CyclePups Week 5

[OakLeaf]

I'll lead off :)

I'm repeating week 4 of the program this week - moved down to column 2 last week, (hopefully) doing week 4, column 3 this week.

My triceps are a little sore from this weekend's big ride (ride report after I have a bit of processing time!) - so I squeezed out my pups, but none of it felt easy, not even the first set.

Then I lost count in the last set :o I was counting by 5s... Pretty sure I did 35, I really doubt I could've done 40.

[Aggie_Ama]

I moved onto week 5 but I fear repeat time may be coming, it is just getting so hard. Tonight I did my exhaustion test at 40! Tomorrow I will do day 1. :eek:

[Pedal Wench]

Can't find week 4's finals, but if someone can update me: Week 4, column 1, day 3: 72! Oh my! Had no idea it was that many! Wow!

[Grog]

I am starting week 4 of the program. Because I'm in such a rush because of work right now, I ended up splitting "day 1" into three sets on Sunday night and two sets tonight Monday. So I did 12, 14 and 11 last night and 10 and 17 tonight.

It was tough. Actually last night wasn't bad, so I had hopes to make it to 20 on the last set tonight, and I literally fell on my face trying to do a 18th.

I think I'll try to do this week's program as is, and repeat it next week. I really want to push my limits, but I don't want this to feel like a failure, either.

[jesvetmed]

Did my exhaustion test today (while exhausted.. appropriately!).
40 was all I could squeeze out.
So for week 5 I drop to column 2. OK with me... looks daunting either way!
I'll do Tue/Thur/Sat this week and check in then.
Good luck to all!
Jes

[OakLeaf]

PS - anyone who's on week 5 of the program, remember that for days 2 and 3 you will be doing 8 sets! It's a little confusing the way he has the columns laid out.

[Aggie_Ama]

Oh lord, eight sets!

Jes we are on the same schedule, I plan to do mine as soon as I get home from commuting. Ouch.

[katluvr]

I am a PowerPups...but had to check in to see how you all are doing. I can't believe you will soon be doing 100 push ups.

I got off schedule...but hopefully will be back on track this week. Can't wait to see the first person to post 100 pups!

Great going!

[SadieKate]

PS - anyone who's on week 5 of the program, remember that for days 2 and 3 you will be doing 8 sets! It's a little confusing the way he has the columns laid out.

The PUO didn't get this until yesterday. You should have seen her face. She was so perturbed she stood on her head. (CLICK on the photo)

Oh yea, she also said that she'd post last week's results when she gets home (so maybe lagter this evening).

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b310/SadieKate/Rides%202008/WWW%202008/th_Sue_Headstand.jpg (http://s22.photobucket.com/albums/b310/SadieKate/Rides%202008/WWW%202008/?action=view&current=Sue_Headstand.flv)

[yellow]

Sorry I'm late posting the week 4 totals...I was traveling! :p

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c1/tasdan/Just%20for%20Fun/CyclePUPs_Week4-1.jpg

I took out the "groups" and just put us all together since many of us have changed groups. I'm dropping to column 2 for the remainder; I could probably do more than 40 (like, 41), but had to drop to column 2 for the last day last week and think it's prudent that I stay there.

I am going to work harder on form the next couple of weeks.

P.S. Looks like I forgot to hide one "sum" row; please ignore!

[OakLeaf]

I took out the "groups" and just put us all together since many of us have changed groups.

Good idea... same thing on the PowerPUPs then!

[OakLeaf]

W00t! Finally!

After thinking I was going to do it three weeks ago (and I probably could've, had I done an exhaustion test), I have FINALLY done more consecutive pups in one set (38) than ever before in my life! (which makes me wonder if maybe I didn't do 40 in my last set on Monday after all?)

The last few weren't pretty (definitely could've gone lower), but they were acceptable to me. Definitely as good as whatever you see actors doing in military scenes :rolleyes:

To put it in context: the last time I did 37, it was about 30 years ago. Somehow I'd gotten into a contest of machismo with a boy I'd just met. He offered to spot me 10... if it had been the other way around we'd have tied :D He beat me arm wrestling... but I still maintain that had everything to do with my short forearms and lack of leverage :cool:

W00t, I say, w00t again!

[Pedal Wench]

I'm kinda out this week. Heading to DC for the Breast Cancer 3-Day there (see sig if you wanna donate!) and it's going to be insane. I'll try to do some, but I really don't see any happening.

I hope this is going to help my upper-body strength. I've got my mountain bike completely decorated in pink and loaded up with all the gear I'll need each day for route safety, but empty water bottles. I know that I'm used to lifting my light and zippy road bikes into my car, but it took every ounce of muscle I had to get this beast into my car. Doubt I would have been able to do it if I hadn't been PUP'ing.

