I have put this post off for FAR too long. It’s for a good reason though. I don’t have a whole lot to report on this fitness program — at least not at first glance. I’ve had a mental block about what to say and struggled with showing you successful before and after photos. But the success that I received from this program can’t be measured in a before and after photo – and that’s ok. It took me a while to accept that.

My goal when doing T25 was to have a workout that would compliment my running – as you can tell by the name of my blog – I am first and foremost a runner.

Running is my passion.

However, I know that it is important to incorporate cross training to my daily routine, in order to become a better runner and avoid injury… but knowing that and DOING that are two VERY. DIFFERENT. THINGS.

You name the excuse, I’ve made it. The number one excuse I ALWAYS had however?

TIME.

Not enough time. How am I supposed to spend more time working out than I already do?! Running is so important to me, so by default it gets done first and easily most days. Anything else I consider a bonus workout. When I started seeing FOCUS T25 advertised like crazy all over social media, I was STOKED! 25 minutes a day, five days a week. BOOM. Sign me up!

I had always been intrigued by Shaun T’s Insanity workout, but was not willing to do something that crazy and risk GETTING an injury at the expense of my running!

Mr. Zucchini Runner and I are pretty loyal Tony Horton fans because of the changes we experienced with P90X. For me especially, Tony is the first at-home fitness pro that I could tolerate regularly. So adjusting to Shaun T’s style was… well… an adjustment. I had to keep telling Mr. Zucchini Runner, “We didn’t like all of Tony’s corny jokes in the beginning either! Shaun will grow on us…”

And he did… slowly…

The first workout left us both thinking – wow – this is a lot harder than I thought! But, at the same time, we were able to handle it and do every move. (We couldn’t say the same for most of the P90X workouts on the first go around…)

Day 2 was almost… easy… which was great because I needed something easy, since I run Wednesday’s. (We started on Monday, so our workouts were Mon-Fri; I typically run M, W and Sat. Hard Tuesday workout + sore muscles for Wednesday’s run = not a happy Zucchini Runner.)

Then day 3 workout hit – after my run. Holy mother. Total Body Circuit was/is a KILLER workout. We were both modifying, for sure! Thank goodness for Tania, the modifier, in the video! It still stands as the toughest T25 workout in my book – including the Beta series.

In a nutshell, Mr. ZR and I both noticed after 3-4 weeks that our legs were growing and becoming more defined. PERFECT! This was exactly what I wanted.

STRENGTH.

He was jumping higher and with less effort in volleyball games and I was running faster and had greater endurance in the summer heat.

The Details
There are two segments to T25 that come with your base package: Alpha and Beta (Gamma is ordered separate, and we didn’t go that route). Each segment is only 5 weeks long – so 5 weeks of Alpha and 5 weeks of Beta was perfect to get me through summer running!

The downside: Both Mr. ZR and I started to notice that our ankles and knees were getting achy after about week 4. There is a LOT of jumping… a LOT. So, being a big proponent of listening to my body – we both took a week off in between Alpha and Beta to let everything heal up. Best decision ever. We started Beta and were able to hit the ground running. We noticed a huge difference – the break totally helped. If you do T25, I would suggest the same thing.

Now this is where things started to get a little fuzzy. Temps in AZ were starting to cool off, I was starting to pick up my mileage, and prepare for a half marathon, where my goal was a hefty PR. Mr. Zucchini Runner had a major volleyball tournament he needed to rest up for… and therefore we both had less commitment to T25. However, I surpassed my hefty PR and got 3rd place in my division, and he and his team won the tournament in their division. Not too bad!! 😉

We stuck with Beta for a solid 2 weeks before it became sporadic.

With both of our passions calling to us, it was difficult to stay engaged with the T25 workouts. Additionally, dare I say it, we were both getting a little bored. Sorry, but I’m being honest. We both expected something more in Beta, more weights maybe? Different moves? Instead, it was more of the same moves we learned in Alpha, just combined together in different sequences. I really wish we could have stuck to it for the entire 10 week period, but I would be lying if I said we did. We gave it a solid, 7 week effort and then I averaged about 2-3 solo workouts a week, versus our previous 5-6. Oh yes, on Fridays you have the option to do two workouts, or double-days as they call it. Sunday there is also a 25 minute stretch DVD, which is really nice if you are feeling stiff and sore.

In conclusion, I did really appreciate the workouts in T25 and Shaun T’s motivation did grow on me. His ability to know when your quads are burning and that you’re about to give up, is perfectly timed on the video and it’s like he’s there in person, saying “You’ve got this!” And just like moments in P90X when we’d yell at Tony, we’d yell at Shaun T too. I just wish there was more variety – seems odd from someone who can run for hours, I know. But like I said, cross training is difficult for me so I need something that will keep me engaged the whole time. Having said that, we are both EXTREMELY EXCITED for the release of P90X3 today! Good old Tony Horton will soon be back in our workout room, telling us NEW corny jokes, but this time, for only 30 minutes a day. MY DREAM COME TRUE! It has all the variety of P90X, but in half the time… which means get in, get done, get on with it. STOKED!

If you are a runner, I do think T25 is a good addition to your running regimen. I could definitely tell my running improved – the good news is – that improvement has stuck! I know I’ve lost some of that fitness and strength I gained during the program, but I’m still running personal bests!

Maybe once we get going on P90X3, I will finally get my full 6 pack abs! 🙂 If you want to join Mr. Zucchini Runner and I on our P90X3 journey, you can purchase it through my website starting December 10th. If you don’t find the program right away, check back again towards the end of the day!