Polyglot Fitness Challenge 2021

Ongoing language-learning challenges, and team challenge logs (but not individual logs)
Mista
Blue Belt
Posts: 608
Joined: Wed May 11, 2016 11:03 pm
Location: Norway
Languages: Norwegian (N), English (QN). Studied Ancient Greek (MA), Linguistics (MA), Latin (BA), German (BA). Italian at A2/B1 level. Learning: French, Japanese, Russian (focus) and various others, like Polish, Spanish, Vietnamese, and anything that comes my way. Also know some Sanskrit (but not the script) and Coptic. Really want to learn Arabic and Amharic.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=7497
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Re: Polyglot Fitness Challenge 2021

Postby Mista » Sun Sep 05, 2021 1:35 pm

Finished the 5k in less than 30 minutes, so that's the first goal achieved! :D :D :D I held a very steady pace of just below 6 minutes per km throughout the race. I don't think I can do that for 10 km, but fortunately, I don't need to, 7 minutes per minutes is enough to reach my goal. I found it very motivating this time to see that I was on track to reach my goal, so I'm going to keep that number in mind for the next one as a guideline (that I shouldn't stray too far from in either direction).
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IronMike
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2554
Joined: Thu May 12, 2016 6:13 am
Location: Northern Virginia
Languages: Studying: Esperanto
Maintaining: nada
Tested:
BCS, 1+L/1+R (DLPT5, 2022)
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 » Sun Sep 05, 2021 11:04 pm

Mista wrote:Finished the 5k in less than 30 minutes, so that's the first goal achieved!

Congrats! That's awesome.
0 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.

Blue Saka
White Belt
Posts: 26
Joined: Fri Sep 03, 2021 5:25 am
Location: Canada
Languages: I speak some Turkish (really rusty), I understand a fair amount of Low Saxon, and am currently learning Ossetic (Iron dialect). I learn my languages by exposure, not by studying class material (besides dictionaries and basic guides). It has been a long time since I've studied any language.
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Re: Polyglot Fitness Challenge 2021

Postby Blue Saka » Wed Sep 08, 2021 4:06 am

I like this.


I'm naturally an active person, but I am always looking to improve, so I'll join the challenge (... if you'll allow me in...). More than one source of accountability is good.

Right. For the rest of this year, and going well into the next, I plan to have learned at least 400 Iron Ossetic words. On top of that, I plan to watch every movie, newscast, and whatever other media source I can find in the language. Hopefully, I'll have mined most of them for what they're worth.

As for fitness, I registered for military service a while back, so they gave me some standards to meet by my next assessment... which is coming soon. A variety of cardiovascular and "strongman"-like exercises. The Basic Military Qualification course isn't until next Spring or Summer. Hopefully, they'll still want me by then. Besides that, I have to get used to the food the CAF serves. It's a bit different than the traditional (though healthy) food I'm used to. I am not, however, under the illusion that I am a perfect, Adonis-like figure ready for anything.



I guess I already have a framework that works within the guidelines set here.
4 x

Caromarlyse
Green Belt
Posts: 387
Joined: Fri Dec 06, 2019 2:31 pm
Languages: English (N), French (C1-ish), German (B2/C1-ish), Russian (B1-ish), Portuguese (B1-ish), Welsh (complete beginner), Spanish (in hibernation)
(All levels estimates and given as a guide only)
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Re: Polyglot Fitness Challenge 2021

Postby Caromarlyse » Wed Sep 08, 2021 9:54 am

Can I join late too? I've just signed up for a sports competition, which is happening next month. I won't go into details for privacy reasons, but I'm quite nervous about it. I know already I won't rank highly (I have a rough idea of what points score I'm likely to get, and even if things go well and I reach it, I'll be well down the leaderboard), but I am doing it as a challenge and experience. I also really need to work on my Russian pronunciation, after various issues that again I won't go into. I have a really good course with lots of audio drills to follow, and I reckon a formal challenge might be good to keep me going through it, as it can be painful - both because I feel I should have learnt all this already, and because it requires my brain to work a lot, which it doesn't like!

