Round 4: Day 83 - Insanity Max Interval Circuit

I know what you're thinking, "Oooh, Geek, a different Photoshop filter...you're so artsy". 

There's no two ways about it...Max Interval Circuit is hard.  Mrs. Gias and I tried to be playful at the beginning.  That did not last long. 

It's telling that at the end of the workout, everyone in the video literally drops to the floor in a pool of their own sweat.  You seriously wonder for a minute if a few of them might actually be dead.  There's one trainer that has very pale skin who we thought might be a vampire (Mrs. Gias just finished the Twilight books - everyone is a vampire these days...anyway) who collapsed face down on the gym floor; why would you do that unless you couldn't move?  So yeah, great workout.

After the first circuit (there are three, repeated three times) Mrs. Gias went quickly from "playful" to "if you get any closer to me with your hot sweaty body I will smack you in the face." 

Which I probably deserved.

Round 4: Day 82 - Total Body Plus

Note: Ahh!  Almost forgot to post this. Mrs. Gias's laptop went a little haywire yesterday so I spent my evening doing recovery of her files rather than wasting time on the internet posting this. (I backdated it to last night so it would show up on the right day.) 

We did Total Body Plus this morning.  You know I like this workout.  That is all. 

Round 4: Day 81 - Fountain of Youth Yoga

Half Moon.  Just be glad I didn't give you the "full moon" or you'd be blind right now.

My left hip and left wrist were all out of whack today (unrealted, I think).  I couldn't quite torque the right way on my left hip, making my yoga even more wobbly then usual, which is to say, it looked like I was performing yoga during an earthquake.  As for my wrist, I think I may have tweaked it during Diamond Delts on Sunday and stressed it a bit yesterday during our resistance workout.  At any rate, up-dog was not nearly as relaxing as it normally would be.

Overall, not really very loose today, not really very excited about yoga today, it was just a day to get the workout done.  These days happen and in my experience, pushing through the discomfort and the lack of motivation make you more ready for tomorrow.  Here's hoping that's true.

Round 4: Day 80 - Back & Biceps

This angle kind of makes it look like I'm on a TLC show called "Little People, Big Workouts."

'Cause I look short...but I'm working out...yeah, that was pathetic; I need to up my blogging game.

It was unusually cold when we got up this morning.  The thermostat in the house said 63 degrees, which isn't shiver inducing, but it's a little cooler than is preferable for rolling out of a nice, warm, comfy bed.   We snoozed once and then headed downstairs for one of my favorites, Back and Biceps.  It's basically pullups and curls for an hour; and I really like to "bring it" in this workout.  I lifted heavy today and by the last set I could barely pick up my pencil to record my reps and weight.

I was commenting to Mrs. Gias before we started that I really like this workout because it's as hard as you want to make it and totally trashes my upper body. 

Mrs. Gias commented that she hates this video because the assistants Tony works out with are ass-hats. 

Maybe "ass-hat" was my word, it was early, I don't really remember what she called them...

Actually, I think the assistant that annoys her the most is the interior designer "Katie".  She looks like Pam from "The Office" and seems to fall behind the workout and gets a little too dramatic when doing her reps.  She also laughs a disproportional amount at Tony's jokes.  The other two assistants, Tim the former Marine and Bobby Stevenson, are actually both pretty cool.

Round 4: Day 79 - Insanity Cardio Power and Resistance

Tricep dips look a little like a sweet disco move...I assure you it is not.

Whew!  We had a good workout today.  Mrs. Gias and I were sweating significantly more than we have in the past few weeks worth of workouts, so we know we were pushing it today. 

Although, I think I know why we were pushing a little extra hard this morning...they were only a quarter...and who doesn't love some soft serve and cookie dough?  Let's face it, we were obligated to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Blizzard last night.

And we did.

And it was delicious.

Round 4: Day 78 - Diamond Delts

She likes her diamond delts, but unfortunately for me she likes real diamonds better.

Ms. Gias did the Trolley Run this morning (she PR'd - great job sweetie!) so we pushed off Diamond Delts until this evening rather than this morning so she could make it to her race.  It's the last Diamond Delts of this round, so I really pushed it on the weights and went heavy. 

Ouch.

Round 4: Day 76 - Insanity Cardio Recovery

One of the many isometric lunges in today's workout; it looks dumb, but it hurts worse.

