Fitmas: Week 1

I love challenges and I love things with deadlines. That's why when my friend, Donloree, introduced her new Fitmas challenge, I wanted in.

Basically, Fitmass is a 12-week program with different challenges each week. The first week of Fitmas was the Shredmill Challenge. It was designed to be a High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) workout, with different sprint intervals on the treadmill.

My Shredmill at home

I was excited about the workout, but a bit apprehensive too. As a rule, I'm not a runner (although I've been known to do 5K's), so I was concerned about the sprinting aspect of the workout. I was also concerned about the "high intensity" part. Because of my asthma, I have difficulty doing anything with a lot of intensity for a period of time, and then I need more recovery time than most people. For example, instead of a 60-second recovery time for a 60-second sprint, I may require 90-120 seconds of recovery time.

I decided to try the workout, but to modify it a bit to be just IT (Interval Training). Instead of sprints, I did a very fast-paced walk for each of the intervals. The problem was, because I was only walking (albeit very quickly), I didn't need that long of a recovery time.

The lesson here? Modifying workouts does not achieve the goal of the workout. I kinda feel like I failed Week 1 already, but I'm excited to see what Week 2 brings.

Are you doing the Fitmas Challenge too? If you're interested in trying it, contact Donloree to get signed up!