What happened to Insanity? I tried my best, I really did. But as I've mentioned before, trying to tackle an Insanity workout 4-5 days per week, plus Mini training, plus that other thing called my JOB where I teach classes all week did not work out. After dealing with a lot of lower back pain, multiple colds, and a constant feeling of exhaustion, I had to give Insanity up completely. Chad, however, kept at it at least 4 days per week and saw great results. He didn't lose many pounds, but his percent body fat, overall appearance and stamina really improved for just a 60-day time span. I would like to incorporate one Insanity video per week into my workout schedule--on a day where I'm not already teaching spin class or doing a long run. You're always guaranteed to get a great, hardcore workout, and we all need someone like Shaun T telling us what to do every now and then for a good kick in the butt!
Did the weather during Mini training ever improve? Short answer: no. On our 11 mile run, starting at mile 2, we had a torrential downpour, thunder and lightning. Although the rain cleared off into occasional light sprinkles after that, we were drenched for the entire run. Like clothes sticking, shoes sloshing, WET. Surprisingly, bad weather aside, the 9, 10 and 11 mile runs were all great ones for me--comfortable pace, felt good on my body and the time always seemed to fly by each week.
Then, something called vacation happened. And not just any vacation, but an international trip to Paris where my total time off work (and exercise) spanned 12 days. I returned to work on April 24th: the night of our 12 mile run. It was a day where we had a late April cold snap, but at that point, we were all used to running in frigid weather, so the low 40's didn't feel so bad. I had only intended to try to do around 8 miles, but at 8 I still felt fine, so I just kept making deals with myself: get to 9, then you can have your gel pack as a treat, get to 10, then leave the group if you need to. Then, once I made it past 10, there was no turning back, because my only choice was to keep running to get back to our starting point where my car was. It wasn't pretty towards the end, and my legs felt like concrete, but I ran the whole 12.67 miles that night (the person who mapped our route underestimated the mileage a bit.....).
As luck would have it, for our very last training run before the Mini, the temp was in the 80's and humid. Even though it was just 3 miles for taper week, it was the only run where I actually had to stop to walk a couple times because I thought I was going to get sick. Just when you think you're well-trained, throw in one tiny element like weather you're not used to, and you feel like such a weakling!
What is Jillian Michaels like in person? Yes, one of my life-long dreams to see Jillian Michaels was finally realized. Between that and going to Paris, I can now die happy. (I'm just slightly exaggerating.) She is pretty much the same on-stage speaking as she is on Biggest Loser. Not quite as mean, but not exactly someone you would call lovable. But the woman speaks the truth, and is pretty comical on-stage too. This was her Maximize Your Life tour, so I didn't really know what to expect, nor did I really care what she talked about, as long as I got to be in the same room as her. It turned out to be a 2.5 hour session where she spent the first half talking about all the nutrition and exercise basics (sort of like sitting in a college class for me) and then saving the second half for her motivational speech about getting out of ruts and obstacles to realize the life we all deserve. Most of what she said about nutrition dealt with not eating "poison." Instead of stressing what types of food groups to eat, it was about eating on a scale of 1-10 where ones are "superfoods" (blueberries, almonds, spinach, salmon, etc.) and tens are absolute junk like soda and donuts. So, the goal is eating more 1-5 foods, and avoiding eating chemicals in your meats, dairy and produce. Here are the lists that she left us with. I will be writing another post shortly about my stance on organic, but for now, here are Jillian's lists for produce shopping:
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