Primrose vs Harrier - Troll Challenges

Originally posted by Primrose6789
And I´m really looking forward to those Surprise Challenges....

..hoping that vegetarian or vegan will never come
Or Banhauser?

Originally posted by Harrier88

Originally posted by Primrose6789
And I´m really looking forward to those Surprise Challenges....

..hoping that vegetarian or vegan will never come
Or Banhauser?

Banhauser is better than vegan. :f_biggrin::f_ugly:

Here we are again at the start of my standard jogging track, with its produce orchards lining the way. The path is going uphill - all the better. It intensifies my training a little, and helps mentally preparing myself for the many uphill battles we have in life.

According to the schedule I found, today was supposed to be a rest day, but I need to fit it into my schedule, and I will be away all day tomorrow for my lifeguard training, which has an extra theory section after the practical part tomorrow. This week's change is already noted in the schedule below:

The good news is that the boring part of the plan seems to be over, with its long walking intervals. Today was the last workout which had more walking than running, and also the only one with more than four minutes long walking segments.

There will be more changes along the way, I will get to them when we arrive at that point. I also mentioned that I had an alternative idea for the standard 5K race at the end. Separate post...

Okay, so the goal of the challenge is to run a continuous 5 km at a decent, steady pace. I have also set a time goal, but in order to properly determine whether you reach it or not, I think you need to do this run on a real running track. There is one at the place where I did the Trollympics this year, and while it is not usually open to the public, I may be able to contact someone to get everything cleared up for me - assuming, of course, that the entire facility will stay open at that time of the year.

Apart from that though, wouldn't it be much cooler if I could run the 5K somewhere in nature, not on some running track? Wouldn't it be much more interesting to use proper landmarks instead of measured distances?

The problem with that, though, is that it is quite difficult to find a clearly defined 5 km distance in nature with a small enough margin for error so that we can meaningfully measure a time for my 5K run. Do we need the time at all, though? Couldn't we at least do a separate run, which is not timed but instead relies on landmarks?

Well, I have been messing around with some satellite maps, and after trying a few things, I think I may have found an appropriate track for a 5K run. There is a neighboring forest where I used to jog, and I found a nearby place which is separated by an aerial distance that should amount to maybe around 5.1-5.2 km if we count both ways, back and forth. This place is Arnsburg Abbey:

Arnsburg Abbey is a former Cistercian monastery, founded during the Middle Ages in 1174. Its ruins, partially open to the public, are now a part of a tiny hamlet with the same name, with a population of 83 people according to the 2019 census. There even is a good restaurant around that place, I plan to go there one time with Primrose. You can find out more about the abbey on Wikipedia, or visit its website if you know some German.

Again, if I start my run at the edge of that forest, keep going all the way to that monastery, and then return to my starting point, I should have covered a distance of a little over 5.1 km... aerial distance, that is. The actual way will be a lot longer, across winding and hilly forest paths. Still, it easily covers the 5K distance, and there is nothing wrong with a little extra challenge, right?

So I think this is what I am going to do. In addition to the standard 5K race - or possibly in place of it, if I can't make it to the track, I will do an untimed run to Arnsburg Abbey and back. Maybe I will snap a quick photo when I'm there, but other than that, it has to be one continuous run, with no breaks, and no walking intervals - just one big run from the edge of the forest to the monastery and back. All as part of the Road to 5K - the Quest for Arnsburg Abbey.

I think we are pretty well-covered when it comes to challenges now... except there is still no poker. Well, we wanted to get to it this week already, at least Prim got back to a few games on PartyPoker to get her paws wet. Maybe I will find my way back there too, and it will finally be "Primrose vs Harrier" again.

We had to do theory at one point, and today was the day. Right here, in a DLRG room on top of a restaurant. Apparently, there is also a dance school at ground level.

We may learn how to deal with all kinds of dangers in and around water during our lifeguard course... but can anything prepare me for the horrors of the classroom? I don't know, I always get some bad flashbacks to my school and university days in those kinds of environments. It was even that way when I played American football and had to meet up with my coach and team mates to study our opponent's plays and so on.

It took a few hours, but at least we are done now, only practical lessons and the big test at the end remain. And we did another practical exam too, we had to demonstrate our abilities to do some transport swimming, the way we practiced it last week. No time limits, and no problems - this part is done.

This technique was for exhausted swimmers who are still cooperative and fully conscious. What about unconscious swimmers in distress, or those who panic and may fight back? We were taught four additional technique for this. Two of them were simple carrying techniques for swimmers who can not assist our rescue efforts, the other two included a restraining hold for more difficult cases.

