This week at Mustache Fitness is a progress test week. This means one thing really . . . maxing out everything. During my session on Wednesday morning, Carley grabbed his clipboard and proceeded to write down everything he was planning to test.

  • 1 Rep Max Deadlift
  • 1 Rep Max Benchpress
  • Pushups until failure
  • 500m Row time
  • 1 Mile run
  • Max Wall Sit time
  • Max Plank
  • Pullups until failure.

Wednesday morning we knocked out quite a few on our list. I was able to do the following:

  • 20 pushups
  • 2:06 plank
  • 1:04 wall sit
  • 198lb deadlift 
  • 1:46 500m Row

In general I was pretty happy with where I was at. I was pretty stoked about my deadlift, as I had no real expectation, but I feel 198 lbs is a good start. The wall sit is brutal, and I hate it. Planks are whatever, and the row almost made me puke. Good times.

On Thursday evening, we hit our cardio gym for some elliptical/treadmill action. I decided that I was feeling up to test my fastest mile run. I did about 10 minutes of walking/jogging as a warm up, and the ramped up the machine to a 6:23 pace. 

I felt good. The first five minutes were pretty satisfying, and though I was certainly laboring, I could hold on to that pace. I pulled back a little bit to a 6:45 for the next minute and then suddenly, when I hit 0.86 miles, exactly 6 minutes into the 1 mile test, my treadmill stopped. Error 26 flashed on the screen, and the machine ground to a halt. I pounded on the reset button trying to will the belt to start up again and finish the last 0.16 I needed for my test, but the stupid thing refused to start.

I immediately jumped to the machine next to me and hit the quick start button, and as fast as possible I got the belt going to 10 mph to finish up the last 0.16. It took 1 minute, 8 seconds. Once I hit the now-combined-total for 1 mile, my final time was 7:08. I was incredibly frustrated, because I was on pace for a sub 7 minute mile, which would have been the first time I have ever run sub 7.

I know it isn't really a big deal because I am 100% confident that I was more than capable of holding the pace I had set out to do when the machine shut down. In all seriousness I was just about to ramp up the pace to finish the last tenth of a mile in a full sprint. But still, it burns.

Aside from the treadmill incident, finding the line of what I am currently capable of is actually kind of fun. Since we started lifting in September, I've noticed that certain weights, like 15lb dumbbells are significantly lighter than when I first started. It is working, and testing my limits is showing me clear proof of real progress.