100 Burpees - Milestone Reached!

It's the simplest workout: 100 burpees, as fast as you can. I try this once in awhile, when I'm pressed for time, or when I just feel like testing myself. Getting all 100 inside of 10 minutes has been a goal of mine for some time. My typical strategy is to set the timer for one-minute increments, and try to knock off 10 every minute. This usually results in me quitting somewhere between 60 and 80. Or, if I don't pace myself and just do them as I'm able, I finish well over 10:00. For example, a little over a year ago I tried it for the first time and sucked mightily.

So today I tried it again with my "10 every minute" strategy. I'm pretty slow at these, so even at top speed I can only manage 10 in 30 seconds. And that's what I did for the first five minutes. 10 in 30 seconds, then 30 seconds to rest before the next minute starts. Then it gets hard. My pace erodes at the expense of my recovery time. I got to 70 with about 15 seconds to rest before the eighth minute was due to start. At this point I pretty much abandoned the clock and started counting down the 30 reps I still needed. This, by the way, is usually when I quit. I was at 89 with a minute to go, and hit 100 at 9:56!

It was physically painful, but I have to admit the bigger obstacle until today has been mental. I simply haven't wanted to work hard enough to turn in a time like this.

Anyway, 100 in less than 10 minutes, very happy. It might not seem like much when you watch this guy crank out 100 in 5:00 and change, but for me it was a good day.