The 2023 Polyglot Fitness Challenge

[IronMike]

Hello

Wanted to make sure I got the 2023 challenge thread set up before I go to our son's in-laws for New Years Eve. So here we go:

The rules:

The rules are super simple. You just need to have a minimum of one fitness challenge and one language challenge to complete during 2023. You can have more than one if you want.

A language challenge can be as big or small as you want it to be. You might want to reach a certain level in a language (either by passing an exam or through diagnostic testing), or it could be to read a novel in your target language, or to have one language exchange a month...

Same goes for the fitness challenge. You might want to train for a marathon, or get a certain number of steps per day, beat your previous PB in a sport, begin a yoga practice... It's also fine to add health-related goals too, they don't necessarily have to be sport-related if that's not your thing. You might want to establish a meditation habit, or do meat-free Mondays...

You can change your challenge at any point if life gets in the way (injury, family commitments...), just post it on this board to let us know.

Let me know if you want to join!

[IronMike]

Participants for 2023:

Cerebral_Arbitrage
Herodotean
IronMike
Querneus
Sae
Ug_Caveman

[Querneus]

I think I'll give myself relatively modest goals that I know I'll very likely get to...

F1: at least 120 hours on a bicycle in total (this averages to 20min per day)
F2: cut and maintain -5 kg of body weight

L1: finish these Mandarin readers: Shen et al.'s The Routledge Intermediate Chinese Reader, DeFrancis's Intermediate Chinese Reader (parts 1 and 2)
L2: finish my macronizations of Apuleius' Metamorphoses (currently 5% done) and Tacitus' Historiae (20% done)
L3: write three short stories in Latin

[Ug_Caveman]

Fitness - bodyweight under 110kg/242lbs (currently sitting just above 115kg/254lbs); would like to rehab my shoulder to get back to somewhere vaguely as good as I used to be in sport. Throwing 40m (~132 ft) in the discus would be nice, but I'm pretty sure that's what injured my shoulder in the first place and I've not thrown it since nearly four months ago.

Language - pass Dutch B1 exam is the big one; any other goal will be part of my six-language merry-go-round that I can never solidly commit to and never actually get anywhere with (Scandinavian trio vs Romance trio - keeps flipping depending on whether I have wanderlust for the Aurora Borealis or whether I have wanderlust for visiting my relatives in various North American megacities...)

[Sae]

I've already set a challenge in my log thread. But given fitness is something I need to work on, so I'll do this:

Fitness 1) For the first 40 days get 1.5 hour a week minimum in exercise. Make use of Switch Sports, Switch Boxing and Ring Fit because who needs the outdoors or a gym?
Language 1) For the first 40 days do my Mongolian sprint I've got planned

Fitness 2) Continue fitness after 40 days & healthy eating to lose a realistic amount of weight (maybe 1 or 2lb a week) & be fitter in time for my Vietnam trip (not yet booked) and continue the trend after until the end of the year (consider the Vietnam trip an initial goal)
Language 2) Get Vietnamese to B2 or C1, Mongolian to B1, Tuvan to A2 or B1 (or at least what I interpret those levels to be) by the end of the year

[Cerebral_Arbitrage]

I'm in! Thanks for setting this up, Iron Mike. I'm keeping my goals somewhat the same. I was shocked when I learned that I actually met my 2022 PFC Goal of watching 120 hours of video. I think I was lucky that I discovered fun Netlfix programs at my level. I also set the bar pretty low, which allowed me to complete it earlier in the year when my motivation was high. I'm not sure if that's a good thing though.

