Hunger Games and other such sport

So, I have just finished reading The Hunger Games.  Not a bad novel, but not great.

The physical aspects of the novel were pretty interesting, and with my desire to get in some more conditioning work, I'm finding that a reasonable motivator.

There are a couple of actual intense sport things that someone like me could take part in.  Tough Mudder, the Spartan run and Zombie runs (and other such events) are scheduled at multiple times and places over the year.

Entry is usually cheaper the earlier you book, and generally represents a commitment to participating.  I'd not want to put in the cost to participate without being sure I'd be able to handle the bulk of the event.  I don't need to expect it to be easy - just possible.

Preparation for an event like the Tough Mudder requires me to have a couple areas of fitness where I am very lacking.  Running, for one.  While not mandatory in any of the events I've seen so far, it does give you a bit of an advantage if you are doing something like a survival or zombie run.  Being faster than the average enemy helps.

Climbing is another area where I'm pretty weak.  I don't really have much in the way of upper body strength, especially if it comes to hauling the rest of my body up off the ground.  Then there the general conditioning.  The ability to keep going after running, jumping, crawling, climbing and whatever else for an hour or two or more.

Conditioning work helps with this, since building up a tolerance to the lactose in the muscles, and learning how to just keep pushing through, even if you want to stop is really where the benefits start to stack up.

I've been thinking for some time that I really should start putting some goals ahead of me for conditioning and strength training in general.  Whether that's entering a lifting competition or working towards running one of these obstacle events, or simply overcoming a challenge of my own making, I really do feel like having a concrete timeline and goal would help.

I don't want to schedule in too many goals, as they start to plague my thinking and distract from focusing on the workouts.  It's better for me to focus on doing one thing, than thinking about how many things I should be doing.

Still, the concept is a useful one, and I'm going to give a bit more time to thinking about how I can include it.  Until then, I will probably just step up the conditioning work a little at a time.  I'm still not doing much of it, but I am doing some.

End of September Stats

Stats:

Weight: 175 (0; -10)
BF%: 20.2% (0%; -1.6%)
Waist: 99 (-1; -5)
Hips: 99 (-1; -3)
Chest: 105 (0; -6)
Thigh: 58 (-1; -3)
Calf: 35 (0; 0)
Arm: 33 (1; -1)

So, the August to September cycle is done, and here's the final point and start point for the next cycle.

The totals are pretty good all around. Down 10 pounds, and at 0 or lower for all of the measurements.

I'm wearing size 34 (and maybe could fit into smaller) jeans. About half of my work shirts are too big on me now, which means I need new ones, and also means I look pretty bad in them.

While I made the first goal, I never made any progress towards the second goal. But that's fine. I made the first goal I wanted. Admittedly, my weight loss was lower than desired, but about the range I expected.

I am still tooling up the October to December plan, so there's nothing I can say on it yet. While I'm tooling up, I'm taking on the default goal of "lose 5 pounds."

I figure that's a reasonable starting point while I figure out what else I want to do.