Zen and the lifting of heavy things.

40/25/20/20/20 == 125 pushups.

Bleh. Deep down, I knew that a week off would do this. “Oh, sure, I’ll come back refreshed ….” But apparently a week eating, drinking and smoking doesn’t help. Who’da thought?

So this week, back into it. No more boot camp, cos I’m back on day crew, but running and climbing and weights. No excuses.

Mind you. 6 weeks ago I was proud of 58.

jai.

30/22/22/20/30 == 124 pushups and on to week 5.

But I think I’m going to take a week off. Week 4 has been a lot easier than week 3, and I think there are 2 factors.

1) Pushups in the morning. That’s what I expected, I’m fresher just after I get up than after a full day at work.

2) Doing less. On Thursday, I did wednesday night’s pushups instead of lifting. Yesterday, no boot camp. So I might have been pushing it a bit hard. I’ve always said it’s about the long term, and numbers aren’t as important as doing the work, but at some point doing too much is counter-productive. So I’m going to stop the pushups for a week, but continue boot camp and lifting, and try to shuffle things so that I can do everything. It may mean losing a rest day, but that’s ok, for the 2 weeks left on this program.

124 pushups. Nifty.

jai.

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27/21/21/18/27 == 114 pushups.

Making it. Goddess it’s hard, though. The beers last night probably didn’t help, but doing the pushups first thing in the morning seems to. I shouldn’t be surprised that it is hard, but I’d expected each week to be slightly harder than the one before, not a quantum fucking leap.

Mind you, it looks like I might make week 4 first go, and it did take 3 weeks to make week 3. So I guess it is getting easier.

jai.

27/20/20/17/27 == 111 pushups. Yes, that’s less that the 121 I did last week, but the program is designed that way – rests between sets were 60 seconds today instead of 120 seconds.

Made it through week 4 day 1, just. A couple of 5 second rest stops with one knee on the ground in the final set, but hey, good enough.

Also, today I bought some more weight plates and some protein powder, so this week should be interesting….

jai.

30/22/22/20/27 == 121 pushups.

And that’s about all I have to say on that. Week 4 here we come. For another 4 weeks ….

jai.

27/17/17/15/25 == 101 pushups.

Booyah. Not lifting the day before definitely helps. Tho looking back at the plan, it should have been 19/19. But fuck it, +20 from bootcamp. It counts
jai.

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25/17/17/15/25 == 99.

Ninety-nine fucking pushups.  Still. I passed week 3 day 1! Even if it is week 5.

Of course, I haven’t actually exercised since Friday, which has helped. Every now and then you just need a weekend drinking.

jai.

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27/19/19/15/17 == 97.

Fail. Again. So, doing this week again next week. That must be why they call it week 3 ….

jai.
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27/17/17/15/15 == 91.

I don’t understand. Ok, the rest periods are shorter. But I’ve had 2 days of rest – nothing on Saturday or Sunday. So unless skipping lifting is making me *weaker* ….

Eh. Whatever. It’s a long-term thing. I started on, what, 54? But can other people doing this reassure me that week 3 kicks your arse as well? I mean, it starts with your theoretical 1-set max, for crying out loud.

jai.
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30/22/16/17/15 == 100!

Still, failure. So next week we repeat the week.

jai.