Insanity Week 6: I'm Pretty Sure He's Trying To Kill Me

I finished Week 5 feeling good and ready to take on the final phase of Insanity.  As it turns out, I felt like a complete novice all week.  The workouts didn't just ramp up in time, but in intensity as well.  In fact, they ramped up so much that I was reduced back to the 'quivering on the floor and trying not to die' experience of the first week. Long story short: I'm pretty convinced that Shaun T was trying to kill me.

The combination of workouts that left me more sore than running 20 miles with a harsh week at work and generally feeling beaten down from every direction made me consider throwing in the towel on the whole thing - more than once.  However, I've come this far and I want to see how it ends, so I kept going.

Day 36:
The first workout of Month 2 was Max Interval Circuit.  Right from the warm up I could tell I was in for a beating.  The jogging, straight arm jacks, and 1-2-3 heismans were all familiar from Month 1, but then came a side-to-side jump roping move, high knees, switch kicks and a little something called side-to-side floor hops (SS Floor Hops).  This basically involved starting in high plank, but with your butt in the air and then using your abs to hop your legs from side to side.   This warm up sequence was repeated 3x, with each time being more intense than the last.  By the time we got to stretching, I'd already shed my shirt and was using it to mop the sweat off my face.  The actual workout was brutal.  It started with my nemesis, The Pedal, and then added things like a combination of ski abs/push up jacks/in and out abs/ oblique push ups.  The second circuit was a lot of jumping and punching followed by floor switch kicks - think doing switch kicks while in a crab-walk position.  The third circuit was, far and away, the worst.  There were full body drills (drop down, float your legs back to plank, floor sprint for a count of 8, 4 moving push ups, wide floor sprint for a count of 8, float legs in, return to standing, rinse, repeat) and plank punches (holding high plank while alternating punching one arm into the air without rocking back and forth too much).  I was already sore by the time I made it out of The Cave.

Day 37:
If I thought I was hurting when I went to bed on Monday, Tuesday came as a really rude awakening and was followed by the second workout of Month 2 - Max Interval Plyo.   A more accurate name for would be 'Max Pushups with Some Other Stuff Thrown In For Max Pain'.  It was the standard warm up and then $#!% got real: switch jumps, squat push ups, in and out abs, power jumps, one-legged v push ups, level 3 drills, diamond jumps, balance push ups - you get the idea.  My upper body and abs were pissed off by the time it was over.  The jumping was manageable.  The first few types of push ups were tolerable.  Then it went off the rails.  Mr. R&R and I agreed that the workout demanded lots of upper body strength and that was definitely not something that was developed in Month 1.  Hopefully by the end of Month 2, the requisite upper body strength will come.

Day 38:
Everything I did today hurt.  Getting out of bed = pain.  Washing/styling my hair = worse.  Sneezing = unbearable.  My arms and abs hurt like a mother and Max Cardio Conditioning was on the calendar when I got home.  I was hoping for something a little less painful, but you know what they say about holding hope in one hand...   The warmup wasn't bad.  The actual workout was a nonstop cardio sufferfest of squats, jumps, push ups, and ab work.  I spent the first 15 seconds of each 30 second break laying on the floor, letting the cold concrete chill my burning muscles.  I was so gross and sweaty that I literally had a river of sweat running down my spine and into my capris!

Day 39:
I woke up hurting worse than I had all week.  Usually the soreness is worse in the morning and then lets up a little during the day.  Not this time. Moving hurt.  Laying down hurt.  And on top of it, I was pretty much ready to cry and couldn't wrap my head around my crappy performances over the previous 3 days.  Mr. R&R wasn't faring much better. After some discussion, we realized that the pain , lethargy, and general malaise was our bodies' way of SCREAMING for rest.  We gave in and couched ourselves for the night, went to bed early, and hoped to feel better the next day.

Day 40:
Max Recovery my ass. I liked Cardio Recovery in Month 1.  This freaking sucked.  I was still so sore that my legs started cramping up during the warmup.  From there is was lunges, hip openers, plank work, oblique work, and oh yeah...more f-ing push ups.  It was not Mr. R&R's or my idea of recovery.  We were so burnt out and in so much pain that we could barely get through it.  It left us both cursing Insanity and ready to quit. There was some serious rage in the Rabbits&Runs house that night. Neither of us are strangers to working out hard, hurting a little, and pushing the limit, but this was just ridiculous.  I think from here on, we'll be waging war on our minds as well as our bodies.

Day 41:
Saturday brought another round of Max Interval Circuit.  I don't know if it was having a better idea of how to pace myself or a stubborn refusal not to quit, but Max Interval Circuit went better this time.  I was still a sore, disgustingly sweaty mess, but I got through it better this time.  There were fewer unscheduled rests to gulp water and I actually found myself laughing when Mr. R&R started chanting "F**k you, Shaun T" during the floor switch kicks.  Word of advice: Laughing and Floor Switch Kicks don't really go well together.  I ended up falling on my ass because I was laughing so hard!

We also watched the 2015 Live Action Oscar short films (2014 was much better) and Whiplash.  All I can say is "wow".  J.K. Simmons definitely earned his Oscar this year.

Day 42:
We probably should have done Max Plyo Circuit since we took Thursday as a rest day, but neither of us could work up the urge, so we spent the day catching up on laundry, general house cleaning, and some reading.  I finished my 16th book of 2015 (Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn)!

Have you ever found yourself angry at a workout?  What did you do about it? Read or watched anything good lately?