Eric Frey.net

I’m not sure if this is part of what could be considered my workout log, or just some thoughts on the development of the self, but I feel I need to reflect on some things. Those things being this mysterious “Burpee Challenge” that’s been mentioned in some of my workout logs.

Today I did 234 burpees, even though today is a scheduled rest day in my current workout regime. I had planned on doing about 600, but that may have been unrealistic. I have about 600 planned for tomorrow as well. That is also probably unrealistic. So, why have I decided to do 1200 burpees in the course of a weekend. Well, let’s discuss the Burpee Challenge.

I take many of my ideas for exercise programming from CrossFit. Not all of them, as I do have other sources of knowledge that comprise my studies of exercise physiology, but that’s neither here nor there. CrossFit is INTENSE, and that is good. Occasionally some CrossFit affiliate, or some trainer who employs the CrossFit methodology starts a Burpee Challenge. The idea is to do 1 Burpee on day 1 of the challenge, and add 1 each day leading up to day 100 where you do (DUH!) 100 Burpees.

Now, 100 burpees isn’t all that difficult, even though burpees are pretty bad ass. But, doing them every day… I wanted to see if I could do it, so when I noticed some folks in California doing a burpee challenge, I asked them if I could roll with them, and they were kind enough to let me join them tracking progress online.

Now, one thing I need to work on developing in all areas of my life is consistency. So, 100 burpees wasn’t the goal for me, it was consistency. Can I keep at something even when I have proven I can do it and it becomes boring? To me, that was the personal challenge. What has come of it has been a bit more thought provoking, and I wish I had kept a journal along this challenge (tomorrow will be day 80). So, what have I learned so far?

I have learned that the body needs rest. It demands rest. What I’ve read about physical development happening during rest periods, and NOT during workouts has been without a doubt confirmed. All of the charts I have seen in various texts recently about glycogen stores in the body being low and needing to be replenished after workouts and the effect they have on performance if they are not, I have experienced first hand. Right about day 50, it all came crashing down for me…

Leading up to day 50, I may have missed a day of burpees, but no big deal. I just made them up the next day. That’s fair game with the rules of the challenge. Make up what you miss. Now, that doesn’t mean I was having rest days. I was still making my kendo classes, biking to work and back twice a day, and getting in regular workouts. There was really no rest day. People at work started commenting on how run down I looked. The bike to work became this agonizingly annoying task. Not insurmountable. Not painful. Just annoying because my legs had become like iron, unwilling to move. I was run down.

Shortly thereafter, I had a week off of work. Nice! That turned into a week off of workouts, and a week skipping kendo class as well. The flood gates had opened and I was on vacation, sort of. My body had convinced my mind to let it rejuvinate. That had put me very far behind in the burpee challenge. After much debate with myself, I decided to drop out of the challenge. I had aggrivated an old shoulder injury of mine. I was incredibly fatigued. And so, I told myself that I was consistent with the goal as much as was prudent, and that since I had a bad habit of overtraining and injuring myself, that dropping out was the smart thing to do. I told myself I could be proud of my self awareness, and move on. Going back to work, the bike ride was done at a 30-40% quicker pace than I maintained just before the break. The time off was good for performance.

Not so fast there skippy…

See, the idea of quitting didn’t really set well with me, and ultimately being accountable to my own pride, and being accountable to the rest of the group who was helping to motivate each other got me back in the challenge. This is a week ago now, and I was 8 hundred 80 something behind. But, I had learned about my body… I had learned about when I reach my anaerobic threshold and start producing lactic acid. I could make a plan. I could intelligently catch up. Yes, I am not a quitter! I’m in. And of course I miss a couple days because of all of my other workouts and such.

Ok, so 1,065 burpees to catch up on isn’t all that hard, right. I can do this. I’m not a quitter. I can make a plan for the weekend to catch up. Since Saturday is a rest day (today), I can just do burpees all day long avoiding that anaerobic threshold, and lactic acid buildup that will lead to fatigue, poor form, and injury. Yeah, and I’ll do it Sunday (tomorrow) as well. If I do 10 burpees every 10 minutes for 10 hours, I can get caught up! Like communism, it looks really good on paper. But, it doesn’t F’N work in real life. Like a pot head who says “I can quit any time I want”, I don’t seem to be able to. Sure, I was able to keep it up for a few hours after waking this morning, and may do so tomorrow as well. I didn’t develop any fatigue, soreness, or lactic acid build up that I noticed doing burpees in these reps and intervals.

The reason it doesn’t work in real life: I had to help my sister move today. I had laundry to do today. I had to wash the car today. Bla Bla Bla! Doing burpees every 10 minutes was not really all that feasible. Does it boil down to “I may not really want it badly enough?”, and all this is just excuses. Tomorrow I will be at the park for a few hours training with friends, sparring, working out, etc. Will that impact my ability to do 980 burpees tomorrow? Damn right it will. Am I being to much of a wuss to commit? Am I being too thick headed and stubborn to quit?

Those last 2 questions right there are the meat and potatoes of the introspection caused by this burpee challenge. If I am a wuss, then I need to get a bit more hardcore with myself and toughen up. If I’m being too thick headed and stubborn to realize when it’s time to back down and intelligently re-assess what I’m doing, then I need to soften up a bit. And maybe I fear that there is some small element of wussiness that I cover up with my stubborn steadfastness disguised as strength that I need to overcome.

So, here are some things I’ve learned in a nut shell.

• Something as innocent as a burpee may reveal our hidden demons.
• Listen to your body when it says “Dude, take a freaking break already.
• Be wary of setting simultaneous goals where one may rob you of resources to achieve the other. (because now I’m trying to finish the burpee challenge, AND improve my 5k time by 60 to 180 seconds, and the plan isn’t working out as I intended)

By the way, if you weren’t sure what a burpee is: