I'm sick of being out of shape. I'm sick of my hamstrings being so tight. I'm sick of being unable to balance on my right leg. I'm sick of being ten pounds overweight. I want to get my black belt. So: trying to step up the exercise. I went down to walk the treadmill this morning, since it's raining again today for the umpteenth day in forever and I can't walk the bridge. I decided to make an interval workout of it and so ran in forty-five second bursts throughout the workout. I HATE RUNNING AND I AM NO GOOD AT IT OMG.

I plan to do straddle stretches EVERY DAY. And slow kicks EVERY DAY. I have to build my cardio fitness because if I want to get my black belt I have to be able to spar, and sparring just kills me. (I haven't gone back to it yet because I have to replace my hand pads and foot pads and because I really don't like sparring very much. Ahem, at all. But I know I have to go back.)

I plan to start bicycle commuting again, probably starting May 1. I'm nervous about it, since I've been off the bike for two years, due to the knee injury. I also hate biking without the phone, in case I get a flat, and Rob has to use the phone as long as he's working for the U.S. Census (cheer up, Peg. In all likelihood, he'll be out of work again when you start biking again).

I plan to start weight-lifting again. Really.

I'm, um, thinking about resuming the 100 pushups challenge.

I plan to really really hurt for awhile as I get going with all this.

I turn 50 next month. Oy.

My gosh, I felt like the biggest wimp on record. I could barely finish this; I had to go into the downward dog position several times to avoid collapsing into a heap on the floor. And this was just the very. first. day. Argh.

W1, D1
10, 12, 7, 7, (9)

Due to some severe personal stress recently, and a bad experience when I made my first attempt at Week 5, I had abandoned the programme for the past week. My conscience has been nagging me, however, so I decided today to restart Week 4 for the third time. I'm switching to the new program, and moving to the third column.

W4, D1 (3d time)
21, 25, . . .

then I attempted the third rep and collapsed after only managing 12. I lay there on the floor of an empty office here in work and thought I give up. I can't do it. It's too hard.

I went to sit back at my desk, very glumly. I can't believe I'm quitting. I put my iPod earbuds back on. I had been listening to my Hope playlist all day, and the song on my playlist was Bruce Springsteen's "Into the Fire" from his album The Rising. I listened to the words, and a lump rose in my throat. It's the song about the Trade Towers, singing to the firefighters as they climbed stair after stair past all the people going down. How could they bear it physically, carrying pounds and pounds of all that equipment--on the way to their deaths?

The sky was falling and streaked with blood
I heard you calling me, then you disappeared into the dust
Up the stairs, into the fire
Up the stairs, into the fire
I need your kiss, but love and duty called you someplace higher
Somewhere up the stairs, into the fire

May your strength give us strength
May your faith give us faith
May your hope give us hope
May your love give us love

May your strength give us strength
May your faith give us faith
May your hope give us hope
May your love bring us love

You gave your love to see, in fields of red and autumn brown
You gave your love to me and lay your young body down
Up the stairs, into the fire
Up the stairs, into the fire
I need you near, but love and duty called you someplace higher
Somewhere up the stairs, into the fire

May your strength give us strength
May your faith give us faith
May your hope give us hope
May your love give us love

I thought about it hard for several minutes and then decided to try again. This time, I wore the iPod. The music was paced perfectly for the pushups. May your strength give us strength / May your faith give us faith / May your hope give us hope / May your love bring us love I started doing the third set of reps again:

[21, 25, (12),] 21, 21, 32

On the last set of reps I paused several times and went into a downward dog, to rest, but I didn't put my knees on the ground, and I finished the 32--well, barely. That last one was pretty sketchy. I collapsed on the ground and suddenly found myself crying as Bruce continued to sing softly in my ears, about courage, about the ones who served as an example, about never giving up.

This has been a really hard week.

32 pushups in a row. I had to manage at least 31 to progress, so yay.

I can feel that my abdominal wall is a lot stronger. I can also distinctly feel the surgical scars from my gall bladder surgery last year. Weird.

On my way to Week 5.

When I signed up for the 100 pushups challenge, I signed up with the site. I received the following email this week, which explains why there has been a change to the regime. It may be helpful if you're partway through the program. In part, the email reads:

It's been several weeks since my last update, so figured it was time to send another. Hopefully the push ups plan is still fun, still challenging and your significant strength and fitness gains are here to stay!

Last time I mentioned that the initial response to the training program had been staggering and that since its launch on June 9th, the Hundred Push Ups web site had received over 1.1 million unique visitors, comprising more than 3 million page loads. Today the stats are even more amazing; over 2.4 million visitors made up of 6.3 million page loads!

So, on to the site updates:

Earlier today I added a new push ups logger page: http://hundredpushups.com/logger.html The Push Ups Logger is a great online tool created by Swedish developer Viktor Nordling; the purpose of which is to allow people who take part in the challenge to log their results and be inspired by others. Feel free to take a look at Viktor's web site (http://www.pushupslogger.com/) and while you're there, why not sign up and start logging your workouts?

The Take The Challenge page has continued to grow at an alarming rate and now boasts well over 700 challengers. I would guess I'm still adding about a half dozen new challengers every day at the moment.

The initial CafePress store seems to be growing in popularity with several more orders over the past couple of weeks. I've received several requests asking for merchandise and apparel that can be worn after the challenge has been met, so with this in mind I created a second store called "i did the hundred". You can find a link to both stores on the Merchandise page.

The number of challengers that have officially "done the hundred" is now up to 44. Remember to send me an email when you're ready to be added, and don't forget to download the shiny orange badge to proudly display on your blog or web site.
The biggest change I've saved for last. Based on the enormous amount of feedback received over the past two or three months, I've spent many an hour fine-tuning, tweaking and updating the six-week program. Many of you felt that the plan had too many "tough" spots and the jump to certain weeks were too severe. Along with several very helpful push ups people, I've personally spent the last four or five weeks creating and testing a better six-week challenge. The rate of progression should be smoother but the results just as impressive. Remember, attempting the hundred push ups challenge is no mean feat, and it will definitely test you to your limit. Hopefully the improvements will be well received. If you're halfway through the program and looking for the original plan, Weeks 1 through 6 are still available for a limited time at the following locations:

http://hundredpushups.com/o_week1.html
http://hundredpushups.com/o_week2.html
http://hundredpushups.com/o_week3.html
http://hundredpushups.com/o_week4.html
http://hundredpushups.com/o_week5.html
http://hundredpushups.com/o_week6.html

Thanks for understanding and please continue to provide feedback on both the new and old six-week programs.

Thanks for reading this update and I wish you every success no matter where you are in the program.

Happy Push Ups!

--Steve Speirs

W2, D1 (second pass)
22, 16, 16, 14 (26)

I'm repeating week 4, except that this time I've moved over to the second column to try to up my reps.

This is hard. I am very sweaty.

W4, D2
16, 14, 14, 12 (21)

How is it going for the rest of you on Team Pushups? Are you staying on track? Are you still following the program, have you had to repeat a week, or have you stopped entirely? Leave a comment!

W3, D3
20, 15, 15, 12 (19)

I barely met the requirement:

W3, D1
15, 12, 12, 10 (16)

W2, D3
10, 10, 8, 8 (15)

A little wimpier than two days ago.