No exam there yet, and also not in the distance diving, which was practiced too. The required distance of 15 meters after a starting jump should be no problem, though. I was a little surprised, however, that the technique we were taught was not what I was used to. Instead of my standard paddling moves, we were told to do some actual swimming strokes, just a few of them. I didn't compare both techniques yet, but after giving it a try, it really seems like you can get a few additional meters out of your dive that way.

Anyway, the dreaded theory section is over, and the theoretical exam at the end should be a breeze. Updated list:

Theoretical part

[ ] Passing a nationally standardized quiz about the following subjects: Respiration and blood circulation, hazards in and around water, assistance in case of bathing-, boating-, and ice-related accidents, avoiding strangleholds, assistance in case of injuries and drowning as well as heat exhaustion and cold injuries, and the tasks and activities of the DLRG.

Practical part

[DONE] Swimming 200 meters in less than 10 minutes, including 100 meters of leg whip kick back swimming without using the arms

[DONE] Swimming 100 meters in full clothing in less than 4 minutes, with subsequent unclothing inside the water

[ ] Performing three different jumps from a height of 1 meter

[practised] 15 meters of distance diving

[DONE] 50 meters of transport swimming - pushing or pulling

[DONE] Diving from the surface of the water twice - once heads first and once feet first - retrieving two 5 kg diving rings from the bottom of a 2-3 meters deep pool within 3 minutes

[practised] Displaying abilities to avoid strangleholds and escaping neck chokeholds from behind

[practised] 50 meters of transport swimming with an embracing technique (for people who may try to resist the rescuing)

[ ] Demonstrating the ability to bring people ashore

[ ] Displaying the ability to perform CPR (Cardiopulmonary resuscitation) for 3 minutes

[ ] A combined exercise involving the following steps without any breaks in this order: A 20 meter swimming approach, diving to retrieve a 5 kg diving ring halfway through, then dropping the ring and continuing the approach, followed by carrying a partner for 20 meters

The Road to 5K will continue tomorrow... and was supposed to start for the grindette too, who unfortunately seems to have caught a case of the sniffles this weekend. Poor puppy, get well soon!

We all know Prim is tough, but I don't think she should start any exercise plans before she has completely recovered. I almost think like I'm coming down with something too... but I don't know, maybe I'm just tired from the lifeguard training today.

We should have plenty of things to talk about next week, in any case.

Troll Trivia of the Week

Talks about sexy German street food aside, Harrier made Prim have another giggle fit during a different Skype call that year, after making some seemingly innocuous statements about...

1) Christmas markets
2) The Oktoberfest
3) Rammstein concerts

More changes to the plan, as I have to work late on Tuesdays, and I plan to have a quick tennis session on Wednesday. While there should be time to cram in a jog before tennis, I think the above plan is a much better solution.

The workout is a lot more fun now, with an equal focus on running and walking intervals instead of those four minute walks.

We may have to continue along these lines, so I hope the lack of "true" rest days won't come back to bite me at one point.

All right, let's get to it. Primrose and I decided that instead of having to cook our Surprise Menu on Thursdays, we can just cook it on any day that is convenient to us, we should just get it done by the end of the week.

So Greek was the motto we rolled. My thoughts jumped to the meat dishes at my preferred Greek takeouts, which got more and more expensive over the years. Gyro is amazing, but if you're trying to make it at home, it may end up just being seasoned meat straps. Souvlaki may be a better choice, but I haven't made those ever before. Maybe there is an easier option? How about bifteki?

Yes, those little minced meat patties? Let's just give it a try, I found a recipe right here.

The minced meat will get mixed with egg, breadcrumbs, a tomato, a slightly sautéed onion, garlic, parsley, balsamico vinegar, oregano and olive oil, also a little salt and pepper.

We will also make some potatoes. I prepared a marinade of sorts for them, with water, fresh lemon juice, mustard, olive oil, garlic, oregano and fresh thyme.

Let's toss those potatoes a little in that marinade and put them in the oven at 180°C.

After 20 minutes, we add the bifteki. The recipe said to form them into little round patties. I'm making burgers often enough over here, so I preferred the more rectangular shapes that the bifteki at my local takeout usually come in.

Cover it with aluminum foil and bake it for another 20 minutes. Then the foil comes off, and we bake it for 10 minutes more.

It seemed a bit oily in that picture, before the final 10 minutes, but here it is served:

And here it is with some feta and tzatziki added on:

Not bad at all! A fine dish to start the new series - and it took a lot more effort than the Greek burgers I once made, which were simply seasoned with store-bought gyro seasoning. I wasn't cutting any corners this time, though.

Prim's Greek dish coming up tomorrow, possibly?

