OT: The Daily Thread

RL: only a week and a half until my 80K ultra. Have a hard time to focus on my job to be honest. Tapering is the hardest period for any runner ;).

D2: leveling up my untwinked 99er CB/ES Sorc. It's a blast. I think she'll lack the raw power to kill quickly on /p8, but we'll have to see how it goes when we get there.

OVG: nope
 
RL: Split days off this week which isn't the best, but there's a wrestling show and D&D at the end of the week to look forward to. UFC last night was a blast.

D2: Respecced the pure BlizzSorc to a BlizzBaller and slowly pushing through Hell A1. TRM and I started a new set of MP characters using the shared item pool we gathered from our first set (so untwinked now becomes twinked). Maggot Lair was a helluva lot easier this time haha.

OVG: Nope.
 
Well after the 1000th reply, i had to post something more topic related... here i go :)

RL: my son is 19 days from being one year-old. Still hoping him to make full nights from time to time!

D2: overburdened druid has to complete A1 normal, and maybe some 99er trapsin leveling too tonight... not decided yet!

OVG: Not for now. I took few hours (thanks to powerleveling) to complete D3 season and get those wings i'll never wear. And damn that's getting worse, so pleased to be here, definitely ;)
 
RL: Its been a bit since Ive replied to anything, but I do check here every so often for some grounding back to reality. I'm still around, and trying to get my shit together. This divorce stuff is probably the hardest thing I have ever went through in my whole life, and I know there are people with much more complicated lives than mine, so I couldn't imagine how hard this would be with more stacked on top of it. Ive been at my parents for awhile now, and even though there was never and will never be a chance of reconciliation, I just filed for the divorce today. It shouldn't take too long since the divorce is amicable and we agree on everything as far as the split goes. Having anxiety makes this so much harder than it really needs to be, but I am gonna make it. I'm still fairly young, and things will work out for me once all this stuff is done and I can really move on. I hope. One thing is for sure, living back at your parents house after being away for awhile sucks, but I am forever grateful to them for taking me in with no questions asked, and my Mom is one hell of a cook!!!

D2: Ive played a little here and there, but my concentration has been lacking, so I just dork around with a lower level character so that I dont lose XP on my 99er from a stupid death. Ill get back to the grind once my head is right.

OVG: Nothing for now.
 
@Babyhell Sorry to disappoint you, but Kitteh got the 1000th reply ;). You were 1 post late

@darkstarhub Sorry to hear that. Hang in there. Hopefully you'll indeed get things sorted out once the divorce is over and you can move on.
 
Aayyyyeeeeee!

Real Life: Went to work. Did some Quality Analyst-ing. Screamed at the heavens. Came home. Overcooked dinner. Came upstairs onto computer.

D2: Constant state of starting new characters. I'll never finish anything at this rate.

Other Games: Do Mobile games count? I played some piddly idler game earlier for a brief few minutes.
 
Just to clarify though, I still get a trophy or something?

Of course. You got the 1000th post. That's worth more than 1000th reply. Especially because your avatar is cuter. Let's not get started on the real Kitteh vs the real Babyhell though :rolleyes:.
 
RL: Work has been okay. Back pain has been pretty consistent. D&D looks to be becoming a weekly event now that some players are finally realising if they book the time off work we can play more. My UFC friend is on holiday so there'll be a backlog of that to catch up on in a week or so.

D2: Looking at buildguides for my Wind Druid in early Hell. It's the most fun I've had with a char in years. I'd never played one before.

OVG: Collecting shiny pixels for the Rocket League summer event. They have the Ghostbusters car and some dumb 80s stuff.

Have a good weekend SPF!
 
RL: Ran my first ever mountain ultra this weekend. It was quite the experience for sure !!! In the end the organisation tuned down the two longest distances to the third one, that of the Supertrail, because of weather forecasts talking about a chance for heavy storms. So we didn't get to do 81K and 4K of positive altitude gain, but 'only' 65K and 3K of positive altitude gain.

All in all the run went extremely well. Did almost the entire run without my mates, because I had a very good day and as such was just way quicker than them. I usually prefer to run together, but for this kind of distance it is too important to run at my own pace, and it just wouldn't have worked slowing down too much.

When I say that the run went extremely well, it's not completely true. As is often the case, I had stomach issues again. Between the 35K mark and the 45K aid station I really suffered because of that. People were also taking me over, where otherwise it was always the other way around. But that's no surprise, when you have to stop several times to throw up, just to find out that nothing comes out because your stomach is empty.

At the aid station I took a really long break, some 75 minutes. Actually I thought I'd give up there because of my stomach, but in the end managed to calm it down by eating some rice with vegetables, then some salty soup. That completely changed how I felt. In retrospect I just had not been eating enough, not even close. It was really warm, so I mainly relied on drinking a lot. But after 5 - 6 hours, the body and in particular the stomach just doesn't take that anymore.

Anyway, after that I felt a lot better, so I decided to continue anyway. It's amazing how well things went after that. I felt like I just could keep running. We had a brutally hard ascent not long after that aid station, but I kept on taking over other participants, because I was walking faster, and didn't need to take a break at times. When I got to the end of that part, I started running again, where most participants kept on walking because it was still somewhat uphill. That obviously boosted my confidence even more.

