Going Insanity

I'm reaching the end of the 2011 Winter Team in Training Marathon season that I'm coaching, and 2/3 of the group has already completed their events. We've got a small but mighty group headed down to Walt Disney World for Marathon Weekend - the half, full and Goofy Challenge races.

Though I'm not an official race coach, I do have a bib for Goofy and will run both races, most likely at a casual, enjoyable pace, as I have not trained properly to "race" it. In fact, I've been off a training schedule for a while. I complete the weekend miles with my team, but my midweek workouts have been stale. I've needed a change up from running.

Daylight savings has left me little time to take my bike out - curse you darkness! I just recently (ie. the day I left for holiday brake) purchased a new bike trainer (on the cheap side - Cycleops Mag). I loathe the trainer as much as I do the darkness. But my tummy's growing and my brain is itching to do something else ... Enter: Insanity.

Insanity is a 60-day high-intensity, cardio workout from Beachbody, the company that distributes P90X. Focused more on aerobics rather than on lifting, Insanity provides a guided workout with a "reverse interval" style. Shaun T, the leader, pushes you during a 3-minute lung-or-muscle burning exercise, and then allows you 30 seconds rest. This style of training goes on for the entire workout, about 45 minutes. There are 10 or 12 DVDS, I can't remember. But they are all a little different. So in the same approach as Tony Horton's muscle confusion method, your body is constantly challenged day after day.


After informally polling the twitter community about the My friend and teammate Petty loaned me her set of DVDs. I've been putting off doing the workouts because I did not want to see how out of shape I am doing HIIT training. I can run forever, slowly. It's much harder for me to move quickly over short bursts of time. So I packed the DVDs in my carry on for home, and whipped them out on my second day here.

For the next 60 days, I'm going to blog my progress with the program. Either day-by-day or every couple of days. No before and after pictures ... or maybe just awesome after-pictures :) But definitely a chronicle of what it's like to do the program and if its worth the time.

It's exactly what my mind and body need to shake them up.