Tom Grundy's 50 X 4 Challenge Page

In honor of my 50th birthday I decided to do a 50 challenge, but instead of doing one thing 50 times on my birthday (like doing 50 climbs) I decided to stretch things out - 50 things 50 times over the 50 days leading up to my 50th. Some were easy and obvious things to do and others took a little more thought. Also some would be more than 50 - why do 50 handstands when you can do 50 minutes of handstands? So I set to work. Some of my tasks were ambitious, but rather than make them too easy, I aimed high for some, with the plan that I wouldn't spend heaps of time and effort doing something I didn't want to do if it was just for the challenge.

my board of tasks

When I started I didn't have a full 50 list, so for the ones added later I either had to play catch up or just do a less rigorous amount. I also tended to go heavier on stuff I could do at home compared to things I had to travel to do. I definitely wasn't always working efficiently towards this goal - one day out bouldering I spent the entire time getting worked on a V6 I never did get and another time I only did one problem in addition to the one I was working on. I also had a few climbing days where I only actually climbed 1 or 2 climbs, although sometimes there were multi-pitches involved, or long walks and taking photos. Muscle cramps and injuries slowed down the effort a bit too.

Tom Grundy's 50 X 4 Challenge List

The actual number is in () although I often forgot to record them all, so I probably did more - for example on the bicycle I didn't count anything under about 5 miles.

1. 50 miles run (50.08)
2. 50 miles hiked (>55)
3. 50 miles biked (>100)
4. 50,000 feet elevation gain (>3300)
5. 50 climbs (50 climbs, 67 pitches)
6. 50 boulder problems (57+ problems)
7. 50 bouldering V points (61 V points)
8. 50 laps on a slackline
9. 50 slackline poses
10. 50 minutes on a slackline
11. 50 handstand presses (really lots more)
12. 50 seconds continuous handstand (55 sec = best)
13. 50 minutes cumulative handstand
14. 50 minutes inversion (not handstand)
15. 50 yoga poses
16. 50 sun salutations
17. 50 one-armed croc balances
18. 50 pull ups (>250)
19. 50 push ups (>800)
20. 50 hanging leg lifts (500)
21. 50 shoulder band excercises (500)
22. 50 hammer elbow excercises (480)
23. 50 Liz leg lifts (2550)
24. 50 down dog pushups (500)
25. 50 squat swings (1250)
26. 50 leg swings (500)
27. 50 dips at park
28. 50 military presses at park
29. 50 leg swing stride at park (100)
30. 50 leg swings side to side at park (100)
31. 50 hangboard hangs
32. 50 side plank lifts
33. read 50 chapters (70)
34. read 50 poems (101)
35. take and process 50 photos
36. post 50 pics online
37. upload 50 pics to sell
38. floss 50 times
39. pick up 50 pieces of trash (>100 by a lot)
40. sew 50 stitches
41. 50 high fives/fist bumps/handshakes/hugs
42. eat 50 olives
43. eat 50 cookies
44. 50$ worth of dumpster food
45. 50 cartwheels
46. 50 silly walks
47. play 50 songs on the trumpet
48. massage / roll 50 body parts
49. meditate 50 minutes (well spend 50 minutes trying anyway)
50. write 50 emails or messages

I had some other ideas - like eating 50 eggs a-la Cool Hand Luke, but I didn't start keeping track soon enough (I still might have done this one though). Another was jump in 50 bodies of water - but it is a little late in the year for non-warm ones and I can only think of about 15 I'd want to jump in now.

The task I most failed at was the 50,000 ft of up. I made it if you count going up and down but I decided early on I didn't want to spend a number of days just slogging uphill- at least not if I wasn't going to get to climb at the end of it.

I also didn't finish my letter writing, so if you didn't hear from me I either haven't gotten around to it yet or don't have a good email anymore or I'm just old and lazy. You can always write to me if you want to. 48/50 isn't too bad and besides I've still got a few more hours, although I am old enough to know that it is better to hang out with my friends for a bit than to stay home to type on a keyboard.

cake and ice cream from Jamba

I remember when my soccer coach Jack Marshall turned 50 - we had a little celebration at a game one day with a "nifty is fifty" theme. 50 sure seemed like a long ways away back then (I think I was on an under 14 team). Nothing like hitting a half century to make you think about your place in the universe. I have been messing around with the astrotracer feature on my new camera - here is the Andromeda Galaxy...

Andromeda Galaxy

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