(This post has been inspired by Steve Kamb at Nerd Fitness) I recently read an article on Nerd Fitness where Steve Kamb had set out his goals for “levelling up” his life. He used the metaphor of Role Playing Games to make the concept manageable and put together a list of challenges or quests that could be completed to advance from one level to the next. He then decided that each quest would be worth 20% experience towards the next level, there would also be Master Quests that equated to 100% experience, and this became his ‘Epic Quest of Awesome’. I thought this was a pretty good idea, so using the same concept, I have come up with my own Epic Quest. It’s no different...
Series: My Epic Quest
My Epic Quest
(This post has been inspired by Steve Kamb at Nerd Fitness) I recently read an article on Nerd Fitness where Steve Kamb had set out his goals for “levelling up” his life. He used the metaphor of Role Playing Games to make the concept manageable and put together a list of challenges or quests that could be completed to advance from one level to the next. He then decided that each quest would be worth 20% experience towards the next level, there would also be Master Quests that equated to 100% experience, and this became his ‘Epic Quest of Awesome’. I thought this was a pretty good idea, so using the same concept, I have come up with my own Epic Quest. It’s no different...
Active Quest: Backflip
Since mid March, I have been going to Torfaen Freerunning Academy at the Torfaen Academy of Gymnastics in New Inn. I’ve been quite interested in the concept of Parkour/Freerunning for a while so I thought it would be fun. Although I am quite a bit older than the vast majority of the people there, I have been welcomed and supported brilliantly since I joined. I have been working on vaults and flips from the start and on 26 April, I completed my first unsupported backflip
. So
here’s the video (granted this was taken the following week when I had cleaned it up a bit).
30 Times Around the Sun
So recently (ok a month ago, but who’s counting), I completed my thirtieth rotation around the sun and I thought I should write something to recognise the occasion. However, life got in the way and it’s now a couple of weeks down the line and I’m only just sitting down to write. It seems like a fairly appropriate time to write up an update on my Epic Quest, so here it is… Completed Quests Travel Climb the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France - 05/04/2013 (there is a blog post coming…honest) Visit the Louvre in France - 06/04/2013 Visit Notre Dame Cathedral in France - 05/04/2013 Active Do 10 one-arm push ups with each arm (May 2014) Learn how to do a frontflip & a backflip...
Marathon Training
As mentioned previously, I am planning to run my first marathon this year. I will be running the Greater Manchester Marathon on 19 April (all being well) and as such I have been training hard to make sure I can actually cover the distance. Since the last week in December I have: run a total of 394.2 miles as part of my training (Last year it took me almost 10 months to cover that distance!); taken 40 seconds of my parkrun PB; taken 9 minutes 25 seconds off my half marathon PB; and really enjoyed the volume of running 
. Despite all of this, I was still a little apprehensive about actually running 26.2 miles in one go. That is until yesterday when I completed...
Greater Manchester Marathon 2015
Race Details Event Greater Manchester Marathon 2015 Date & Time 19 April 2015 09:00:00 Distance Marathon Type Road Race Time (PB) 3:23:02 (3:23:02) On Sunday 19 April 2015, after 16 weeks of training, I completed my first marathon!! I woke up early on Sunday morning to find the sky clouded over and the temperature in single digits. Perfect weather for running a marathon! I got everything sorted out and, after a mild panic over some missing Vaseline, I got a lift to the race start (thanks Mark ). Before the race I caught up with a few of the guys from the Club and we agreed a meeting point for after the race. It was then time to line up at the start line....
Goals for this Year
Ok, so it’s been a little while since I actually wrote anything (almost 2 years!). I thought it was about time I got back into it. Given we’ve just started a new year, I thought I would set out my plans/goals for the coming year (and maybe reflect a little on last year). A lot of people seem to feel that last year was a bad year. I admit there were a large number of well liked personalities that didn’t make it to the end of the year, but I’m not willing to write the year off completely on that basis. In 2016 the following good things happened to our family: George started reading; George started school properly; George’s eczema has improved exponentially since he...
Learning to Juggle
I have wanted to learn to juggle for years but, for various reasons, I never got around to actually putting the effort in that’s required. I tried a couple of times on an ad hoc basis but never really got anywhere. When I got around to putting together “My Epic Quest” I added “Learn to juggle” to the list. Well, last year Rosie & George decided to give me a bit more encouragement and bought me a set of juggling balls for my birthday . This time I didn’t want to let George down so I put in the effort and practised everyday. The first day was pretty horrific, I managed to hit myself with the balls more than actually catch them! Each day got...
Race Report: Gloucester City Marathon
On 06 August 2017, I managed to finish my second marathon. This time, hopefully, it will not be remeasured and declared short! Earlier this year, when I finally decided on which marathon I wanted to do, I set myself a lofty goal of beating my PB from Manchester. Given Manchester was declared short, equalling my PB would have been enough. Unfortunately, I overdid it early on in the training and injured myself losing a week of training and having to start back gently.