The LAST Week

It's here, the last week of Insanity and I'm happy to see it. Not that I haven't enjoyed, perhaps a strong word, it, but rather 56 days or 8 weeks of 6 times a week is a lot of work. Not too much, but with work and other things going on it can be a challenge to remain consistent and committed to it. But, with 4 sessions to go plus the last Fit Test, the end is in sight!

It sucks the last session and Fit Test will be in a Hotel, but I've before so not a huge deal just a minor inconvenience. I'm quite interested to see the results of the Fit Test since I haven't done one since the 2nd one. I find it hard to tell through the weeks the gains I'm making because every session is tough, as it should be. I still hate Floor Switch Kicks! Level 3 and Full-body workout are off the Christmas card list. I have enjoyed being this active this often combined with the other things I do, minus runs, which I'll pick up again next week.

Week 7: 12 sessions to go...

I've graduated from Days to Weeks, largely because I haven't been posting daily anymore. There are only so many times you can write that the session has kicked your butt! However, my main travel is done, although there is a possibility of a Texas swing coming up shortly, so workouts will be easier. I did lose 2 workouts while I was away last week. Mainly because 11 hours in the car didn't make for me to want to exercise. Space was limited in my room but I did mange to get one session in on Wednesday, but prefer my basement for doing Insanity.

I missed one main workout and the recovery workout. I got my Friday workout in and Saturday was to be the Core Cardio and Balance or substitute with the Max Interval Sports. Initially, I was going to do Core Cardio and was all set to go, but decided to toss in MIS. Core Cardio was 37 minutes long and MIS 53 or so and I did feel like getting a good hard session in. I figured even if it was too tough I could at least make it through 37 minutes, so away I went with MIS.

MIS is different in a few ways:

1. No Warm-up like we are use to, although we always progress through the sets wisely with a slower set before progressing.
2. No Stretching in the beginning. I don't think it had a negative impact, but more on that later. 
3. Rather than the 3 sets of about 4 exercises (typically the last set has a superset added for fun) it was a sequence of sport styled cycles: Boxing, Football, Basketball, Gymnastics, and Track.

I liked the uniqueness of this session. Like all of them there is lots of fatigue and failure late in sets, but new movements and the variety was welcomed. I did feel extra stiffness/soreness yesterday and today mainly in my quads (soreness) and back (stiffness), which I attribute to Saturday's session. I did supervise my 7 y/o to be nephew's swimming party on Sat. but that was mainly treading water and walking through water. And played football Sun., but that doesn't typically bring out this soreness.

Day ??: A Change

For me, this is Day 31, I think, and if I was following the schedule this would've been my 3rd day of Cardio and Balance in the recovery week between Month 1 and Max Month 2. However, I decided to forgo this Recovery week and jump right into Month 2. I had a couple of what I think are good reasons for it neither of which are macho related.

Reason 1: I felt like I was recovering quickly from the workouts and after that first week when I had lingering muscle soreness, I was always ready for the next days workout. Further, I have been coupling all the workouts with my normal activities: Monday-Soccer; Tuesday-Curling; Wednesday-Basketball; Friday-Soccer; Sunday-Football. As well, 40-60 minute walk for the dogs each day or most.

Reason 2: And really the primary reason was I didn't want to lose momentum. Next week I will be travelling most of the week for work and will be sharing a hotel room so getting my workouts in will be much more of a challenge. I figured if I'd already been through the hard stuff once I'd be more motivated to find a way to get it done while on the road.

So, I've done Max Interval, Plyo, and Cardio Conditioning and they are all hard (er). The Floor Switch kicks in Interval are near impossible for me, at least to get the bounce rhythm they do, I'm hopeful by the end I'll be able to do a few like them. These sessions seem to put movements together, which is hard and more fun, I think. Certainly have experienced some muscle soreness again, which is telling me I'm getting at some muscles or depth of exercise I wasn't in the first month.

I found Cardio Conditioning was hard but had a "fair" flow to it. Just when you were nearing exhaustion, Shaun T would throw it a couple of exercises that gave you some cardio recovery but work some deep muscle or muscles deeply.

All in all hard but good! I'll do the 3rd Fit test Sunday.

Day 24: First Insanity on the road

The good news is I did the Plyometric session on the road. The space was quite tight and a little treacherous when my sweating was added to hardwood floor. So, my feet slide a lot in push-up type exercises but all in all a successful workout. I was also concerned with making a lot of noise as I stayed in a B&B, but apparently I wasn't overly noising or breaking plaster!

Tomorrow will be another on the road, but in two weeks it will be tougher task to get them done, but am hopeful I will get them all in.

Day 22: Fourth Week!

I've made it this far, the beginning of week 4, the mid-point in view and a set of new workouts (apparently harder) to look forward to after the recovery week. My musings for this week and that first "MAX" week are around the added difficulty of being on the road this week for 3 workouts and then in two weeks probably 4 or 5 of them.

It will make timing a bit more difficult, but should I figure it out I should be able to find away to find time for the rest of the workouts to come. I think the single greatest benefit of doing this program is that I can find the time to workout 6 days a week if I choose to. For me it is easier than many as I don't have kids, but even still most can find 45-60 minutes a day if they want to. Not always easy but possible.

Day 20: They just don't get easier

Even though I know the movements well at this point, I think I;m more tired at the end of each session, which I guess signals that I continue to push myself. 3 weeks are in the books and at this point I wish I'd taken stock of my body prior to starting. No photos taken, no stepping on a scale, no muscle measurements. It would have been interesting to see if the program is transforming my body at all. I haven't changed my diet, so even if strength of muscles is improving I'm probably not dropping a ton of body fat.

The whole "conflicted runner" blog title is because I want to run long distances, yet I don't want to give up on my other sports, most importantly soccer, which has made it hard to run to the extent I want without injury. All that is to say, that I'm still in that place while doing Insanity. I want to do all the things I do plus Insanity and it can be a little tough. Little groin injuries, back bothering me some still, etc. I have successfully stayed away from running while I'm doing the program, though during the recovery week I'm thinking of going for a couple.

My rest day tomorrow will include touch football!

Day 19: Still Working

Day 18 was a recovery workout day and it felt fine. So I will leave it at that.

Today was power and resistance, a fair bit og jumping and push-up work in this session. My back is still bother me a little so I'm trying to be careful. The biggest area of concern was the very last movement, which is hop squats/push-ups super sets. 8 squats/8 push-ups and repeat for about 4 sets. It isn't the movements that are concerning here it is that it is the final exercise and trying to push it can lead to forgoing form in the push-ups. I think I did okay with it, but back is a tiny bit more sore than before doing it.

Soccer game tonight, so we'll see how the back holds up to it and to tomorrow's session!