Evening Füsters!
The game introductory period of Week 0 is closing out tonight and you should now have a basic idea of what Füsting in the new year looks like. As Week 0 is meant to be very simple, we will now start layering on the activities that will drive the battle against your flank meat and help you maintain consistency and accountability.
In addition to the daily game play of Foodenfüste, Drunkenfüste and Schmerzenfüste, Week 1 will now introduce two more basic game concepts:
Hausaufgaben (Homework) . . . this is the one where each day you attempt to complete the Daily Fünfzig (50) strength building workout (in addition to your required Singelt). Remember that there’s no expectation that you can do all the reps of all Fünfzug exercises in one event right out the gate. If you need to spread them out over the day at first, no problem. The goal here is to build over the next 9 weeks until you can do the entire Daily 50 in one back to back session. For full details, go here.
Fastentag . . . this is the one where each week you get really hangry and irritated on Mondays. Starting tomorrow (Jan. 6th), the weekly fasting requirement of WF25 kicks in. The first three fasts (Mondays for the next three weeks) will be an easy dawn to dusk affair where you’ll be limited to clear liquids only (yes, coffee is allowed if you must) from sun-up to sun-down (e.g. Northern California is 07:30am to 5:05pm, Southern California is 06:45am to 4:50pm etc.). You’ll report successful completion of your fast the next day on Tuesday’s DRT. Complete all nine Fastentags and you’ll earn a hefty +15p bonus at the end of the game (only the Long Walk and Wanderungfüste completion bonuses will bag you that much bonuspunkte)!
Now for this week’s game update (to include reminders, answers and recommendations):
New Weekly and Side Quest bonuses are available for Week 1 starting tomorrow, Jan. 6th. You’ll want to review the details on the Bonuspunkte page here. Remember that each day you can complete one Weekly bonus and one Side Quest bonus only (unless otherwise directed by GG).
Week 1 continues the Singelt workout parameters as defined here. Remember, you must complete your workout to the full defined requirement for time and/or distance. For instance, if you’re going to do the 3 mile run, you must do the complete 3 miles and bring your total run in at under 45 min (<15min/mile pace). Anything over that pace would now be a walk which is 4 miles total (<20min/mile required pace), unless it’s weighted (then it’s back to 3 miles). Same goes for all defined Singelt parameters. If you don’t do the total required distance or time, then it won’t count towards your daily exercise point. Steep is the road to personal accountability, GG knows.
Help GG out by adding a little detail when needed to your STRAVA activities, specifically if you’re doing a weighted walk for 3 miles instead of unweighted for 4 miles. Maybe just title it “Weighted Walk” and that way GG won’t question why you only walked 3.1 miles instead of the full 4. Makes sense?
Another STRAVA related detail: GG has noticed that several players are unintentionally double posting workouts on STRAVA. This is most likely due to you having two or more source devices connected to the same STRAVA account (biggest offender appears to be using your iPhone to track a workout while your WHOOP band is tracking the same workout with both then uploading separately to STRAVA). Why does GG care? This double posting will both skew your personal accumulated data each week (making you ineligible for recognition as that week’s Bestenfüster (no bonuspunkte, just bragging rights) and also mess up the total accumulated data for the entire game (GG will normally calculate out things like the total combined Füster mileage for running/walking/hiking over the 9 weeks of Winterfüste; one year we ran 3/4 the circumference of the planet so yeah, it’s a fun stat to collect if it’s accurate).
One more STRAVA thing: “posting” in The Füste 25 Club feed. GG will review the activities of all Füsters who are part of the Club but may not see your separate “posts” (if you’re in fact posting as well). So while you’ll def get thumb’s up on activities, don’t think GG is ignoring your posts in the feed if you don’t get thumb’s up over there too. The posts are great and GG really loves the engagement, he just may not have time to review both your actual activity and your post. But please keep it up!
Why am I not on the Bestenliste? An infrequently asked question but it does get asked. Two reasons here. The primary reason is that you forgot to report that day; if GG does not receive a report for any specific date, you will not show up on that night’s Bestenliste. It’s just how the system works (and is a good reminder for you to make sure you report each day). The second reason is that GG made a data input error . . . each night GG has to manually recreate the Bestenliste by typing it in. Occasionally, GG will drop one of the 120 player names by complete accident (already happened on Day 2’s Bestenliste; sorry Gray Fox!). If this happens, just let GG know you’re missing and he’ll fix it as soon as he can.
While we’re on the topic of GG’s overall responsiveness, let’s talk quickly about who he is (or isn’t). There’s a rumor going around that GG is “AI”. This could not be farther from the truth. GG is a real entity and the single brown bear tasked with the oversight all Füste events. And there’s the rub. By being just one bear, he’s limited on a time to task ratio. In addition, GG is just like you and has a full time job and responsibilities. So, all this is saying is that please be patient when you text GG and are looking for a quick and/or timely response. He will absolutely do his best to get back to you as soon as possible. During business days/hours (9am-5pm), you may experience significant delays in GG’s responsiveness so just prepare yourself for that eventuality. Even after nearly a decade, the Füste remains a one bear show that is GG’s personal labor of love! So patience is and will remain the watch word through March 8th. Danke for your consideration here.
Couple of minor details around Schmerzenfüsten (daily exercise):
Remember, for the “So Many Stairs” bonus, you must complete your stair climbing on a real staircase. You cannot use a “stair stepper” machine at home or the gym.
Home yoga . . . while GG is a steadfast believer in yoga overall, he needs you to make sure that if you’re doing a “home yoga” workout, that you’re stressing youself to the appropriate level to meet the general expectation of Schmerzenfüste. Basically, if you post a home yoga workout where your heart rate never got above 90, that’s probably not going to cut it. Please make sure that if you are doing home yoga that it’s strenuous enough to get you into at least HR Zone 1 , which for most people here is a sustained and average heart rate of at least 100bpm.
And one last gentle reminder to not cheat yourself: if a Singelt parameter says do something for an hour then you need to do the full hour (not 54 minutes). Same for distance; if you need to run 3 miles or walk 4 miles, make sure you do the complete distance.
There’s a fun graph based presentation of your daily point totals on the Bestenliste now. Just scroll down to the bottom and you’ll find it. It shows each players as part of their assigned geographical grouping (as needed for communication purposes). How to interpret what you’re seeing? Each player has two columns. The column on the left represents your daily point total. The one of the right shows your Side Quest bonus total (once you hit 30 here you’ll be awarded your Side Quest Completion Bonus, as GG has now mentioned about a dozen times). Anyways, this is a different way to see how you’re doing in comparison to other Füsters!
And finally, just one more word about bonuses vs workouts. This is often hard to explain for some reason. Many exercise related bonuses, when completed, will count both for that day’s workout (Singelt or more) AND for that bonus. For example, this week you can complete the first Parkenfüste bonus which requires you to complete a 3 mile hike in a local park. Even though 3 miles does not equal the standard 4 mile Singelt walking requirement, if you complete this specific bonus you’ll not only get +3 bonuspunkte but you’ll also get to take it as a completed Singelt walk workout. Not all bonuses work like this so make sure you understand the requirements of each by closely reviewing the Bonuspunkte page on Sunday nights. And as with all things in the Füste, just reach out to GG if you need any clarification here at all!
Okay, that’s it for Week 1. GG knows that there’s always a ton of reading and comprehension during the first couple weeks of a Füste event but it’s a necessary evil. While simple and powerful, the Füste is a bit of advanced play and takes some attention to detail. But GG promises that if you stick to it and engage for the whole 9 weeks, you’ll see incredible benefits in the end. All this is to say is that GG apologizes for being overly garrulous here and will do his best to start to shorten the updates as the weeks go by. GG knows your time is valuable and appreciates every minute you spend dedicated to the Füste (and just as a check to see who’s taking the time to read all this, once done here, text “LONG DOG” (or a 🌭 emoji) and GG will award you one complementary long dog sighting on tomorrow’s DRT (remember, photographing 5 lazy long dogs in the wild gets you a day off from exercise).
Alright, enough from GG! Get back to the game! Have a great Week 1 and as always, may the Füste be with you!
GG