Recipe Raider Surprise!!

Greek is perfect! It´s not only delicious, but I still can use up some veggies from my garden. Even though my eggplant harvest was not huge (bugs bunny was here!! ) still got some and this is the perfect chance to use up my (very probably) last eggplant (the others are already frozen down). So, took my last tomatoes, my last eggplant, potatoes I had bought on the market, some minced meat and some other ingredients to make this:

Original Greek moussaka!!!

Used this recipe.

It´s not only the surprise menu but also a Recipe Raiders menu!

Delicous!

Can't go wrong with some good moussaka. Lovely stuff, Prim.

And now that we both have done our Surprise Menus for this week, we might as well spin the wheel to see what will be in store for us next week. Here it goes...

A slight change to my schedule, as my tennis training partner had asked me to postpone our practice until tomorrow. This means that I should get my jogging in today.

I had to prepare for this on short notice, and I woke up this morning during a terrible point in my sleep cycle that had me in zombie mode for much of the day, so running first felt like a bit of a chore, but I got into it. The workout was finished without any problems. From now on, there will be less, but longer intervals.

Carry on...

You can forget about tennis in that weather. Bring on the hot cocoa and the baumkuchen, looks like I will get a proper rest day after all.

I made a new burger version today, which should be coming up soon. I think we are nearing the home stretch in our "Burgers Around the World" series, there are like three or four more versions after today's variant that I definitely plan on making, and I have additional ideas for maybe around three more that I may or may not do.

Let's finally get to yesterday's burger, then. We'll go to Thailand.

This will be a chicken burger - you know the drill.

In addition to the standard garlic and onion powders, I added a little curry powder to the chicken mixture as well.

For everything else, I'm taking the easy way once again. Here is a store-bought green Thai curry paste and a can of coconut milk.

We start by heating the paste with a little bit of oil...

...then we whisk it together with the coconut milk.

Finally, we simply add it to the chicken patties and cook it for a bit more.

Now, for the actual sandwich. We start with the patty and a little bit of extra sauce...

...then add some basil leaves and red jalapeño slices.

It may not look like much in this picture, but our Thai-inspired burger is ready.

Like with most of the other Asian-inspired burgers, Primrose mentioned that while she would like the ingredients, she doesn't think that they fit well for a burger - and for once, I agree with her. I think that the Mongolia, China, and Korea-inspired burgers all worked quite well... but this one, not so much. It was tasty, and packed a pleasant spicy kick too, but green Thai curry goes much better with some jasmine rice than with a burger bun.

Maybe a Thai curry inspired version could have worked, but only if we let the sauce act as seasoning alone, and add a thicker condiment and some more veggies instead. Maybe. As it stands, it will unfortunately have to rank lowly. Below the "good idea, bad execution" Dutch burgers, I think, but still above the failed chakalaka experiment from our South Africa variant.

1st Switzerland
2nd Cyprus
3rd Israel
4th Greece
5th Mongolia
6th China
7th Denmark
8th Korea
9th Spain
10th Germany
11th Russia
12th Madagascar
13th Alsace
14th Italy
15th Texas
16th California
17th Mexico
18th Morocco
19th Brazil
20th Namibia
21st Arabia
22nd Turkey
23rd Australia
24th England
25th France
26th Colombia
27th Cuba
28th Canada
29th Hungary
30th The Netherlands
31st Thailand
32nd South Africa

Originally posted by Harrier88
Troll Trivia of the Week

Talks about sexy German street food aside, Harrier made Prim have another giggle fit during a different Skype call that year, after making some seemingly innocuous statements about...

1) Christmas markets
2) The Oktoberfest
3) Rammstein concerts

Solution:

Well, to be a bit more direct: "blasen" ("blowing") also means "bl*wjob" in German. Many usually "harmless" words in German can actually have double meanings and such words and jokes with such words are part of the German humour. So may say something totally innocent like "blasen" (which can mean: 1. bladders, 2. blowing or 3. bl*wjob) and you can be sure: At least one person will think of something "dirty" and giggle (no matter what age: from maybe 13 to even 83 year olds).

So with that said, it is very normal that (almost) every German finds the word "Adventsblasen" (advent blowing/bl*wjob) super funny! At least I was laughing loudly when I heard this. And in some regions (like Hesse, where Harrier lives) this "advent blowing" seems to have a long tradition on Christmas markets. And here´s another little "pitfall": That´s not the case in every region of Germany. I, living in the southern part of Germany (while Harrier lives in the central part), did not know what this "Adventsblasen" is and of course, because "blasen" can have several meanings (see above), I bursted out laughing!

