Suck Less, Fiona.

You may recall, back before I got totally distracted by packing up my house and unpacking it all again, that I had started a new exercise program, involving sit-ups, push-ups and squats, with the end goal of being able to do 200, 100 and 200 of each, respectively. Well, that lasted all of three weeks, but my friend *H* was inspired to start it herself, and she has had awesome results.  She added some extra core work and tagged it the Suck Less Program, and at the beginning of April, she initiated a little something she calls the Suck Less Challenge.  I'm a little late to the party (shocking), but I am on board and did a new initial exhaustion tests this morning:

• squats - 40
• sit-ups - 30
• push-ups - 10 (girl style. I attempted one "real" push-up, and failed. Spectacularly. I think I nearly dislocated my elbow on the down motion. I will stick with the girl push-ups for a while, thanks.)
• tricep dips - 5 (the hundredpushups.com guy just added these! Score!)

H's "extra core work" that I alluded to above is to get into this plank position...

...and hold for as long as you can. 25 seconds, a minute - whatever you can manage.

***Funny story:  You may be more familiar with the version of plank that looks more like the top of a push-up, with arms straight instead of forearms on the floor. Well, when H decided to add plank to the Suck Less Program, she read online that the above format was considered a "modified" version and assumed that (and I quote) "modified = sissy."

Not.so.much. That up there? That's HARD. Way harder than the straight-arm version. 

Push-up style plank, I can hold for a minute without (too much of) a problem. Forearms down? 15 seconds. My friend H is totally hardcore, and didn't even know it. Hee!

Anyway, I'll be doing the Suck Less Challenge 3 days a week, and on alternating days I'm going to be taking another stab at the Couch to 5K learn-to-run program (the last time I tried, my ankle was still having none of it). I'm determined to make it happen this time, though. I know that Day 1 of the program calls for intervals of 30 seconds running/90(?) seconds walking. If my ankle won't tolerate 30 seconds running right out of the gate, I'll do 15 second intervals. Or 10. Whatever it takes. But I WILL make it cooperate somehow!

6 weeks to sucking less...bring it on.