The Shantaram Workout

One of my favourite novels is Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. It's an epic tale of a heroin addict jailed for armed robbery who escapes maximum security prison and flees to India. The colour and vibrance of Roberts' writing caused me to develop a deep fascination for Indian culture and the philosophical questions he raises still resonate with me today.

One of my favourite parts of the book is the resilience of the main character, Lin. He suffers greatly, arguably due to his own flaws, but manages to drag himself up time and time again. At one stage in the novel, he lapses into drug addiction, spending months in a heroin infused haze until finally a friend forcefully removes him from the sordid situation. He is so weakened that he cannot take more than a few steps before collapsing exhausted.

After regaining his will to live, Lin embarks on a fitness regime. Day by day, he regains strength until finally he is so strong that he is able to complete what I like to call The Shantaram Workout

The Shantaram Workout consists of the following:
- 600 pushups (20 sets of 30 pushups with a 2:00 break)
- 500 situps
- A 10km run

Ever since reading that book, it has been my goal to be able to complete that workout. Last Sunday I managed to do the first part. 600 pushups in one day. It hurt for days afterwards, but man was it satisfying:) I'm now trying to get to the stage where I can do on a daily basis. Six sets of 100 pushups would be great:)

I view situps as a pretty useless exercise, so my version will replace 500 situps with 120 pullups. And just running 10k isn't a challenge at all, so let's make it a 10km run in sub 35:00.

Summing up: My fitness challenge for 2010:
- 600 pushups (6x100)
- 120 pullups
- A 10km run in 35:00