Birthday burpees

I turned 48 years young today. To celebrate I decided to end my workout with a single set of 48 burpees. I got the inspiration for this from my friend and fellow middle age fitness dude blogger, Ed Pierini. He turned 54 today. He set himself a more difficult task. Starting in January he did 54 burpees at the end of each workout, Monday through Friday with the caveat that if he didn't do burpees, he didn't eat the next day. Maybe I will do something like that when I turn 50. Or maybe not.

I'm well acquainted with burpees. On the average week I do burpees of one variety or another 5 times doing anywhere from 50 to 100 during a workout. How many depends on what else I do and the variety of burpee since some are more challenging than others. I usually do them in sets of ten except for the hardcore burpees of which I generally do 5-7 in a set. This particular burpee involves jumping forward and onto something and then jumping back far enough from the object to perform another one without hitting your head on whatever it is you were jumping on. These will take it out of you quick. If you don't believe me, try it.

Since I was going to do burpees at the end of my workout, I didn't add them to my circuits as usual. I just saved them for one set at the end. I did 10 circuits of 10 each lunges, pushups, mountain climbers, and hindu squats. For the mathematically challenged that's 100 of each exercise all done non stop. I did 100 flutter kicks after my circuits and then it was time for the burpees.

I just did the standard burpee. After 20, I was mentally congratulating Ed for making the commitment and sticking to it. And wondering why I thought I should do such a thing. I started making the dying walrus noises at about 35. When I hit the 48th one, I checked the time and found I completed the task in 3'50". I was hoping for 4 minutes but didn't think I would make it. Going all out when fresh I generally can get 14 to 15 on a one minute timer so I was trying for an average of 12 per minute. I made it. After checking the time, I did another 2 just to  make it an even 50.

I can smell my birthday dinner cooking and it smells good. I'm starving. And I do plan on indulging in a piece of chocolate since it is my birthday. But only a small one.