Training Day 16-ish...Completion, But Not The End

Tonight (2/28/12) was the last night of Resolution Solution. We spent 8 weeks trying to achieve our own personal New Year's resolution goals including nutrition, running, changing up workouts...stuff like that. I chose nutrition.

Each week featured a speaker of some sorts and a mini boot camp type of exercise regimen. I have to say, the trainers at the Y love to kick our yasses, but it's all good:) Along with this is the fitness assessment...groan. Five different exercises...planks, wall-sits, situps, pushups, and, everyone's favorite...12 minute dreadmill run all waited for us in the second week of class, most of which was timed...even better. These are all to measure our cardio endurance, muscular strength, and core strength.

First time out pushups-23, wall sit-51 seconds, plank 40 seconds, and 12 minute run-a penguin worthy .81 mile with the last 2 minutes at a "speedy" 4.7mph. Oh, by the way, I'm unable to do situps because of an injury...I'm really crushed by that...really.

Fast forward through 6 more weeks of extra yass-crack-of-dawn boot camp sessions and cross training during class time, and we're down to our final fitness assessment. This one is to see how much stronger we've become thanks to the Y's trainers yass kicking;).

Last time out, pushups-40, wall sit-1 min/30 sec, plank-1 minute and 12 minute run-a penguin worthy .83 miles which was disappointing, but good as well. This time around, I was able to get 4.7mph for 4-ish minutes instead of 2.:) Will I be able to sustain that for longer? Time will tell! Did I want to get up to 5mph? You bet! Will I be able to do that by Chicago in September? Who knows...

If some of you read this and say OMG...ONLY THAT FAR, or THAT SLOW? That's ok, because I say that too. I am also reminded (because I can never seem to do it for myself) of how far I've come in the past two years. I've met my goal weight, I'm working on losing more, I'm running, I'm training for 3 half marathons, I've beat Chronic Anemia since childhood, my blood pressure is down, my BMI is dropping (trust me, that's a good thing...only 5 more pounds!), I look better, and I feel a HELL of a lot better than I ever have!

The end of Resolution Solution closes another chapter on my way to maintaining my current lifestyle, but half marathon training continues, I still have Zumba, I look forward to spin classes, and welcome many more fitness (work out) challenges that await me.

This may be a completion, but it's NOT the end!

Zumbarunner...whether shaking it or running it, I'll cross the finish line!