3.5 Miles and 100 Push Ups

Mondays.  Blah.  Mondays after a week off work - even more blah.  But such is life - bills must be paid, so off to work I went today, mourning the end of my time off.  As expected, it was an exhausting return to the office, and I came home feeling quite drained. But as I packed up my stuff and headed out the door, I was hit with the realization that it was suddenly pitch black outside already.  And no, I wasn't leaving work late.  I was leaving at 5:30pm just like every other day.  Oh the fun of living in Northeast Ohio in the fall when the daylight savings time change hits.  I was now faced with the reality that running outside after work was officially over for me until the spring.  Heck, doing anything outside after work was over until the spring.  Cue: the treadmill.  I have a feeling the treadmill and I are going to become quick friends.

Even though I was exhausted, I was excited to get home and hop on that treadmill.  To run the day off and relax a little.  My plan to increase my distance to 4 miles had me trying 3.5 at a time again this week, and I was looking forward to it.  But before I got going, I had some push ups to do.  Over time, the more I've focused on running, the more I've noticed the toning and muscle in my arms and upper body diminishing.  I've been neglecting them and thinking for awhile now that it's about time I do something about it.  Last week while perusing some of my favorite motivational pages on Facebook, I came across an individual that was starting a challenge called the Hundred Push Ups Challenge.   The premise is that by the end of the 7 week program, anyone should be able to perform 100 consecutive push ups.  This seemed amazing to me, and I continued to read on.  Looking over the plan, it really didn't look too bad, and there were different plans for different fitness levels, depending on how many push ups someone could do consecutively before starting the program.  I was pretty sure I'd fall into the 0-5 push ups level for this initial test and would have to do one of the modified versions throughout the challenge.  I admit - I was intrigued.  So on Saturday, I decided to take the initial test - just to see how many consecutive regular push ups I could do (no modified versions).  I ended up surprising myself with 8!  And these were true push ups.  No knees, no bench.  I'm not sure if I had the absolute best form or if I was going down quite far enough for the last few, but I was pleasantly surprised.  At that point, my mind had been made up for me.  I was going to try this challenge.  Somehow I don't think I'll be able to complete 100 consecutive push ups by the end of it, but even more than 8 would be pretty fantastic.  I basically have to do the challenge now because I'm curious to see the outcome!  :o)

So before I hopped on the treadmill, I got down on the floor and followed the plan for week 1, day 1 of the challenge for my initial fitness level.  It was 5 sets of push ups - 2 sets of 6, 2 sets of 4, and then 1 set of the max possible - with 60 seconds of rest in between each set.  My max this time was 9.  You can see the whole plan and try it for yourself here: One Hundred Push Ups Challenge.  If I follow the plan and do my push ups every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I'll be done right before Christmas.  I can't wait to see how many push ups I can do by then!  I tried to get the hubby to try it with me, but he just looks at me like I'm out of my mind.  :o)



I felt surprisingly good for doing this many push ups, and with my spirits soaring, I got right to my run.  I felt really good.  I was forgetting that I was tired from my first day back in the office, and the time was going by pretty quickly.  I started to pick up the pace and ended up completing the 3.5 miles in just over 33 minutes.  Not too shabby!  I was tired, but feeling good about myself.  As I cooled down, I realized that I wasn't overly stressed in the cardio department; I mean, I was breathing heavy, but not so much that I didn't recover pretty quickly.  Whereas my legs, on the other hand, were very tired.  I'm going to pay more attention to my legs and breathing the rest of this week, but I'm thinking that I might need to adjust my plan to increase my distance.  I know I ran more than usual last week because I was on vacation, so maybe my muscles are still recovering from that.  Either way, I might need to stick with 3.5 miles longer than this week if I really want my body to adjust properly.  I'd so much rather adjust my original plan than injure myself.  In the mean time, I'll just keep on running...  :oD