it’s insane

Yesterday I decided that it was finally time for me to give Insanity a try. I’ve had it for a while, but I didn’t want to start anything new during marathon training. At this point, I’m feeling 100% after the New Jersey Marathon and I still have just about a month before Marine Corps Marathon training begins, so I figured now (while I’m easing back on running a bit) would be a good time to check it out!

So, before the girls woke-up yesterday, I headed down into the home gym and got started. I opted to skip the Fit Test. If there is ever a Fit Test, I always skip it. I’m all grown-up now and I frown upon tests. Instead, I jumped right into Plyometric Cardio Circuit.

As the name suggests…there was many, much jumping going on. It was reminiscent of my experience with P90X2’s Plyocide last year. Towards the end, it was challenging to keep up with, my heart was pumping, but it was so very repetitive. The same moves over and over again. At least on the treadmill I can turn up the music and zone out. With Insanity you have to be totally present, which left me staring at the clock counting down the seconds until we did something different.

Then, randomly, they started doing yoga right in the middle. I don’t particularly like cramming 10 minutes of yoga in the middle of a high-intensity cardio workout. I skipped it. I already have my own yoga practice going on, so I don’t want to rush through it and end up wasting valuable cardio time.

Towards the end I was still going, but I was definitely feeling fatigued. It was a short workout out (especially since more than 10 minutes was dedicated to stretching), but it definitely required a whole lotta’ energy!!

Then this morning arrived. 24 hours later. Did I mention that I wasn’t sore AT ALL the day after my marathon??? 26.2 miles…no soreness. 30-ish minutes of Insanity and I can barely walk! I somehow managed to get a 4 mile run in this morning, but I have no idea how I got the food shopping done today as well. On my way home I actually let out a small whimper when I thought about all of the bags I would soon have to walk into the house.

Insanity definitely woke-up some of the lesser used muscles in my legs!! That right there earns it another shot. I’m not going to follow the calendar, I still run at least three days a week and I have no desire to double-up Insanity workouts on running days. As it is, a few times a week I double-up running with yoga…but I think that’s more of a complimentary pairing rather than an overboard fitness obsession!!

Tomorrow I’ll be giving Cardio Power & Resistance a try…which I’m not entirely sure is such a wise decision considering I have an eight mile run scheduled for Saturday morning?! Wish me luck!!

plank a day

Since finishing-up my last fitness challenge I’ve wanted to find another. Unfortunately, every time I sit down with my laptop I get completely sidetracked and eventually run out of time. It’s disappointing because I was hoping for something good to take me through the rest of the summer.  It’s still on my to-do list, but in the meantime I’ve decided to go with #plankaday.

If you spend any length of time on twitter it is impossible to not notice all of the planks going on. I resisted at first. Mainly because I do planks a couple of times a week and that seemed more than sufficient for me.  But seeing it all over the place definitely piqued my interest and honestly…I spend a decent amount of time on the floor playing with both my six-year-old and seven month old daughters.  So, ‘ya know. Since I’m down there already.

Today was my first official day. Exciting! Or maybe not. To be honest, in my humble opinion, the traditional plank could quite possibly be the single most boring contribution to the fitness community. I’m not saying that it’s not useful or that it isn’t a great idea to get into the habit of doing them. I’m just saying that I find running on the treadmill for six miles, in my basement, facing a blank wall…to be less mind numbing.

The first 30 seconds or so I had to repeatedly stop myself from going all P90X2 on my plank…

But I resisted and held a traditional plank for just over three minutes.

I think I probably could have gone longer, but last night I effectively destroyed all of the muscle tissue in my deltoids* with my free-weights, so they were kinda pissed and a whole lotta shaky this morning.

I think the biggest thing that would help to improve upon plank-time is to have something to occupy your mind. Rather than just staring at the timer, it’s probably a good idea to have some kind of distraction to make it go by faster.

So, there you go. Who knew I’d have so much to say about a plank???

*wow, did spell check after typing this up. ‘deltoid’ came up misspelled? when i clicked to see it’s suggestion they offered-up ‘Altoid‘.  Really?

hurdles

Saturday morning I rolled out of bed bright (dark actually) and early.  By sunrise I was suited-up and ready to go.  On the agenda…my first 8 mile run.  Ever.

