Day 30: The Warrior I Became

40 days ago, I hit record on my phone, got down into plank, and started a challenge I honestly wasn’t sure I could finish.

Today, I did.

I still can’t believe it’s over, and I can’t believe even more that I actually completed it. At that, as had been the case from Day 25 onward, I also finished all 465 on time. 30 minutes. Six intervals. Five minutes per interval. No make-ups. No other challenge. Just the monster finally conquered.

The funny thing is, today almost didn’t happen. I woke up debating whether I should take another rest day. I’d just finished Day 29, and my body was tired. I’d already built extra recovery into the back half of this challenge because I’d learned how important it was, and I knew another day wasn’t going to make or break anything.

But July 10 had become the day in my head. Once I started adding rest days, I quietly circled that day as the one I wanted this journey to end. I also knew the following day was packed with personal commitments from morning until night, and I didn’t want this challenge hanging over me all weekend.

So, after coffee and a little internal debate, I decided to finish this once and for all.

A Strong Start with a Gut-Wrenching Stumble

The first three intervals went exactly how I’d hoped. Steady. Controlled. Confident.

I wasn’t just surviving anymore. I had found a rhythm over the last week that completely changed how I approached this challenge. Every interval had become a meditation of its own. Establish the pace. Speed up slightly. Push through the middle. Ease into the finish. Rest. Repeat.

Then came Interval 4, when everything fell apart. Considering it was the last push of the last day of this insane challenge I decided to take on, my initial reaction was simply, “Of course this is happening right now.”

My chest, shoulders, and upper arms—the exact muscles responsible for pressing me off the floor—simply stopped cooperating. It was like they had become the emotions from Inside Out and crawled out screaming, “Absolutely not. No more!”

Every rep felt like dragging a car uphill in San Francisco. I battled the fear that this would be how it ended, the confusion of why my body chose now to stop working when the end was right there, and the frustration of feeling like, “Well, shit…after all of that, this is how we end?”

The Result of Pushing Myself Too Hard

The irony is that I knew exactly why this was happening.

The day before, I’d challenged myself to perform the first push-up of one of my final intervals without dropping to my knees. I wanted to see if I could still do it that late in the workout.

I could.

I probably shouldn’t have.

That one decision left those muscles hanging on by a thread, and today they finally decided they’d had enough.

For the first time since Day 24, I wondered if this challenge was about to slip away from me.

It reminded me immediately of Day 20. Back then, my mind kept saying, “You’ve got this.” My body answered, “No. I don’t think I do.”

But the difference today was that I didn’t know what to do on Day 20. I was still looking ahead with trepidation and fear about how much I still had left to do. I hadn’t yet figured out some of the tricks between the intervals to get myself ready for the next one. 

Taking What I Learned on the Last Lap

After I crawled across the finish line of Interval 4 screaming profanities so loud my dog, Anakin, ran under the bed, I gave myself a moment to pause. I drank a double scoop protein shake after my boyfriend suggested I needed more fuel. I grabbed the massage gun that had already become one of the unsung heroes of this challenge. I stretched, opened my chest, and gave some love to every muscle that had carried me through nearly five thousand push-ups.

And then, I came back with a vengeance for Interval 5.

The quick rest, massage, and fuel had done wonders in the brief pause I’d taken between intervals. I didn’t want to rest long enough for my body to cool down, nor did I want to push too hard. I had to be smart for the last two intervals, especially after the catastrophe just past the halfway mark. 

By the end of Interval 5, I knew I was about to tackle the final interval with more power than I had carried from the entire challenge.

In the final three minutes, with 15 push-ups per minute remaining, something hit me: Day 9.

I actually stopped, looked at the camera, and said, “Day 9 did not think I would ever make it this far.”

Because those last three minutes represented the same time I did 45 push-ups in one setting, and the first time I wondered if I’d actually be able to finish this challenge.

And here I was.

About to stomp it to the ground.

All of My Emotions Build Up At Once

I’ll be honest, since we’re here at the end: This was a f**king hard challenge to get through.

40 days of waking up wondering what kind of challenge my body would throw at me. Of filming, editing, talking to cameras and being my own motivation. Questioning why I was doing this, getting frustrated for using my knees, feeling stupid when I missed minutes or had any make-ups leftover. Showing up anyway.

Somewhere in those final minutes, everything came together. The breath. The movement. The drishti. The meditation.

For the first time, it felt like my yoga practice and my strength training were no longer two separate things.

If you’ve ever practiced yoga, you’ll know the eighth limb is called Samadhi—a state of complete integration where the separation between you and the practice disappears.

I didn’t expect to find that doing push-ups.

But somehow…

I did.

It’s All Over At Last

When the timer ended and I completed my last rep, I fell to the ground and cried. I couldn’t believe it was over, and felt overcome with relief, pride, gratitude, and even sadness that a project that had taken my interest for so long had come to an end. 

Now that it’s over, I realize this challenge didn’t teach me how to do push-ups.

It taught me that growth isn’t about perfection.

It’s about showing up imperfectly often enough that one day, the impossible becomes nothing more than a memory.

If that’s true for 5,000 push-ups…

I wonder what else it’s true for.

Thank you to everyone who followed along, cheered me on, joined the challenge, or simply watched from the sidelines. Whether you did one push-up or all 5,000 alongside me, I hope this reminded you of something I almost forgot myself: you don’t have to be perfect to be inspiring. Sometimes the most powerful thing you can do is simply keep showing up.

See you at the next adventure.

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