Insanity Day 13: Pure Cardio (ugh, take this out of the rotation!)

Ok first of all, today was the big 2-9 on the 'ol birthday meter!  And what better way to start the day than with an early morning bout of Pure Cardio????


Katie and I were back at it again, and for those just now joining us (as they say) this is easily the toughest of all the Insanity workouts as far as the first month is concerned.  Just a beast!


Anyway, not much to report today since y'all should have a good idea by now of what to expect from this one: ~11 min of killer warmup; stretch sequence; and then 15 min of non-stop, 100%, keel over and try not to pass out, cardio intervals.  


Again, we have pretty much got this warm-up thing down, but today (because of the extreme resistance stuff I did yesterday with P90x) I was very very sore.  Doing "pushup jacks" when your chest starts off the workout already fried is not an easy proposition.  With that in mind, there were a few more of the pushup exercises than normal where I had to modify due to sheer exhaustion.  And I'm actually STILL sore as I type.  Oh well.


I do have to say though, as hard as this workout is, it gives you a VERY satisfying feeling after you complete it.  


Diet Update
Not too too much to report today, but there were still some pretty delicious items had throughout the day that fit the diet plan:

• Breakfast: green smoothie
• Mid-morning snack: almond milk & gluten free puffins
• Lunch: Udi's gluten free artisan bread, avocado, sliced chicken breast, mustard.  Delish, but a bit messy.  Those avocados do not want to stay on the sandwhich!
• Dinner: Katie took me to La Residence in Chapel Hill.  Scrumtralescent tuna tartare and pork tenderloin.  Pork isn't technically on my diet but is still "more" allowed than red meat
• Dessert: Katie made a homemade dairy-gluten free "ice cream" cake with peach sorbet, Pamela's cake mix, and caramel frosting.  Wowzers it was good!

Going Forward

Just as an update on where my little reviews will go from here.  Since the workouts don't really change for another two weeks, I'm going to take a brief hiatus and pick back up when the new workouts start hitting the schedule.  If I can make it that far :)

Insanity Day 5: Pure Cardio (aka "Shaun, what is your freakin' problem!?")

What the heck was that!??


Katie and I just finished today's Insanity workout (had to postpone from this morning due to the week's school schedule)...and it was hard.  VERY hard.


The warm-up for Pure Cardio--about 11 minutes--was the exact same as for Plyometric Cardio Circuit, which as you recall was a killer: jog (aka sprint), jumping jacks, heisman, 123 heismans, butt kicks, and mummy kicks...repeat 3x, getting faster with each cycle.

The warm-up, as pretty much always, was followed by an 7-8 minute stretch sequence.  So, it was during the latter half of this portion of the video that I knew I was in trouble.  Right before the workout begins Shaun comments about he's "nervous" about starting Pure Cardio.  What!?  This is definitely the first time I've ever heard him say anything that showed weakness.  It's like he's deliberately taunting us.  What are we in for!?


Workout (15 min)
Brutal. Brutal. Brutal.  


Unlike previous workouts that involve cycles of different exercises for 30 second stints (with periodic breaks), Pure Cardio was 15 minutes of 100% intensity and NO BREAKS!!  Not a single one.  Background exercisers are dropping like flies in the background, while Katie and I are holding back the urge to vomit (not an exaggeration, and this is the first time we've felt this bad from one of these workouts).  


As a basic summary of the moves, there were a large handful of different jack variations (all of which consisted of some sort of low squat), frog jumps, ski jumps, suicide jumps and runs, as well as some brutal synergistic pushup moves.  Most of them we had seen before, but it did us no good in terms of keeping up.  As a matter of fact, this was probably the worst I've done in the actual workout  as far as taking extra breaks.  Brutal.


Thought for Today
Ok, this workout was a challenge, and I feel pretty accomplished having finished it.  However, when you're talking about what amounts to pretty much a 15 minute "sprint" workout, it's kind of defeating during the workout itself.  You almost want to walk away, and seeing all the folks in the background essentially passing out at varying intervals doesn't instill confidence.  I won't be looking forward to doing this one again!


As a side note, this was by far the best I've done on the actual warm-up so far.  No extra breaks!


Oh, and just FYI, there's one particular girl who's been in a few of the workouts so far who we actually seem to better than.  She looks like she's in great shape, but she is CONSTANTLY taking breaks.  Go us :)