Not long ago, I was enamored of burpees. On a whim, I decided to do them daily. There’s something about burpee that appeals to me — or something about my own checkered history with fitness that makes me feel intrigued by the idea of tackling such a thing as a burpee.

The thing is this: my last attempt at doing them often petered out.

I don’t know why. I felt great after doing them. They were so intense that, while working through a set of ten, I looked forward to getting back to the relative ease of running. I actually caught my breath while running.

But, I have to do them outside (I’m heavy and we live on the second floor of an older building — just walking I make furniture rattle).

But, a Lifehacker article got me intrigued again. Remember how much you liked just knowing you were doing burpees? Why did you stop?

Why not start again?

So, yesterday I set a timer in the middle of my run — that’s when I’m in the park, after all — and checked how many burpees I could do in two minutes. Fourteen. (I’d done that many in a set at the end of my last experiment.)

Clearly, it’s time for a burpee reboot.

Here’s the idea: I’ll do at least one burpee a day. Ideally, I’ll do three sets of half the number I can do in two minutes. If I don’t think I have that time, but one burpee seems like a copout, I’ll just do the test again.

Does it seem convoluted? It’s how my mind works.

Today’s burpees are already done.