Growth in uncertainty: 2,768 push-ups on the Manitou incline
“What seperates me from most other people is they go into a daunting task, and the task is overwhelming. I heard the (24 hour) pull up record was 4020 pullups and I was talking about breaking this record. People are like "Oh my god thats never going to happen". I went back to pen and paper and people were asking me "what are you doing?". I AM DOING THE MATH MAN. I am open minded that if I do so many pullups every minute for so many hours I can get so many pullups in. How much time do i have to rest? I was breaking the math down. You have to be open minded to the possibilities that you can achieve something. Once you shut your mind down to the possibility that it can be achieved there is no way its going to happen.” ~ David Goggins
Current project status: 420 pushups (28sets of 15)
Next increment: 560 pushups (28 sets of 20)
This challenge is simple. The Manintou Incline just outside of Colorado Springs has 2768 steps, gaining approximately 2000ft of altitude in just under a mile. The ultimate goal is to be able to do one push up for every step climbed, so that at the end of the incline, you have done 2768 pushups.
Since moving to the Colorado Springs area in September, I have had the joy of doing the incline on average about once a month. I came up with the pushup idea after the fifth time going up the incline. I was inspired by the plaques they put on every one hundreth step to inform people of their progress. I started to think about how those plaques could give me a new perspective, and thats where the pushups came from. The second I thought about doing 2768 pushups in the span of 2768 steps I started breaking down the math. I would do sets of 100 pushups every 100 stairs. This would give me awhole new perspective on those plaques, and chase something that is hard.
In general, the reaction I get from people when I tell them about my idea is that it would be impossible. It is interesting to break down this reaction. It is certainly not humanly impossible, as the current world record for pushups in one hour is 3,264 and a staggering 10,507 (!!) consecutive (i.e. if you break the front leaning rest position the record attempt is over) by Minoru Yoshida in 1980.
But I am no push-up expert. I will have to train, and train alot. This challenge could take years to complete, and that is ok with me. My approach is simple. Each time I would do the incline, I would slowly increment the number of pushups per 100 steps. The first time around, I did 10 for each 100 steps, for a total of 280 pushups (round up at the top). Each time I would do the incline (about once a month), I would increase that number. Currently, I have succesfully completed the incline while doing 15 pushups every 100 steps, for a total of 420 pushups.
I am slowly building up in pushup volume each week. Each weekday morning I do my standard set of 100 pushups (5x20) throughout my weight training workout, and on Friday (pushup Friday) I try to do as many pushups as is my goal next time I hit the incline but spread out over a single day, in the sets that I am targeting for when I hit the incline. The work continues.
This challenge is simple in concept, but will continue to allow me to grow.
