Insanity Workout

Week 3 has been a bit messy for me. I ended up working a long day on Saturday and couldn't fit in my Insanity session so it became a rest day. Had to join the mud fest that was the IOW festival - that sure was tough on the legs wading through all the mud.

But I don't like being off track so ended up doing two sessions yesterday to make up for it, cardio resistance and power in the morning and then cardio recovery in the afternoon. Both sessions felt ok but could have been better - I was feeling tired as it had been my 8th straight day of work. Also couldn't face getting up this morning to do pure cardio and abs before work and had a little lie in so will have to do them this evening when I get in.

I'm off on a short break to Pembrokeshire on Wednesday for a couple of days but i'm not going to miss out i'm taking my Insanity workouts with me - the wonders of the iPad!!

Cardio Power and Resistance done - I actually quite enjoyed it! I can already tell I'm going to feel it in my arms tomorrow though, I seem to have lost all the upper body strength I gained earlier in the year. That can only get better though if I keep at it!

10k run now, then day off running and Cardio Recovery tomorrow

Recovery Week

Was a good workout, although the pace is alot slower, you still manage to end up sweating loads.

Ed is right about the burners, I found the the quad & shoulder burners the worst. All in all a good workout although I have noticed that my left hamstring is sore, and has been steadily getting worse as the day has gone on. Hopefully will be fine in the morning.

I have done a gentle 5.5 mile cross country today, after being exhausted from a very busy set of nights. I don't think i am going to get my last session done, given that I am on a physical training course tomorrow as well. I shall be doing a single day shift on Thursday and then it's D day Friday - off to Scotland for a 6pm Saturday start at Ben Nevis, then onto Scafell Pike and finally onto Snowdon, ending before 6pm Sunday. I shall be using my Garmin GPS and HR monitor so i can get an idea of the calories used. Please forgive my phizzel out of Insanity but I intend to be back soon.

Ooo I like Cardio Recovery - I feel all nicely stretched now and ready to go again, I have a busy few days coming up but shall try my best to squeeze in a few Insanity sessions (if for no other reason than I really like my banana flavour For Goodness Shakes and I've told myself I'm only allowed one after Insanity!!!)

Plyo today.....and no matter how many times I have done this workout....I HATE BLOODY SKI ABS AND IN AND OUT ABS...seriously these are torture so I suspect this means they work then! Ended workout in a pool of sweat and have concluded this and pure cardio are my workout hates.

Cardio recovery tomorrow thank god!!!

Pure Cardio tonight - and wow that was intense, again I enjoyed it though so it was definitely just a false start last week!

I switched things round tonight and did my run first (5.7 miles) and Insanity afterwards, it seemed to work better that way and both went well! The only drawback was it was too late to do Cardio Abs too by the time i'd done - I shall sort that out tomorrow!

I am yet to persuade Mr Cheetah to have a go, although after doing a few myself there definitely isn't room for both of us at once without switch kicking each other or something. I'm still struggling to do jumping jacks without whacking the lampshade!!

Cardio Abs now done - TWICE as I felt guilty about not doing it last night and it's too blimmin hot to do much else! (I've walked 5 miles today, that's enough exercise now - on with the programme tomorrow )

The one exercise I had a real problem with was the one where you're sitting then lift both knees up then stick your legs out and lift them up - it's not that my abs can't do it, it's more that my legs WON'T! They just don't bend that way! They won't stick out straight either - let alone lift up! I checked my form and tried adjusting my position slightly in as many ways possible - but no, my legs weren't having it. I'm not sure if that particular exercise will come up again, but if it does I can only keep trying but will probably spend most of it sitting down looking confused as my legs won't cooperate!

This is the "sitting on floor, one leg bent with knee up and foot on floor - with other leg held horrizontal, bent in, extended out and raised" If so, my solution to this was to have my hands further back so that I could support myself better and then work the leg whilst holding in the ABS. It still hurts. Remember that we are not as practiced as the DVD people.

Hey - dont forget me and my 6 mates doing the 3 Peaks this weekend. We start our first climb at 6pm Ben Nevis on SATURDAY. We hope to end Snowdon at or before 6pm Sunday.

Henstooth - I could do that one, it was the one after it where you do things with both legs at the same time. Or you're SUPPOSED to if you have legs that want to join in!

Good luck with the 3 peaks!

Ahhh - the switch kicks whilst on the floor! I know the BASTARDS. Rest assured that AT FIRST I couldn't do them (as Ariel seems to be bi-onic and a FREAK). I tried to do them but was a gibbering wreck. I concentrated on doing each leg at a time whilst keeping the ABS tight.Towards then end of training I did manage to do several in a row but NOTHING like the DVD people (in fact you can see one or two of them doing what we do). Don't frett - do as best you can, keeping form, one leg at a time keeping the ABS tight. It has the same effect and as you get stronger you will find that you can do a FEW AT A TIME.

Hang in there Tangol.

I am back from the 3 Peaks - they say its about 2000 cals per climb. We must have used more because we had SUCH bad weather - driving rain, mental winds, reduced viz, cold at the top. Ben Nevis was tough and we thought that would be the worst - oh how wrong we were. Scarfell was just walking in a swimmimg pool as after 15 mins our boots were full of water. We almost turned back 20 mins from the top coz we just couldn't fathom why we were decending UNTIL we heard voices ahead who told us they were coming away from the top. That spurred us on. We then got to Snowdon and the weather was just as bad and we were in wet kit. The wind, rain and cold was awfull. One of our party was looking so bad I almost called in the chopper. But with sugar, nuts and water, I managed to get some colour into him and we all got down together.

INSANITY prepared me for this physical challenge. I am so pleased that I did the course. I was not phased by the effort at all; I "dug deep". Mentally I was on top of it. I became the "motivator" for all the others, and I can honestly say I got the group down off Snowdon with my chipper spirit, mind games, motivational talk and humor.

I loved it. We had so little sleep. We had a great support team who drove and fed us. We drunk a fair bit at the small cottage and I cooked a masive chili. We completed the challenge in 28 hours (and a few minutes). Honestly I am not bothered about not doing it in 24 because the weather was against us and some of the group were not fit enough for the pace needed. We all made it back (injury free) and despite us 7 being the closest of friends since 1978 - we still managed to become closer after doing this together.