Last fall, I posted here at Mile High Mamas about my first sprint triathlon and how I’d caught the competitive bug. Granted, I was pretty competitive already, but only where it came to Scrabble games. Athletics, not so much.

But I’m really excited to begin this year’s triathlon season, starting at the end of April and going through September. I’ve been biking and running and swimming regularly, and now I’ve added something new to my repertoire: shredding!

Yep, that’s right – I’m doing the 30-Day Shred, with Jillian Michaels of The Biggest Loser fame.

Have you heard of it? It’s intense – nonstop activity for twenty minutes straight, divided into three six-minute segments plus warm up and cool down. In each of the six-minute segments, there’s three minutes of strength exercises, two minutes of cardio, and one minute of abs. The only equipment you need is a set of hand weights. Oh, and some decent shoes and a sports bra.

And I’m not the only one doing it. There’s a whole bunch of us shredding ourselves silly this month.

The workout – I haven’t ventured beyond Level One yet myself – is great for cross-training. I can bike and run and swim long and hard, but sixty seconds of side lunges with shoulder raises using five pound hand weights can bring me to my knees.

Which I suppose is a good thing, since it means I’m halfway down to the floor, where I can do some bicycle crunches, which I hate even more than lunges and shoulder raises.

I may complain about how hard the strength exercises can be, but really, the 30 Day Shred has been the perfect complement to my cardio training. And since I can check in on the progress of the other Shredheads, it’s heartening to see that lots of us are having trouble.

But what’s better is how inspiring it is to see everyone keep on keeping on. I love that there are so many women shredding who aren’t athletic, who aren’t training for physical challenges, who aren’t even in great shape. I admire their courage, and not just for posting pictures of their “pre-Shred” selves. It takes guts to embark on a program that you know will be really tough, let alone to keep coming back for more.

Want to join in? You don’t have to have a blog. You just have to make room in your schedule for twenty minutes of shredding. Even if your arms feel like cooked spaghetti afterward, you’ll be so proud of yourself that you won’t even notice.

Well, at least until you try to pick up your 20-pound toddler. Yowza.

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