Fitness Challenge

Vadim came over for a visit this weekend. He still has a few years to go before completing his PhD, but seeing how he is "stuck" in sunny San Diego, I don't see a need for any particular rush.

For some reason, when Vadim is around, I tend to get incredibly competitive. The "you wanna bet" phrase is very common during our encounters. This is not an easy endeavor, by the way, since Vadim is painfully intelligent. However, he is not very physically fit (such is the sad consequence of the sedentary lifestyle of a computer science doctoral student). So this Saturday, I rolled out the yoga matt on my living room floor, and challenged him to see who can do more sit-ups in a two-minute time period. I won, barely. But we both did rather miserably (30 for me, 21 for Vadim).

We decided that a mutually beneficial contest was certainly appropriate at such a juncture. So we bet to see who can come closest to getting a perfect score on the West Point Fitness Assessment, which is required for admission to the academy, by the way. We are modifying the exam, however, to exclude the basketball throw, which doesn't present much practical application to our respective professions (although grenade throwing can be a surprisingly useful skill in IT), and the pull-ups, because neither one of us can do them. Vadim is coming back to New York in December, so I have about 6 months to get up to 95 sit ups in two minutes.

By the way, I think that I know only two people who can come close to getting a perfect score on the (unmodified) West Point physical exam: former CCIT defender Jason, and former Israeli army Captain Elad.