Updates

I haven't posted in so long that my RSS feed at work doesn't have any posts from me in it, so it must be time for an update:

- My 100 pushup challenge failed miserably. More miserably than last time. This time it took a whole week to fail. Not like last time where I followed it for like a month. This time around the fail was dedicated. It was determined.

- On the positive, I started doing 200 pushups per day, and segued into doing a push-up based workout routine from the Bible that is essentially a push up and a burpee done back to back. Envy the muscle; envy the muscle.

- I owe a shout out to my sister on two accounts: first, for copy editing the book I wrote for my kids and wife. Thank you. Also, for giving me motivation to start reediting my book. I haven't actually started yet, but I'm envisioning starting. I'm thinking really long and hard about it, so that is something. I think I'm going about it a different way this time: editing online rather than in hard copy form. Printed words are for suckers and the old, right?

- I have nearly constant money worries, even though I'm/we're OK. I've always worried more about money than was probably healthy, but now its taken on a whole new variety of torture: Instead of just worrying about money, I now worry that I'll lose my job, never find another, and my kids won't respect me. Nice.

I think that is it for now. Another new post coming soon.

Week 2

Week 2 without a Nanny, that is, if you count the week she was out "sick." We had a phone interview today, and face-to-face Thursday, and a couple other potential phone interviews this week, so I'm feeling better about our place.

It is amazing the number of people who will respond to an ad for a Nanny for newborn triplets who aren't comfortable caring for more than 2 kids. Are you not reading the ad? It's triplets. Are you now comfortable but haven't updated your online profile? What?

It also happens to be week 2 of the Push-Up Challenge. Day 1 went pretty well, considering I did the push ups at 10:30 p.m. It's a ladder like set up, where you do a small number, rest, do a larger number, rest, then do two more sets of a middling number, rest, and do a max. I couldn't do the max all the way, but still.

And somehow, I'm actually getting stuff done at work. Luckily we are slow during this time.

Because I don't have anything else going on

Honestly. Not like triplets are much or anything. Oh, or like our Nanny quit. Which she totally did. Or that I have Christmas shopping to do. Or 100 things to do around the house.

Anyway, because I don't have anything to do, I'm learning how to code in Javascript at Codecadamy. It is a free online site that supposedly teaches you the Javascript langauge. Here is to hoping. I think it would be neat to learn another langauge, one that would be more useful than say, Mandarin, which everyone seems to want to learn.

Also, I've restarted my 100 Pushup Challenge. Friday (tomorrow) is Day 3 of Week 2, which I started this week. I started on week 2 because I'm that freakin strong and awesome.

Chew on this

I bite my nails. Its a nervous habit. Sometimes its pretty incessent. I worked on it nine years ago, got to the point where I had eight nails on my 10 fingers (poor thumbs), and have since relapsed.

Being charitable, I can say I have somewhere between 3 to 5 "nails" on an average day.

That ends today. Hopefully for the better. Its worse on Mondays. I know this. That's when I head back to work. My weekly deadline begins in earnest that day. Maybe our shift to more daily publication will help. Either way, its something I'm working on starting ... now ... and I'm hoping posting and having a somewhat public pronouncement might help.

While I'm on the self-improvement topic I might as well add this: I've paused the push-up challenge. My Belly Off challenge, while not time consuming, is too much I think. The program has me doing 70-90 pushups, so I'm getting a decent amount in. Not all at once mind you, but interspersed with other bodyweight exercises over 10 or 15 minutes.

Plus, its nice to change it up.

Anyway, I did push ups today to see how many I could do consecutively. And I got to 50. 50! That's a 66 percent improvement from the 30 I could do before I started with the whole pushup/body weight workouts. For my age, to pass the military Basic Combat Training you have to do 26 in two minutes (a score of 50). Here's the chart. Active Duty requires 36 in 2 minutes (a score of 60). I did 50 in 1:30ish (a score of 74!). Needless to say, I'm pretty happy with my progress.

I'm happy with my writing progress, blog posting, fitness levels. Its been a pretty good week.

Have no fear - I didn't kill myself shoveling

I know I promised an afternoon update YESTERDAY on the push up challenge progress, but well, what can I say other than mea culpa?

Week 5, Day 1 (anyone else feel Deja Vuish?) went very well. Day 1 is the shorter routine. I can't remember the exact numbers, and no, I don't have time to research them, but its something like 36, 40, 30, 24 > 40.

I was wondering how this would go, since I only did 38 on my test Sunday. But that was after a long Saturday night and an early morning.

Well, like I said, it went well. I did the entire group up until the challenge at the end. I upped the 60 second break to 90 seconds, did 20, then took 30 more seconds and finished off the last 20.

Not too bad.

I'm really beginning to hate that final set...

because I absolutely flew through the first bunch of push ups on Day 2 (19, 19, 22, 22, 18, 18- 45 sec intervals). Sure, the last 18 was tough, and the 22 after that I showed fatigue. But 45? 45?!

I mean, my exhaustion test yielded 44 as a high. Now they want me to do 45 after having ALREADY done 140? That's a tall order. But I guess that's the idea.

I don't want even want to get into what the set of 45 was like. It was something like 15, 10, 7, 13. With breaks in between of various degrees. 140 push ups in 8 minutes. 185 push ups in, oh, I don't know, 11 or 12 minutes?

I'm really beginning to hate that final set ...

Week 5, Days 1 & 2

Update - My exhaustion test netted me 39 push ups. An increase of 9 over my previous best and putting me in the second grouping as represented here.

Day 1 (28, 35, 25, 22, > 35 [60 sec rests]) went well, though on the last set I took a 30 second break between 20 and the last 15 in the set.

Day 2 (18, 18, 20, 20, 14, 14, 16 >40 [45 sec rest]) has been, perhaps, the most challenging and tiring of the entire challenge. My arms are achy and TIRED. I pushed the last rest period t0 60, but remember, the chart says "or longer if required," so I feel I'm well within my rights. Maybe more importantly, I did all 40. Two short rests to catch my breath, but I'm guessing not more than 3 or 4 breathes, so about 5 seconds.

Day 3 occurs Friday and pretty closely resembles Day 2 until the last couple sets, where its 17, 20, > 45. Then its a progress/exhaustion test. After that it will probably be Week 5 Group 3 for me. You need to do 46 to get into the final week, and I'm just not sure I see it.

The great news is that after last week's post about possibly getting weaker, its obvious I'm not. A 39 on the exhaution/progress test, and 40 today after all those other push ups is something I COULD NOT HAVE DONE, before.

100 push up challenge - Wk 1, Day 2 update

Well, I'm started on the path to 100 push ups.

Week 3, Day 1 (my first day, yeah, I started in Week 3) was pretty easily, frankly - though the last set (20 min) I could only do 22.

Day 2 was harder, even with the longer breaks, and I only just made it to the last set rep minimum of 25.

Here's the week 3 workout schedule, in case your interested.

I could really feel it today in my chest, shoulders and traps after I had completed the sets. I'm doing these in the morning of my regular workouts, which I'm continuing to do without interruption. I'm hoping that by keeping my regular workout sched my strength gains will come faster.

I'm torn too - I can definitely see how this will up the number of push ups I can do. Its a challenging but not too challenging program, but at the same time 30 to 100 in a LONG way. I think I might have recruited my dad to play along, so check back. Week 3, Day 3 is scheduled for Friday this week, since Christmas is on Thursday.