Round 5: Day 2 - Insanity Plyometric Cardio Circuit

Navy shirt, black shorts.  What can I say, I'm a snappy dresser in the morning.

I had delusions of grandure of doing Plyo Max Circuit this morning.  It's basically the same workout we ended up doing but it's about 20 minutes longer and has been known to literally make your heart explode. 

After a brief discussion with Mrs. Gias, she thought it would be a good idea to leave our hearts intact today.  At the end when I had to use a beach towel to wipe up my pool of sweat, I thought she made a good call.

Insanity Pure Cardio

Mrs. Gias said, "it looks like you have three legs." That's what she said. Ha!

Back to a fitness video today.  We've been doing other things, running mostly, this week and this morning we decided to get back to one of our old favorites.  And by old favorites, I mean, heart attack inducing cardio with Shaun T. 

You remember Pure Cardio, right?  It's the one with no breaks where Shaun T mentions that he's nervous for the workout because it's so hard.  So, yeah, good one to start back up on.

Insanity Core Cardio and Balance

Look ma...I can fly!

Back in the saddle.  It's been a few days since we worked out, but first things first...Mrs. Gias ran in Hospital Hill on Saturday and she did GREAT!  She PR'd on a humid day and on probably one of the toughest half marathon courses around.  B & G, my inlaws and I all cheered her on and had a blast.

As for the workouts, yeah, I've been slacking.  Mrs. Gias was tapering last week and I decided to taper with her even though I didn't have a race...it was basically just an excuse to slack off for four days.  The other problem I've had is that I've been eating like an idiot lately, sneaking a soda, eating pizza, throwing in a hamburger when I took my girls out for lunch.  Was it non-stop junk food?  No.  Was it more than I should have had? Yes.  I desperately need to work out, eat right and get back into a routine.  It's only been four days, but geez, I feel like I'm falling down a hole and worried and can't come back up.

That's why this morning's workout, even though it's not the most intense, still felt great.  We built up a bit of a sweat, I had a sensible breakfast and felt much better about myself today.  We'll workout again tomorrow and the next day and I'll get my rhythm back...I hope.

Core Cardio and Balance

It's like I'm a more awkward version of Ralph Macchio doing the crane.

T-minus 4 days until Mrs. Gias's Hospital Hill half marathon.  She's in her taper week and wanted to do some low-impact (nothing tricky on her knees or hips) cross training so we settled in for about 40 minutes of Insanity.  It got a nice little sweat going and the minimal amount of jumps we had to do were pretty soft.

Insanity Pure Cardio

I really did not want to workout this morning.  I was a little sore and super tired.  We went downstairs with the intention of doing an Insanity workout, we just weren't sure which one we should do.  I settled on Pure Cardio because we hadn't done it in a while and after all the pushups yesterday, by pecs were a little sore and I didn't want to be stuck in plank for 10 minutes like in Plyo Circuit.  Of course, not doing Pure Cardio for a few weeks, I forgot about the burpees and pushup jacks that end the workout. 

I don't remember being run over by a car, but I wouldn't be surprised to find tire marks across my chest.

Insanity Cardio Power and Resistance - Mash Up

I let Mrs. Gias pick the workout this morning and she decided she wanted to do a little Insanity.  I really like Insanity workouts so I was totally game.  Nothing too eventful, I felt good, didn't take any mid-set breaks and built up a nice sweat.

Round 4: Day 90 - Core Cardio and Balance

This is a lame Day 90 Picture...maybe we'll take some different shots later.

Round 4 Complete!

We finished our 4th 90 day round this morning with a little Insanity Core Cardio and Balance.  It feels good to finish the round, but I can't take too much time to rest as I've got a race next week, and the one after.  We'll see if I decide to have a cheat meal this weekend to celebrate or save that for after my upcoming races.

As for what's next...hopefully we'll have something on that in the next day or two.  It'll probably be some low key maintenence for a few weeks so I can taper appropriately for my races, but we'll see.

Round 4: Day 85 - Insanity Core Cardio and Balance

We're into the home stretch on this 90 day round and we just started our last recovery week.  Core Cardio and Balance is a good recovery week workout because it's not too challenging, but it gets a bit of sweat going to let you know you're working out.  However, at the end, it kind of kicks you in the butt with a bunch of burnout moves, first on your hip-flexors and then in your shoulders.  It's a bit uncomfortable and I really can't figure out what good it's doing me fitness-wise, but we do the moves anyway.

During the shoulder burnout Mrs. Gias's arms and mine got a little bit close.  It should be known that Mrs. Gias does not like...let me restate...hates...being touched, even brushed lightly, while working out.  Well, I have long arms and apparently they got a bit close to Mrs. Gias.  It was early so her english wasn't quite top notch, but she said pretty clearly,

"I don't even want that near me not even a little bit at all."

Well, at least that was clear.

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 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 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".

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 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?

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.

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 58 - Insanity Plyometric Cardio Circuit

Is it me, or does my ass look extra big in this picture?

I forgot how much I really like Plyometric Cardio Circuit.  It might be my favorite Insanity workout.  As Shaun T says, "I'm smiling because I love it."

