Challenge - 2 Days Remaining

With one more day to go here are today's stats.

325 Pushups
500 Situps
6 Miles

With only tomorrow remaining in the September Challenge I'm feeling pretty confident.

Challenge - 3 Days Remaining

300 Pushups
550 Situps
6 Miles

Challenge - 4 Days Remaining

225 Pushups
300 Situps
3.5 miles

Challenge - 5 Days Remaining

After today there will be 4 days left in this month's challenge. I plan to achieve my goal, do you? I felt so good at the gym today I did 3.5 miles, then played basketball, then did one more mile. As of right now I'm pretty much pain free in my knee areas, which is pretty surprising. On to the good stuff.
Here are today's stats:

500 pushups
550 situps
4.5 miles

Challenge - 6 Days Remaining

Well, well, well. Today was one of those days where the day gets away from you and before you know it it's late at night and all you want o do is go to bed. I did manage to squeeze in a few pushups and situps but not many. It is definitely crunch time with only 5 days remaining. Still not discouraged!

Stats:
125 Pushups
50 Situps

Challenge - 8 Days Remaining

300 Situps
200 Pushups
3 Miles

Challenge - 9 Days Remaining

WOWZER! I felt energized at the gym yesterday! I was feeling a little quarrely so I did some incline interval training on the treadmill. Surprisingly both my knees seem to have held up pretty well. I'm pretty excited about that. Just over a week left in September and I'm determined to meet my goal no matter what.

Here are the stats:

400 Pushups
300 Situps
4 Miles (cross-trainer & treadmill)

Challenge - 10 Days Remaining

Here are today's stats:

200 Pushups
200 Situps
2 miles

Septemeber Fitness Challenge - 10 Days Remaing

WOW!! Where has the month gone? Only ten days left in the challenge!! As much as I don't want to admit it, I slacked off too many days this month. My original plan was to complete enough of the challenge in the middle part of the month so I could cruise towards the end. Looks like there will be no cruising these last 10 days.

Here are my totals as of yesterday (Monday, 20 September):
2446 Pushups
1981 Situps
66.03 Miles

Here are the averages I need to accomplish per day to complete the challenge:
255.4 Pushups/day
301.9 Situps/day
3.4 Miles/day

There are the numbers. Each night, including tonight, for the next 10 nights I will post my numbers. For those of you who joined me on this quest I encourage you to do the same thing. Post your numbers in the comment box. Don't feel bad if you think you will fall short, post them anyway. I'm pumped! Are you?

LET'S GO TO WORK!

Challenge Day 8

Here are today's stats:
3.57 miles in 38:58
20 Pushups

So it's day 8 of The Challenge and here are my totals so far:

30.8 miles
621 Situps
841 Pushups

If 2 months ago someone would have told me I would "run" 30 miles in the first 8 days of September I would have told them they were as crazy as crazy can be. I probably would have told them there was no way I could "run" 30 miles in 8 days. I probably would have told them I couldn't run 30 miles in 30 months.
Something happened today at the gym that got me thinking. I ran .5 miles on the treadmill!! That's right! I'm pretty excited about it! I haven't run for any type of distance in years. 1/2 half mile is a big deal for me. For those of you who don't know, I'm down 45 pounds since February. No way I could have run .5 miles at 255 lbs. At that time I didn't have the muscular or cardiovascular endurance to do it. It felt good today to step off the treadmill accomplishing something I haven't done in such a long period of time.

Let's retrain our focus. Pay attention to what you hear next time your in the gym or in any exercise environment. You will hear the focus being put on what someone "can't do" or "can only do". I'm guilty of it too. You will hear phrases like "I can only do 3 reps" or "I can't do ________ (you fill in the blank)". My question is why not? From today forward I plan to focus on what I can do instead of what I can't do. If you can do 10 pushups be proud that you can do 10. If you bench press 155lbs be proud you can bench that. Don't say "I only bench 155" as if there is some shame in that number. There should be no shame, only pride. I'm proud I ran that half mile today. In a few days I hope to stretch that distance to one full mile.

What thing have you put "I can only do" or "I can't do" in front of? Challenge yourself to be better. That being said I will be taking on another challenge. After running today I feel motivated so I have decided to run in the Thanksgiving day 5k in downtown Fredericksburg this year. I now have a new motivation. Do you?

Challenge Day 4, 5, 6, & 7

That's right! I had to roll the last four days all into one post. This past holiday weekend was nice and I decided to take Saturday off from the gym. I did that for two reason. First, my legs needed a rest. I haven't "run" at the 10 minute mile pace since I first joined the Air Force. Second, I waxed my car Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning (didn't finish Saturday). When I called it a day on Saturday my shoulders we on fire. Not in my anterior or middle deltoids (shoulder muscles) but in the inside. It felt like someone started a camp fire in my rotator cuff. Needless to say, Saturday was a good day to take off.

Here's the rundown from this past weekend:

Challenge Day 4
Off

Challenge Day 5
7.01 miles in 57:42
105 situps
97 pushups
60 bent over dumbbell rows (20lb dumbbells)

Challenge Day 6
3.32 miles in 30:47

Challenge Day 7
6.01 miles in 49:20
110 situps
190 pushups

After looking looking at the stats all together I am proud of myself. Roughly 16 miles in 3 days is pretty darn good for me. I decided today to add one little extra challenge for myself. I want to be able to run 1 mile. That is one of my new personal goals in addition to completing this challenge.

