I’m usually not a great fan of heralding the new year with an optimistic handful of resolutions. I don’t give up alcohol in January (goodness knows, most of us need a drink to get us through the winter months) and I prefer not to look backwards or forwards too much if I can help it.
At the same time, though, I can never resist a challenge. So when double Olympic rowing champion and all round good guy Pete Reed came up with the Press Up Challenge 2014, I couldn’t help myself. Before I knew it, I’d announced I was up for it, for no reason other than that, like Everest, it was there.
Pete explains the challenge really clearly on his blog so I won’t go into too many details here, but here’s the briefest explanation:
On 1 January 2014, you do 1 press up. The next day, you do 2. On the 3rd you do 3 and the 4th you do 4… follow this pattern, day by day, for every day of the whole year.
Simple. And increasingly complicated, as life gets in the way. If you’re travelling, you have to find a suitable patch of floor, even if that’s on a plane. If you get ill and can’t do it, it’s all over.
I strongly suspect the physical rigours will be the least challenging part of it. Women are permitted to do knee-down press-ups (or wuss-ups, as I prefer to call them) if they must, but for the record, I’m aiming for the real thing.
It’s not going to be easy. There will be days when it’s massively inconvenient or painful or irritating. But am I still up for it? Hell, yeah. Bring it on.
#PUC2014
