Update

It’s been a very quiet start to the year. First there were the storms (constant rain) and the winter (constant cold). Now that it’s spring and we should all be firing off a lot more sets there’s the coronavirus (constantly quiet). I’m still getting my sessions in but I’m averaging one or two sets a session, though my number/SM close rate has been very high.

The vibe of each set is a bit edgier at the moment and I’ve commonly been calling out the elephant in the room of should we be speaking to each other or should we even be touching in any way. The way I see it: coronavirus or not, I’m still going to get a nice walk which will burn a few extra calories and sunlight exposure. As I was saying today: I think the government should be promoting a healthy diet and lifestyle moreso at this point because that’s what will actually help people fight the virus.

All that effort has led to a total of around 35 sets this year. A few dates have come of it but nothing has stuck. One date we just didn’t vibe at all. One date I think I undercooked, which is going to happen this year because my overarching, wooly goal is to work on my impatience. That means I’m inevitably going to underescalate some dates. The last date went well but then her logistics intervened and now we’re stuck in text hell. I’ll give her one more chance to come out and then I’ll burn the number.

What else has been going on in my life?

The gym carries on as per usual and I’ve not missed one workout this year. I go four times a week and I’m hoping that the gyms stay open for as long as they can even though it’s obvious they’ll be closed off at some point, at which point I’ll do the best I can with a set of resistance bands. I’ve actually lost a little bit of weight in that time but I’ve got progressively stronger or at least am able to push more reps and so I’m not concerned about that. Hopefully it means I’m achieving the holy grail: body recomposition.

One thing that I have been taking account of is the fact that I can gain fat very quickly. That means putting some protective measures in place such as 24 hour fasts every two weeks and to do two months in a caloric surplus followed by one month in a deficit. Ideally I want to hit 12-15% bodyfat and then bounce between there and 18%.

Another thing going for me right now is reading. I like reading, learning new things and having things to speak about, so I’ve been alternating between fiction and non-fiction books since the beginning of the year with an aim to read 20 books in total this year. That means reading for ~40 minutes at lunchtime and then sometimes after work and on weekends. I’ve sped through six books so far and put the titles up on my twitter feed as I finish them but for my seventh I’m reading a ~750 page book about Chairman Mao which will obviously take a little longer.

Apart from that work is going smoothly even though we’ll have interruptions due to the coronavirus such as being understaffed or just busier due to virus-related news. I’m hoping that they’ll just put all the projects on hold while this is going on and at the end of it give us all a gold star for doing our basic jobs. I dislike projects personally; I don’t want to talk to other teams and I’d rather be left alone to get on with my own stuff.

I’m still open to doing Skype coaching so please send me an email if you’re interested. I’m not advertising this at the top of the page because I want to ease into it slowly. I’ve also got Belgrade booked for the latter half of May so fingers crossed I’ll be able to go.

Lastly, I’m going to write my second book this year. Probably in the summer when it gets too hot to Daygame and I can hide in air-conditioned cafes. It will be a book of the lays that happened in 2019 broken down to the nth degree. My aim is to create an Overkill style product providing case studies from meeting to lay covering all the angles: at home, on jaunts, SDLs, Long Game, fast, slow, verbal, physical, etc, etc. I already know what the cover is going to look like, which is obviously the most important part.

Yours unfaithfully,

Thomas Crown