You Want Me To Do How Many Burpees?

Me doing a burpee in 2011.

Every year around St. Patrick’s Day my sister Jaye and brother-in-law RJ host a charity event called “Beer and Burpees.” They did not come up with the idea, but have made it a fun local way to give back and get really sore.

The concept is simple. Do 75 burpees, then chug a beer (or a carbonated non-alcoholic beverage); then do 50 burpees, then chug a beer; then do 25 burpees, then chug a beer. It is surprisingly difficult to swallow anything carbonated after burpees - not too many people actually chug the beverages.

(The “original” version of this starts with 100 burpees, then 75, then 50, then 25. That’s insane so we skip the 100.)

Whoever does it in the fastest time wins and gets to pick the charity the money will go to. Actually, whoever does it in the second-fastest time “wins”. RJ always wins by a lot, the rest of us compete against each other.

Not too long ago (maybe 4-5 years) I was the “winner” with a time around 12 minutes. For comparison, RJs fastest time is under 9 minutes. My usual goal is to finish the first round before RJ finishes the second. The past couple years I have not been able to do that. This year, however, I did.

Not only that, but I was the second person to finish round 1, and was on pace to finish the whole thing in under 16 minutes. That did not happen as I slowed down to finish second (third) with a time of 19:34.

But here’s the thing: my only workouts in 2022 have been yoga. I’ve played ultimate a bit, but haven’t been lifting weights or running or doing any cardio to take it easy on my knee. I wasn’t sure how this would translate to such a cardio-heavy workout, but I did far better than I thought I would. Strength was there, proper form was there, I just ran out of wind earlier than I normally do. I’m quite happy with that result, and look forward to getting back into more running as soon as my final knee injection is done.