The Dad Who Won A Gold Medal At 50

The 17 long time readers can tell you many stories about the mighty athletic skills of the old man known as Jack Steiner. Ask them to talk to you about the plan to do 500 push ups a day and tell you The Greatest Dad Blogger Of Them All still has a set of guns on him.

And what that obnoxious prat isn’t talking about himself in the third person or trying to see if keyword stuffing works he’ll tell you the plan to hit 500 push ups a day fell short.

I got back to a place where I was doing more than a 100 and was on my way when I got sidetracked by life. The proverbial shit happens happened to me and I just stopped doing them.

Somewhere between aches and pains, moving several times and multiple other  poor excuses I stopped pushing up and well, I need to start again.

To be fair I didn’t fall off of the wagon entirely, but far enough away that it didn’t happen.

The Dad Who Won A Gold Medal At 50

Every night the kids and I spend some time watching the Olympics and every night I wonder what sport I could win a Gold medal at.

Three years ago I wrote A Letter To My Children in which I told them about how I consider my 42nd birthday to be among the worst I have ever had.

It was a miserable time of life. When I wrote We are fighters by birth and by choice it was more for me than for them because I was in a place where I just wanted to find a cave and hide.

But I also wanted them to have that letter so that if they ever face the dark moments they can see dad did too and remember even in the darkness you can find some light.

And now that the clouds have lifted even more I think about the games and wonder if there is an event that I can qualify for and then go on to win.

Partly because I think it would make a great family story and would be something they could be inspired by and partly because how cool would it be to win a medal.

Some of you may classify it as narishkeit. You might call it an impossibility and suggest that man my age is too old to truly compete with young people who are in their physical prime and have spent years training for their event(s).

I could put together a solid argument about why you are wrong but the bottom line is I don’t have to convince or prove anything to you because this is all about me.

Live Your Dreams

It is tied into mantra of live your dreams. The children and I talk about it often. We talk about the difference between saying and doing. We talk about the value of risk taking and how to determine when you can push the envelope.

Yeah, some of it is tied into my fragile male ego which doesn’t like the physical changes.  I have a hard time with not being able to just know that my body will respond when I ask it to.

I miss knowing I could just walk onto the court and start playing. I miss that feeling of invincibility and knowing that bruises would fade ten minutes later. I miss knowing that I could go out drinking all night and then go to work the next day and still be productive.

Mind you it is not because I want to go out drinking all night, been there done that. I don’t want to do it, I just want to know that if I did the day after wouldn’t be awful.

When Did My Parents Become Old People?

I suppose you can also attribute some of this to my parents because something happened to them. They became old over night.

Ok, that is not entirely fair, it didn’t happen overnight and I haven’t been completely oblivious into their transformation into old people. Can’t say it is new to me to see them doing the same things I remember my grandparents doing or how funny it is to see them do what they swore they wouldn’t.

But I notice it because if my parents are old that must mean that I am…older too.

That is not a bad thing, hell it is better than the alternative. Older is better than dead, but it is a sort of surreal feeling.

500 Push Ups & The Fountain Of Youth

Why do I want to be able to do 500 push ups?

Because I see it as being tied into the fountain of youth. When I get back to being able to do 500 push ups a day I will feel better and feeling better will keep me younger and less cranky.

So ultimately the selfish decision to take more time to exercise is in many ways quite altruistic. Now if I can figure out how to use that logic to cover buying that car I want I’ll really be set.

What do you think?