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Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Don't Call it a Comeback!


I've been struggling with some illness that I can't shake, and it's had a toll on training.

Missed Around the Bay.  SAD!

But I've managed a couple of really strong workouts lately, and I think I'm on the comeback.  Time to get fit and in shape, just a few months to go before the real race season starts!

Wednesday, March 8, 2017

Canadian Fitness Awards: Partial Curl-ups


These are a little weird... I only managed 26, good enough for Bronze.

I set a metronome for 40bpm (so a click every 1.5s) - top of motion at one click, bottom at other (per the instructions).

It seemed super easy and silly at first, but it didn't after about 10... and then my abs were quivering in pain by the end!  Not a big fan of this as a test, though, it seems to only test a small subset of ab muscles.

Here is the result chart.


Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Canadian Fitness Awards: Push-ups


Decided to try push-ups today to set the baseline.

Here are the standards (click to enlarge):


My result: 23!

I'm actually quite pleased with that.  Good enough for Bronze.  Getting to 53 is going to be rough, but if I keep doing them I can certainly improve on that.  A little less weight wouldn't hurt!




Monday, March 6, 2017

Canadian Fitness Awards

This was a program from the 1980's that we were forced to go through in school.

Yes, forced!  It was really awful for a lot of us, very discouraging... while for others I'm sure it was very encouraging!  It convinced me forever that I couldn't do push-ups (and until a personal trainer helped me figure them out, I couldn't!).

At the end you got one of 4 badges - Excellence, Gold, Silver, Bronze.
Badges!

I have some somewhere, Bronze and Silver.  Could never lick the full thing.

I feel like I have unfinished business.

Thankfully someone posted the tests on-line!  PDF document is here.

I want to do everything at the 18-year-old level (the highest).  This was meant to test kids, but at 18 they're pretty much adults, right?  Voting and drinking and stuff!

Here are the standards for 18 year old males:
Canada Fitness Test - 18 year old male
I'm going to set a baseline in the next few weeks (once I'm over this GD cold!) and then do it again in the summer.  Hoping I can get to Excellence!  It's going to be tough tough tough.

The Badges were awarded as follows:
Excellence - must achieve Excellence in all 6 disciplines!
Gold - Gold or higher in 5 (must include 2400m)
Silver - Silver or higher in 4 (must include 2400m)
Bronze - Bronze or higher in 4 (must include 2400m)

I'm pretty confident I can get to silver level in at least a few of these... we'll see though!