An Untimely, Shreddy, End

The 30 Day Shred Experiment is over.

Not because I’m a wuss (though I have to keep telling myself that).  Not because the workout was too hard.  It was challenging workout for sure, but I was able to get through it.  Not because I hated seeing Jillian’s smug mug every day saying the same cheeseball lines about “gargling my heart” or “replacing hours phoning it in at the gym”.  Not because it got boring doing the same damn thing over and over each day.

Just about the only thing that could break me did – I found myself yesterday *thisclose* to an injury.  When I first started running I had a lot of heel problems.  I had to take 2 weeks off (which literally almost drove me crazy) because each step doing something more poundy than just walking hurt like the dickens.  Of course, I’ve gotten over this.  I haven’t felt heel pain minus an odd tinge in about a year and a half.  Until Jillian came into my life.

The first week wasn’t so bad.  In fact, the overwhelming pain was leg muscles, and it was the “hurt-so-good” pain.  So I kept on.  Week 2 wasn’t too bad either.  However, I think my feet started to be sensitive as by the end of it, I REQUIRED new shoes.  I’ve been wearing the old ones to shred and honestly, nothing really seems wrong with them now.  Week 3, I only made it through 4 days and started to feel some mild heel pain.  Figure it would go away.  This week didn’t start so badly, but yesterday morning, I had to quit during the WARMUP because my heels were killing me.

If you know me, I do not quit workouts.  Starting sometimes is an issue but when I’m suited up, I’m just about unstoppable.

After considering the options, I decided that Jillian everyday was not going to work for me.  Not with running and DDR too, and I don’t want to give those up.  My heels were still mildly sore today, so I avoided running, but was able to DDR without a problem, even the super jumpy songs.  This doesn’t mean I’ll never shred again, but I cannot see doing it every day.  Apparently my heels aren’t tough enough.

So, my half-assed review follows:

Weight lost: Hard to say because I fluctuate so much, but I will say that when I started, my weight was between about 155-158.  I’m now stabilizing around 154-155 this week with a low last week of 152.8.  I would have liked to say that this was the month where I kicked the 150’s to the curb, but I just didn’t have it together.

Inches lost: I totally misplaced my measuring tape, but I found another way to tackle this problem.  Huge progress here.  I had one pair of jeans that were in the “a little tight but wearable-ish”, and one pair that would barely button at the beginning of the month (both size 6s).  I am happy to report that both pairs are now in my regular rotation (though the too tight to button, I do have to take care which shirts I wear with them as they are suuuuper low rise).

Pictures come later – I took befores, and I am going to take afters tomorrow or on a day I don’t feel so bloated. 🙂

The good:

I feel stronger.  I haven’t felt stronger like this in a while.   Through my half training my weights and reps stopped increasing and I just haven’t been motivated to do a big push on this since.  While I was only using 7 lb weights during most of the videos (occasionally I’d switch to my 3 lb ones on the second set if I was hurting), it definitely worked me over.

I discovered I needed to work some muscles I wasn’t.  I had been neglecting the squats and lunges for a long time, and had convinced myself that running worked them just fine.  Not so.  The first day convinced me of that when I was having trouble sitting down and getting up the next day after a 20 minute workout.

I had been shying away from dual moves (for example, lunges with hammer curls instead of just doing hammer curls).  Now I know that I’ll get worked over much faster by doing two things at the same time.  I mean, duh, right?  Not sure why I didn’t get this before.

I have fallen in love with circuits!  I dig the idea of mixing strength, cardio, and abs into one simultaneous workout.

My short distance running has VASTLY improved.  My easy 5ks have gone from 30-ish to 27-28ish and I did a 25 minute tempo run two days ago and got 3 miles under my belt.  My goal was a 5k under 25 minutes and this takes me so damn close.  I haven’t done a timed mile in a while but I bet I could shatter my 7:17 record.  Shredding was also a fantastic warm up for running.  If I had an hour, I did a shred and then immediately hit the pavement for a 5k.

I feel slimmer.  I may not weigh much less than I did a month ago, but putting on those skinny jeans and having them fit felt GREAT.

Traveling pushups.  ‘Nuff said.

The bad:

It just felt wrong to do the same workout 5 days in a row.  If my heel hadn’t acted up, I totally would have been down for doing alternating levels, but doing the same workout 5 days in a row?  Totally boring and bad for the muscles, imo.

I didn’t look forward to it at all most days.  There were some mornings it took me an extra few minutes to get out of bed because I didn’t want to shred.  It was definitely a “get through this” part of the workout and not a “hey cool I get to do this” part.

Anyone else just fucking hate jumping jacks?

The ugly:

As detailed above, I got really close to a heel injury.  No bueno at all.

However, I really enjoyed what I did today, but you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to hear about it.  Yes, I know I’m awful.

So I want to know – anyone gonna go shred after my review?  Ever found a great exercise that works wonders but your body just didn’t like it?  Who wants to call me a wuss for not finishing my last few days?  Any shredders and runners see a huge improvement in times like I did?  Hit me up.

Pictures from fukung.net, that don’t have anything to do with anything but made me laugh. 🙂