Faithful readers will remember Yariv's and my participation in "Matt's Epic Winter Challenge" early in 2012. We ice skated and roller bladed, we took Zumba classes and spin classes, we ran the Lyon Street stairs ad nauseum and skied Chute 75 at Squaw top to bottom, non-stop, not prettily. It was a fun divergence from any official training plan and since I was deep in the throes of knee issues, something else to distract me.
In that vein, I put together the first FOMO Challenge this winter - from Thanksgiving to NYE, 35 random activities to track, all with the sole purpose of not being left out. Or to prey on everyone's susceptibility to not wanting to miss out: the express Fear of Missing Out. Must. Join. Challenge.
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| Bowling with Yariv at Classic Bowl |
And so, borrowing from much of Matt's Epic - Crossfit-style workouts, hundreds of pushups, hundreds of burpees, miles of swimming - I added some diversity to the decidedly athletic mix: read an auto-biography, read a classic work of literature, read a youth novel (secretly my new fave type of literature), write a Haiku, write a 500 word essay about your 2013 FOMO event, watch The Notebook. (Say what you will, I loved that movie. Why hello, Ryan Gosling.)
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| Yariv, first time golfing ever |
I added activities I thought anyone near a city could find since I was courting peeps near and far. Bowl 3 games, go bouldering, go to a driving range, play tennis for an hour, take a TRX class, take a boxing class, take a dance class (hello, ballet!). I mean, why live near cities if you aren't exploring all they have to offer? Of course, that being said, it's not like I added go to a museum, go to an art opening, go to a symphony or anything too cultural. Evolution takes time, people.
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| At Mariners Point driving range w/Yariv | | | | | |
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And so as friends signed up the discussions began - what dance class are you taking? When are you going to the driving range? I didn't know I could run like that. I'm
not watching The Notebook. A friend at work, when I described the what of the challenge, and offered the why, said he thought it was just a great example of living life. Other friends offered their own suggestions: a cooking activity, designing something, going without a shower for a set amount of time (or was that my idea?)
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| Bouldering at Planite Granite on a big V01 |
It was a fun distraction from work to plan activities with Yariv and Lindy, to go get in the pool when it was the last thing in the world I wanted to do, to read all the required books, to try a TRX class with my girlfriends, to discover how much I LOVED my boxing class. I thought there would be more time to check things off with more friends, but it came down to getting it done when you could. It meant I got to run in a 4 mile Jingle Bell Jog with my sisters wearing reindeer antlers and kneesocks in Brooklyn (check one for running in another state, check one for running in a costume race wearing a costume). It meant finding a patch of snow in Tahoe over Thanksgiving to get my 30 minutes of shoveling done lest it never snowed again this year.
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| Yariv, more nimble, on a V02 |
And now, as we close the door on 2012, the FOMO Challenge is winding down. NYE will bring the core of FOMO together where some may possibly jump in the lake (jump in an outdoor body of water not a pool), all of us will ski (ski 1 day), and I will most definitely try to finish out my 500 pushups (500 cumulative pushups). FOMO, as it so often does, gave me a new focus, something to beat the holiday calories back with, something fun to gab with friends about and something to do when you really didn't want to but didn't want to miss out. I'm talking about you - 5 rounds of 400 m run, 20 pushups, 200 m walking lunges, 20 burpees.
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| Design by Rick Gaston |
Fomo consumes me.
To be left behind? Torture.
Where do I sign up. (Write a haiku)
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