L-

[Grog]

This is a live post as I am doing them.

Week 4, Column 1, Day 2:

14 - Ok that's tough but not so bad anymore.
16 - Had to rest (on top of my arms) at 12 but kept going.
12 - Sort of got mixed up with the breathing but took a second to get going on the right track again. It's hard, but it's sort of nice that now it's 12, not 6, that's feeling hard.
12 - Not too pretty either, but did it. Now am I really supposed to do 18? I'll take a longer rest before I try that.

Wow. I did 18. My arms are quite shaky and I managed to hike up my heart rate quite a bit. Stopped at 10, and then 13, and then 2 more, and then 2 more, and then one last.

So that's 72 for today. I'm getting scary-close to 20 in one set (but nowhere near 100!!!!!!)

[Grog]

To put it in context: the last time I did 37, it was about 30 years ago. Somehow I'd gotten into a contest of machismo with a boy I'd just met. He offered to spot me 10... if it had been the other way around we'd have tied :D He beat me arm wrestling... but I still maintain that had everything to do with my short forearms and lack of leverage :cool:

W00t, I say, w00t again!

Was he a good date?

Just kidding! Congrats on the personal best!

[yellow]

Well, I did day 2 of week 5, column 2 almost. This was 8 sets with 45 sec rest in between. I stretched the rest between the 7th set and 8th (max) set to 2 minutes, but I still missed the max by 1 pup. Yep, I could only eke out 39 when the max was 40. I almost collapsed at 38 but stuck it out. Oy.

18-18-20-20-14-14-16-39

This after running 8 mi on the trail after more than a week of not running. O-u-c-h. Visiting SadieKate did not bode well for my running. :mad: Not fatigued, but pretty achey.

I seem to be kind of stuck in the mid 140s. My total last week was 147 and I managed 148 on day 1 of this week and 149 today. I guess it's still progress, eh?

[NoNo]

I decided to start week 4, level 1. It'd been a week since I'd done any pups, as I'd hurt my shoulder and gotten an ear infection. Boy did I struggle! Just did the minimum and now that pain is back in my shoulder. Not sure if I should keep going, switch to knee pups, or take more time off. After that I did my 40 min squat video, so by the end of the night every limb felt dead. But it was a good hurt:)

[OakLeaf]

Hope you're feeling better NoNo!

I can't believe I did the whole thing today. I was sure before I started that I wasn't going to make it! Just barely but I did it.

29+33+29+29+40 = 160 :eek:

On to Week 5!

[aka_kim]

Very slow progress here. Day 3 of Week 4 was 23+28+23+23+33 for 130 pups. I will move on to Week 5 next week, and I'm kinda hoping the exhaustion test puts me in column 1. At this rate, I should be on target for 100 pups in 6 months.

[yellow]

At this rate, I should be on target for 100 pups in 6 months.
Y'know, I'm just going to keep adding columns until we feel like we don't need 'em anymore. :D

Drop down if you want...week 5 is tough, no doubt about it. I'm definitely re-doing week 5. More sets, less rest in between. Column 2 kicked my a$$. I seemed to do OK with the 8 sets, but the max was really, really, really hard. I suspect that when I do move to week 6, I'll be in column 1. And then I might repeat weeks 5 and 6 over and over...

I'm still going to do an exhaustion test tomorrow. I'm curious to see where I am (and since I won't be doing much exercise this rainy weekend, I might even be kind of rested, which is something that I usually am NOT when I do my pups).

[OakLeaf]

I'm planning to automatically drop down to column 2 for my first pass through week 5. I don't see any point in even trying to start with column 3 :rolleyes::cool: Doing it that way seemed to work out well for me in week 4. And if that's too much... well, down to column 1 then.

[Kvixen23]

Sadly, I have been unable to keep up with my 'pups' and have fallen way, way behind....:mad:

I'll start again in the near future but am bowing out of this challenge at this time. Good luck to you all on reaching your goals!! Keep up the 'pups'!!!

[aka_kim]

The problem, other than that the creator of this program is obviously a sadist, is that I need a column 1.5 next week. Column 1 might be a little too easy (I can't believe I'm saying that), but Column 2 is probably too hard, and too much of an increase over Week 4.

'Cause I just had to add everything up:
Column1 = 86 (>20) : 100 (>25) : 120 (>30)
Column2 = 145 (>35) : 160 (>40) : 175 (>45)
Column3 = 170 (>40) : 185 (>45) : 200 (>50)

Each day you have to do at least 15 more than the previous day? :eek:

~Goldilocks

[Becky]

Ditto what Kvixen said. I fell off the wagon last week and, work-wise, this week isn't looking any better. I plan to keep pupping on my own for now.

Good luck, ladies!

