Apologies in advance for length of this post…
Hello all! Life has been MANIC with guests, work and general life admin (school applications, Italian Tax forms, selling car, sorting out house etc., - we move this summer back to the UK) and so just haven't really had the time to work out OR post. I did do a Barry's bootcamp on Wednesday after the marathon which was epic, but surprisingly once you stretch out your legs in the sprints, I could actually do it! The instructor thought I was mad though.
Purple – when I have been being VERY careful with diet, it always takes about 2 or 3 treat meals before they taste ok and not too heavy. I have been eating pretty normally/treaty for this week (i.e. not low cal/carbing) since the marathon and it has shown on the scales. But I know I am about to embark on something hard core so have given myself the week off essentially!
Caitlin – what was I right about? I LOVED P90X and really did get good results (with The Zone diet) as 3 months is such a commitment that you really can see the difference/feel the fitness at the end. In answer to your question, I can't really remember doing the fit test (I did them for Insanity but I think I may have skipped it for P90X - oops) - but I remember I couldn't do one pull up without the chair on day 1. By the end of day 90 I could do 8 unaided pull ups - no chair at all. It's amazing what your body can do if you just keep to the schedule. I did lose a lot of weight too though, so it was a lot easier to lift 50kg on day 90 than it was to lift 64kg on day 1!
Ok so I have been squirreled off preparing (mentally at least!) for my next challenge now the marathon is done. I was going to do P90X again, but DH has convinced me to do something else: Goliaz Super You Transformation. DH did the Goliaz Abs to the Max challenge in March (30 day challenge) and the results were really good (but obviously not a control situation as he was also running lots of miles for the marathon). Anyway, Goliaz is a bit like Freelitics, or Cross Fit – all HIIT moves but not done to music like Insanity is, and not using weights like P90X. There are a series of workouts you have to do, as well as a strict nutrition program to follow (macros of protein/carb/fat, as well as total calorie limit) which I will do through MFP. You have to log your weight, times for completing the workouts, monthly videos, pictures and so on, which all feels pretty hardcore (and more than a bit time consuming!) You log your “daily duties” on Goliaz.com, but the whole thing is run through a Facebook group so you get the sense of community and can ask questions etc – there are 150 of us doing this Super You transformation which is 4 MONTHS LONG! Ugh. I better see amazing results as I feel this is going to be a lot less enjoyable than Insanity!
As well as the above, I am also going to do some running as I want to keep that up – to try and get a 3:39 or lower mara time for a race in October. Instead of following a straight forward running program like Hal Higdon like I did last time, I will now do lots of different sessions trying to run at mara pace etc., as well as track sprints to increase my fitness, VO2 max and overall marathon pace. So that’s between 40 – 70km a week as well (which I have to report to my Goliaz coach so he can work out what my nutrition should be given I am doing all these bloody Goliaz work outs as well).
So we started today! My work out for today was the attached ("Serpens"), PLUS 50 burpees, 50 power jumps and 50 thigh-burpees (you have to lie your thighs on the floor on the down-bit). It took me just under half an hour but this was one of the easier work outs, as I didn’t have time to do the longer ones which I will have to do later in the week. Workouts change daily, and then new ones are introduced each week for 16 weeks.
I have taken the before photo! Let’s see if I can finally get back down to my 50kg (let’s say 51kg for added boob weight) and my P90X physique with this regime come August!
Sorry for boring long post but am super excited about it!