Mrs. Gias is running the Trolly Run (the largest 4 mile race in the nation) on Sunday and she has her last taper run this afternoon.  Furthermore, yesterday's Plyo Legs routine has been re-named "Pants of Pain" due to the ungodly soreness in our glutes, hamstrings and quads.  Accordingly, she requested that we take it easy on the cardio and legs today so that she could properly prepare for her race. 

I obliged by offering to switch our workout to Insanity Cardio Recovery.  It's a video that we've never done before, but it's about 35 minutes and it has recovery in the title, so it seemed appropriate. 

This was a tactical mistake on my part.

I will say that the video's title is correct, there is not much cardio in this video at all, I'd be shocked if my heart rate topped 120 the whole time.  However, it did have a lot (read A LOT) of squats, lunges and glute exercises.  Unfortunately, we got about halfway into the workout and realized that this may be the opposite of what Mrs. Gias was looking for. 

Mrs. Gias:  What's this video called again?
Geek: Uh, Cardio Recovery.
Mrs. Gias:  Really!? It's now officially renamed to, "My Ass is on Fire".

45 Minute Swim

I had a great swim workout today.  I mentioned in the last few posts how I was looking for some variety, some motivation and a plan to make sure I was getting in quality workouts.  Well, I finally went to a website that I had heard about on some triathlon message boards, http://www.swimplan.com/.  Swimplan.com is a website where you put in your skill level and then tell it what kind of workout you want and it will give you a detailed workout with a warmup, drills, core workout and cool down.  It's set up specifically with times for your level of swimming and for a duration that you choose. 

I finally signed up today and printed out a workout for this evening.  It was awesome.  Really it wasn't much different that what I usually do; however, I always work out better with a plan.  This is exactly what I needed.  I got quality yards in and it helped pass the time.  I'm definitely using it again.  For all of you swimmers out there, I highly recommend it.

Round 4: Day 75 - Plyo Legs

Mid-point of a "super skater".  Certainly made my ass feel "super".

We haven't done this workout in a while.  If you remember it's a 60 minute mix of plyometric jumps, squats and lunges.  It doesn't really get the heart rate into dangerous territory, but my legs were really feeling it at the end. 

A few quick items:

• This is the first of the One on One series and it shows.  (1) There's no warm up; (2) Tony seems to run out of things to say about half way through, apparently he wasn't ready to fill an hour just talking to himself; (3) There are two camera guys (as opposed to just one in all the other videos) although they attempt (poorly) to hide the fact that the second camera guy is there...weird.
• It's raining so I probably won't get on the bike today, which is not good.
• It's raining so I can probably swim today, which is fine.
• I have a "thing" Saturday morning so I won't get in my usual early morning workout, which is problematic.
• I've been staring at the computer screen for 10 minutes without being able to come up with anything interesting today...yikes.

Round 4: Day 74 Redux - Patience Hummingbird Yoga

I was up until a little after 2am working last night and went into the office at 5am cramming on a project.  Obviously I wasn't able to work in any yoga this morning (although I totally could have used it...the Geek is sore).  I got my project done at work and made it home by about 6:30pm to put my girls to bed and then I convinced Mrs. Gias that we should do a quick yoga session before dinner. 

We've only done Tony's One on One Patience "Hummingbird" Yoga one other time.  It's short, about 30 minutes (which is why we picked it for tonight) and very, very, quiet; especially for Tony.  There are long stretches of the video where Tony doesn't say anything, expecting you to breathe and get through the asanas without any direction.  Last time we did this video I don't think we liked it much because of the lack of direction and the fact that the session moves slowly.  It truely takes patience (as the name implies) to make it through this video.

I must say that I may have previously misjudged this video...today, it was awesome.  I think it worked today for two reasons.  First, it's the end of the day so a nice, slow, relaxing yoga session is a great way to let all the stress of the day just fade away.  Second, at the end of the day your muscles are a bit more loose than when you first wake up, which means I was significantly more flexible than usual.  It was fun to effortlessly grab my feet and stretch out my sore muscles.

Round 4: Day 73 Redux - Just Arms

Forearm curls make me veiny...