[OakLeaf]

I'm still going to do an exhaustion test tomorrow. I'm curious to see where I am.

Inquiring minds are curious too. (especially ones who are too lazy/lackadaisical to do their own exhaustion tests) :D Feel like sharing?

[Grog]

Another live post with my results for Week 4, Day 3, Column 1.

I am not gung-ho on completing the full set (16+18+13+13+atleast20) because I want to repeat week 4 (or even back off a tiny bit) next week. So whatever happens, happens.

[Cue in: Go West music from the soundtrack of The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert]

16: All right, it only starts getting tough at 13 or 14 now. Much improved.

18? My arms say: are you kidding? I did 13. Perhaps I started with the wrong mindset. Anyway, I'm changing the remaining sets from 13, 13, 20+ to 10, 10, and 15.

10. Okay. That was hard. What is wrong with me today?

[Took a long break here. The music is now something different but equally disco. Oh: I love the nightlife is the title I think.]

10 more. How did I become so weak? Wow. Now I'm getting mentally ready for the last 15.

Somehow, I pulled 17 on the last set.

So that's 66 for the PUS.

Thanks for reading.

I am writing my plan for next week which will be a mix of weeks 3, 4 and 5: Do smaller numbers on the early sets, increase the last number, and progressively increase the number of sets.

The week after hopefully I will tackle week 5.

[bluebug32]

This week just didn't come together for doing 3 days. I'll get back on track and report back soon!

[Grits]

Week 5, Day 3: 200.

I know. I can't believe it either. KNEE pushups, so that definitely makes a difference, but still. I am still slogging through the plan and only took a longer break between 7 and 8. I actually like more sets with fewer pups in each one. I thought for sure I'd have to take a break on the set of 50, but I finished with every muscle in my body quivering! Now I have to do the exhaustion test and will take a day off before and after that, so I'll be starting week six half a week late.

[OakLeaf]

The problem, other than that the creator of this program is obviously a sadist, is that I need a column 1.5 next week.

Yeah, I see what you mean. I'm looking at them too and noticing there's a huge gap between columns 1 and 2, not so large a one between 2 and 3.

I guess this is all based on something :rolleyes: but I wish the guy had posted more about his qualifications... not that that stops me from adhering to the program. :p

[yellow]

I guess this is all based on something :rolleyes: but I wish the guy had posted more about his qualifications... not that that stops me from adhering to the program. :p
I hear ya...I searched and didn't find any backup info. It doesn't build in periodization, which is something that I've learned is important for me. But I think it's catchy to tout it as a 6 week program, which it is for some folks like Grits (!) and it's a period of time that you can think about pretty clearly. I like having something to follow, so I will stick with it for a while (hopefully most of the winter).

At my current rate, I figure I'll be able to do 100 pups straight in about 10 weeks (I am doing toe, or "regular", pups). My initial test was 24. My exhaustion test today was 53, meaning an improvement of 29 in 5 weeks. I'm definitely at some sort of a plateau, though. I think it's going to be hard to break through and keep up all of my other activities. I'm starting to think about skiing a lot now that the mountains have SNOW ON THEM!!!! :D

[spindizzy]

I will repeat this week. 132. Wish me luck (or strength, or mental fortitude......!)

[Grog]

What bugs me the most about the problem is that there is no rest week built in. Six weeks without backing off is a lot of time.

However, based on my experience, I could not hurt myself doing push ups: I just quit before it's too late because it's so hard!!

[aka_kim]

So I did the pre-Week 5 "exhaustion" test today. It wasn't a true test because I intentionally stopped at 41 - the minimum required for Column 3 - just to prove to myself that this guy is nuts. There is no freakin' way I'm moving on to W5C3, in fact I'm now thinking about repeating Week 4 in either Column 2 or 3.

I do like this program and find it fun, if not ridiculously hard. I just find my inability to keep up with the constant daily and weekly progression a bit discouraging.

[Aggie_Ama]

I missed day 3, super duper sore from working on the new landscaping Saturday. I will repeat week 5 because it really challenged me and I missed a day. :o

[Jones]

I took this week off. I am going to start today with week 4. So total pups 0.

[jesvetmed]

Slow to finish the week -- My Tu/Th/sat turned into Tu./ Fri / Monday. But I did it. I did day 3 of week 5, column 2 today.
BARELY. Had to squeak out several of the last few of sets on my knees. (probably did 20 total on my knees).

Total in the end of the effort: 175.

I think that's the correct math! Whoa... no wonder I'm having trouble typiing.

Haven't done the exhaustion test yet. When is everyone doing theirs? The next day after day 3? Anyway -- I will try to get it done by tomorrow or the next morning. I guess I'll be a week behind by the time I finish the next weeks' workouts.