No rest for the wicked
All this doesn't just end with the scale...there is also fitness testing, something I have been both looking forward too and dreading.
When I first started this challenge, the ninja got me to do things while he held a clipboard. Included in this testing was an 800M walk/run, push-ups, plank, a wall sit, and sit and reach test for flexibility.
And my results? Well, how do I put this? They were pathetic. At first I managed to do a wall sit for 10 seconds...and that was pretty terrible, so then I tried again and I got to 24 seconds...astounding, I know. Then push-ups, and I got to 8. Yup, 8 whole push-ups done on my knees with my gut pretty much holding me up, and not a very bendy elbow...I doubt I went to 90 degrees. And I have no idea about the sit and reach (the results are still on that sheet of paper, where ever that is...in an office, filed away)...all I remember is that my stomach and my boobs made it very difficult to bend. Nuff said. I wasn't so bad at planking in comparison, I think I got 40 seconds or so. The "run" and I included the quotation marks as I didn't run at all. I walked. I thought I walked it pretty fast too, I know I was all out of breath after completing it. In my defense, I will add that Jonathan made me run down the field with a cone, so for me it was more of a 1K than 800M. Haha...look how whiny I just got. I don't like running. It scares me. 13 minutes, that was my time. Now, THAT scares me.
That was then, this is now.
Started with the 800M run. I wanted to run at least part of it...all of it? Not sure if that's possible. 18 times back and forth down that long hallway at the Crystal...the ninja says it's nothing, I beg to differ. Oh, fuck it! Here goes nothing...I start my run, concentrating on regulating my breath (thank you, yoga) and I'm feeling pretty good, I'm feeling like I can do this...oh my gods, how much farther? Huff puff. The ninja tells me I've done 8 lengths, "You're half way there." It doesn't matter that he can't do math, he's pretty. And, I suspect that is some sort of training trick to make me think that I can do it. It kinda worked. I hyperventilated myself through another 8 laps and then I only had two to go. The ninja shouts out a time and tells me, "Do it in less than 6." I tried to lengthen my stride and go faster, put everything I had into it...and finished the thing in 5 minutes and 45 seconds. That is probably really terrible compared to other people's times...but I just more than halved my previous time...so I am pretty proud of myself. AND, I ran the whole thing!
No time to celebrate...there was more work to be done. Started with the wall sit. I have been practicing those, and I know I've gotten better. Wow, 90 degrees is really low...and there's less distraction in the fitness room...damn, I like watching the boxers or the swimmers have at 'er when I'm wall sitting, makes the time pass faster and distracts from the burning of the thighs. I'll look out the window...at nothing. GRRR. Usually I pop out of wall sits, but after a minute 19 my legs were jumping around like heavy rain bouncing off pavement...and then I slid to the ground in defeat. But still, a minute 19! Victory is mine!
The next two tests I don't want to talk about, but I will. I planked for a minute and something, I can't even remember...I've tried to put it out of my mind obviously. And, I did 23 push-ups. So both were improvements over my last numbers...however, I could tell that the ninja was disappointed that I didn't plank longer and that I didn't bend further in my push-ups...or do more of them. Awww, man...I was disappointed too, but what can you do? Let's talk about my run again! Haha..
The last test was the sit and bend, and I know I did better at that one, as my stomach has flattened significantly over the last 3 months....18 cm off my waist or something like that...not bad, not bad at all. More importantly, I can actually feel my abs when I do sit-ups now, before it felt like I was using the muscles in my jaw and neck - not pretty.
And then it was all over and I was free to go home. Awww...man, now what am I going to do?
One last ninja session before Sunday's finale, that's what!
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