Anyone else feel like they could just sleep for a week after that race? I have to admit, I'm a bit exhausted after doubling (or more) my workout minutes each week for the past 8 weeks. Glad to have the break. (And very glad there will be another race in a couple months!!!) Also, nice they are leaving the threads open, so we can still stay in touch as a team.

But I am missing the challenges to give me something new and different to do each week.

So, I'm challenging myself this week:
1. 15 minutes of planks (to keep on track for my plank challenge, especially since I missed doing them last night due to a headache) and 150 more Sumo Squats, just because I need to keep doing squats for paddling.
2. At least 2 hours of housecleaning, which got back-burnered during this challenge since it was obvious they really didn't want us to include it in our race minutes (even though it's a valid calorie burning activity) and doing other race activities was a good excuse to avoid it...good thing I live alone because my house is a bit of a disaster right now.
3. Get back to at least 8 cups of water each day; been having trouble meeting this goal lately, and for me, getting plenty of water seems to help with my weight loss goals.

Anyone else have some personal goals/challenges they want to accomplish this week?

I am also exhausted! And to add to that, I've got my class Christmas concert tomorrow, my daughter's Thursday, my partner's staff party Friday and mine Saturday! So I'm in survival mode! My goal is to continue running this week!!

@rusgolden - great goals! Man, sleep is so important! Totally know what you mean about food too.

@Mrscanmore, sounds like you and @ajfuelling need to have an "I will survive" support group...you ladies are both exceptionally busy this week! I'm now exhausted just reading all you both have to do this week!

I know what you mean @biketheworld - I still haven't hit my water goal yet this week. And my protein numbers have been much lower.

Is it bad for me to admit that it's encouraging to me that everyone is exhausted, so it wasn't just me? I guess I'm thinking it's not good because it sounds like I'm having a "misery loves company" mindset Though really I'm thinking that it is good that we all pushed ourselves and 'left it all on the race course'. Guess that's the sign of a really good team...when everyone is tired, you know everyone did their best. Nothing more frustrating to be the only one exhausted because everyone else was slacking off. So, maybe it's more of a bonding thing and an acknowledgement that we're a great team because we all pushed ourselves, right?

Yesterday was an absolutely gorgeous day here (sunny, low 80sF, smooth waters), but I did absolutely nothing but faff off playing my online games. I really think I needed the break though (physically and mentally), as much as I wanted to be out and about and paddling. Frankly, I was just too tired to think...


It seems 8 weeks was about perfect for the timing of this race...just long enough so you could push yourself to gut it out until the end, but not so long that everyone fell by the wayside too early...though it seemed like many teams were starting to have folks get sick and having a harder time logging minutes near the end.

I'm finding my sweet spot with challenges is about 1 month for an individual accountability challenge - anything longer, and most people don't post (heck, most people don't post much past a week or so). And it seems to be about 6-8 weeks for team challenges. I'm also in other individual challenges, which keeps me going too now that this one is over, but there is something about being accountable to team mates that pushes me harder to do more than I'll do for myself.

Well, I got online to check the weather and hopefully head out to get a nice long paddle in today. Looks to be a little choppier than yesterday. Right now we've got dense fog which I think would be cool to paddle through, but right now the tide is also too low for me to hit the route I want to take. It's going to be a balancing act today, since the winds are supposed to pick up later (bad), but the tide would be higher (good). I'm sure whatever I do is going to be good...even a bad day on the water is a great day!

This was a really interesting challenge. I had fun reading about different cultures and trying new exercises (still enjoy doing Rajio Taiso).

I'm still pushing my exercises, no use letting up now.
I have a bunch of Beach Body programs so I sent a friend the list of all the dvds, and every morning she sends me the schedule for the day. I'm doing a lunge challenge with her as well, so my days consist of lunges (up to 85 each leg today), yoga, one beach body workout during the work week and double workouts on the weekends, then she'll add in random exercises like 10 minutes of jump rope, or 5 minutes bo staff....

It's been a lot of fun removing having to come up with a plan. Once she sends me the schedule, it's so simple to just DO IT.

I popped over to the Team 1 thread to give them a belated congrats on the tie for gold and saw this post.

Vowder wrote: »

The outcome was almost perfect.... now we need a grudge match after the holidays!

I know I'm not up for anything more before Christmas, but after the holidays I will definitely need a kick in the pants.


Thoughts? Ideas?

A grudge match? I'M IN !!!!

RaeBeeBaby wrote: »

The rain is back! I love rain *cough**cough*! I LOVE rain! We're back to relatively normal winter weather - rainy and mid 40's. Hopefully that will stick around until after Christmas so my family can come visit. I have such respect for you all that deal with more severe winter weather every year. We only get it once in awhile. A balmy sunny day wouldn't be out of order either.

Truly, the snow was lovely but the ice was a literal pain. After 2 days of snow we had a layer of ice on top and then freezing fog on top of that. I had an appointment Friday so had to go to town and the drive was pretty treacherous (3 cars in the ditch on the 5 mile drive, but thankfully not me). Not to mention, after my appointment I fell down crossing the street and bruised my knee pretty bad. I DID NOT spill my pumpkin curry that I had just picked up, but the rice shot out into the middle of the intersection and ended up a little worse for wear. Embarrassing to be limping out into the street to get it while cars were waiting all around. After icing the knee (ironic) and some rest it is better, but I missed a couple days of exercise. No squats, lunges or anything with impact. I did some hot tub yoga yesterday and then went to aquasize class this morning. So far, so good!

I'm glad we're having a break from challenges. I did too many this past couple of months, so only having one (Game of Thrones) right now is a relief. In GoT we are also taking a bit of a break for two weeks so nice to have a breather. I'm all in for the next Amazing Race, but think I will pass on any others for awhile while I get other areas of my life in order.

If anyone wants to post an in-house challenge, feel free to jump in and suggest something! We can all be thinking on something else we can do to to "grudge match" Team 1 after the holidays, as well!

As an easy one, I will challenge you all AND MYSELF to log my food diary starting today and post that I completed it here, as well as my newsfeed. I have not done it at all the past two weeks.

Love it! Someone please save us!

You had to retrieve your rice while cars were waiting?? No one helped you??? It's only embarrassing to those that didn't bound over to lend you hand... I'm glad you're okay.

I've been trying to log consistently and was doing pretty well until tonight when company came over with snacks, goodies, and more goodies. We played cards and talked and ate and ate and ate. Sigh. I have NO idea how much I consumed. The Wilbur Buds came out tonight, too. I'd do tricks for those things... Thanks for the motivation to try to stay with the logging. Yeah, Christmas and CE will be tough... but MAYBE I won't go back for thirds with this thread in mind??

I'm trying to do the suggested Challenge work from GoT Challenge... I did Day 1 tonight. Not bad... but (TMI), I burped my way all the through the exercises. No, I did not DO burpees... I just relived my many bad food choices for 8 minutes... lol

I've snuck in some bike rides after the roads cleared up. It's raining tonight so we may have ice in the morning. I'll be getting snow tires for my bike next week --- we'll see how well they work.

So, just to clarify: I'm in on the mini challenge of logging all day 5 times this week.