the full 45-hour long show segment. Honestly, my heart can take the longer session, I just want to get comfortable with the motion for that period of time. I feel muscles in my back, the same muscles that transfer drive power to the oar, fatiguing faster than others and I don't want to overdo it.

After lunch, the wife and I did our belated Valentine's Day meal at one of our favorite haunts. I decided to experiment with some pate and (being calorie conscious) some baked hack. It was delicious! We now have a new favorite appetizer for that place.

This morning I finished second in another drafting tournament! Picked up a good Nimble Strike rare, but no big legendary item sadly. Oh well. Time for some self-hypno and other sundries before work.

Friday 2/20

The morning double kiddie concert went pretty well! In the dry run-through for just our group, my spoken section was ragged and under-whelming with delivery stumbling and generally failing to get my point across. Prior to stepping up to speak, I was able to focus on speaking ridiculously slow and taking my time to breathe in between big points. All in all, the section was much more effective and my crowd interaction was more tossed off and natural. Very pleased! I also had to deal with some support issues in my solo, but during the second show I was able to compensate and play at a higher level.

The D&D group has been experiencing scheduling issues galore of late, and I've really fallen off my DMing rhythm. Need to watch some good podcasts to get back in the flow of things... Bahh.

Saturday 2/21: [image loading]

Ughh... the concert/rehearsal today hurts my soul. I'm playing pretty good music, but a coworker next to me plays her instrument at a high school level. It's so horrendously distractingly terrible that it's nigh impossible to glean any ounce of enjoyment from the proceedings. Just makes me crazy...

Oh well... nailed the crap out of Squat Day! Did some self-hypno! The rest I'm just going to let be... going to relax and enjoy what I can despite the terrible musical experience tonight..

Sunday 2/22:

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Cardhunter Multiplayer Log:

Current MMR 946. + Show Spoiler [Most Recent W/L streak] +

Currently compiling a good deck...

2/16: 3W/1L in Draft-format league. No legendaries in the case sadly :-(

2/18: 1W/2L in Draft League but got second in the group due to close games! Got an okay legendary! Woohoo!

2/19: 2W/2L in Draft League. Second place, but no legendary :-(. Nice nimble strike rare though!

[Wk29] Improving in Fitness, Gaming & Music

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