Round 2, Weeks 8, 9 & 10

December might not be the best month to do Insanity.  Weeks 8 and 9 didn't go so great and I blame the holidays. It is very hard to follow a diet when you are constantly being force fed Christmas cookies and New Years champagne.  There is also so much less time from trying to get ready for the holidays and actually celebrating them.  I know that I started my first round of Insanity during December and I managed to keep my diet and schedule under control but my life was pretty different in December 2012 when compared to December 2013. Despite all of this, I did manage to keep up on all of the Insanity workouts but did end up skipping a few running ones.

I started week 10 with a new resolve.  A new year and a new opportunity to get back into the swing of the program!  This started great until Friday and Saturday.  I woke up on Friday feeling totally wiped out.  All of my muscles were sore and I was just exhausted so I decided to post pone that workout.  I also skipped my workout on Saturday because I needed to watch the Seahawks beat the Saints.  This means that for the first time in this round, I am behind schedule.  There isn't enough time left to get caught up so I will have to make up those workouts after I finish weeks 11 and 12.

Speaking of 11 and 12, those are the final weeks!  That means that my next post will probably be the last for a while.  I have decided to hold off on posting it until I make up the workouts I missed and complete all the running workouts I skipped.  There are a lot of them.  So, you'll just have to tune in in a few weeks to see how this experiment turns out!

Round 2, Week 7

Oh man, I forgot how long these max interval workouts are!  This week would have been week 6 if I had been following the Insanity schedule as written.  It starts off with Maximum Interval Circuit.  For me, this is the most intense of all the Insanity workouts.  That could be because at 55 minutes it is the longest.  That's only 10 minutes longer than plyometric cardio circuit, but that 10 minutes includes an entire circuit that is repeated thrice. The following day was Max Interval Plyo.  I think this one is a little easier, which surprises me because I still consider plyometric cardio circuit from month one to be pretty tough.  That's mostly because of all the upper body shit during the second circuit. Max Interval Plyo does have a few moves thrown in that don't really do much for me (like the pogo) so I get a little bit of a recovery at a few points.  Also, the 3rd circuit is only gone through once.  Max Cardio Conditioning is my favorite.  I imagine a few Insaniacs will find that crazy.  It is intense so the time goes by pretty quickly and I am stronger with cardio than I am with any thing that requires a lot of strength.  There are some push ups and stuff in there but since it is just one long circuit, I do what I can and move on.

I did manage to get all of the workouts in, but I did have to make up a Max Interval Plyo at the beginning of week 8 because I had company over during the weekend of week 7.  I can't stand having people watch me work out so I decided to swap a run from week 8 for the missed MIP.  Anyway, I'll get in to week 8 and 9 with my next post but I will give you a hint that so far it isn't going well!

The Max workouts are hard and my muscles were pretty sore. They still are a little.  I mentioned in my last post that I got a foam roller to try to workout some of the kinks and knots.  I was originally using the Marathon Stick which really helped me while training for my marathon.  However, it could not work my quads, glutes and hamstrings enough because those are massive muscle groups.  The foam roller allows me to put a lot more pressure on those parts because it uses my body weight to apply the pressure.  It still isn't enough for my hamstrings so I'll probably have to get a PVC pipe or something in the future.  Anyway, YEOWTCH!  If you have ever used a foam roller, you know what I'm talking about.  It is almost unbearably painful at first.  Especially along my IT band, which I had been neglecting with the Marathon Stick and could be the cause of some of the difficulty I've had with running lately.

I've made a few changes to my workout habits, which I feel I am able to do since I am an Insanity veteran and did the program to a T the first go round.  The first change I made is a big one.  The workouts are too damn long now so I skip the first round of stretching.  I read somewhere that static stretching really does nothing to prevent injury and by fast forwarding through them I shave 5 minutes off the workout but still burn the same amount of calories.  I do not condone skipping the warm up at all, okay?  The next change isn't that big of a deal.  I hate the warm up during the Max work outs, especially the floor hops side to side, so I skip that move.  What is it supposed to warm up anyway?  I do butt kicks now instead.

Weeks 8 and 9 are another pair of running hybrid weekends.  I like to break up the workouts but so far the hybrid weeks have become excuse weeks and I've been skipping more running workouts than I should.  It kind of defeats the point and makes me wonder if I should just do Insanity straight.  Those are thoughts for when I finish the program.

Round 2, Weeks 5 &6

Halfway through!

Halfway if you don't count the skipped workouts, I'm afraid.  I was hoping to go a week without having to skip a workout but that did not happen during these two weeks.  I skipped cardio abs for both weeks.  I might make those up on my rest days but lately I've been having to use my rest days to make up for a previously skipped day!  Does cardio abs really do anything anyway? Other than that I skipped a running workout on week 5 and two Core Cardio and Balance workouts for week 6.  Those are all workouts that I consider skip-able so I am still on track with all the main Insanity workouts.

