Polyglot Fitness Challenge 2021

Ongoing language-learning challenges, and team challenge logs (but not individual logs)
Kaha
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Languages: German (N), English, Spanish, Norwegian
Learning Chinese
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Re: Polyglot Fitness Challenge 2021

Postby Kaha » Mon Feb 01, 2021 7:15 pm

I didn't meet the fitness goals I set a month ago completely but I'm still satisfied with my progress. I had to skip 2 days altogether and did not manage the 15 minutes for stretching on most days. But I did stretch much more than usual and I can see progress with several poses/exercises. I worked out for 20 minutes on average but I didn't restrict myself to the daily challenges from Darebee. There was too much jumping involved and I don't want to annoy my neighbours.

Regarding my language goals I could have done more. I did read some stories and learned some dozen Hanzi but I'm not too impressed with my own effort regarding this challenge.

For February I'll adjust my goals a bit.
Stretch every day and work on 2 poses: butterfly and forward fold. I'd love to be able to put my knees on the ground in butterfly pose but this won't happen in February. I should at least be able to see some improvements at the end of the month. In forward fold I can touch my toes with my knuckles. So that's my starting point. We'll see how far I can get.
For strength I've chosen some 30-day challenges and I simply intend to do all of them every day and an extra workout if possible.

My goal for Heisig is finishing chapter 16 and for DuChinese it's simply reading one story per day.
3 x

alaart
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Re: Polyglot Fitness Challenge 2021

Postby alaart » Tue Feb 02, 2021 12:46 am

So my goal was to exercise 3 times, and learn Korean 3 times per week.

Month 1:
Week1: KR 1x SP 2x
Week2: KR 4x SP 3x
Week3: KR 3x, SP 2x
Week4: KR 2x, SP 4x

Each unit was something between 60-90 minutes.

So I didn't really meet my goal all the time, but it was close enough, it's a start.
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Deinonysus
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Re: Polyglot Fitness Challenge 2021

Postby Deinonysus » Tue Feb 02, 2021 8:23 pm

For me, the fitness part is going great! The language part, not so much.

I've been keeping up my schedule of two runs a week, around 3/4 of a mile (1.2 km). I've been doing well so I think I'll bring it up to a mile (1.6 km).

Last Friday it was very cold and I had to cut my run a bit short because I was starting to freeze my you-know-what off. I learned my lesson after that: two pairs of pants when it's that cold! That's what I did yesterday morning and it worked like a charm.

I haven't encountered any rain so far, but it us supposed to rain this Friday. I ordered a poncho but it won't get here in time so I'll see how my beat-up windbreaker holds up.

Yesterday I even worked in some pushups! I did ten but some of them were sloppy so maybe five real pushups.

Between child care and my job, I don't have enough brain power left over to do much with French, unfortunately. Hopefully things will improve.
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/daɪ.nə.ˈnaɪ.səs/

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IronMike
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Italian, 1L/2R (DLPT IV, 2019)
Esperanto, C1 (KER skriba ekzameno, 2017)
Slovene, 2+L/3R (DLPT II in, yes, 1999)
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Re: Polyglot Fitness Challenge 2021

Postby IronMike » Wed Feb 10, 2021 12:22 pm

You guys have no idea how happy I am to see that this challenge is still going. Terribly awesome!

I'll dream up some sort of fitness and language challenge and then officially join.

Keep up the good work everyone!
4 x
You're not a C1 (or B1 or whatever) if you haven't tested.
CEFR --> ILR/DLPT equivalencies
My swimming life.
My reading life.

jmar257
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Re: Polyglot Fitness Challenge 2021

Postby jmar257 » Wed Feb 10, 2021 2:24 pm

Looks like it's update time

Language goals:
1. Starting taking iTalki lessons in Spanish (and later French). This is more so about finding a good timeslot I can consistently make it to
Have not done this yet. Part laziness, part lack of a good time. Probably gonna schedule something for the weekend after this one, my roommate's out of town and I don't have to worry about clumsily speaking in front of anyone but the tutor then.

2. Finish FSI French
Generally going through one tape/file a day most days, good lord I did not know how long this course was.

3. Start German (once done with FSI French)
Have not done this given I'm still doing FSI French, still very tempted. Maybe a break when halfway through FSI?

4. Complete the SC I'm signed up for (Full for Spanish, half for French)
Making progress, reading has actually slowed a bit but I'm catching up on the "films" portion (thanks, long podcasts!). I need to update my log here too...


Fitness goals:
1. Continue counting calories
Have been quite consistent with this, only down about 7lbs (some of which is of course water weight) but I'm hitting a deficit almost every day and am generally full most days and enjoying what I eat.

2. Find a balance that doesn't burn me out
Good so far, mentally I'm enjoying everything and have actually made some progress on lifts. I didn't set lifting goals because I'm focusing on losing weight and thus not really gaining strength, but my squat is up 20lbs and everything else is going well too. My martial arts gym is shut down due to Covid (in a weird twist, I had it a few months ago so I'm fine now) this week so I'm focusing on lifting for now. But I've been enjoying the classes there as well.
3 x
Feel free to give me corrections in any of my target languages!

