Rabbits and Runs: Insanity Week 1: Descent Into Madness

A big part of any workout challenge is establishing a baseline so you can see how you're progressing. In this case, I'll be using both photos and measurements as my metrics and in the interest of full-disclosure, here are my starting photos and stats:

Starting Stats

Weight: Ideal + 7.4 lbs

Body Fat: 22.7%

Chest: 32.5"

Waist: 26.25"

Hips: 36.5"

Right/Left Thigh: 19.5"/19.5"

Right/Left Arm: 10.5"/10.5"

Day 1:
On Monday morning I rolled out of bed, packed up the obscene amount of food I'd need to get through the day, grabbed my coffee, and headed off to work. By the time I finished eating breakfast, I was so full that I was having serious doubts about my ability to consume everything else I had in my cooler. I made it through the morning snack, forced down lunch, and nearly cried when it was time for my late afternoon snack. I was pretty much sick to death of eating.

When I got home, Mr. R&R and I changed into workout clothes and headed to The Cave to do our first Fit Test. It started out with a warm up and a stretch which felt good...and then it was on to the test: 8 moves, each performed as many times as possible in 1 minute, followed by 45-ish seconds of rest, and then onto the next move. By the time it was over I was pretty much ready to die, but I was pretty pleased with my results:

Switch Kicks: 45

Power Jacks: 30

Power Knees: 46

Power Jumps: 25

Globe Jumps: 7

Suicide Jumps: 10

Push Up Jacks: 15

Low Plank Obliques: 39

If you're going to do Insanity, I highly recommend having someone else count your reps during the Fit Test because you will lose track very quickly - you're too busy focusing on maintaining good form and digging deep for enough motivation to keep going.

Day 2:
I really expected to be a lot more sore when I woke up. I could definitely tell I'd used my core, but my legs felt surprisingly normal. After another day of forcing down food (it all tastes good, but there's just so much of it) it was time for the first actual workout: Plyometric Cardio Circuit (approx. 45 minutes)

I was pouring sweat by the end of the 9 minute warm up. Seriously, even the warm up is no joke. That was followed by some pretty good stretching and then onto the main event. There was heismans, football sprints, level one drills (jump back to plank, 4 pushups, 8 mountain climbers, jump back in, stand up...repeat), ski abs, various types of punching, and a whole lot of other stuff. I had to stop several times during the workout just to catch my breath - which is encouraged. At the end, I was soaked with sweat and completely spent. My legs even started to feel sore almost immediately afterward. At this point I'm pretty sure Insanity is going to live up to its claim of being the hardest workout ever put on DVD.

Day 3:
Once again, I wasn't sore when I woke up - until I sneezed - that's when I realized that I had definitely used my abs the night before. As usual, I showered, packed my feed bag (my somewhat affectionate name for the my cooler), and headed to work. I didn't have to set a timer to remind me to eat today because approximately every 2 1/2 hours, I got hungry. Right on schedule! Tonight's workout was Cardio Power and Resistance. It started out with a warm up that had me sweating by the end of the first 3 minutes. From there it moved into the actual workout, which was a doozy. Two moves from the Fit Test, Power Jumps and Globe Jumps, made an appearance in this workout along with a lot of push-up type moves like tricep dips (with one leg in the air!), V push-ups, and moving push-ups.

This workout seemed designed to target the legs, chest, and triceps. I did the best I could, but I definitely took a lot of extra breaks. My new goal is to make it through one round without needing an extra break, but I think it's going to be a while. I was, predictably, drenched with sweat by the time it was over and it took everything I had just to drag myself upstairs, make dinner, and pack food for the next day before collapsing into bed and sleeping like a baby.

Day 4:
The first thought I had upon crawling out of bed was "Oh $#!%. Ow." I. Was. Sore. I suppose that's to be expected after mostly sitting on my tail for a month after finishing P90 Masters. All day, I found myself inordinately excited whenever "Food O'Clock" rolled around. This program is starting to make me hungry! I got home and we headed down to The Cave for Cardio Recovery.