Before I even left the house it was starting out not so fantastic.  I got sidetracked with laundry and ended up ten minutes behind schedule (I hate being late, even when there’s no one waiting for me).  While tossing clothes into the dryer I realized that my favorite running pants were a part of the sopping wet load and wouldn’t be ready in time. *sadness*  As I was heading out I decided to give my stuffed-up nose one more opportunity to clear out.  This resulted in an instant nosebleed.  I had visions of me running down the road with blood streaming from my face and splattering my shirt.  Super.

Still determined to head out, I stuffed a couple of tissues (just in case) into my running belt and finally made it out the door.  I was greeted with clouds.  Big ugly, dark, storm clouds.  Frig.  It was supposed to be sunny?!  I briefly considered heading back in to hit the treadmill and save my long run for the next day.  Instead, I grabbed my phone and quickly checked the weather.  It looked ok and at that point I was pretty psyched for a possible 8 miles.  So off I went.  I got about five minutes from home before I realized that I forgot my gel.  8 miles…no re-fuel.  Nice.

I think it’s safe to say that by the time my Mizuno’s hit the pavement I was not expecting great things. 

Fortunately, I didn’t have anything to worry about. I ended up having a really good run. My pace wasn’t anything amazing…around a 10:00 mile. But I felt strong and comfortable the entire time. No walk breaks needed.

I was running on a main road in our town.  It was my first time on this route.  I didn’t anticipate all of the roadkill (!). But I managed to maintain enough spring in my step to launch over them when there wasn’t enough space to safely navigate around.  So, my first 8 miles with hurdles…complete!

The other thing I noticed during this run.  The amount of cars that honked at me.  Not because I was in the way, but as a greeting.  I’m not entirely sure if: a) I just happened to be running through an incredibly friendly area, b) if there was an unusual amount of perverts out that morning or c) if perhaps they were fellow-runners and this was kind of similar to the biker low-wave of acknowledgement???

Regardless, a pretty great long run.  Better still, no negative after effects!  Since there was no soreness and I was still feeling strong, I followed up the next day on the treadmill with an easy 3 miles (9:16 pace).  But today I hear Tony Horton calling my name.  5,000 push/pull-ups it is.  Interesting that suddenly an 8 mile run seems like my easy workout??

how i roll

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I’ve mentioned once or thirty times that I’m working my way through the P90X2 program.  Shortly after starting I modified the schedule a bit.  I got rid of the yoga days and I never even gave Recovery + Mobility a try.  I needed the extra days for running and I like to take one day of complete rest every week.

At the beginning of every workout they foam roll.  I had never even heard of a foam roller before starting this program, so I certainly didn’t own one.  I used that time to do some traditional stretching and left it at that.  The whole rumble roller thing sounded a touch gimmicky to me.  And really…eighty bucks to flop around on a roller???  Ppppffftt.

But then I started seeing it eeeverywhere.  I noticed a large number of people obsessing over foam rolling!?  Which of course made me start to wonder: what was I missing out on??  So, I decided to phone-a-friend.  My go to friend for anything related to running and fitness.  She is my living-breathing-google.  She was shocked that I wasn’t already doing it.  She told me all about the benefits and how important it is for a person’s overall fitness as well as their recovery time post-workout.

Crap.  I should be doing this. Now.

That night I ran out and bought a foam roller.  It’s not the one I wanted.  It’s a little short and very wide.  But apparently I felt like this was a foam rolling emergency, so I bought it (only fifteen bucks!).  The next morning (yesterday) I foam rolled.

Dear. God. This is the single most masochistic device known to man?!?! That little piece of foam looked so harmless?! Pointless even?? But as I worked my legs (specifically my calves and IT band) my whole body was shaking with the pain. I was petrified that I was doing something wrong and would end up destroying a muscle. Many expletives were used during that hour. Yet I made it through in once piece.

Afterwards, my legs were sore as if it was the day after I did a really intense workout. Again, I kinda panicked that I did something wrong and messed up my legs. Then suddenly after about two hours *poof* the soreness was gone and I felt…great. And I wanted to…do it again?

So, I think maybe I was wrong. Maybe it’s not gimmicky after all. Maybe I’m gonna go roll right now…