30 Day Challenge- Results

I joined up with Shannon at Life After I Dew for a 30 Day Ab Challenge.  I signed up on July 20th  (HERE) but didn't actually start the exercises until July 22nd.  It's taken me a week or two to muster up the courage to post the Results- but here they are!

These ab exercises are no joke.  On day 1 there were 2, yes 2, that I could not do- period.  I tried 3 Roll V Ups  and just could not get it.  I'll tried them, but I do not do ab exercises incorrectly or I will mess up my back.  So I gave it 3 tries each time and then moved on.  Okay so that's a bit of a lie. I tried 3 of them for about the first 10 times I did the challenge and then gave up because it wasn't happening for me. I also had a hard time with the Leg Climbers.  But after two days I was able to do them.  I had no issues with the Kayakers.  Omitting the Roll V Ups it still took 15 minutes for me to do the exercises.  The Cross Leg/Wide Leg Sit Ups slowed me down every time.  And the Hip Butt Ups.  This one just left me clueless.  I did them, but I didn't feel like it was working any particular ab group.

So... I didn't do these every day of the challenge.  I did it 4 days the first week, then probably 3 days the next week and maybe 2 or 3 days a week since.  I do think they work!  But I'm just forgetful.  I would forget to do them until 10:45pm and then not feel like doing them before winding down for bed.

And seriously, remember to stretch.  I didn't stretch one night and the next morning I totally messed up my back when picking Noah up out of the crib.  

I did not run another mile in July after writing my 30 Day Challenge post, so I finished up the month with 19.5 miles.  I finally started running in August mid-month and finished the month with 28.4 miles.  It's really hard to do the ab exercises after running because my abs were so worked already.  But I think the results are better when I'm doing some cardio with the ab workout (obviously!) Switching to doing the ab workout before running worked better.

So this post seems like a lot of excuses. Can I quote Aviva from RHoNY here just because this is an amazing quote?  "Excuses are like assholes, every one has them."  I really meant to keep at this and do it.  But summer is busy and hard (I had a birthday party to plan!) So I feel like I failed the Challenge due to lack of participation.

I do see a change.  It's not huge (hello lack of participation) but definitely more definition.  So I'm keeping with it.  Now that I've memorized the ab exercises I'll keep doing them before I run (I hope!)  And I better be running because I have a 5K on Saturday; I feel lazy already...