I've been working on a 21 day challenge an amazing friend and Fitness Professional gave me. And when I say fitness professional, read also "he's a body builder, so I might die". My goal is to complete every single work out he gives me, and burn no less than 600 calories per work out.
And. I. Have. Been. Killing. It.
Hey look!! I said something nice about me! That's different!
So Thursday morning I woke up with a massive migraine. Like the bad kind that has you wishing someone would just shoot you and be done with it. Let's just say I didn't get my work out in. Friday I had the risidual effects of said migraine, so no workout then either. Which started to pile on the typical shame I've come to know so well.
But today is Saturday! And Saturday I woke up with zero pain. So back to the gym I went! I thought, I could start on day 8 (where I had left off on my work outs) and see how I do. So, on to the elliptical I went for my 15 minute warm up.
Then I did this workout:
Usually, this alone would be enough to kill me. I mean...those are a lot of reps!!! YouTube 21's if you don't know what they are. I did, and thought, clearly Adam wants me to die. But this was week 2 already, and believe it or not, the work out was a lot easier than last week. Still working my way up to a 60lbs power clean, but I'm getting closer!!
After said magical work out of bicepy goodness, I went and sat in the sauna for 15 minutes. I always consider this the dessert portion of working my butt off so hard in the gym. It gives me time to just sit and think about everything I've just done and dream about everything I'm gonna do.
Only this time was different. Usually I sit in the sauna with my eyes closed, or staring down at my phone or one particular spot on the wall or floor to avoid awkward sweaty eye contact with other ladies trying to squeeze out a few more calories in their work outs. But today, I was looking up, and a woman walked in who absolutely blew me away. She came in an started shadow boxing. In. The. Sauna.
It's like 100 degrees in there! And she's doing cardio! I was doing well to sit and breathe, and here she comes in running in place, throwing punches, dodging, and kneeing some imaginary bad guy in the face, and I'll admit, I totally stared.
I tried to avoid it at first. I would watch then look away, then watch again, etc. Eventually I just gave in and watched her for the last few minutes I was in there. I just kept thinking "how the heck does she even know what to do?? What combo is that? Holy crow did she just get faster?!? Oh. Now she's running in place. Dude! I WANT TO BE HER WHEN I GROW UP!!!" As I left, I looked her square in the eyes and said "You. Are a bad ass" and walked out. She smiled and bowed a little and said thank you. She was amazing.
Fully inspired by my new fitness idol, I decided to take my already exhausted body, and go tear it up some more. Remember, I had already worked out for an hour, so I thought: I'm just going to do the whole thing again, only I'll do yesterday's work out that I missed! So I hopped on the treadmill and did this:
In case you missed it...THAT'S A SUB 20:00 MILE!!!
So, in high school, clearly I was not in athletics. I was in PE. And in PE, you have to eventually do some sort of fitness test to see if you can accomplish what even the bare minimum of athletic expectations might be. Part of this is the dreaded 20:00 mile. Basically the coach brings all of the hooligan non-athletes like myself out to the track and says run around this thing 4 times and you're done. Most of the other boys and girls finished in 15 minutes or so. It took me about 30.
I remember the coach walking the last lap with me, trying to encourage me to go faster. Telling me how far behind I was and how much I needed to make up. Maybe she thought I was just blowing it off. I wasn't. I was just a 300+lbs teenager who couldn't keep up.
Every. Single. Time. I've trained in the past, I have tried my hardest to hit that goal I got when I was 16. And Every. Single. Time. I've failed. I've come close, mind you. I've hit 21:45 more often than I care to admit. Even got to 21:00 once, but could never quite hit a 20:00 mile.
Today, after working out for an hour already, all of that changed. I hit 19:30. Eighteen years later, 16 year old Kelly hit her goal. I passed the test.
I'm normal.
No. I'm a bad ass.
Because AFTER my work out, then my performance record, I then went on to do my Friday work out. This:
Which means when all was said and done, I had worked out for this long:
And burnt this many calories:
Which means while I started out like this:
I ended up like this:
That's probably the least flattering picture of me ever. But I don't care. Because today...today I was a bad ass.
