Day 5
Mmm, pushups. I decided to take them outside today!
I carried a blanket out to the quad with me (bad choice here, as it ended up covered in grass – should have brought a yoga mat) and laid it out so I wouldn’t punish my hands on the stiff grass that seems to dominate this part of California. I made the mistake on Wednesday of not using any sort of padding, and came up with some serious red- and rawness.
The problem for me is that my wrists – puny little writer’s wrists – prevent me from doing proper pushups with all the padding that my palms have to offer. So I’m stuck out there on my fists like a monkey, with half of my weight resting on my knuckles. In other words, the padding really helps.
The whole time, though, I was wondering what the gardener thought. His work didn’t seem to be much more intellectual than mine, as he was watering some bushes around the perimeter as I alternately pushed-up and laid on my back for 90-second rest intervals. Must have looked weird.
One big mistake I made was not covering my poor little iPod. It was fated to watch while I did the number of pushups it asked, but little did I realize it didn’t enjoy the sun the same way I did. Its black face soaked up the rays, and when I went to grab it and move on to the next set, it was waaaaay hot. All I could do was tap at the screen and, when I had to pick it up, use the blanket Ove-Glove style .
Oddly, it felt like my arms were the limiting factor for the number of pushups I could do. I ended up doing the second half of each set from my knees – not because my chest was sore, but because my arms couldn’t keep up. I guess I’ll have to focus some more there to get through the next set; I saw a big bump-up today (from 63 to 71, broken down as 14-16-12-12-17) and had quite a bit of difficulty with the larger set sizes.
Looking forward to Saturday!
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