Is it the long weekend yet? We’ve got to be getting close now.
Today is actually my last day of work before the long weekend, I took tomorrow off to do some errands and get my tattered, raggedy looking hair done for the first time in 7 months, hurray!
I’m sorry for the long stretch without an update; it’s been a very busy couple of weeks. In case you were wondering, my brother is out of the hospital and is now receiving his chemo treatments as an out-patient. It’s really nice to have him back at my parent’s house, and I think everyone’s morale is up a little bit now. That being said, he does need to be careful to protect himself from infection and catching any type of sickness. There have been major ups and major downs to get us to this point. Cancer (not unlike the Muskoka IronMan) is a very hilly course to travel.
Good thing for strong quads 😉
Training has been going well. I’ve been getting out to RPM classes, and have even done a couple of bikes outside on Jilly. I also bit the bullet and ordered myself a pair of Lululemon padded bike shorts. I always swore I would never buckle and wear those “diaper looking” shorts, but when my bum hurt after a leisurely half hour ride, I figured it would be best to take some precautions before I sit on her for 4 hours straight. I even bought a memory foam seat cover. I’m not messing around okay.
I haven’t been running or swimming at all. I’m really struggling to get motivated to run. I need an impending race to scare the daylights out of me and get me to do some long runs. That being said, Matt, Neil, Jess and I are all going up to Muskoka this weekend to do some biking and running on the actual race course! It’s all a bit surreal that it’s this time already. I can remember back in December thinking to myself that it would be a good idea to go up and do some training on the course. It seemed like a lifetime away at the time.
Anyways – I’ll be back on Monday with a recap of the training weekend, hopefully we’ll all make some big strides and get “kick-started” into the next few months of preparation. The real purpose of today’s post though is to tell you about a little something called….
BODYSHRED
I know right, sounds so aggressive!
Late in the week last week, I saw a status on Facebook that got my attention. It was posted by the general manager of one of the Goodlife clubs in Hamilton, and it advertised: “JILLIAN MICHAELS IS COMING TO TEACH BODYSHRED AT OUR CLUB!! Call the club to register your spot!!”
In case you live under a rock (or just don’t waste your life watching reality TV like I do), Jillian Michaels is the celebrity trainer from that NBC show “The Biggest Loser”. She is about 5 foot nothing, 100 pounds soaking wet, and has a voice on her like she borrowed it from an NFL linebacker. The woman is terrifying. She’s tough as nails, doesn’t take any BS, has no time for excuses, and really, genuinely doesn’t seem to give a shit if her workouts make you puke, faint or cry.
I totally love her.
I’ve watched Jillian for years and years on The Biggest Loser, I’m a huge fan. A few months ago we got news at Goodlife that Jillian was going to be partnering with Goodlife to launch her brand new group fitness class (BODYSHRED) exclusively at our clubs in the next year. The fact that she was coming IN PERSON to teach the class in Hamilton was totally outrageous. I had to be there.
I called the club immediately to register my spot, but unfortunately 2,400 people beat me to it. The girl on the other end of the line (who sounded totally harassed and like she was in desperate need of a tequila shot or 20) busily explained to me that there was a huge influx of registrations, way too many for them to handle, and that head office was going to take over and do a lottery draw for the 40 spots in the class with Jillian. She took my name and phone number, and I hung up expecting never to hear from them again.
Would you believe that they freakin’ called me on Tuesday of this week to tell me that I had been chosen for the class on Wednesday afternoon!??!?!? AHHHH!!!
I seriously can’t remember the last time I’ve been so excited about anything, I was beside myself. The class was yesterday and it was awesome! BODYSHRED is a 30 minute workout that follows the 3-2-1 philosophy. 3 minutes of strength, 2 minutes of cardio and 1 minute of abs/core work. Jillian re-vamped the workout a little bit for us because I think she wanted to make someone cry, so she amped up the amount of cardio big time.
Thankfully, I did not cry, although kind of felt like it at one point.
A lot of people have asked me how BODYSHRED compares to BodyAttack, and the short answer is “it doesn’t”. It’s like comparing a watermelon to a roast beef sandwich. They aren’t the same type of workout, and shouldn’t be compared. Both of them kick my butt in different ways, and are challenging, high intensity workouts. Of course, my heart and soul are both still firmly entrenched in BodyAttack. I think they always will be.
BODYSHRED was a nice change from the classes that I do 5 days a week. It was good to mix things up a bit, challenge myself in new ways, and getting screamed at by Jillian Michaels was pretty freakin’ fantastic! When BODYSHRED launches at the clubs eventually, I think it would be a class I’d like to take maybe once a week or every other week to keep things fresh and challenge my fast twitch muscle fibres (our group exercise classes are notorious for being heavily geared towards slow-twitch muscle fibres).
I’ll leave you with a bunch of the pictures that I took during the workout; unfortunately Jillian had to make a very quick exit after class because she had to get to a speaking engagement downtown so I wasn’t able to get a picture with her 😦
My overall impression was that she is a very busy lady, and that maybe she isn’t as much of a hardass as she seems on TV. Although she was tough and very demanding in her teaching, she also seemed to empathize with those that were struggling, and offered options as well. That being said, I do seem to recall her yelling “GET YOUR ASS DOWN RIGHT NOW OR I’M REALLY GOING TO LOSE IT”…………………………make of that what you will 😉
Have a fabulous long weekend – train hard and meet me back here on Tuesday to tell me all about it!!!
Going The Distance 