Ug_Caveman
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Re: Polyglot Fitness Challenge 2021

Postby Ug_Caveman » Wed Feb 10, 2021 5:16 pm

Ug_Caveman wrote:Would also like to get my Swedish up to a better standard, but haven't got one of those 'SMART' targets worked out yet.


Gonna remove this from my goals, decided to focus on Dutch fully for the time being (CNaVT A2 is still the plan)

Ug_Caveman wrote:So my goal is to make it down to 110kg by April, and possibly down to 106kg by June


Realised this might be a bit dramatic (especially without access to better training facilities), so revised to 113kg by April and 109kg by June (the latter would still be the lightest I've been since my younger teenage years).
2 x
Languages: English (N), Dutch (passed A2 exam in May 2021, failed B1 in May 2023 - never sit an exam when you have food poisoning!)

Seeking: Linguaphone Polish and Linguaphone Afrikaans

humerusthings
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Re: Polyglot Fitness Challenge 2021

Postby humerusthings » Fri Feb 12, 2021 4:39 pm

I'm in too! Thanks for continuing this for 2021!
Last year I had a lot of grand plans, so this year will aim for more achievable goals, haha

Report card for 2020
French
- uhhh, i watched loads of French movies on Netflix. lol.
Fitness (crossfit)
- increased my power clean from 20kg to 35kg
- oh and I got double unders too!

Goals for 2021!
French:
1. Reach Assimil Lesson 80!
2. Start on all those French books I bought on Audible haha

Fitness
1. Aim to do crossfit workouts at least 8-10 times per month
2. Power clean 40kg
3 x
: 19 / 40 Coffee Break French S3
: 88 / 113 Assimil French With Ease
: 3 / 16 Easy French Step by Step
: 33 / 100 Assimil German With Ease
: 4 / 20 Easy German Step by Step

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IronMike
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Russian, 3/3 (DLPT5, 2022) 2+ (OPI, 2022)
German, 2L/1+R (DLPT5, 2021)
Italian, 1L/2R (DLPT IV, 2019)
Esperanto, C1 (KER skriba ekzameno, 2017)
Slovene, 2+L/3R (DLPT II in, yes, 1999)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=5189
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Re: Polyglot Fitness Challenge 2021

Postby IronMike » Sat Feb 13, 2021 11:50 am

So been thinking about what to challenge myself with. Some background:

Last year all my swims (I'm a marathon swimmer, for those who don't know me) were canceled. I was essential, so at least I had work. But work was boring. I decided to deploy where I'd be essential 7 days a week. ;)

This is a weird deployment; there's a swimming pool! Granted, COVID restrictions when I arrived meant no more than 3x per week, 30-min reservations (which the lifeguards thought meant 20 min in the pool, 10 min everyone out). Thankfully by week 2 here it was 30-min reservations up to every day of the week. w00t! I swam 5-6 times a week. And if all 3 lanes' reservations didn't show up when I hit my 30 minutes, they let me keep swimming.

But I needed a challenge.

What I really wanted was a day that I wouldn't get kicked out of a lane, where I could just swim to my heart's content. But in order to reserve a lane for the whole day I probably needed a hook. And that hook was Friends of Africa Volunteers (FAV). These guys volunteer during their extremely limited free time over here to help gather clothing and toiletry items for needy families in town. Long story short, I linked up with them, and next thing you know (weeks later), the base commander & JAG approved my proposal: swim 10 hours while FAV gather donations.

That happened 23 Jan and I managed 17.5 miles in a 20m (length) pool, so 700 laps. Fun, but don't want to do that ever again.

This is a long way of saying, not really sure what fitness goal to put down here. But here goes, subject to change:

Fitness goal:
F1) 1RM deadlift of 325lbs*
F2) 1RM strict military press of 125lbs
F3) Open water marathon swim (10k or more) even if I have to arrange it myself

Language goal:
L1) 2/2 DLPT and 1+ OPI in German**
L2) 1/1/1 in BCS***

*Haven't lifted since all the restrictions started at home back in March 2020. Yikes!
**Just a couple days ago I learned that I am approved and have been paired for a 10-week, full-time (virtual) German course, starting in mid-March. I'll DLPT & OPI in late May.
***Come hell or high water, dammit, I'm gonna get this language back.

That'll do it for me. Again, so glad my crazy little challenge idea is still going strong! You guys rock!
9 x
You're not a C1 (or B1 or whatever) if you haven't tested.
CEFR --> ILR/DLPT equivalencies
My swimming life.
My reading life.

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devilyoudont
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Re: Polyglot Fitness Challenge 2021

Postby devilyoudont » Sat Feb 13, 2021 5:58 pm

I used to be a lifeguard, but I got skin cancer and have not been about to swim consistently for over a decade. Hoping to start again on monday! I don't know what my goal is right now... I guess we will see how well I do as a baseline.
6 x

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tungemål
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Re: Polyglot Fitness Challenge 2021

Postby tungemål » Tue Feb 16, 2021 10:10 pm

Great thread!

I've got a fitness goal: to run a half marathon in may. Hope it won't get cancelled. I run currently 3 times a week - hoping to increase that. Running is great, and can be combined with language learning with wireless earbuds.

Language goal: to become better at languages.
3 x


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