In terms of practicalities, I have three training sessions a week set up that I can just go to and do without thinking too much about them. But I really, really, really need to do mobility work each day - both to fix a stubborn shoulder and to try to counter age and lifestyle. I am terrible at doing this consistently.

For the language stuff, I just need to keep going through the course and practising the drills. It's not the kind of stuff you can cram, so little and often will be the name of the game here. I've been pretty good so far at working on this, but I am fighting lots of negative thoughts, which it would be good to stop!

Edited to add: so my goals are:
(A) (main goal) successfully complete sports competition
(sub-goals) (1) train three times a week till then (2) mobility every day till then
(B) (main goal) complete Russian pronunciation course (fully, to the extent I feel I've internalised the rules*)
(sub-goal) do some pronunciation practice from course each day until goal is complete

* This is a bit fuzzy but I just mean I won't tick off the goal as complete just by virtue of having gone through everything once; I need to go through again and again until it feels like second nature.
Last edited by Caromarlyse on Thu Sep 09, 2021 7:12 am, edited 1 time in total.
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IronMike
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2554
Joined: Thu May 12, 2016 6:13 am
Location: Northern Virginia
Languages: Studying: Esperanto
Maintaining: nada
Tested:
BCS, 1+L/1+R (DLPT5, 2022)
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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Contact:

Re: Polyglot Fitness Challenge 2021

Postby IronMike » Wed Sep 08, 2021 4:23 pm

The Polyglot Fitness Challenge is always open. Join anytime!

But remember you need to declare your Language and Fitness goals for the year.
1 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.

Blue Saka
White Belt
Posts: 26
Joined: Fri Sep 03, 2021 5:25 am
Location: Canada
Languages: I speak some Turkish (really rusty), I understand a fair amount of Low Saxon, and am currently learning Ossetic (Iron dialect). I learn my languages by exposure, not by studying class material (besides dictionaries and basic guides). It has been a long time since I've studied any language.
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Re: Polyglot Fitness Challenge 2021

Postby Blue Saka » Wed Sep 08, 2021 8:39 pm

IronMike wrote:The Polyglot Fitness Challenge is always open. Join anytime!

But remember you need to declare your Language and Fitness goals for the year.

Thank you.
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IronMike
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2554
Joined: Thu May 12, 2016 6:13 am
Location: Northern Virginia
Languages: Studying: Esperanto
Maintaining: nada
Tested:
BCS, 1+L/1+R (DLPT5, 2022)
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
x 7264
Contact:

Re: Polyglot Fitness Challenge 2021

Postby IronMike » Sun Sep 12, 2021 9:26 pm

Change to my Polyglot Fitness Challenge for 2021, as I've had to withdraw from my marathon swim this year.

Here's what I posted earlier:

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


With the move from Boston to DC this year, and restricted time limits in lap lanes through the year, I just didn't have the fitness to be successful in this year's Swim the Suck. Stupid to fly down there, rent an AirBnB, and all that entails, to not finish.

Additionally, not doing BCS anymore. Studied it for a blink, but not going to test in it. Therefore a change. But I'm done with goal L1, although it was a fail. (2/1+ on German DLPT, and I didn't take the OPI.)

So here are my updated goals:

Fitness goals:
F1) 1RM deadlift of 325lbs (no change)
F2) 1RM strict military press of 125lbs (no change)
F3) Log 300 miles of swimming in 2021. (I'm at only 133.8 miles so far...gotta pick it up.)

