Week 3

If I were to rate my weeks so far they would be as follows: 

Week One: A

Week Two: F-

Week Three: B

I was going to give week three a C based on the amount of workouts I actually did but I decided to bump it up a letter grade because the quality of the workouts was pretty good.  Here's the week's review:

Monday: SKIP

Tuesday: SKIP

Wednesday: Pure Cardio (Insanity)

Thursday: Run 4 miles

Friday: Cardio Power and Resistance (Insanity)

Saturday: AWESOME 6 miles.

Sunday: attempted my own ab workout that sucked but then did 24 min on the stationary bike even though it is supposed to be my rest day.

Total miles: 10

I feel good!  What a great rebound after the horrible week two that I had.  Going forward I'm hoping this will be the norm.

My run on Saturday was one of the best I've ever had.  I did a 10K distance in 52 minutes.  That is the fastest I've ran that distance (or any distance, really) since high school.  Next week I'll try a 7 miler but at a more reasonable pace.

Oh!  I replaced my Garmin Forerunner 305 with the Garmin 10.

Garmin 10 v. Garmin Forerunner 305

I dig the Garmin 10.  It has less feature than the Forerunner 305 but I am totally fine with that.  If I wanted to monitor my heart rate I can use my Polar 4 heart rate monitor.  As you can see from the pic, the 305 is a freaking brick compared to the 10.  I am not a fan of the green color but the black one was actually a little bit bigger for some reason.  Oh well.  We don't run to look cool!

Week 2

What a training disaster!  I've been on a staycation and have not figured out how to work out while having so much free time.  I'm pretty prone to bad behavior when I have a lot of free time so running and Insanity were way to the back of my mind as I ate a ton of good food that is bad for me.  Plus, my brother is in town visiting me and we tend to go out and drink alcohol when we are together.  I guess this week is a mulligan.  I'll be back for a half week of training next week, followed by some hardcore focus.

Week 1

Monday - 3 mile run
Tuesday - 30 minutes on stationary bike
Wednesday - Pure Cardio (Insanity)
Thursday - 3 mile run
Friday - Plyometric Cardio Circuit (Insanity)
Saturday - 5.2 mile run
Sunday - Cardio Abs (Insanity)

Total miles: 11

Monday was my first run of 2013, my first run since the half marathon and my first run since I finished Insanity.  I also got to try out some new gear!  It was my inaugural run using my Brooks Ghost 5 shoes and I love them!  I can't believe I didn't upgrade to some higher end shoes two years ago.  I'm hoping that wearing the appropriate shoes will help alleviate some of the knee problems I've had in the past during long runs.  I also used my 4th gen iPod Shuffle for the first time.  I'm not a fan.  It was very frustrating figuring out how to make a playlist with (the horrible) iTunes 11 that included podcasts and music.  I figured it out but the process was much easier with my first gen Shuffle and out of date iTunes software.  I also think the 4th gen might be too small.  I had difficulty clipping it to my collar without hitting "next".  Hopefully I'll get used to it.  I think I will get a new GPS watch soon.  My Garmin Forerunner 305 is just too damn big and hasn't been syncing right with my computer.  I might downgrade since I am using my Polar 4 heart rate monitor instead of the one built in to the Garmin.  All I really need is my calories burned and distance.  Keep it simple!

I was only planning on doing a 4 mile run for my first "long run" but I felt good so I decided to go further.  I was being a little cautious when planning the runs because I had no idea how far I'd be able to go since I haven't run in over 2 months.  The first run was a little worrisome because my calf muscles were pretty tight and I had a bitch of a side stitch but my second run was easy and the long run felt like I hadn't taken any time off.

Doing Insanity every other day definitely makes it more bearable.  We'll see how next week goes when I work in a MAX workout.

Speaking of next week, my brother is going to be visiting so I'm not sure if I'll be able to stick with my schedule for all the days.  It is possible I will be nursing a hangover instead of working out at least one of the days...

All in all, it was a great first week!

Hello!

Hi.  This blog is the continuation of the blog I started to document my journey through the Insanity workout.  That can be found here.

I guess I'll start out with a little background.  All through junior high and high school I was a member of our cross country team so I ran quite a bit.  I never was very good at it but it did keep me in decent shape.  Once I got to college I could not find time to keep running regularly because of all the time I spent studying and partying.  Eventually the large amounts of food and alcohol and a sedentary lifestyle caused me to start packing on the pounds.  This trend continued after college when I started a career that required me to work the swing shift and spend much of it sitting on my butt.  In 2010 I was required to do a biometric screen for my health insurance and was pretty shocked when I found out that I had broke the 200 pound mark.  Weighing in at 210 and having a very high blood pressure and cholesterol for someone in their 20s was a real wake up call and I decided to be responsible and try to get healthy again.  I started out by using a rowing machine every day after work which I eventually replaced with a stationary bike.  As I started getting in better shape the exercise equipment wasn't really cutting it anymore so I decided to take up running again.  That wasn't fun, as anybody who has ever started running can remember but I was determined and a little stubborn.  My running kept improving and my diet got healthier resulting in me losing most of the weight I needed to.

Having reached my weight loss goal, I needed something else to keep me motivated.  My ability to run further and further made the choice to try to run a half marathon pretty obvious.  I ran my first one in Seattle in November of 2012 and it was a great experience.  Now I want more so I have my eyes set on running a full one this summer.

The first part of my marathon training started a week after I finished the half marathon.  I needed a break from running but not working out.  I did a lot of searching and settled on doing the Insanity workout program whose infomercials you see when you wake up at 3 am on the couch.  I figured it would be great to help me with my goals because it has a huge cardio focus and I figured it could help me lose the last of the fat I've been struggling to lose.

Insanity was great.  It helped me get in the best shape of my life and now that I'm done with the program, it is time for me to ease back into running.  I would hate to lose the results that I worked so hard to achieve with Insanity, so I am attempting to do create a training program that works in Insanity workouts and running.  I have the program on paper up until my next half marathon in April of 2013.  It might be too intense but it is a work in progress.  You'll just have to follow my updates to find out!