Another weekend – another epic adventure!

Last weekend was “epic weight vested orienteering ludus style” and this weekend we went back to our “roots” and decided that there is no more epic exercise than the good old fashioned burpee.

The epic part?

We planned on completing the tonne!

Yep – 1000 burpees in a row and to make it an even more epic occasion we thought doing it before Saturdays Ludus session would be “O for Awesome”

I took along a support person/water boy/counter and photographer – aka James and we met Anna at stupid o’clock at Victoria Park.  We snapped a quick pic for posterity and then got on with the job.

From my experience doing the exercise I was confident that I could do at least 500 (and hopefully more) in the first hour because I had managed to do 471 in summer in the hottest part of the day, then I just hoped that I could plod on through the next hour without taking any real breaks to reach the tonne.

The first three hundred were relatively easy (well as easy as three hundred burpees can be) I could knock out about 25 each time before I had to stop to catch my breath.  I allowed five deep breaths per stop because I had a goal to reach 😉

I was still feeling pretty good after the 300 and I promised myself once I got to 500 I could mix in some “girl” burpees for a “rest” because I wasn’t going to stop.

James was really good and it was mostly because of him I didn’t have to stop. He went and grabbed stuff for me from the car, filled water bottles and cheered us both on ensuring we knew what the time was and how many burpees per minute we needed to do to reach goal.

I made the 500 mark within the hour so I had a little bit of time up my sleeve for the second half, which was handy because I figured I would slow down during the last 500.

I kept making little deals with myself ..

I’d think do 20 and then do “10 girl” burpees for this next 100 after that “rest set” I’d feel refreshed enough to do a set of 100 with only 10 girl burpees in the middle or even 100 straight. The only thing I didn’t want to do was stop.

As the sun rose the following happened;

1. It got cold
2. We attracted the attention of curious passerbys who would stop and wonder what the hell we were doing
3. I got worried I wouldn’t get the 1000 done in time

When I reached 900 I had decided that I would just do the 1000 regardless of how long it took me because I was so close to finishing ..

The last 100 seemed to take forever.

For the first 50 I’d do two burpees followed by one girl version then another two burpees for sets of 10.

I took a breather with fifty to go and although I wasn’t confident I could push out another 50 in the time I had left I was confident that I could do them and that I would reach the 1000 mark.

I also decided that I would do the last fifty without resorting to any “girl” ones (and yes I knew that would slow me down).

The closer I got to the elusive 1000 the more unconfident I was becoming about finishing in time. James kept cheering me on and counting down my burpees for me but when I reached 999 I found the energy to make the last one a goodie ..

One tuck jump burpee to finish things off with a flourish!

Anna completed 760 if you are wondering how I managed to do 240 more than Anna (considering that she is quite a bit fitter than I) here are a couple of reasons ..

1. Anna was sick
2. She stopped a few times to move her car, go the the bathroom and play on the swing (no I am not kidding)

But mostly it was due to the fact that she was sick so had to keep stopping to blow her nose and stuff so that she could breathe – breathing is quite important 😉

Otherwise there is no way in hell I would have been so far ahead of her .. I hope that doesn’t mean she wants to give it another go!

Double high fives all round …

Pity that was only part one of the epic adventure, we still had a Ludus session to complete!

Which Anna did in a weight vest! That girl is hardcore!

I was just pleased that I managed to stay on my feet for the pushups, thats as hardcore as you were getting from me!

We both finished the board though (although we did stay “after class” to get it done – I blame Rod, he took forever to explain the workout) 😉

And yes there WERE burpees on the board and although I had just done 1000 of the suckers they were still a better alternative (for me) than shuttles or bear crawls so I did another 110 of them, you would still be waiting for me to finish if I had chosen to do 110 down and ups!

This weekend I get a break from conventional epic adventuring because James and I are off to Sydney.  I guess we will be doing some adventuring but the only epic part will be the credit card balance after I shop till I literally drop 😉

Till next time