I think I pushed a little hard at my indoor tri on Sunday and then doing back to back workouts yesterday pretty much ensured that my whole body would be sore today.  It feels like every major muscle group is bruised and tender.  I realized standing up after doing a set of seated bicep curls today that my quads and calfs may actually hurt more than my arms...which I wasn't even working today. 

Note to self, doing 30:15, Insanity and Just Arms within a 25 hour period may be too much.

Round 4: Day 72 Redux (Evening Workout) - Insanity Plyometric Cardio Circuit

As I explained in my last post, we moved our workouts back a little.  I didn't want to miss a day so we doubled up today with 30:15 this morning and Plyometric Cardio Circuit this evening. 

Mrs. Gias went to her Monday night bowling league so I put the girls to bed and then went to the basement for a little Insanity by myself.  I am still fairly sore from yesterday, but after warming up I was ready to go.

I got through the workout without too much trouble except for part of the last circuit which are called "Level 1 Drills" which is basically like a set of burpee pushups (on your feet, drop down to plank, 4 pushups, pedal the feet, back up, repeat) followed by jumps while in plank position.  My arms were pretty worn out from 30:15 this morning and this part of the workout sucked big time.

But now I'm back on scheudle and it feels good. 

Round 4: Day 72 Redux - 30:15 Upper Body Massacre

This angle is cool because it looks like I only have one leg.

This is a redux week due to the fact of the totally slacker week we had last week.  Missing three workouts?!  Aghhh!

OK, I know, I know...30:15 was supposed to be yesterday and Insanity was supposed to be today so you're thinking, "Hey, Geek, way to come back strong, you're already behind."  Well, yesterday I had my indoor triathlon (detailed race report to come a little later) in the morning and I thought it would be silly to totally burn out my arms right before I'm trying to do a triathlon at race pace. Thus, we moved 30:15 (intentionally) to this morning and we're doubling up with a little Insanity tonight so we won't miss any workouts AND I got to go into my indoor tri pretty fresh.

This is the last 30:15 of this round and it was HARD.  My whole body aches from pushing hard yesterday at the tri.  24 sets of pushups and pullups is a lot...I am hurting.

TriKC Indoor Triathlon (April)

I did another indoor triathlon today.  I previously did one other indoor triathlon last month with good results.  Today I was back for more.  The full race report should be up tomorrow.

Right now I'll just say that I improved in all three disciplines.  And I wore a wetsuit.  Oh yeah, a wetsuit.

60 Minute Swim - 60 Minute Bike

Cold. Unmotivated.

Those two words pretty clearly describe today's workouts. 

I started at the pool this morning at about 5am.  I was supposed to do about 77 minutes, which should translate into somewhere around 4000 yards or so for me.  Yeah, I ended up doing something like 1500 yards.  The water was colder than usual, I was tired and just couldn't bring myself to push myself during the workout.  I took long breaks, didn't get in full sets, basically just a lazy, unmotivated workout.

I finished my swim, drove home and got on my bike.  I got about a mile from home, and realized I couldn't feel my hands, so I turned around, went back and got some winter gloves.  The temperature has been in the 70's the last few days and was supposed to be beautiful again today.  That was absolutely the case...this afternoon.  This morning it was 44 degrees.  I was freaking cold.  I started the ride really wanting to do a long 30-40 mile ride.  I did about 15.  Ugh.  Again, I was tired, cold and totally unmotivated.

I need something to light a fire under me right now, to refocus on my workouts and to make some progress in my training.  I have another indoor triathlon tomorrow and I think it may be just the motivation I need to refocus the last 45 days or so before my first race.  Let's hope so...race report tomorrow.

Round 4: Day 75 - FOY Yoga

Stretching.  Bending.  Flexing.  Yoga.

Round 4: Day 74 - Total Body Plus

The middle of an O Crunch Pushup...Oh, I crunched it!  I'm sorry, that "joke" was terrible.

Ahh, feels so good to workout again.  It's been three days!  If you'd told me a couple of years ago that a three day hiatus from working out would send my world into a tailspin, I would have thrown my french fries at you (before picking them up and eating them anyway...I used to really like french fries).