I bought a large foam roller today.  I am about to go use it and do not think the experience will be a pleasurable one.

I have now completed all the month one workouts.  Next week we start the Maximum workouts!

Round 2, Week 4

Oh cool, I'm a third of the way through!  Actually I'm not sure if that's good or bad.  I'm already feeling a little burned out and it's been pretty hard starting the workouts when I get home from work.  Despite this, week 4 went pretty well.  I didn't have to skip any workouts, even with Thanksgiving.  My diet has been pretty shitty, though.  I'll work on that! This week was a straight Insanity week but I replaced the fit test and the recovery day with running workouts.

Let us venture forth!  Weeks 5 and 6 await!  These are running/Insanity weeks so hopefully more variety will get me out of my funk.

Round 2, Weeks 2 and 3

Hello.
I don't have too much to say about week 2.  Mainly because it was so long ago and my memory sucks.  I did not miss any workouts and the muscle soreness has subsided.  Maybe I did miss a workout. I vaguely remember writing something about missing a day in my last update.  I'm not going to check.

I do know for certain that I missed two workouts during week three.  One was unavoidable due to a concert I didn't want to miss (it was the "rock" show, so no orchestra and choir, but still awesome) and I would like to say the other one was unavoidable but that would just be me making excuses.  I ended up rearranging the schedule a bit so that the missed workouts were running ones instead of Insanity ones.  I'll more than make up for missed running workouts when I get back into marathon training so I'm less concerned about missing those. Missing Insanity workouts would defeat the whole point of doing this so I make an extra effort to get those in.  If I do end up missing one I guess I'll just make it up after I get through my whole program.

The running days I haven't skipped have not been great.  Most of them are on the treadmill because I'm too much of a weenie to go out in the cold. I've also been having these strange leg stiffening problems about 15 minutes into the runs.  They make my form suck and force me to stop and stretch ever mile or so.  It is pretty annoying and I hope I figure out the problem soon.  It might be from shitty form and it might be because I'm a shitty runner.  It's most likely a combination of the two!  That does bring up one of my favorite aspects of running: its a learning experience. After every run I look back to see how it could have gone better and I look forward to trying to improve my next one.

Happy Thanksgiving, USA readers! Happy Hanukkah, Jewish readers!

Round 2!

Hello again!

In the time since I last finished the Insanity program, I did a lot of training for a half marathon in April followed by a full marathon a month ago.  I was planning on relaxing for a month and then starting my second round of Insanity at the beginning of December.  That wasn't really working for me, though.  I tend to become very, very unhealthy when I'm not working towards a workout goal.  Therefore I decided to start round 2 a month early!

Things are going to be a little different this time.  Here's what's changing:

1. The biggest change is going to be with the actual workout schedule.  I have trained very hard to become the mediocre runner that I am today and I really don't want to lose that. I modified the program to create a running/Insanity hybrid schedule.  It looks something like this:

If you are familiar with the program then you might be able to pick up what I actually did.  First, I got rid of the recovery days on Thursdays because I hated them.  I replaced all those with an easy run.  I also got rid of the fit test because I hate those as well and don't give a shit if I improve my reps. I'm in the best shape of my life and I don't really need any evidence of getting in even better shape.  The proof will be in the before and after pics (I hope!).  I then alternate between running and Insanity for every other week of the original insanity schedule.  That changed this beast into a 3 month program instead of 2 but that actually works better with my longer term plans of starting training for my next marathon.  Oh, this might help: PCC=Plyometric Cardio Circuit, CPR=Cardio Power and Resistance, PC= Pure Cardio, Run=Run (DUH!), Abs=Cardio Abs, MIC=Max Interval Circuit, MIP=Max Interval Plyo, MCC=Max Cardio Conditioning, CCB=Core Cardio and Balance.  I think that's what all the workouts are called.  I don't feel like grabbing the Insanity workout calendar to check.

2. I won't be doing daily updates this time. Daily blogging was important to me during the first round to keep me honest and accountable.  Life was different back then and I had time to do that.  I'm a busy dude these days so updates will be far less frequent.  Maybe I'll shoot for a check-in on the Off days.

3. No shoes! I learned from Shaun T's blog that he doesn't wear shoes when he does Insanity at home. I gave it a shot back when I was doing Insanity workouts alongside my marathon training and it really helps with the form and landing softly. It will also be better on my poor carpet.

I believe that's it.  I think I actually lost a fair amount of fat during my marathon training so my goal with this round of Insanity is to get some more definition.  I do not want to bulk up because I am still a runner and don't need that added weight.

I did a nice and easy 3 mile run today.  Tomorrow is Plyometric Cardio Circuit! I'm excited!