Here is my 100 Push Up, ahem, Race Report:
Okay, so I woke up yesterday after tossing and turning all night long because of a mixture of fear and anticipation. The focus for the day would be nutrition. Well, nutrition and focus. So my focus would be to focus on being focused and nutrition. You know the body cannot properly perform unless it is running on solid petrol. Whole wheat bagel and turkey sausage along with a protein shake. Then to relax the nerves I sat down on my couch and commented on a bunch of blogs and watched a movie on SyFy about a giant Hydra that was killing people and could only be killed using the mythical sword of Hercules. Because apparently the sword would cauterize the wound and new little hydra heads would not grow back. Makes sense to me! Seriously, I cannot make this up. It was perhaps the most awful movie ever made and I enjoyed every single moment of it.
Now I had been hydrating all morning and was feeling good but as every athlete knows you need to, "be the ball." So I began visualizing actually doing 100 Push Ups, and as we all know if you can think it you can do it! I was exhausted after this mental exercise and decided to take a pre-event nap while watching the Penguins game. And being that I was still in the clothes that I slept in this worked it out wonderfully.
After
I have been using push up handles for the last six weeks. These help your wrists stay stabilized but also make the push ups a little harder since you tend to go deeper in the move if you were not using them. Since today was the big day it was time to scrape the stands and go old-school. Palms to the floor!
The push ups began while "The Final Countdown" (Click HERE and continue reading ... much more epic this way) from Europe was blaring in the background from my iPod. I made it to 60 reps a lot easier than I even visualized, I was thinking that 120 reps was a possibility at this point. Then I hit 70 and the pain train came to a screeching halt in the station. At this point I paused at the high point and decided to just do 10 at a time. I slowly got to 80 and my arms were getting shaky. Ten more and I was now at 90 and my arms were screaming, I was out of breathe and was feeling dizzy..... 91, 92, 93, 94 ....9555555.... pause...breathe .... 96. 97, 98, .... 2 more Nancy .... 99, 100 ..... Ding, Ding, Ding .... collapse in pain on carpet for probably 10 minutes.
So, good day. I set a new PR with 100 push ups. Nailed my nutrition plan. I'd like to throw out a big thanks to the band Europe for writing and performing, "The Final Countdown". To my family and friends for their encouragement. To all my fellow bloggers who pushed me to reach deep down inside myself and strive to achieve perfection, to my shirts which have been burdened with being stretched out in the sleeves from my big ass arms. To my Pugs for not jumping on my back for the first time in 6 weeks while attempting push ups. To all the haters who said this could not be accomplished - eat it biatches!!
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Alright I am done with the foolishness. The real story is that I did the program as followed and did the 100 before I went on a run. It hurt and I'd be happy to never do another push up again. But the above version seemed so much cooler. And I may or may not have actually been listening to Europe.
Congrats to Scott at Tri Diesel for hitting 103 Push Ups this week to join Boomer, James, and me in the Badass of all Badasses club:
Please let me know if anyone else has hit the goal or has completed the challenge. One thing for sure is if you are following the plan you will see some pretty incredible gains. My wife started out with 16 pushups and is well over 60 now and her arms look great.
Send in your success stories!
Thanks for Reading,
Jeff