At the next aid station I made one critical mistake. Still don't know how I could be so stupid, since I have quite some experience with ultras by now. I guess it was overconfidence, but I decided to only fill my soft flasks with water. No sports drink, no cola, ... We only had one last steep climb to go, I figured I wouldn't need it, or at least that it would be better to not upset my stomach with sweet stuff. Boy was I wrong. A bit past halfway on the ascent, my stomach went completely south again. To make things worse, I just felt that my body was completely empty. I took some time to sit down, tried to eat something, but couldn't force myself to more than a bite or two. I proceeded again, but boy was it rough. I wasn't the only one who was struggling on that part though. I saw two participants actually throwing up. Tough times ...

Arriving at the top, there was a mountain rescue team cheering at us, trying to give us the mental boost we needed. I asked them if they happened to have any coca cola, because I felt that that would be the only thing that would work for me. Unfortunately but not unsurprisingly, they didn't.

Luckily I was already feeling to start better. So the descent back to the point where we started the ascent (through a different road, mind you) went very well. Down there I heard my mates cheering at me. They had just arrived at the aid station I had been previously. So I took some time to check on them, then got the much needed cola boost, before taking on the last part: an easy start, followed by a steep, very technical descent. Luckily I felt terrific again, confident to tackle that last piece. And with reason, because I took over many participants. I could run even the steep descent entirely, whereas most participants had to switch between a careful 'ultra shuffle' (fellow ultrarunners know what this is) and walking. When I finally arrived in the village of Grainau, I only had some 1.5K to go. Even there I still felt extremely well. So I ran across some more participants, managing 5:30 minutes on that last kilometer without really pushing it. For reference: my average pace at a 10K training run varies between 5:00 and 5:20 minutes / km.

The finish was quite the experience, with a large crowd cheering for me. Never had such a crowd before, but then again this is Germany's biggest trail event !!! I took the time to take some pictures, even had to do a small interview. Went on to get my finisher medal and t-shirt, then set down to reflect on and enjoy the whole experience. Talked a bit with various other participants, and before I knew it 80 minutes had passed and my mates also arrived.

We stayed for quite a while there, eating and drinking, talking about the run, enjoying the whole experience.

So yeah, all in all I'm very happy with how it went. The stomach issues remain at times, but I think they are mainly caused by the hot weather and a lack of eating. I'm very pleased with my training, shape and overall how I approached this run though. It has taught me a lot. Didn't have any issues at all with my body. Not with my hips, upper legs or hamstrings. I felt and still feel strong throughout. Really, so pleased with all of that.

What's next? Not sure to be honest. It doesn't have to be further, longer, more extreme for me for sure. First of I'll cut back on the running a bit to fully recover. Than our holiday in Austria, where I hope to be doing a lot of hiking and running. After that I want to do at least one ultra this year. Maybe two, but I might as well do a shorter race instead. For next year I suspect me and my mates will come up with something new. Not sure what that will be, although I wouldn't mind going to a country where it's less likely to be too hot. I really can't stand the heat. So Scotland or one of the Scandinavian countries could be a good alternative.

D2: the PD Necro in our weekly group game is at the start of Act 5 Hell. If all goes well only one more session before he reaches Guardian. Other than that got my untwinked Lightning Sorc to level eighty eight. Update in the thread probably when she is level 89 or so.

OVG: nope
 
I have been totally derailed from Diablo 2 for a bit.

My obsession for the moment is It Lurks Below.
Absolutely dope game made by the Diablo Daddy himself, David Brevik.


So many Diablo references in it, too.

Anywho I'm still working on my HC Untwinked Pitzerker, but at a glacial pace.

Because there is just not enough time in the day
 
Like I said in my post, I don't know yet what I'll do next. That's how I always approached trailrunning ever since I started with it. Just do what I feel like doing. No fixed training schedules, no bucket list (sorry, I absolutely hate bucket lists), just let my feeling dictate what I'm doing, both short term and long term.

I do know one thing: I definitely want to keep the shape I'm in now. Training for the Zugspitz has taught me a lot about myself, about how I best approach training, running, food, ... That's what I surely want to maintain now. And then an ultra in Belgium at the end of the year, maybe two. Next year? Will depend on what the rest wants to do probably, and what I feel like doing. For this year, the choice was between the Zugspitz and the Grossglockner ultra trail, which crosses the highest mountain of Austria. So maybe next year the latter. Although it's in mid August, when there's quite a high likelihood of hot weather. I really hate hot weather ...
 
Well done buddy, glad to see that you're still running. Also, tentative congratulations on the guardian - that PD necro has been going for ages, did you park it and jump back in on another iteration or something?

RL: I have three family members who are genuinely OK with me being trans, so that's both comforting and irritating. Frankly though, **** 'em. I'm working all hours at the moment so I'm really tired, and I have a wedding this week, but after that I'm hoping to get at least a bit of free time.

D2: I do 10 minutes of Travincal runs with my tea each morning, that's it... I do have a blade furysin still in normal but I don't foresee finishing her anytime soon.

OVG: Not really? Reading I guess. I'm slowly rereading the Dynamite James Bond comics.
 
We started this iteration of the Army mid February, so it's not that long. I did a PN Necro a few iterations ago though, which ran in the second half of 2017. Maybe that's the character you have in mind?
 
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