Challenge Day 3

4.2 miles in 42 minutes
120 Situps
73 Pushups

I love the cardio theatre. Ocean's 12 is a pretty darn good movie.

Challenge Day 2

Today was interesting. I had an opportunity to give quite a few things some thought while I was stretching after my workout. I thought about a lot but one thing stands out, even now, 4 hours after I have left the gym. What stands out is the word challenge. Here is the dictionary.com definition that I think best fits the September Fitness Challenge and life in general.
Challenge - difficulty in a job or undertaking that is stimulating to one engaged in it.
After reading this definition a couple times it seems to me that maybe this definition should be amended a bit to read: difficulty in a job or undertaking that is stimulating or discouraging to one engaged in it. We can make a decision to give up or to keep going, we can decide to push through the challenge.

During my thinking time it dawned on me that the September Fitness Challenge is not just a "fitness challenge", it's a life challenge, a human challenge. It seems only fair that if I am going to blog about the "fitness challenge" that I include some of life's challenges as well. So here goes. Today my oldest younger sister was in a car accident. Don't worry she was unharmed and is okay. A bit shaken up initially but okay. She called me about 15 minutes before I was going to leave for the gym, I threw a shirt on, then high-tailed it to the accident site. Like I said she wasn't hurt. Now fast forward a couple hours, dropped my sister off at my parents house, said my goodbyes to my mom, and headed back to my van. Sitting in my mom's driveway I was seriously thinking about calling it a day and going home instead of the gym. I thought maybe the gym was too much of a challenge to deal with today. I ended up choosing to go to the gym and I'm glad I did.

I felt good at the gym today. I told myself I wouldn't get off the cross-trainer until I did a 5K (3.1 miles). Once I got going, I kept going. I stayed on the cross-trainer for 50 minutes. Of course I was in the cardio theatre. Today's movie was Invincable. After the cross-trainer it was on to pushups, situps, and dumbbell curls. Yes, dubmbell curls. I added dumbell curls because this challenge involves a lot of triceps, chest, front delts (front shoulder), and abdominals. In an attempt to keep my body as balanced as possible I will throw in excercises that work the muscle groups opposite of triceps, chest, and front delts. Today that muscle group was biceps. Nothing too crazy, just sets of 20 reps with 10 pound dumbbells.

Here are todays numbers:
4.62 miles in 50 minutes
121 situps
118 pushups
140 dumbbell curls

I realized today that taking on this fitness challenge has presented me with other new challenges, this blog being one of them. But I don't find either challenge discouraging. Both challenges are stimulating to me. I enjoy the feeling of accomplishment when I am presented with a challenge, then overcome it. What were your challenges today? Did they stimulate you or did you allow them to discourage you from accomplishing your goal? Even if you were discouraged some by a challenge you had today, tomorrow, be discouraged less. We can get stronger everyday, and we can do it together.

"Don't cry to give up, cry to keep going. Don't cry to quit. You're already in pain, you're already hurt. . . get a reward from it." - Eric Thomas

Challenge Day 1

Woke up this morning with high hopes for starting this challenge. I'd been thinking about my strategy for a couple days but it wasn't until this morning when I walked in the gym that I made my decision. For now my strategy is pretty simple, do as much as I can for the time I spend at the gym. Sounds easy right? I figured I would be able to crank out 150 pushups & situps with relative ease then knock out a couple miles on the cross-trainer.  I got on the cross-trainer in the cardio theatre at my gym to do my usual 5 minute warm-up (the movie today was Fantastic 4 just in case you were wondering). It seems my strategy is already evolving. Instead of getting off at minute 5 I decided to stay on the cross-trainer, do a mile, do my pushups & situps, then get back on the cross-trainer and do another mile or two. In my head this was a good plan. In reality, not so much. Here's why. IT TOOK ME 22 MINUTES TO DO 1 STINKIN' MILE! Shame on you Fantastic 4 four distracting me! I think it's safe to say I was doing more movie watching than cross-training.
I had only planned on being in the gym for 45 minutes. With only 23 minutes left I was going to have to hustle to get in some pushups & situps and try to squeeze in another mile. So on the floor in the cardio theatre I go alternating between sets of pushups and sets of situps. I stop at 112 pushups and 100 situps then jump back on the cross-trainer for one more mile before I have to leave. 13 minutes later, another mile taken care of. It's time to go, but as I walk out of the gym to my car I realize I'm going to have to step up my "running" a couple levels or there will be a good chance I will fall short of the 100 miles.
After work it's off to teach my Bootcamp Class. I couldn't go to sleep tonight only having done the number of pushups & situps I did at the gym this morning, not in good conscience anyway. So during bootcamp I snuck in another 75 pushups and 65 situps.

Here are my totals for Day 1:
2.1 miles in 35 minutes
187 Pushups
165 Situps

I can live with what I accomplished today. I'm excited to see what tomorrow brings. I'm also curious to see how sore I'm going to be. Hmmmm. . .