Insane

I have access to a great gym at work, and they recently ordered copies of the P90X and Insanity workouts by Beachbody (NOT a referral link).  I have done P90X before, following the full 90-day program as written (well, minus the diet part anyway).  I still occasionally throw a P90X video into my workout rotation every now and then for weight training.  On Thursday, I thought I would give Insanity a try. 

I tried one Insanity video a while ago, and I remember it being hard.  This time around, I went with Pure Cardio - at a little under 40 minutes, it fit well into the limited time I had.  Let me say this - wowza.  Two days later, and I sorta feel like I ran a marathon on Thursday!  That 40 minutes packed one heck of a punch.  I was breathing quite heavy and pretty out of breath after the 10-minute warm-up!  (I should have worn a heart rate monitor, but I bet the warm-up got me to at least 80% of my max HR.)

The workout is basically this: 10 minute "warm-up" that get progressively more intense, break, stretching, break, 15 minute "work-out", break, cool-down stretches.  Yes, the actual workout segment is only 15 minutes.  But because of the intensity of the warm-up, and even the stretches, I felt I got a very solid cardio workout in.  Shaun T encourages you to take breaks as needed, and I definitely took a few myself to catch my breath.  I didn't find any of the moves difficult or needing modification, but there were plenty of times I couldn't keep up with his maxed-out pace, so I just did as much as I could.  My glutes were definitely feeling this workout the day after, and today my calves, upper hamstrings, glutes and inner thighs are rebelling.

I think I will try a few more Insanity videos here and there, but I don't plan to follow the 60-day program.  I plan to be sidelined from this sort of activity very soon..... (wink)

I still managed to run a few miles this week as well, though today was pretty darn slow.  I took off early and it was freezing (literally, like <32 degrees).  It took me the first 5 miles of the run to feel warmed up and loosen my legs enough to have a comfortable stride.  Here is how I fit the 20.34 miles in:

Su 10/30: 4.02 easy, 38:28, 9:34 pace
M 10/31: Rest
Tu 11/1: 4.04 easy, 38:26, 9:31 pace
W 11/2: 5.02 easy, 47:43, 9:30 pace; Ab Ripper X
Th 11/3: 40 min Insanity Pure Cardio
F 11/4: Rest
Sa 11/5: 7.26 easy, 1:13:51, 10:10 pace

And of course, its football Saturday.  Go Blue!

10 pts: Oklahoma over Texas A&M
9 pts: North Carolina over NC State
8 pts: Arkansas over South Carolina
7 pts: Texas over Texas Tech
6 pts: Alabama over LSU
5 pts: Michigan over Iowa
4 pts: Cincinnati over Pitt
3 pts: Baylor over Missouri
2 pts: Utah over Arizona
1 pt: Syracuse over UConn

UPDATE: Pretty bummed that Michigan lost.  Not sure how they are going to make it to Indy now...  As for this week, I had 34 points, and Josh and I are tied for third in our pool.