Anyway, since this week is pretty much shot as far as staying on schedule, as we've already missed three of six workouts, we've decided to do a little hodge podge for the rest of the week.  We're going to to Total Body Plus today, Yoga tomorrow and a random Insanity Max Interval workout on Friday.  Then, we will restart Week 11 on Sunday with 30:15 and finish out the round.  It seemed silly to try to make up three workouts this week, so we'll just extend this round by a few extra days to make sure we complete our schedule, then we'll do something else.

I hate getting off schedule, but I hate not completing our workouts even more.

Round 4: Day 73 - Plane Ride X

I left my house at 4:30am this morning to catch a 6:30am flight to St. Louis.  I spent the day in a deposition and then hopped on a 6:30pm flight back.  I just got home and had some oatmeal.

I'm considering my workout today Plane Ride X.

Round 4: Day 72 - Blah

OK, I'm having a bit of a week.  Yesterday I didn't work out because Mrs. Gias was out of town and I had my girls to myself...not the best excuse, but that's what happened.  Then, this morning, the alarm was still set for 6am (the time I woke up for church yesterday with my girls) instead of 5am and so we slept...another missed workout. 

Everything will be better tomorrow though, right?

I found out today that I need to be in St. Louis for an 8am meeting, which means I have a 6:30am flight tomorrow morning and I won't be back until late tomorrow night (nothing like a day trip to St. Louis).  Yeah, no workout there either.  I'm starting to feel a bit weirded out by not working out for a few days, I haven't had a stretch like this in more than a year.

Well, I'm going to try to stick to my Tri schedule which isn't messed up this week and I'll do some fill in workouts the rest of the week and repeat this entire week starting next Sunday. 

I just need to take my own advice...miss a workout, do better tomorrow.

Round 4: Day 71 - Rest

Mrs. Gias has been out of town this weekend, so I've been chasing B & G all over the place the past two days.  Don't get me wrong, I love it and I wouldn't change it for the world; I always feel like I've accomplished something when I play the role of the single dad.  However, it also tuckers me out something fierce. 

Anyway, I decided to take the day off today. 

77 Minute Swim

Yeah, that's our oven clock when I left last night this morning.

Today, I had a nice long swim without any noticable injuries, no cramps, no interruptions, it was great.  I hit the pool about 4:30am and just swam.  I did ladders, stroke drills, 50's, 100's, all kinds of different stuff. 

You see, the thing about swimming by yourself is that when you stop, all you hear is the sound of yourself breathing; when you swim, all you hear is yourself splashing.  You basically stare at the black line on the bottom of the pool and have nothing to occupy yourself except for the fatigue in your shoulders, the burning in your lungs and whatever you choose to think about. 

That being said, just mindlessly swimming 100 yard intervals for an hour and fifteen minutes is basically like torture by sensory depravation.  The way you break that up is to switch up what you're doing with drills, strokes and games.  Yeah, "stroke count golf" sounds boring, but it helps to pass the time. 

Today, I used all my tricks and I need to find something new for next week...Suggestions?

Round 4: Day 69 - Plyometric Cardio Circuit

Unfortunately I was in this position far too much during the workout today.

Mrs. Gias and I did a little Insanity this morning to get the blood pumping.  There's a section of this workout which has you in a plank position (think pushup position) doing pushups, jumping your legs in close to your chest, etc.  I was having a particularly difficult time with this section today; I just could not hold the position, my arms were too tired.  I usually don't have any problems with this section, but for some reason today I had a lot of trouble.

Geek: Man, my arms are toast today.
Mrs. Gias: Yeah, you were really struggling.
Geek: I don't know if I was struggling...
Mrs. Gias: Yeah, you were weak.
Geek: Well...I mean...I took more breaks than usual...
Mrs. Gias: Yeah, you didn't do like half the moves.
Geek: I did more than half...
Mrs. Gias: You mean today?
Geek: Uh...I don't know...I think so...
Mrs. Gias: I just call it like I see it.
Geek: Uh, thanks for the support?

12.8 Mile Bike Ride

I had a few extra minutes when I got home from work so I went out for a little hour long bike ride.  It was beautiful weather so I hit the trail and tried to get in a few miles.  I know that my biking is weak right now, I'm only averaging about 15 mph and that needs to get up into at least the 18 mph range.  From what I'm reading the only way to increase speed is time in the saddle. 

So, I'm in the saddle every chance I get.

Round 4: Day 68 - Diamond Delts

That's 31 year old shoulder meat!  Yeah, that sounds weird.

