So it’s been about a week that I’ve been doing 100-ups. For this week I decided to only perform “minors.” I guess I figured I’d go slow with something, for once. The first couple of days I stopped as soon as I caught my back bending slightly to compensate for tired legs. By the third day I was up to 100, no problem.

What I learned this week:

• If nothing else, the 100-up is an excellent workout for the hip muscles. I recently learned that I have some hip weakness that may be causing kinks in my form (or vice versa), so the tired hips I get from this exercise is welcomed.

• I theorize that the 100-up exercise is helping build some muscle memory in my back, which is the first thing that decides to give up the ghost when I’m tired. I won’t say it’s any kind of miracle difference, but I did notice on my last two runs that I sit up a tad more, and that my back was still straight at the end of my miles.

• During this week, my friend Christian (the Maple Grove Barefoot Guy) threw some darts at my 100-up Challenge (but I think he was aimed more at Justin Owings’s, because he has more than 12 readers), proposing that squats may be an even better way to train your body to run well. I say he is right and wrong, and only wrong because I think both exercises may be only equally good. Both exercises expose your body to some of the actions of good-form running, but neither of them is anything like running (although, one could argue that at least the 100-up involves leaving the ground).