So, thanks to Facebook taunting from  The Wife’s cousin (update your blog already, Dooran!), I have started doing this 100 Pushups challenge thing .  Probably most (if not all) of you reading this have already seen me muttering about it on Facebook.  Anyway, here it is in short:

Some dude put up a series of charts that supposedly will get you doing 100 consecutive pushups after six weeks of doing sets of pushups 3 times a week.  I am halfway through week 3, and it seems to be working – I did a total of 100 pushups this morning, spread across 5 sets and 15 minutes.

It is impossible to be manlier (left) or foxier (right).

I think I like it because there are a bunch of charts and stuff, and because doing 100 pushups in a row seems old school manly, like something that the Sean Connery of Thunderball could have done.
So, what is the point?  A couple of things:  I have been posting this on Facebook and telling everyone I know I am doing it to keep my lazy self accountable.  The idea is that I will feel like a real ass if I have to tell everyone that I quit.

More significantly, it is the first time I have kept to any kind of a workout or fitness regimen for longer than two consecutive sessions since I was 15 years old and Coach Winstead yelled at me to “get my little peenie” into the wrestling mat.

This fits into my whole trying-to-be-a-grownup thing.  Like, what kind of a man do I want to be?  What example am I setting for my sons?  One of the things that I was always in awe of as a kid was how physically strong my dad was.  I want to be strong like that for my sons.  I have always had a real tendency toward being a pale kid, and I want better than that for my boys.

This is the origin of the term “pale kids.”  This show was great, and doesn’t get nearly enough run.

I heard some thing on the radio about character being developed by  making small promises to yourself, and then keeping them.  This in turn leads to bigger promises, and then promises to others, etc.  I suck at this.  100 Pushups is my first concerted effort to assert some discipline over this part of my life.

Plus, The Wife said she’d make me shepherd’s pie if I can pull it off.

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