Round 4: Day 55 - Core Cardio and Balance

Yes, this is an actual move from Insanity. 

Yes, I actually look this stupid while doing it.

Sleepy.

We stayed up until after 11:30pm last night watching Mrs. Gias's alma mater, Kansas State University, put a beating on Xavier in double over time in the NCAA Tournament.  It was a good game and pretty exciting towards the end.  Of course as far as I am concerned, basketball season is over for the year after my Jayhawks got uncerimoniously bounced in the second round...but I digress...

I remember there was about 12.1 seconds left in overtime and KSU was up by three or four and Mrs. Gias thought the game was pretty much over and I said, half joking, "12.1 seconds in basketball time could mean hours."  Why do I always have to be right?  Two overtimes and an hour or so later and the Cats finally put it away and we could try to go to bed. 

I know, 11:30pm doesn't sound that late, and it's not, although when you're getting up five hours later to exercise, it's brutal.

Still, we got up this morning and were a bit loopy during our Insanity workout.  This is our last recovery week session and this workout in particular seems to call for a lot of silliness on our part.  Something about the low impact nature of the exercises along with some thumping music that kind of sounds like No Doubt makes us think that we can dance.  I should point out that this assumption is incorrect as evidenced by the side to side clapping picture below.

Round 4: Day 50 - Core Cardio and Balance

It's the beginning of our second recovery week for this round.  Frankly, with the injuries I've had it could have come last week, but this week is still pretty good timing.  I'll be shortening up my TriTraining workouts and be doing low impact P90X workouts all week, which is good for my knee and hopefully this chest congenstion will also clear up in the next few days.

Today we did Insanity's Core Cardio and Balance, a nice cardio routine that keeps your heart rate up in zone 3 or so, but doesn't really ever max you out.  It's a great way to start the recovery week and the day.  You feel like you worked out at the end, but you're not falling on the ground like you've been kicked in the gut, which is how I usually feel after an Insanity workout.

Round 4: Day 45 - Cardio Power and Resistance

I may not have been able to jump high, but I can stretch like nobody's business!

Although my knee was still hurting me today I knew I needed to get in a good Insanity workout as it had been nearly a week without one...I was itching to back at it.  We did Cardio Power and Resistance, which, as I've said before, is a great workout.  I did the routine favoring my left knee so my squats weren't quite as low and my jumps weren't quite as high, but I still felt the workout.  Overall, it really didn't feel like my knee was overworked.

After the workout was over, Mrs. Gias and I were chatting about how my knee was, whether I was going to swim today (yes), if she was going to run today (yes) and various other sundry things.  The topic of tomorrow's workout came up and I mentioned that since we're a day behind due to my race on Sunday we wouldn't have our normal Wednesday yoga session, much to Mrs. Gias's chagrin, it would be pushed back to Thursday.  

Mrs. Gias: Wouldn't a nice Irish yoga session be great tomorrow? [tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day]
Geek: Uh, Irish yoga?  You're not even Irish.
Mrs. Gias: Aye, matey, Irish yoga! [in the worst "Irish accent" you've ever heard, followed by a jump up and a click of her heels, possibly trying to impersonate what she believes a leprechaun would do]
Geek:  "Aye, matey, Irish yoga?" Who talks like that, a yoga pirate?

Round 4: Day 34 - Insanity Max Interval Circuit

During Plank Punches I just imagine I'm punching the stop button on the DVD.

Insanity Max Interval Circuit from this morning goes something like this:
Jog in Place (more like "run for your life"),
Arms Up Jumping Jacks (jumping jacks with your arms straight up),
1-2-3 Heismans (three steps left with a high knee and back to the other side with another high knee),
Side-to-Side Jump Ropes (jump continuously elbows bent going from side to side to work your obliques),
Arms Out High Knees (High knees with arms out straight at shoulder level),
Switch Kicks (alternating leg jumping waist high kicks),
Hit the Floor (slap the ground and jump up),
Side-to-Side Floor Hops (plank position jump your legs high in the air to the right, back and then to the left).

Each exercise 30 seconds and repeat this sequence three times, increasing the intensity each time until you are going all out.

You finish this sequence dripping with sweat, look at the TV and realize in horror that there's still 45 minutes left. 

Yeah, that was the freaking warm-up.  The workout hasn't even started yet...shudder...

I have to admit, I started this workout with a bit of trepedation because I had some idea of what was coming.  You see, if you do a regular Insanity schedule, for the first four weeks, you do 40 minute workouts everyday, getting your body aclimated to high intensity cardio, then in the last four weeks you do "Max Interval" workouts.  These are basically the big brothers of the original 40 minute workouts.  They are more intense, use more compound moves and last 60 minutes.  Max Interval workouts are monsters.

Of course, in my infinite wisdom, Mrs. Gias and I are doing a hybrid schedule so we are only doing two Insanity workouts per week instead of the usual six.  I was a bit worried that our bodies would not acclimate to a Max Interval workout without some more work.  Surprisingly, we both did better than I expected.  I'd say that we both kept up with the DVD really well.

I have to admit, I really liked it.