Language goals:
L1) 1/1 on Swahili DLPT
L2) Finish all lessons in Complete Old English
6 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.

humerusthings
Orange Belt
Posts: 131
Joined: Sun Dec 17, 2017 7:40 am
Languages: English (N), Chinese (GCSE A levels), Korean (~A2?), French (A1), German (Beginner), Icelandic (Beginner).
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=7372
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Re: Polyglot Fitness Challenge 2021

Postby humerusthings » Fri Sep 17, 2021 11:30 am

This thread is really so inspiring :):)
i really liked the post where someone posted links of youtube fitness exercises in german/ french haha

small update on my polygot fitness challenge:

My initial aims:
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


In terms of french i'm at Assimil Lesson 88 so i'm halfway there!
Crossfit workouts... well I made it back to the gym for abt 3 classes then the numbers started creeping up again in my country. And work got really busy so after work I had no energy to do anything but lie supine. So my strength kind of declined and I'm doing workouts with cleans 25kg instead of 30kg which I was doing previously. I mean i CAN do 30kg, but it's quite high-rep and I workout so infrequently that I don't want to injure myself, so i consciously scale it down.

But I'm doing crossfit about 3-4/month - a combination of home workouts and gym workouts, and a sprinkling of ballet workouts (youtube and also online classes), varying based on the month, abt 1-3 workouts per month. A lot of ballet terms are in french too! So that's nice :)
So yep, next aim is to increase the number of crossfit workouts per month to abt 5-6!

Crossfit open 2022 is in feb i think. Hope I can do a pullup and toes to bar by then!!
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

Caromarlyse
Green Belt
Posts: 387
Joined: Fri Dec 06, 2019 2:31 pm
Languages: English (N), French (C1-ish), German (B2/C1-ish), Russian (B1-ish), Portuguese (B1-ish), Welsh (complete beginner), Spanish (in hibernation)
(All levels estimates and given as a guide only)
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Re: Polyglot Fitness Challenge 2021

Postby Caromarlyse » Fri Sep 17, 2021 12:37 pm

Just to get it off my chest: I've hurt something in my shoulder that is going to make training difficult unless it recovers quickly :-(. It wasn't even because of ramping things up too quickly, because I trained before this challenge, more just trying to correct a movement pattern and obviously not getting it right. I have a physio appointment in the morning to help assess the damage. I already had a sports massage yesterday before I realised it was more serious than that, and the practitioner was not very helpful on either fitness or language sides: first she suggested I'd have fewer problems if I sat on the sofa and did nothing (!) and, secondly, when we'd got into a conversation about language learning, she pulled out all the annoying stuff on "are you fluent yet?" and when I prevaricated, started making all those noises that suggest you've obviously not learned anything. Argh!
5 x

jmar257
Green Belt
Posts: 268
Joined: Tue Apr 07, 2020 2:41 pm
Location: USA
Languages: English (N), español (Intermediate), français (Lower Intermediate), deutsch (beginner)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... hp?t=15645
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Re: Polyglot Fitness Challenge 2021

Postby jmar257 » Fri Sep 17, 2021 5:00 pm

Caromarlyse wrote:Just to get it off my chest: I've hurt something in my shoulder that is going to make training difficult unless it recovers quickly :-(. It wasn't even because of ramping things up too quickly, because I trained before this challenge, more just trying to correct a movement pattern and obviously not getting it right. I have a physio appointment in the morning to help assess the damage. I already had a sports massage yesterday before I realised it was more serious than that, and the practitioner was not very helpful on either fitness or language sides: first she suggested I'd have fewer problems if I sat on the sofa and did nothing (!) and, secondly, when we'd got into a conversation about language learning, she pulled out all the annoying stuff on "are you fluent yet?" and when I prevaricated, started making all those noises that suggest you've obviously not learned anything. Argh!

Sorry to hear that, shoulders can be a tough one to fix. You'd have fewer short term problems on the sofa...but your body will wear down that way too. I'd rather be creaky and sore when I'm old because I did things, personally. With zero knowledge on your shoulder issues, I have to ask do you do face pulls/band pull-aparts? Those are solid for some shoulder problems and in general are good to do to strengthen the rear delt and balance the shoulder girdle.
3 x
Feel free to give me corrections in any of my target languages!


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