After Insanity, now what?
Here is another blog post in the line of "Marc does fitness." In case any of my tens of readers have missed it, I did the Insanity workout program to start the year. For anyone willing to re-read my experience, day 1 starts here. When that experience ended, I knew that I needed to do something to keep the momentum going. Sadly, the momentum of blogging ground to a halt when Insanity ended.
When I got done with Insanity, I gave myself a couple of days to rest before I started... Insanity all over again. Well, not really all over again. I did the first month plus the Recovery Week. This was an adjusted Insanity schedule. I did not do any of the Fit Tests cause I found those tedious. Also, I took breaks in the middle of the week if I wanted to. I also gave myself the option of skipping Cardio Abs. I only took that option once, the last day of the first month. So, after those 5 plus weeks, I took a week off working out because things came up plus I traveled to the Bay Area for the weekend. After taking a week off, I knew I didn't want to jump right back into the last 4 weeks of Insanity. Those were the toughest weeks of the program, and doing them after a week off any workout activity would've been, well, insane. So, I decided to go back to running.
For those who don't know, I used to run in high school. Granted I wasn't very good, but it was fun and competitive, although considering I wasn't any good, I was primarily competing against myself and my previous times. So, running is an old friend to me. With that being said, prior to yesterday, I haven't ran all year. The last time I ran was Christmas Eve. My excuse at the time was I needed new shoes. Then I did Insanity in mid January, so that derailed my running. Plus, I didn't like running in the dark. I always figured I would go back to running once I got done with my first go around with Insanity.
I was a little nervous yesterday before I began my run.. I knew that Insanity got me into pretty good shape, but in my thirties, I've realized there are different levels of "being in shape." The first day of a run is always the hardest. Your legs are not ready for the constant pounding, and your lungs always seem to be out of breath. Plus, I was changing my running style. I was going for a more "toe striking" oriented approach to my more familiar but bad habit forming "heel striking" approach.
I ended up surprised at my own fitness level. My legs didn't hurt at all, and I never felt out of breath. Even my adjusted running form didn't cause me any problems. I limited myself to just under 3 miles for the first day, and I felt pretty strong at the end. I guess the 14+ weeks of Insanity is good for something. I'm going to try to increase the mileage a little bit the rest of this week. One of the things I learned from Insanity is that if I don't try to push myself physically, then I'm not going to see as good of a result. Plus, there's just something satisfying about being completely tired at the end of a workout.
The plan for this week is to run and hopefully up the mileage to 4 miles by Thursday and then do the Baldwin Hills Steps on Saturday morning. Next week, I'll continue to run 4 miles and maybe try to up the mileage to 5 if I can plot out a decent enough course in my neighborhood. I think next week I'll also try to mix in some of the Insanity workouts at least one of the days for my cross-training session. One of these days, I'll even sign for a race again. I haven't done that in a while.
When I got done with Insanity, I gave myself a couple of days to rest before I started... Insanity all over again. Well, not really all over again. I did the first month plus the Recovery Week. This was an adjusted Insanity schedule. I did not do any of the Fit Tests cause I found those tedious. Also, I took breaks in the middle of the week if I wanted to. I also gave myself the option of skipping Cardio Abs. I only took that option once, the last day of the first month. So, after those 5 plus weeks, I took a week off working out because things came up plus I traveled to the Bay Area for the weekend. After taking a week off, I knew I didn't want to jump right back into the last 4 weeks of Insanity. Those were the toughest weeks of the program, and doing them after a week off any workout activity would've been, well, insane. So, I decided to go back to running.
For those who don't know, I used to run in high school. Granted I wasn't very good, but it was fun and competitive, although considering I wasn't any good, I was primarily competing against myself and my previous times. So, running is an old friend to me. With that being said, prior to yesterday, I haven't ran all year. The last time I ran was Christmas Eve. My excuse at the time was I needed new shoes. Then I did Insanity in mid January, so that derailed my running. Plus, I didn't like running in the dark. I always figured I would go back to running once I got done with my first go around with Insanity.
I was a little nervous yesterday before I began my run.. I knew that Insanity got me into pretty good shape, but in my thirties, I've realized there are different levels of "being in shape." The first day of a run is always the hardest. Your legs are not ready for the constant pounding, and your lungs always seem to be out of breath. Plus, I was changing my running style. I was going for a more "toe striking" oriented approach to my more familiar but bad habit forming "heel striking" approach.
I ended up surprised at my own fitness level. My legs didn't hurt at all, and I never felt out of breath. Even my adjusted running form didn't cause me any problems. I limited myself to just under 3 miles for the first day, and I felt pretty strong at the end. I guess the 14+ weeks of Insanity is good for something. I'm going to try to increase the mileage a little bit the rest of this week. One of the things I learned from Insanity is that if I don't try to push myself physically, then I'm not going to see as good of a result. Plus, there's just something satisfying about being completely tired at the end of a workout.
The plan for this week is to run and hopefully up the mileage to 4 miles by Thursday and then do the Baldwin Hills Steps on Saturday morning. Next week, I'll continue to run 4 miles and maybe try to up the mileage to 5 if I can plot out a decent enough course in my neighborhood. I think next week I'll also try to mix in some of the Insanity workouts at least one of the days for my cross-training session. One of these days, I'll even sign for a race again. I haven't done that in a while.