10 Days Left… Sort of…

Day 50, Monday, was the fit test. The one thing I really don’t like about the Insanity schedule is that once you’re in Phase 2 there is an expectation that you will do a 60 minute workout on the same day as the fit test. The fit test takes 25 minutes and leaves me exhausted. I like seeing the numbers go up, so I push myself as hard as possible for the 8 minute long increments. This does not leave me wanting to do another 60 minutes of pushing. This generally makes me want to puke. Or at least lay down. This week I gave in to the laying down.

Next excuse: my daughter is teething. She has at least two teeth super close to popping through. She is crazy drooly, which is draining and making it hard for her to breath. This is worse at night. There is much crying. And coughing. And comforting. This does not lead to much sleeping … for either of us. Long story short: I’ve taken an unexpected week off.

Next Monday I will repeat Day 50 (minus the fit test). Ten more days of crazy and it will be results time.

Sabotage

Another weekend is upon me. In this last week I’ve been thinking a lot about sabotage. More specifically, how there are two things that seem to be sabotaging my results… sadly both at my own hands:

1. Weekends
2. Eating habits

Weekends

What to say here? Sundays are my days off of working out. But Saturdays have become a day off also. And by the end of every weekend I’m feeling a drag on my energy. Previously I would get up around 6am on Saturdays to workout; this was still “sleeping in” for me but allowed me time before the family was up. My kids, or specifically my son, have decided that 6am is a good time to get up. I blame the lighter mornings.

This weekend my goal is to go for a run one of the mornings. Working out in the living room is tricky when the boy would like to play there. Sure, it’s cute when he joins me (today he was doing the football drills pretty well) but it’s challenging. And I feel like I should be interacting more with him. My hubby wants to mow one morning while I play with the kids. So, I figure I can run the other morning while he plays.

Food

There are no excuses here either. Again, weekends seem to be harder. Weekdays I’m perfectly happy to have a wonderful salad for lunch (though the excessive amounts blue cheese and walnuts may be a little more fattening than necessary). Weekdays my struggle is snacking after the kids are in bed. This shouldn’t be a struggle. I brush my teeth with my son before he goes to bed. But lately we’ve had wine in the house. And nice bread goes awfully good with red wine.

But weekends, I don’t have set times to eat. By the time I eat I’m generally over hungry and want something quick. So, we eat out more than we should.

So?

There are about two weeks left of Insanity. And I want results. I’m stronger. I can push myself harder. I want to see smaller numbers and photographic evidence. I guess I’m going to have to make some changes and quit sabotaging myself.

Recovery Week, Warrior Dash, Phase 2

So glad there was a recovery week before the Warrior Dash! It was a little odd to do the same workout daily for that week. It was a pretty good routine, though my hip flexors sure felt a couple of the moves. Focus was on core and balance. Shaun T and I have different ideas of “recovery” … I could’ve really went for some foam rolling.

I ended up modifying on Friday due to a cut on my foot. I didn’t think that I should jump around on the cut when I had the Warrior Dash the next day, so I decided to do a little P90X: Ab Ripper X and Ab Ripper X2. That’s right; I did both! It was a horrible idea. About 35 minutes total. During the workout I was actually feeling pretty good about myself and was able to do every move for the duration. By evening I realized my error. Saturday my entire core was sore when I got up!

The Warrior Dash was a blast! It was a 5k with 12 obstacles (climbing walls, jumping fire, etc). I had no idea what to expect time wise, but hoped for under 45 mins. I reasoned that this would be ½ hour for the run plus a minute or so for each obstacle. I didn’t anticipate the hilly obstacle-free first mile, but it worked to thin down the people before the first obstacle. I just wish I would have known to start closer to the front to avoid all the people walking the hills. Anyhow, my hubby and I finished together (thanks to him waiting for me) in about 43 minutes. Covered in mud and feeling accomplished.

I really thought my arms would be sore from the Dash. Instead I was surprised to find my quads killing me on Sunday. Guess the long, steep downhill was to blame. With legs still sore on Monday, I completed the fit test for the 3^rd time. I was happy to see that numbers more or less equaled the previous time. Some moves were easier and my legs were my main barrier to improvement.

Phase 2 is hard! I believe that this is due in part to the soreness that still saturates my thighs, but it’s also just hard. Workouts have moved from 45 mins to 60 mins and it seems like there are fewer breaks. Warm up moves are more whole body and get you sweating quicker. Results, here we come!

Now if I can just stop sabotaging myself with poor eating. Happily we got salad stuff today so I’ll be good for a bit.

Day 30: The Halfway Point!

I can't believe it's already Day 30! It sure has flown by. I was all excited today to do the fit test for the third time. It was done on Day 1 and Day 15... I was sad to learn that the fit test isn't until Day 36. Weird. I'm guessing it has something to do with this being a rest week.

Speaking of rest week, Shaun T has a different idea of rest than I do. This week has been absolutely killing my mid section: abs, hips, & hip flexors.

So far, my favorite things about Insanity:

• Workouts are relatively short. It's nice to be done in an hour or less.
• Workouts are crazy intense. I've seriously never sweated so much!
• The people in the videos aren't perfect. They're fit, but they often appear to be struggling. I have to say that I find happiness in watching people who are more fit than me struggling to do the same moves.

So far, my annoyances about Insanity:

• Shaun T refers to himself in the third person.
• The workouts are crazy intense. I've seriously never sweated so much!