Birthday Challenge (leading up to)

At some point during the past year, I became acquainted with the concept of a birthday challenge (for more info visit www.birthdaychallenge.com). I was immediately intrigued by the idea and it didn’t take me long to decide that I was going to do a challenge for my 33^rd birthday. By May of this year, I had already formed part of the challenge in my mind and completed a trial run of one portion of it. It was absolutely devastating.

My boyfriend was doing a birthday challenge that included 29 top rope gym climbs. I decided I would join him in that part of the challenge and see if I could do 33 climbs. I figured it wouldn’t be that hard because it was only one part of my boyfriend’s challenge. We spent 7+ hours at the gym that day. I finished my mini-challenge just before the gym closed. As I lay on the floor absolutely exhausted, I had the insightful realization that I was going to need to start doing some serious training for my challenge.

But before I could come up with a training plan, I needed a challenge. It took me some time to come up with a challenge that fit me just right. I decided that since this is my first challenge, the goal should be to have fun. So I chose some activities that I like to do: rock climbing, running, cycling, eating and drinking. Up until a few days ago, my challenge was to climb 33 top rope climbs in the gym (5.8 and harder); run 6.6 miles (3.3 x 2); ride 33 miles on my bike; eat 33 donut holes; and drink 33 shots of beer. After writing up my challenge to share with my friends and family, I decided to add one final element: talk to 33 people and explain what a birthday challenge is. It turned out that no one I know already knew about birthday challenges. I figured I might as well spread the good word and try to inspire some new people to live a little while I have fun myself.

With 13 days to go, I wish I could say that I have been training my ass off for the last six months, but I’d be lying. This is not to say that I haven’t been training, it’s just that I haven’t done a fantastic job of sticking to a schedule. It turns out that it’s hard to stick to a training schedule if you haven’t made one. Looking back at my calendar, I’ve tallied up the training days that seem like they include some serious and specific training. It’s looking fairly pitiful:

• 9 rides between 10 and 33 miles long
• 6 spin classes
• A handful of 30-60 minute workouts on the exercise bike
• 5 6-7 ½ mile runs
• A handful of 3-5 mile runs
• A handful of running interval workouts
• 4 days of indoor climbing with specific goals for number of problems/routes to be completed (only one of these days was 100% successful)
• 2-3 days of climbing per week (indoor/outdoor, bouldering, sport, trad, and top rope)

I have spent zero time training for the eating part of my challenge. I love donuts, but limit myself in their consumption. I’ve probably eaten about five donuts this year. I love beer too, but I’ve been such a light-weight in the past few years that drinking two beers in an evening is an accomplishment—a super-tipsy accomplishment.

My challenge is turning out to be more challenging than I was originally intending due to the location of my challenge in space and in time. Although I’m currently living in southern California, I decided early on that I wanted to be in my old stomping grounds in the Bay Area for my birthday. This decision was based primarily on the fact that I wanted to climb at Planet Granite in Sunnyvale rather than deal with a sub-par SoCal gym. However, this has placed some restrictions on my day.

My birthday falls on a Sunday this year and PG closes at 6:00 p.m. on Sundays. In addition to this time constraint, there are only 10 hours of daylight (sunrise is at 6:54 and sunset is at 4:56). Another factor that I have to consider is Bay Area weather. I feel like I rarely had a precipitation-free birthday in northern California. And whether it’s raining or not, it will almost certainly be cold. I’ve decided that I will run rain or shine, but I will be skipping the ride if it rains. I only started cycling in January (FYI, prior to January I had never ridden more than three miles) and I’ve never ridden in the rain. I have my limits in terms of challenges. I’m working on a substitution for the ride that will probably involve 33 reps of 33 exercises.

Here’s my schedule of events (weather permitting):

6:00 a.m. wake up, eat, dress

6:30 run

8:00 eat, change, stretch

9:00 ride, eat donut holes

12:30 eat, change, stretch

1:30 climb, talk to strangers, eat donut holes

6:00 shower, change, stretch, eat, talk to strangers

8:00 drink, talk to strangers, eat remaining donut holes

A small part of me is starting to feel intimidated by this whole challenge and wondering what the hell I’m thinking. But it’s not called birthday “pretty hard” and at least I’ll remember turning 33.