We did Diamond Delts this morning and although we'd noticed it before, this video really has some "classic" (read "horribly corny") Tony Horton lines in it.  In no particular order, here are the top five:

1. [Introducing the video] It's Diamond Delts 'merica!
2. [Stopping the workout midway to answer the door to his house] I have to go show this woman where to put my log cover.
3. [After the director comments on his less than spectacular clothing choice for the video] I'm Tony Horton, your fitness clown. 
4. [After flexing] These are diamond delts, watch out or you're gonna get cut!
5. [After the director comments on Tony's toned shoulders] That's 50 year old shoulder meat!

Makes you curious just to watch the video to understand the context, doesn't it?

Round 4: Day 67 - Fountain of Youth Yoga

Up Dog is one of my favorites because it stretches out my back...

...and clearly, it looks sexy.

My balance was a little off today; not sure why.  I was a little tight on my left side, and I couldn't seem to hold a few of the easiest asanas.  After I fell over during a few asanas and then during "Happy Baby" (lay on your back with your feet in the air and bend your knees grabbing your feet with your hands, just like a baby on a changing table - one of the easiest poses we do) Mrs. Gias said that maybe I should just do child's pose until the end of the session and I didn't think it was too bad of an idea.

46 Minute Swim

Although this is a busy week, I was able to get to the pool this evening after work for a quick workout.  I did ladders again and swam about 2000 yards; it started a little slow, but I ended up having a great workout.  A few observations from today:

• I met a new guy, Dan, who is also doing the KC Triathlon in May.  We may end up doing some training together, which could be good.
• I hate when the pool is full of inexperienced swimmers.  Don't get me wrong, if someone wants to swim, I'm the first person to offer to split my lane.  If you're trying to swim to get in shape or train for something, I respect that, I've been there, I am there.  But if you don't ask to join a lane the right way, or don't stay to your own side...it's just impolite.  Seriously, learn a little protocol.
• I hate the fat bastard guy that uses the pool like a cool down bath out of the whirlpool.  C'mon man, there's already enough crap in the pool without you using it to rinse off, use the shower.
• Dark blue goggles are a little dim for indoor swims and I should probably get some clear goggles because for whatever reason I was having a hard time seeing tonight.  Weird.

Round 4: Day 66 - Back & Biceps

This was supposed to be a picture of in-and-out hammer curls;

unfortunately it just looks like I'm waving the dumbbells like a spaz.

It's a full week at the Geek's house.  I've got depositions all week at work, Mrs. Gias has something planned on a number of evenings and she's heading out of town at the end of the week...let's just say we're hurting for time.  However, we're into the final third of our P90X cycle and I have 47 days left until the Kansas City Triathlon.  It's time to get serious.  It's time to focus on the workouts and not slack off. 

It's time to stop eating chocolate bunnies with reckless abandon. (C'mon, like your diet the last few days hasn't had a little too much from the "chocolate" food group?)

Round 4: Day 64 - Cardio Power and Resistance

It looks like I'm just curled up on the floor in pain.  However, I swear this is a real Insanity move.

It's Easter Sunday, which means access to chocolate and large meals with multiple family groups.  Due to the excess of calories that we thought we would likely be taking in today, we switched up our workouts a bit and did Insanity Cardio Power and Resistance this morning instead of Diamond Delts. (I know, I know, one workout doesn't make up for a bunch of candy, but we're trying here, OK?)

So Mrs. Gias and I noticed a little something about Shaun T. this morning.  He tends to describe a lot of things as "the most important part of the workout."  For instance, "Don't ever skip the stretch, it's the most important part of the workout."  Or, "The warm-up is the most important part of the workout, y'all."  You get the idea. 

So we did a little deductive reasoning and scientifically came up with the top 5 most important things about Insanity workouts according to Shaun T.  We counted the number of times that Shaun said something was the "most important" part of the workout, or did something so many times that it was clearly important.  Here they are from most important to least important, in other words the one you should NEVER skip all the way to the one that if you "had" to skip something you should skip the one on the bottom:

1. The stretch
2. The warmup
3. Water breaks
4. Taking off your shirt half way through the workout
5. The workout

Notice anytyhing funny in that list.  Shaun T. likes to say that the strech, warmup and water breaks (he constantly takes his shirt off, so that must be important) are not to be skipped.  He never mentions that the "workout" is the most important part of the workout.  Apparently if we are ever short on time and needed to skip something in an Insanity workout, we should just skip the workout part.

