This one requires that I record things now and compare them with my progress a month later, hopefully with improvement.
I belong to a small neighborhood gym, which I go to sporadically, so I went this morning with this requirement in mind.
¼-mile walk/run. I got on the treadmill and warmed up at a jog for a bit, then I cranked it up as fast as I felt I could go and started keeping track of how long it took me to run a quarter mile. I did it in 2 min, 5 sec. It occurs to me that a treadmill really isn’t the best way to do this–it sets up an artificial barrier. Next time I’ll measure off a quarter mile and just run it, if I can.
Pull-ups. I did 11, which is actually better than I thought I’d do. I tried not to hold back on any of these–I want to give it my all now and see if I really get much better in a month, but I’m still pretty sure I could have done a few more of each of these if I’d really tried. Maybe my improvement over the next 30 days will be more self discipline.
Push-ups. I only did 15 in a set, but keep in mind that I’d just finished the run and the pull-ups. No, never mind, that doesn’t make it any better at all.
Sit-ups. 40.
I exercised some more, then went home for the last part. It would have been too strange to measure my standing long jump at the gym. When I got home, I got three of the kids down stairs to help me. One made sure I was standing at the edge of the carpet. Another put down a toy when I’d jumped as far as I could. The third took my tape measure and gave me the total.
Standing long jump. 6 ft, 2 in.
Then they each wanted to measure their jumps. Then I made a shake: two cups milk, one cup apple juice, two bananas, two little cups of Yoplait strawberry yogurt, and a whole bunch of ice. Blend. Makes enough for two adults to have some, and for nosy kids to each take a gulp of yours.
Telling my kids about my work on this project reminded my oldest son, who turned 10 a few months ago, to ask if I’d finally ogtten his Webelos book. I’d gone down and done it on Friday. We have the next two weeks with no work or school and he’s excited to start doing Scout stuff.
Gently Hew Stone 