Race honestly wouldn't matter if you mean to only use it for yourself sparingly. Otherwise, go with Dwarf for good spirit regen rate. I'd also recommend going Two-handed weapons and killing crap with a Claidhmore. It's hard to beat a free Fantastically weighted weapon.

Training:

1x Two-handed
1x CM
1x Physical Training
1x Shield use (Yes, Shield use. You wait for something to swing, then wear and obliterate) - This isn't needed if you can get spelled up by a pocket mage at all times.

Points will be tight for a while, so get those, then pick up shield when you can. You can grab armor too, but eh. You won't get hit too much. Other good aux. skills are First Aid, Perception, and Survival so you can skin to make a bit of coin and break up the monotony.

You should be able to make level 5 on the first XXX, and finish around level 20 after 30 days without killing yourself.

Go all physical on your Stats: 100 Strength, 90 Con, 70 Dex, 70 AGi, then the rest into Aura and Dis for free points. If you absolutely want to maximize learning I guess you'd want to put more points into Logic and Discipline for EXP holding and absorption, but I don't think it would be worth tanking stats for TPs and hunting.

PTPs = 25 + ((STR + CON + DEX + AGI + ((AUR + DIS) ÷ 2) ÷ 20)