Tweaks

As I continue to do the workouts daily I'm realizing that other parts of my life need small tweaks if I'm going to get the results I want.

This week I'm working on tweaking food. It helps that we ran out of Nutella. With summer produce readily available I'm focused on yummy salads. I'm also going to work on eliminating snacking, especially after the kiddos go to bed.

Second Fit Test

One of the perks of Insanity is that the Fit Test is done every 2 weeks. Really helps track progress. So, today was the second fit test. All numbers increased significantly. Last time I felt like my legs were what held back numbers, having just completed a half marathon the day before. Today I felt like my endurance/cardio abilities were what determined my numbers. I went as fast and as hard as I could, stopping when I needed to catch my breath.

I love that the Insanity fit test is a DVD. It ensures that you are doing each move for the correct amount of time (1 minute) and forces you to take the correct (varying) breaks between the moves. Love not having to time anything myself.

The hubby and I thought that it sounded like a good idea to do the Fast and Furious DVD after the fit test, so we'd get a "real" workout in. Twenty minutes of crazy may not have been the best idea after pushing super hard on 10 moves. The workout has a brief warm-up and stretch, then 15 minutes of going all out with no breaks. My favorite part of the workout was when, in the middle of the move, all three people on the TV are bent over trying to catch their breath. Glad I wasn't the only one!

Insanity: Week 1

Monday was the fit test. Friday is really only day four of working out. Ouch! My obliques are killing me.

Observations so far:

• I like that the workouts are shorter than P90X. I need that extra 15 minutes to recover and try to stop sweating before my shower.
• I like that no equipment is needed so there’s no time required to gather items (balance balls, etc).
• I can’t believe how long I continue to sweat after the workout.
• I prefer Tony Horton to Shaun T. But, he’s better than I expected after trying Hip Hop Abs years ago.

I’m pretty happy that the fit test occurs every two weeks or so. It’ll be a good way to see progress since nothing is written down. Course, at this point progress would be the ability to stick with a video the whole time. I do enjoy that even the people in the video can’t keep up and take lots of breaks.

The End, The Beginning

Sunday’s half marathon was the accumulation of my month of running. The morning started off with a crazy downpour of rain mixed with the requisite lightning and thunder. This, as much as our alarm clock, awoke us. Happily, by the time we left our house to head down to the race it was a light sprinkling falling. By the time we were lined up with the masses it was merely windy and a little cold. What a great way to start the race, after several days of temps in the 90s with high humidity! Come midrace the sun was fairly warm, but certainly nothing to complain about. My only complaint was that water stops were in different places than past year, seemingly fewer and more spread out.

My time was a respectable (at least in my mind) 2 hours and 22 minutes. I would have liked under 2:15, but I got what I trained for. More importantly I never stepped in a puddle, so my feet were still happy at the finish.

I say “the end” but I hope to continue to run at least once a week. There’s just something relaxing about the road.

“The beginning” is a scarier path. Monday I did the Insanity fit test. Wow! Only 25 minutes to see where one is and it turned me into a sweaty messy ball of myself. Insanity is a 60 day at-home fitness program led by Shaun T. And I think his goal is to kill me.

Today was the first workout: a cardio plyo circuit. At 45 minutes long it has you sweating the whole time. And panting. I can see why those people on the TV have their heart rate monitors. My first impressions:

• This is a lot harder on my legs than running.
• This is a lot harder on my respiratory system than running.
• Clearly I need this.
• The shorter workouts (compared to P90X or P90X2) will be nice, though I’ll still need to get up at 4:30 to fit in the rest of my morning activities and have time to cool off after working out and before showering.