B30 Challenge Week 2 Rundown

There’s MarioKart ….. and then there’s Karting for Mario. I like to think I’m always racing for Mario cos of my early love for MarioKart 64.

Exercise Statistics

5 Workouts – Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday.

Furthest Distance – 3.14km

Run Distance – 14.37km

Time – 4.8 hrs

Calories – 1424

Steps – 9593

Average workout time – 31 mins

I have managed to get into a more regimental discipline about my exercise. 7.30pm or 8pm is my usual time to exercise for half-hour. I start with skipping, then a short run, then walk for a spell, throw in 10 push-ups and then rinse and repeat.

I do it all on the road, using my car and the end of my block as a measure of distance. I skip in public, feeling better that strangers are judging me, and thus forcing me to go the distance than quit halfway in ignominy.

I feel the last of the sun, then the cold of the night wraps around me in that half hour.

Its nice.

I’ve had to skip 3 days out of the 7, and I admit, I’m not incredibly happy about that. But next week, starting Monday, the time is going to stretch to 45 minutes. If you don’t push yourself, how can you ever improve?

On a different note, I have been karting twice this month, and I’ll be the first to admit, I am pleasantly surprised to see that I am come first twice amongst a lot of amateurs. It means my racing is getting better and that’s all I want to see happen, if I am ever to make it in a professional setting.

My line needs to be cleaner, my momentum faster and my braking points later …. as someone once said …. I’m always 2 seconds slower than where I want to be.

Practice? I hear you say?

Yeah, sure if I can afford 35 dollars for a 10 minute session.

Fortunately I have a wheel rig attached to my computer.

So off to the simulator I go.

Consumption:

Surprisingly, its better. I’m snacking less and feeling a bit less hung up about it. I don’t need to have it as much as last week and I’m drinking a lot more water.

Another plus, is that because of the exercise I do, now I wash my face regularly. Lots of car fumes, dirt and sweat to remove.

Maybe I can get some semblance of handsome-ness with good skin care?

Sure, Damocles I hear you say. That’s like claiming, with skin care, Revlon and surgery you could one day rival Cillian Murphy, when in all honesty you probably resemble Pete Postlethwaite more.

(Google them. Hard to think they were father and son in Inception.)

Intellectual Exercise:

Maths: Steady improvement. Not much else to say. I reckon I can pass Grade 6 maths now. Grade 8? Still getting 60% pass rates.

English: Here is my latest. The Bushranger.

Reading: I am now up to the part where Napoleon has just claimed sovereignty over France. And its incredible how much he has reversed the damage the Revolution inflicted on itself in France. Goes to show how the combination of charisma, clear leadership, efficient and clever governship can literally transform an entire country.

What a leader he was.

I can rightly say, I am an admirer. And I wish there were more dictators.

Everything else seems so inefficient and maddeningly slow.

Here is a list of the new words I’ve learn this week:

1. Revanchism
   • a policy of seeking retaliation. Especially for lost territory
2. soi-disant
   • self-styled … so-called.
3. Histrionically
   • over-dramatising your speech
4. Bishopric
   • a diocese under a bishop’s control
5. Oleaginously
   • oily …. falsely or smugly earnest.
6. sangfroid
   • composure/coolness shown in dangerous conditions
7. Epistolary
   • in the form of letters
8. Pusillanimous
   • timid
9. Semaphore
   • a alphabet of signals using arms/flags.
10. Arraigned
    • call or bring someone to court
11. Scrimshaw
    • scroll-work/engraving done on bone.

That about sums about Week 2.

They say it takes a month to really let everything become muscle memory.

Means I still have another 2 weeks.

That equates to another 14 days of my custom Rocky playlist, especially my power song: Runnin’ from Creed 2 composer Ludwig Goransson.

Nothing gets me more amped than that.

I think I am doing all right.

But no gain was ever fully earned by feeling all right.

Its time I left this comfort zone and push even harder.

Chat to you all in the third week.

I hope the Bushranger proves a nice read!

~Damocles.