Sunday, April 29, 2012

Day 37 -- Day 49

Ok. You probably think that you can tell that my dedication to blogging about my Insanity challenge has fallen off just a bit. Well, it's not so much that I have lost the dedication as it is a lack of time after all the stuff that been going on. The last 2 weeks of the challenge have gone mostly like the calendar advises. I had one switched rest day last weekend because I was too sick to do the workout.

Today, I decided to do the "Fit Test" on the Rest day because I wanted to find out my progress, but I didn't want to spend 25 extra minutes tomorrow when the scheduled workout is already an hour. Sophie "helped" count the reps and Eliza "helped" during the Push-Up Jacks and Low Plank Obliques. With those two things said, I am pretty pleased with the Day 49 (50) results. They are in the table below with the Day 1 results for comparison.

Exercise Day 1 Reps Day 49 Reps
Switch Kicks 35 52
Power Jacks 26 53
Power Knees 53 92
Power Jumps 22 43
Globe Jumps 6 9
Suicide Jumps 8 16
Push-Up Jacks 11 25
Low Plank Oblique 22 46

I have doubled (or more) the reps on 4 of the 8 exercises.  I may double all of them when I take the final test 2 weeks from today.

~ Notes ~
  • My resting heart rate is now in the high 50s to low 60s bpm.
  • My blood pressure is in the normal (115/65) range after working out.
  • When it feels like an earthquake at night, that is a muscle spasm.
    • I have gotten out of bed twice and wandered to the living room to ask Kristy if she felt an earthquake.
    • The spasms are likely caused by muscle exhaustion mixed with an slight electrolyte imbalance.
  • I am ready to be done so that I can get a real rest for a week or so before deciding what to do next.
I am stuck at the 5-6 lbs of weight loss, but my body is definitely changing. I am still trying to decide whether or not to post my before and after pics on the blog.

Monday, April 16, 2012

Day 36 - Fit Test PLUS Begin Max Interval

I finished off the Recovery Week by missing only the Thursday session. I was too exhausted from traveling back from Albuquerque to do the Core Cardio & Balance session that night. This week marks the beginning of the REAL Insanity Challenge as I found out about 26 minutes into the scheduled workout. The 60-day calendar has "Fit Test & Max Interval Circuit" listed for today. As I remembered, the Fit Test took 25 minutes and the results compared to Day 1 are below:

Exercise Day 1 Reps Day 36 Reps
Switch Kicks 35 48
Power Jacks 26 50
Power Knees 53 82
Power Jumps 22 33
Globe Jumps 6 8
Suicide Jumps 8 14
Push-Up Jacks 11 21
Low Plank Oblique 22 44

I felt pretty good about my progress while I loaded up the Max Interval Circuit session. The timer on the session read "60:00." This means that after my 25 minutes Fit Test that I only had an hour workout left in the evening. I know that you are probably thinking that this is just a hyped up refresher on the moves that I have been doing for 5 weeks, and YOU would be wrong! Don't feel bad, so was I.

The whole workout was like starting over at Day 1. My shirt was dripping as were my shorts and socks. My socks were the grossest thing ever (see Kristy's blog for details). Anyway, I am still on the train. I now have just about 27 days until I attempt to get the free T-shirt. Tomorrow is a "Max Interval Plyo" session. I have a feeling my tail is going to get kicked again.

On a related note, I don't think that I will do that Fit Test again until Day 63 (there is one scheduled for Day 50). The time commitment of an hour and a half is a little much.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Day 23 - Day 30: Still on the Horse

My Insanity challenge has continued for the last 8 days. It appears that my dedication to the workout program is much greater than my dedication to blogging about it. On Days 23-28, I finished off Week #4 of the calendar with a slight hiccup. On Easter weekend we had company, so I switched the Rest day and Plyometric Cardio Circuit day -- no big deal. I was actually able to work my way through that strange calf muscle issue. I have some optimism that the injury or strain or tweak is finally behind me.

Day 29 and Day 30 (along with the next 4 days) are sessions with the "Core Cardio & Balance" DVD. This DVD is a bit different. The goal of this disc is to allow you to keep what you have gained over the last month and give your body a rest from the hammering it has taken over the same period. It would be a bit easier EXCEPT that I am in Albuquerque (elevation ~ 5400 ft) for the week. That means that my recovery week has actually become altitude training. I must say that my timing is pretty good (lucky really) because I don't think that I want to be doing anything associated with Insanity that starts with "Max" at altitude for the first time.

I have had some strange conversations with a few people over the last month that mentioned that they had gone 35 or 45 or 50 days into Insanity before stopping. I have high hopes that I won't have that story to tell in a little over a month. I am rapidly approaching the halfway point, but looking at the calendar, I don't think that it is downhill from here.

Monday, April 2, 2012

Day 20 - Day 22

Since none of the workouts are new until next week, I thought that I would summarize these 3 days of my Insanity challenge into one post. Saturday (Plyometric Cardio Circuit) was a tough one for me. The calf injury started to reappear late in that workout. I nailed the session scheduled for Sunday (OFF), but we have already discussed that the OFF sessions were my specialty for at least 10 years.

Today was the much despised Pure Cardio & Cardio Abs workout. I am continuing to improve on the effort that goes into it, but I can't see ever looking forward to it. Tomorrow is another Cardio Power & Resistance session, but I will be in Walgreen's in the morning looking for a way to keep my calf and Achilles tendon from hurting so much.

~ ~ ~

We are getting a new family member tomorrow. Bentley currently lives in Ft. Smith with a couple that has to travel a ton, so boarding him is expensive and he hates it. Sophie is so excited that she can hardly control herself (not really all that different from non-excited Sophie). Eliza loved chasing Lily (the Wheaten terrier down the street) a couple of weeks ago. Hopefully, we have happy girls and a happy dog this time tomorrow night.

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