First off, thanks to everyone who responded to my question from last night. I hope I hear from more of you, but I appreciate every answer. Thanks. It gives me a direction in which to continue my focus. And yes, I’ll agree with you, and look to find “experts” to bolster my thoughts. I’ll do a few interviews, which might prove to be fun.
I’m doing that CrossFit stuff, a week removed. I’m editing just a little bit, partly for my abilities, and partly because I have to see a doctor about my lower back before I do anything exceptionally tricky. So, today’s challenge was 150 pushups. No, not all at once, smartbutts.
I did them in sets of 20, and a final set of 10. I did them with between 1-2 minutes of rest in between. My rule to myself was that I’d keep perfect form for every stinking pushup. No cheats. No teensy tiny dips of the elbows. These were just shy of chest smacking the floor goodness. And as I read in some Marine training book, eyes facing straight out instead of down(which keeps your head from trying to touch the ground instead of your chest).
After doing the first sixty, I was smirking, and thinking, “I’m really going to do 150 pushups?” This seemed crazy. I remember when getting 20 in a row seemed like a difficult feat. When I broke 35 in the same set, I was pretty excited. But this was about volume. This was about my new “10 sets of 3” methodology. By breaking them into several sets, I would put more “quality” strain on my muscles.
At 100, I was thinking, “Well, 100’s enough, right?” But that thought got smashed in the nuts by my Inner Coach. Coach said, “You signed up for 150. Do 150.” Okay.
By 140, it was really funny, because all that remained were 10 stinkin’ pushups. And for whatever reason, my thoughts were all pooling up around the “Oh, I don’t really have to do those. Close enough, right?”
I snapped out ten perfect (drill sargeants would be proud) pushups, got up, and felt pretty cool about it.
I did this in the comfort of my home. With last night’s annoying snowstorm, I didn’t want to rush out to the gym, and heck, they’re pushups. You can do them anywhere. So, it was funny having my wife watch my last 50. Funnier still when she tried to get my daughter to want to jump on my back for the last 10. (She didn’t, the little smoosh).
So far, my take of the CrossFit program is that I’m facing quite a challenge. These guys aren’t playing around. They have the kind of workouts that make you want to cry or throw up. What they ALSO have, however, are exercises that, once you finish, you know you accomplished something. I’m definitely not fit enough to do their workouts as prescribed yet, but I feel accomplished just attempting the damned things.
As I draw closer to adding back the running evolutions to my training, I believe the CrossFit stuff will have cross-training benefits that I’ve never experienced before. And yet, it still gives me a weird twitch of wondering whether I’m really picking sports that take advantage of all these efforts. I mean, runners don’t have to do 150 pushups. They don’t have to be able to support their bodyweight for dozens of pullups. Where do I fit in? Adventure racing? Perhaps. But that’s gear-centric, and I’m just not interested in “investing” to participate. Not at those levels.
Still a conundrum to be solved.
What’s the biggest challenge you’ve set before yourself at present? What kinds of dragons are you planning on slaying?
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