Tuesday, August 19, 2008

I did the hundred!

I didn't really want to post about this because I don't want to sound like I'm bragging or anything, but I've noticed tons of traffic on my sitemeter from the 100 Pushups Challenge website, so I thought I'd better acknowledge it.

Like just about everyone else in Blogland, I jumped on the 100 pushups bandwagon. I've always been pretty good with pushups, and I have a pretty small frame, so I knew I'd be able to get it eventually. When I signed up, I noticed a group of Arizonans doing the challenge, so I joined with them in a sort of virtual support group. I managed 44 on my initial test, and started from there. Weeks 1 and 2 were a challenge, but I made it through pretty easily getting up to 60 by the end of the week. Strangely, I was only able to do 62 on the week 2 exhaustion test. Week 3 was a big jump up, but it wasn't a huge struggle to get the numbers. Then week 4 came along, and I saw huge gains. I ended each workout significantly higher than the previous day. I jumped from 57 to 73 to 87 on the final sets. And the gains I was seeing were not just in the number of pushups I was doing. I noticed that I was starting to get some meat up there in my pecs. That's pretty cool.

Another exhaustion test was scheduled at the end of week 4. I knew I'd was getting close, but I wasn't expecting to be able to do much more than 90. Remember the week 2 exhaustion test? I was only able to do 2 more than my previous max. I was able to make it past 40 without pausing. Then, I started doing 10 at a time. Then 5, then 2. By the time I got to about 70, I could only do one at a time with a short pause and a deep breath between each. I slowly climbed up closer to the magic number. Then past it, all the way to 104 (and about 3/4 of the way to 105). Then I crashed to the floor, and my dog ran over to lick my sweat (he loves it when I get home from a run, too). Once I was able to get myself up off the floor, I went upstairs with a big smile on my face and told my wife.

So now I can proudly display my "I did the hundred" badge. Good luck to the rest of you taking the challenge. You can do it!

13 comments:

Unknown said...

Congratulations! I have not yet started that program. I have read about it and have it printed off I just have yet to get it into my routine. Thanks for the motivation to start.

J~Mom said...

Congrats!! I started the challenge but had to stop due to hurting my wrist in a bike crash. I hope to start them up again soon!

Nitmos said...

Congratulations! I've been quite content doing my normal 6 sets of 10 push-ups a day though. This is one blog sweeping activity I resisted the urge to join.

Pretty strong 11th mile attempt considering you weren't mentally "in it" that day. You operating with a small margin for error these days where every second counts.

Marcy said...

CONGRATS!!! OMG it will take me 5 years before I finish :P You're the first person I know to have finished. Coolio!

Nancy said...

Holy crap. That is awesome. Nice going!

Bob A said...

Congratulations on hitting 100. I started the challenge and lasted all of 2 days.

Vava said...

Congratulations! 100 is an amazing number to be sure, and it's bound to get easier and easier to do as well. Awesome!

dale said...

Congratulations! You really killed it. I'm in the third week of the program and doing fairly well. It's nice to see that someone finished it successfully!

nwgdc said...

WAY TO GO!
i have to admit, i've fallen off the training routine, but your post just got me down on the ground for another trial!
(i did 71)

Back at it!

Anonymous said...

Congratulations. I'm on week three and it is really tough. I'm not getting the "jump" that you did.

Anonymous said...

Definitely, a BIG congrats! Keep up the good work and good luck on the 5:00-mile.

That may be just it, those that started the initial test with a higher number are probably more likely to complete the challenge. Of course we don't know the results of everyone that completed it, so my assumption could be way off. I would think if someone like myself who is just starting this and had an initial test of 6, the goal of 100 will not happen in the initial training. Someone prove me wrong though.

Running Writer said...

Post the video please.

Tim Rosanelli said...

Congrats for completing the push-ups program.

Are you ready for the next challenge?

Here's a situp program that you will enjoy - http://60situpschallenge.blogspot.com