And as Harrier suggested, we can have our own Christmas market with .....urm..."everything" .... :mdr::mdr::mdr::mdr::mdr: .... that sounded JUST SUPER funny!!!

:mdr::mdr::mdr::mdr:

.

Ah, yes, the classic "tower blowing"... I believe it is actually derived from a medieval tradition. People on the tower were originally using brass instruments to warn of possible dangers and signal the passing of time, like giving a signal every hour or so. It later evolved into proper musical concerts on those towers in the late middle ages.

Nowadays, many towns have an advent version of this. I considered using this video in the Troll Trivia solution, but the sound was a little too quiet.

Maybe Primrose and I - being Trolls - sometimes just have a bit of an immature mind, but once you get those ideas into your head, it can be tough not to at least smirk when you hear about the performance of some town's "men's blowing choir"... And I still can't get over this video of a "spontaneous advent blowing after church" that I just found...

We are done with about a third of the program now. No problems so far, and the workout has definitely intensified by this point. Three sets of five minutes of continuous jogging are very doable, but they no longer feel trivial.

It is not going to get any easier from that point on, but let's keep it up. I don't know yet how exactly the plan will look like for next week, not all of my appointments have been set yet.

.

More lifeguard practice today at the Westbad, and more exam points to knock off the list.

We started by doing the exam for the distance diving. 15 meters were the distance to clear after a diving jump off the starting block. I just dived for as long as I could, and I may have stopped just short off 25 meters? I don't know, should be around that distance, which happens to be the one required for Silver, if I were to go for it next year. For Bronze, my distance was easily enough, in any case.

Our youngest participant was struggling a bit with the distance diving and needed several attempts, but after some coaching, he dramatically improved and easily cleared the 15 meters.

The next exam was transport swimming, with an embracing technique for unconscious or uncooperative victims. The first one, where I was pulling my partner by the armpits, worked all right. The second one was more problematic, where I had to demonstrate a technique to sort of pin my partner to my body (useful if your rescue victim fights back in a panic). The pinning worked fine, but I moved super slow through the water. On the first few meters, I had to look to the side to make sure that I was making any distance at all. My leg whip kick is atrocious!

Luckily, there was no time limit, so I managed to struggle on and eventually brought my partner to the shore. That's enough to pass the exam, but I really need to work on that leg movement, also in regular swimming. I asked my instructor too, and he confirmed that the problem was right there. A pass is a pass, but maybe I should really hit up that nearby swimming club for some pointers.

Still, we made a lot of progress with our exam points, we are done with about half of the items on our list now.

Theoretical part

[ ] Passing a nationally standardized quiz about the following subjects: Respiration and blood circulation, hazards in and around water, assistance in case of bathing-, boating-, and ice-related accidents, avoiding strangleholds, assistance in case of injuries and drowning as well as heat exhaustion and cold injuries, and the tasks and activities of the DLRG.

Practical part

[DONE] Swimming 200 meters in less than 10 minutes, including 100 meters of leg whip kick back swimming without using the arms

[DONE] Swimming 100 meters in full clothing in less than 4 minutes, with subsequent unclothing inside the water

[ ] Performing three different jumps from a height of 1 meter

[DONE] 15 meters of distance diving

[DONE] 50 meters of transport swimming - pushing or pulling

[DONE] Diving from the surface of the water twice - once heads first and once feet first - retrieving two 5 kg diving rings from the bottom of a 2-3 meters deep pool within 3 minutes

[practised] Displaying abilities to avoid strangleholds and escaping neck chokeholds from behind

[DONE] 50 meters of transport swimming with an embracing technique (for people who may try to resist the rescuing)

[ ] Demonstrating the ability to bring people ashore

[ ] Displaying the ability to perform CPR (Cardiopulmonary resuscitation) for 3 minutes

[ ] A combined exercise involving the following steps without any breaks in this order: A 20 meter swimming approach, diving to retrieve a 5 kg diving ring halfway through, then dropping the ring and continuing the approach, followed by carrying a partner for 20 meters

A jogging trip, immediately followed by a tennis session? Sure, why not. I don't think Primrose ever had problems with this kind of thing.

It's what I did today, because it otherwise would have been difficult to stick to my schedule and fit another tennis meetup in, which I haven't been able to do with my training partner in a while. The Monday - Wednesday - Saturday jogging schedule seems to fit my work hours and appointments quite nicely at the moment.

So far so good, I hope the "double feature" today won't end up wearing me out too much at one point down the road.

I heard Primrose did her Mediterranean Surprise Menu earlier today already, I'm looking forward to the pictures. Mine should be following tomorrow evening.