70 Minute Swim

I had a good bike session yesterday, so I decided to just put in a long swim today.  That being said, I got to be really wild and I slept in until 4:50am! Ha!  I know, you're wondering how I get anything done sleeping so late, but it was a nice change of pace to arrive at the gym after 5am.

I got there and a few people were wandering about.  I dropped my stuff in my usual locker - 117 (by the way, if someone can identify the geeky reason I use 117, you win a prize) and jumped in the pool. 

I decided to do a monster set of ladders today, doing 2x25, 2x50, 2x75, 2x100, 2x125, 2x150, 2x175, 2x200 - and then back down again.  Three things of note during the swim today:

1. I got a monster cramp in my left calf and upper right thigh, like to the point that I almost couldn't pull myself out of the pool to stretch them out.  It was bizzare.  The pain from the cramp is still lingering as I sit here 9 hours later.  Worst cramp ever.

2. I usually have the pool to myself, but today at about 5:45 another guy came in to do some laps.  It wasn't any big deal, it's just the first time that I haven't had the pool to myself during an early morning session.

3.  Here's the weird stuff.  At 10 'till 6am a girl, aged 25 to 30, walked into the wet area (I've described this before - pool, whirlpool, wet sauna, dry sauna - all coed) and into the dry sauna.  In a black bikini.  And sat there for at least a half hour. 

Now normally, if this is just a busy Tuesday evening at the gym, I would probably just think this was some vapid girl that wanted attention so she threw on a bikini and tried to strut around the gym to have people notice her.  Of course, the problem with this explanation for this morning is that it was freaking 5:50am!  Seriously, what the hell is she doing there with the other 8 people in the place?  Did she set her alarm to get up, drive to the gym, put on a bikini and sit in the dry sauna for a half hour?  Was this in her day planner?  Had she not gone to bed yet and was trying to recover from Friday night?  I'm totally confused. 

There may be less than 10 people in the gym at 5am, but the percentage of weirdness is through the roof.

21.2 Mile Bike Ride

Had a great ride today.  It was about 62 degrees, sunny, but a little windy.  However, I noticed a truism of cycling today. 

I'm not as fast downhill as I am slow uphill.

I need to work on that.

Day 62 - Insanity Pure Cardio

Mummy kicks in a still picture look significantly less stupid than my last few pictures.

We haven't done that workout in a while and boy, it's a good one.  It's a nice little 40 minute sweat fest that keeps the heart rate up the whole time.  Every time I do an Insanity workout I like them more and more.

Round 4: Day 61 - Total Body Plus

Mrs. Gias rockin' some close grip pullups.

So, banner day today for Mrs. Gias.  At the end of the workout she informed me that today was the first workout she had completed where she did not have to use a chair for any of her pullups.  Up to this point, she was able to get a couple pullups here and a few more there, maybe even a full set here and there, but she would always fall back and use the chair later in the workout to finish her reps.  Not today.

Today she completed Total Body Plus with no chair at all.  Watch out boys, Mrs. Gias is a bad ass.

A few other points of note:

• Slept with the window open last night because the weather is getting gorgeous...maybe a bike ride today if I can sneak out of work a little early (not likely)?
• It's April Fool's day and no, there is no April Fool's day joke on this page. I've done them before, but not this year.
• However, in honor of April Fool's day, I was trying to teach B some Knock-Knock jokes at breakfast she could use on her grandparents.  This was a total failure.  Three year old humor is...difficult to understand.  Case in point, I spent a significant amount of time teaching her the classic banana/orange knock-knock joke (Knock knock. Who's there? Banana. Banana who? Knock knock. Who's there? Banana. Banana who? Knock knock. Who's there? Orange. Orange who? Orange you glad I didn't say banana.)  After nearly a half hour of practice at breakfast, I took her upstairs to try the joke on Mrs. Gias.  B proceded to tell this joke:

B: Knock knock.
Mrs. Gias: Who's there?
B: Horse.
Mrs. Gias: Horse who?
B: Horse glad I didn't say comb?

Wha? Yeah, total failure.