The warm up for this workout was mostly breathing exercises and stretching. I was warm by the end, but not pouring sweat like the previous two days. The workout itself was a lot of yoga-like stretches punctuated with squats, lunges, and balance poses. I actually found myself enjoying most of the workout instead of just trying to survive it. I definitely felt the benefits of my P90-induced increase in flexibility. I still don't love lunges, but I'm starting to embrace them as a necessary evil in life - and realizing that due to the way I'm built/the way my knees react to them, that I just can't go very deep into them. I was also really excited to eat the prescribed dinner tonight - steak! Seriously, how can you not like a nutrition guide that encourages you to eat steak?

Day 5:
I really need to learn not to schedule things after work. By the time I made it home from running errands, changed, and made it downstairs, it had been hours since I'd eaten and that made for a really tough workout. Tonight's challenge was Pure Cardio. After a pretty standard, sweat-inducing warm up and stretching, Shaun T looked straight into the camera and proclaimed that he was nervous about what was to come. Uh oh! When the ripped-as-hell dude leading the workout claims to be nervous, it's probably a sign that you're about to get your ass kicked forty ways from Sunday. Yeah...that happened. The workout itself is only about 15-20 minutes long, but there. are. no. breaks. Granted, Shaun T is constantly telling his people to "take a break and get some water", but there are no scheduled water/catch your breath/recover for a few seconds breaks in this workout. There were, however, switch kicks, power jacks, level 2 drills (jump back to plank, 8 push ups, 8 mountain climbers, jump back in, jump up), and a form of evil known as 'pedals'. Pedals involve sprinting in place, dropping into a lunge, hopping into a lunge on the other side, popping back up, and sprinting in place again. I'm pretty sure these things are going to be the bane of my existence for the next few weeks. By the time the workout was over, even Shaun T proclaimed, "This Shit is Bananas, Yo!"

I bonked pretty hard during the workout and I really didn't even want to peel myself off the basement floor. I thought about trying to convince Mr. R&R to bring me a pillow, a blanket, and dinner right there, but eventually I hauled myself upstairs. Valuable lesson learned: Do Not Let Too Much Time Go By Between Last Meal and Workout.

Day 6:
After 8 blissful hours of sleep I woke up to some really cranky obliques and a rumbling tummy. Since it's the weekend, life it less structured, so breakfast became brunch, followed by couch-laying mixed with reading and blogging, and finally...today's workout: another round of Plyometric Cardio Circuit. This $#!% was also bananas, yo! I think I managed to do more of the workout than I did on Tuesday, but it definitely didn't feel any easier. If anything, it felt harder because I was already sore from the four previous days. Post-workout, I enjoyed a Vanilla Berry Protein Shake, took a shower, did some laundry (because we're going through workout clothes like crazy around here), and was very happy when I planted myself on my massage therapist's table for 80 minutes.

Day 7:
Normally Day 7 would be a rest day, but I have a breakfast meeting on Monday morning and a practically mandatory Happy Hour with the office staff after work, so I know there's no way in hell I'll be working out after even one cocktail, so that left me with two choices: A) Do Monday's workout on Sunday or B) Skip the workout. Let's be honest, there's really only one option here, so Cardio Power and Resistance it was. I'm pretty sure that this workout should go by its initials - C.P.R.

It's also Super Bowl Sunday. Under normal circumstances Mr. R&R and I would be making the 45 minute trek out to Maverick and Goose's house to cheer on the Seahawks, watch commercials, drink beer, and chow down on Goose's famous Firecracker Shrimp (which he now admits to copy-catting from a restaurant, but they're still awesome). However, the forecast called for snow beginning on Saturday evening and ending somewhere in the vicinity of 3am on Monday - with a total accumulation of 6-10 inches and seriously nasty winds leading to drifting and near white out conditions. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that being out on the roads unnecessarily in those conditions isn't a good idea, so we made the decision on Friday night that we would be staying home. It turns out that that was a very good choice because it started snowing around 9pm on Saturday and by 9am on Sunday there was 6 inches of snow on the ground, it was still snowing, and said snow was blowing all over the place. By 11pm, we were up to 14 inches and 3ft+ drifts. Definitely a good call.

Although we didn't get to enjoy Goose's shrimp, we did splurge a little between rounds of shoveling with baked hot buffalo and Devil's Spit wings and garlic oven fries - still healthier than the fried variety.