In past years I have not been one for New Year’s resolutions. But I have three for 2008 and I am going to post them here.
1. Amassing a score of at least 285 out of 300 on the Marine Corps Physical Fitness Test. To do this I would have to average 19 (strict) pullups with my feet never touching the ground; running three miles in 18:50; and doing 95 abdominal crunches (situps) in two minutes. If I perform better than those standards one category I don’t need to do as well in another.
Today I did 15 pullups, and, later, 56 crunches in two minutes. Because a three mile run is a non-standard distance for running I reserve the right to substitute a longer distance and get its three-mile equivalent using the “average” score on this online calculator. On Sunday I ran a 44:19 10K which is the equivalent of a 20:27 three-mile run. (I would have had to run a 40:48 to score an equivalent 18:45).
So right now my score on the Marine PFT would be … 216. I feel this is an ambitious but realizable goal.
A bonus would be bench pressing 225 lbs. six times. This is the standard weight at the NFL combine, although most prospects bench it about 15-20 times. The other day at the gym I benched 205 lbs. six times, but didn’t dare attempt 225 lbs. without a spotter.
2. Getting my weight down to 168 lbs. and keeping it under 170. In the morning my bathroom scale/body fat monitor calculated my weight at 174 lbs. and in the evening the scale at my gym at work calculated it at 176 lbs. Most of my life I have weighed around 172-175 although at times I’ve ballooned up to 185 or so. I am 5-foot-11 and a tad, and (also according to bathroom body fat-monitor) 8% body fat.
3. Become debt-free. I had been carrying some credit-card debt since moving to Manhattan in October 2005, and then this whole thing with getting an apartment with my then-girlfriend and then moving out again three months later ended up being pretty expensive. Uh, right now I have … umm … $9,112.08 in debts, although I will be paying some off soon. That is not nearly as bad as it sounds as I have (I’ll just say it) $146,403.21 in assets, mostly in a Rollover and a Roth IRA. In some sense it probably doesn’t make sense to carry this much debt when I could just pay it off — but I like thinking of my mutual funds as “untouchable” except in an emergency. Still, if I can’t manage to make progress paying off my debts in 2008 I should just bite the bullet and do that.
To keep myself on-target I intend to post weekly updates on all three of these goals listing my weight, debt and performance on at least one of those four fitness indicators. I authorize my blog-commenters to harass me if I let a week go by without an update on this.
(You may notice there is no romantic item on this list. That is not because I have no aspirations on that score — I’m not dating anyone at the moment — but I feel like in retrospect the most recent ex-girlfriend and I rushed into things a little prematurely living-together-wise. I’m going to try to avoid that mistake…)
Also: I am making a meme out of this! I challenge five bloggers to publicly at least three resolutions for 2008, to give us weekly updates, and to “tag” another five bloggers to do likewise. Challenged are Flygirl, Kate Sun, Curly Su, Beast, and Runner 26.
Also I challenge all my readers, particularly The Mofo, to come up with some good New Year’s resolutions, post ’em to the comments, and keep track of ’em here…
How are you handling the interest payments on that credit card debt? Are you rolling them over from low interest to low interest teaser rates? Or are you getting jacked to the tune of something like 19%? Rolling credit card debt since 2005 seems like a long time to do the juggle, but not impossible. There are few economic decisions better than getting rid of super high credit card rates.
If you drop another five pounds doing those pull ups should be easy for you. You are almost at 19 right now. With pull ups one always has to keep in mind the amount of weight that you are pulling. Some of those NFL guys who are doing 20 reps of the 225 lb bench press probably can’t even do one pull up. It becomes an almost impossible feat when you weigh 400 pounds. So I think this is very achievable, but then again you are already very fit so maybe hard to make gains at this stage.
Actually, most of the debt has really been accumulated since the summer. I got out a $6,000 bank loan when I moved into the place on Ninth Ave. with the ex-, to pay for my share of the broker’s fee, two month’s security deposit and last month’s rent they wanted. That loan is about half paid off. (And then I decided I would buy the big TV, since I would be saving so much money having a roommate! Oops. Oh well, I like the TV).
Anyway, I owe the rest of that loan — $3,000 to Bank of America at 9.9% interest — as well as $6,000 to Chase on my credit card, half of that at a 4.9% teaser rate and the rest at 12%. Payday is Friday and I also recently got some of the security deposit back (long story, for another post), so I am hopeful the Bank of America loan will be mostly paid back this month.
Also, I tried benching 225 lbs. this evening, just as a test. I lowered it like halfway to my chest but opted not to do a full rep just to be on the safe side.
Getting the pullups should be the easy (or easier) part. Ninty-five crunches in two minutes will be hard.
These are some big goals, derek, but I think you are able to accomplish them. I would be very impressed, and honored to know anybody who met the 285.
I will attempt to match you pull-up for pull-up and sit-up for sit-up, but no way can I match your speed.
Good luck w/ your resolutions!
Keep it up
just did 4.21kms in 18m 45s (i was going for 5km but i think i should have waited longer after dinner i got stich and burnt out…) so thats 4.26 min per km if i could have kept it up i would have beaten your time for sunday lol ill keep you posted you dont wanna be beaten by a 17y.o.
[…] to write boastful posts about your workout, they shouldn’t be ones where you got a stitch and “burnt out.” Weenie! And jeez, what is this about letting a 17-year-old beat me?? A young buck such as yourself […]
[…] accomplish others. I sorta started out strong and lost my resolve around March. But anyway, here are my resolutions from Dec. 2007 and how I’ve done on them. 1. Amassing a score of at least 285 out of 300 on the Marine Corps […]