May 22, 2012 – GRIT By Brit

It all started with an 8 minute mile…

At my high school, in the lovely town of Mesquite, TX, you had to run a mile in 8 minutes or less to be on ANY sports team at ANY level (Freshman, JV or Varsity). No matter how talented or skilled of an athlete you were, no 8 minute mile = no spot on the team. So let me give you a little background as to why the 8 minute mile requirement, to this day, is the most stressful personal challenge I have ever confronted…

Me in 5th grade, my 2nd year playing organized basketball. Of course my mom made sure the entire team had matching hair bows 😉

At the start of 7th grade I weighed about 165 pounds and wore a size 14 in women’s clothing (see pic below). BUT, I still LOVED sports! Luckily, I landed a spot on the 7th grade girls basketball B-team- YAY! On the first day of practice, I ate my usual ham and cheese Hot Pocket for breakfast. This was also the first time, in my life, that I ever ran (mostly walked) a full mile. HOWEVER, I did finish that mile in 11 minutes and 55 seconds. As soon as I crossed the finished line I puked that entire Hot Pocket right in front of all of the 8th graders. Long story short, my middle school years were definitely not my best.

On pee-wee drill team right before 7th grade, although there was nothing “pee-wee” about me…

After a year of puking, stressing about conditioning workouts and just trying to fit in, I actually saw progress. On the last of day practice that 7th grade season, our coach made us run the mile again. This time I finished in 9 minutes and 6 seconds – WOO HOO! BUT, my world was crushed when the high school coaches came to visit on the last day of middle school. During their high school preparation speech, they broke the news about the 8 minute mile requirement. At that very moment, my world fell apart. I mean, seriously, did they realize how much torture I had to endure just to get down to 9 minutes and 6 seconds? I was officially in panic mode.

All summer I ran and prayed and ran and prayed in hopes that I would be able to run the 8 minute mile on August 16th. My mom even put me on the prayer list at church; I think she was just as nervous as me. This was also the summer that my dad and I established a special bond which still holds today. He would run with me in the blazing Texas heat and always encourage me. “Hard work ALWAYS pays off,” he’d say. The week before the official high school timed mile test, he and I did a trial run. I was feeling good and ran my butt off! But the minute I crossed the finished line my dad shouted out, “8:15 – almost sweetheart, you’re just 15 seconds away.” At that point, I literally broke down and cried. What more could I do? I ran every day and pushed myself to the limit yet still had not reached my goal…

Finally, the big day came. I was so nervous I could hardly sleep the night before. I wanted be on the high school basketball and volleyball teams SO very badly and had actually become pretty good at both sports. The 8 minute mile was the only thing standing in my way. As we all walked up to the starting line, I said a prayer and took a deep breath. When coach yelled, “GO” I ran as fast as I possibly could. It was like something came over me. The only thing I could think was, “just don’t slow down, just don’t slow down.” Finally, I rounded the last curve and thought to myself “SPRINT!” That’s exactly what I did. When I crossed the finish line coach hollered out “7:56”! I broke down and cried, the same way I did during my trial run, only this time they were tears of joy! My teammates couldn’t understand why making the 8 minute mile meant so much to me, but it was the first time in my life that I truly understood my own strength. This accomplishment marked a new phase of self-confidence and personal pride that I still hold at 27 years old.

After making the JV basketball team my Freshman year, 1999 = PROGRESS!

I went on to have a successful high school athletic career earning 1st team all district honors in both basketball and volleyball. I even went on to play basketball at the NCAA Division 1 college level for 4 years. I was co-captain of my college basketball team at Cornell University and made the Big Red Power Wall of Honor for 2 consecutive years. The wall of honor is for the top 2 athletes on each varsity team who ranked the highest in a variety of strength and conditioning tests. Who would have ever thought my name would be on that wall? Definitely not me!

So, from a size 14 , 11:55 mile running, 7th grade “B” team basketball player, I’m telling you, there is NO SUCH THING AS IMPOSSIBLE!

Cornell vs. Army 2004 – my Junior year of college

“What is impossible with men is possible with God.'”

Luke 18:27 (NIV 1984)

Hey guys, I hope your week is going well! Jan is back on the scene with an update of her home stretch on the 4-week tone up challenge. Only 1 week left, so let’s root her on!

JAN’S TONE UP CHALLENGE WEEK 3 UPDATE:
“Week three was a challenge but ended up pretty well. I was traveling at the end of the week so I had to push all of my workouts up to the front part of the week. As Brit says, ‘NO EXCUSES.’ I worked out pretty hard-core the first 4 days . I did spin class 4 days straight for my cardio. I also, took Brit’s advice from last week to ‘up the intensity’ so I added her leg workout after my 1st day of spin and Brit’s medicine ball workout after my 2nd day of spin. But that’s not all, I also did at least half of Brit’s ab workout all 4 days – yeah! I was feeling pretty good at end of the week and took the weekend to recover and rest. I think I am starting to want a little more variety in my workouts each week. So, Brit you’ve got some work to do 😉 ” – Jan

BRIT’S FEEDBACK FOR JAN

When workout boredom starts to set in, seek Variety NOT Excuses: Jan did a great job of keeping with her workouts despite them starting to feel redundant. Next week, I’m going to give her a few new workouts to change things up. In the meanwhile, she should check out my unique treadmill workouts or my top 5 tips to spice up your workouts.
Be flexible with your workout schedule: Mentally, it’s very easy to set rigid workout plans and eagerly want to abide by them. However, when we miss a workout or fall off course we get disappointed, beat ourselves up and lose motivation . Jan did a great job of being flexible with her workout schedule. Since she knew it would be tough to workout during her weekend travel, she planned ahead and pushed her workouts up to front of the week. Likewise, if something comes up and you miss a workout, don’t beat your self up! Just schedule some time later in the week to make up for it 🙂
Extra diet discipline during extended recovery periods: Since Jan compressed her workouts to the front of the week, this means she went 3-4 days with no exercise. During this extended down time Jan really needs to watch her calorie intake as she is not burning as many calories as she usually does on workout days. Also, studies show that it only takes 48 consecutive hours to start losing cardiovascular endurance, therefore Jan should try to be as active as possible on her off days (i.e. walk instead drive when possible, take the stairs instead of the elevator, etc.)
Stay strong to the finish: How bad do you want it? Jan has already made it through 75% of the tone up challenge, so now she has 2 options: 1) Bust her butt this final week to get the most out of the effort/investment she has already made 2) Coast/slack off this final week and risk falling short of her tone up goals. NEVER let all of your hard work go unrewarded!

Stay tuned, next week will be Jan’s final report and completion of the 4-week tone up challenge. You don’t wanna miss her awesome body transformation photo shoot, by the one and only Anna Jane!

There’s no such thing as IMPOSSIBLE

Tone up challenge week 3 report: Jan proves there’s NO EXCUSE to skip workouts