Fitness-wise, things have improved! I'm not sure if I wrote about this, but I had a serious back injury in the end of 2021. I couldn't sit for more than a few minutes and I had to work on my back. No, not that type of work. I had to have a special tray for my laptop so I could see it while I was flat on the ground. I also had a separated keyboard so I could type while my arms were at my sides. I did do my PT exercises diligently, but I kept reinjuring my back by doing simple things, such as changing the oven racks. It was the epidural cortisone shot and then Pilates 3x a week that made the most difference. I am happy to say I can now sit without a brace. I am not putting Pilates as a goal because I do not need a push to do them. I notice when I miss classes (during the holidays for example), my back gets grumpy. A silver lining to this back debacle is my fear of what might happen if I *don't* go to Pilates classes. Sadly, I am not as good as I should be in the cardio department. I need to walk or aqua jog more. I also need to shed some of the pounds I gained when I was immobile. So daily movement and food diary will help in that area.

Language Goals

• Review Vocabulary Daily
• Watch 120 hours of video
• Read 500 pages

Fitness Goals

• Log my food every day
• Some type of movement for 15 minutes a day

[Herodotean]

Languages:

• Complete the reading for both Super Challenges (one each for Greek and Latin)
• Complete the writing-only Output Challenge (for Greek and Latin combined)
• Read 700 pages of Plato (for a total of 785)

Fitness:

• Strict press one plate (135lbs ≈ 60kg). In November I hit 90lbsx6, which gives an estimated one-rep max of 105. Adding +/- 30lbs is less than a pound a week. Even if I miss this goal, I'd be happy with 120 or 125 for reps.
• Squat two plates (225lbs ≈ 100kg). It's time to stop neglecting my squat. In October, I hit 160x2; back in 2018, I hit 185x5. I should have lots of room to improve if I make it a priority.

[IronMike]

OK, time for mine:

Fitness goals:
F1: Average 10,000 steps per day
F2: over 300lbs (301 is technically over 300) in deadlift
F3: Swim at least one marathon (10K or longer)

Language goals:
L1: 3/3 again in the Russian DLPT
L2: One significant Esperanto event, whether that's attendance at NASK, or taking the KER exam again, something that requires me to speak/listen to Esperanto IRL for more than just one episode of a podcast.
L3: Read at least five books in a foreign language

[Nogon]

I'd like to join too.
I definitely have to work on my fitness which has reached an all-time-low. Because of that, I have to begin really slow, so:

Fitness:
Go for a walk for at least 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week.

Languages:
Read at least one book in each of my reading languages.
German
Swedish
English
Danish
Norwegian
Dutch
Afrikaans
French (Alexandre Dumas - Le Comte de Monte-Cristo)
Esperanto
Yiddish

Start: 19. 3. 2023

[mook_wazo]

I see I'm a little late to the party, but I'd like to join too.

I'd like to increase my running mileage from a minimum of 3 miles a week to a minimum of 6; two 5ks after work and one 8-10k every week on my half-days and days off of work should be plenty and keep me well above the minimum. Along with this, I'd like to increase my strength training reps from 1-3 a week to 12 (3 reps a day of various pulling exercises 4 days in a row). I also need to increase my caloric intake (my early morning sloth persuades me to not waste time packing a lunch; "Why spend 5 minutes on that when you could have an extra 5 reading?"

As for languages, I want to develop an immersive environment in which I can pass the majority of the time I spend in solitude to improve my Russian. I've been working through an Assimil lesson workbook for about 30 lessons; I'd like to finish the lessons and begin to master the vocabulary therein by the end of April. After this, I would like to spend the majority of my time studying modern Greek and hopefully reach an A2 equivalent by the end of May.

My short term goals for Russian and Greek are social by nature. I wish to carry a conversation about quotidian pleasantries in either language with my cousin (L1 Russian) and my grandfather (L1 Greek). My mid-long term goals (to be accomplished by December) are to read my favorite Dostoevsky novel, Crime and Punishment, in the original language (I already have a Russian copy, though I'm reading through it at a terribly sluggish pace!) and to write a song in Greek.

This may be ignored, but just writing this here with the possibility of being held in some way accountable helps me greatly. Best of luck to everyone in the hopes you reach your goals.