We have had such a great experience watching Jen go through this challenge – Following is her final post at the end of 50 Days – that’s 10 consecutive weeks! – of Muay Thai. Great job, Jen, we are so proud of and motivated by your hard work and dedication!
The Best of the Rest
Week 1-3 The main challenges I faced in my first few weeks were learning to hold the pads for strong experienced partners, pushing myself through tougher than usual classes and the thing I struggled with most with was logistics. Getting into a routine to get myself into the Kwest gym every day, proper preparation of foods and having everything I need with me at all times, little time for error. Preparation was key.
Week 4 Break it down to build it up – This is the week I did 4000 kicks!! I’d still say this was my toughest week of them all, I’d be interested to do this week’s challenge again to see if I could handle it better now. Week 4 really set everything in motion for me, my kicks improved so much and the improvement made me really enjoy using more kicks in drills. Ever since if I’m struggling to get through a drill I remember this week and think 100 kicks? Bah I did 4000!! This week forced me tap into my inner strength and now that I know it’s there it’s something I can always go back to.
Week 5-7 Good weeks come in waves and progress happens slowly, and then suddenly, and if you don’t show up you might just miss out. I kept finding myself in the cycle of rockstar week to rock-bottom week. I’d have days where I could keep going for hours, my strength and endurance was set to max and everything felt so good, but it seemed every time I’d get in the groove the next week would be challenging and I’d feel defeated. I wanted to quit more than once, but I had decided to be a continuer not a quitter and take all the good and the bad for the duration of the challenge and see it though until the end.
Week 8-10 Finish Strong – In my final weeks running was incorporated into my routine as well as double classes and extra days. Exercise much? Managing my time up to this point was a struggle for me, but week 8 hit, a heavier workout schedule and it sort of fell into place for me. I’m finally getting it or maybe I turned into a workout zombie and just stopped noticing, maybe I could see the end and knew I could push through and finish strong. Whatever the case I found my zone and was able to maintain the intensity through until the last day! These last weeks were my best weeks and more strengths than I thought I had were realized here in zombie workout mode.
Who are we not to shine? Doing this challenge was such a wonderful experience to go through and I’m so grateful to have had the opportunity to fine tune my skills and work with some really wonderful Kwesters along the way. Thanks to Kru Kelly and his team for putting in extra time with me, teaching me new things and pushing me to my limits throughout the challenge. And also thanks to all the people who followed my posts, commented and provided support in and out of the gym. You guys are all so amazing! I really wasn’t sure the kind of feedback I would get when I first started this challenge, but I can tell you I was truly overwhelmed by the encouragement and positive response I received from you. It was so motivating for me to hear from everyone and be able to share all my highs and lows with you. My kickboxing skills and my stamina have improved A TON over the past 10 weeks, but it wasn’t always roses but I learned to push myself through some hard times. But aside from that this challenge taught me that I really have the power to make a positive impact on the people around me and I’m so grateful for the opportunity to have had the chance to do that. Moving forward I will be still be around the gym regularly, but I’m looking forward having a bit more balance in my life again and more free time for some other things I also enjoy doing. Thanks to everyone for making this challenge something I will always be able to look back on and be proud of doing. So until the next time… Let’s keep coming to class and training hard, let go of those internal excuses that hold us back. “Those excuses are not afraid of failure, they are afraid of success”. So let’s set our goals high and just go for it, we have nothing to lose because we had nothing to start with.