I can�t seem to get my sleep pattern back on track after the time change. The past few days, I�ve been wandering around the office in a zombie-like state.

The whole stress of the Japan crisis was eating me alive, and I�m just this side of functional. My family does not live in the affected area. They�re far away from the worst of it, but with the possibility of aftershocks and the threat of a nuclear disaster, I�m not exactly resting comfortably, either.

Of course, I also care about people who are not my relatives, as well, who doesn�t? Ok, ok, lots of people, but for me, all people are valuable. I feel like there�s been a disruption in The Force and it�s been tearing me up from the inside out.

And yes, there is something more special to me about this disaster than other disasters. Maybe it�s because I know them, and I know those places. This kind of disaster could just as easily happen in California (hell, I went to school down the street from a nuclear power plant), but even speaking as a Californian, this feels closer to home, to me.

Or, maybe it�s because the Japanese are just so damn cute. Like, how some people won�t eat lamb, but they�re happy to eat a cow?

Anyway, I am getting better. Functionality is a little higher today.

A couple of weeks ago, my coworkers started something called the 100 push-up challenge, and I figured it was a good way to socialize and waste time, so I joined.

It�s a program designed to help people work up to 100 consecutive push-ups.

Before I started, I reviewed the program, and I was skeptical. I didn�t think there would be any improvement, or if anything, only a slight improvement, especially considering that the program itself only six weeks long. What if you start out without being able to do any? You�d have to kill yourself for those 6 weeks.

When I first started, I didn�t want to work too hard (I was doing this for fun, right?), plus, I don�t want to get sweaty at work, so, I started with modified push-ups (on the knees).

For my initial test, I did 45 consecutive push-ups. This put me in a pretty high tier of the program, but I decided to drop down a couple of tiers, again, because I didn�t want to work too hard. Plus, I wanted to start on the same week as everyone else (all the women are doing modified push-ups and all the men are doing regular push-ups, even if they can barely manage it; ego, you know).

My first day of push-up training, I did 71 push-ups, non-consecutive. Today, I did 95, non-consecutive. It�s been about a week and a half, three days a week. Which equals 5 training sessions, so far, but I was sore after the initial test (and took four days to recover from that one).

After seeing this improvement, I�m finding that I�m much more enthusiastic about the program. It�s creating structure where before, I had none. I�ve been doing push-ups for years, of course, and lately, I�ve been doing them, but not in a dedicated way. I�ve been doing them as part of my regular resistance training, twice a week, if that. While doing them as part of the regular routine, I did them in a distracted way, and already tired from all the other exercise. I wasn�t devoted to it because I had no goal outside of myself. I didn�t care how many I did, because who was there? What did it matter?

While doing them with other people, and having a tangible number goal, I can find a place in which to push myself.

I figure once I get to 100 consecutive modified push-ups, I�ll start the program again, except with regular pushups.

On Monday, after feeling enthusiastic about this program, I searched online and found another challenge, the 50 pull-up challenge.

Currently, I can do 0 pull-ups. I think the most I�ve ever managed in my life time, is 1. I don�t think I�ll ever get to 50 pull-ups, but I can at least train, and get to doing more than 1, maybe even several.

I showed the pull-up program to Adam, and he wanted to do it, too, so now, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I�m doing push-ups at noon, with my coworkers, and pull-ups in the evening, with Adam.

I�ve been doing assisted pull-ups as part of my regular workout routine for about a year, I think, off and on. Even assisted, I generally hate them. I try to assist myself as little as possible, and I usually manage about 8 of those. There�s been very little improvement, if any, over time. Or maybe there has been, and I just can�t tell.

Anyway, this program claims that it can get me from 0 to the positive numbers, in three weeks, and then beyond, after that. It uses a combination of assisted and negative pull-ups to get a person that far. If you�re assisting yourself too much, then you won�t be able to do the real pull-ups after the three weeks, in which case, you�re instructed to start from the beginning and assist yourself less.

I intend to do the other strength training tonight, after the pull-up workout. We�re invited to a party, and Adam is going to go, but I�m going to stay home. I need the mental health night, and frankly, I would rather stay home and workout over going to a party almost any day.

I don�t know how far I�ll get with the other strength training because I am really, really sleepy.

With all this exercise that I�ve been doing, I haven�t been weighing myself or taking any tangible measurements. I�m not sure that it really matters, but it would be nice to have a concrete something to look at.

Now I�m starting to hum along in this routine, much the same way I used to hum along in previous training routines, it�s helping me keep my sanity a lot. Physical challenge keeps me sane, which is why I keep switching up my activities. I need a variety of things I can do to fit into a variety of circumstances, to accommodate for weather, time, space, entertainment or strength issues.

Speaking of which, we�re going to try once again to go snowboarding this weekend. The season is growing old, and with each passing week, it�s getting warmer and rainier. Hopefully this weekend will accommodate.

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Wednesday, Mar. 16, 2011 at 3:56 PM