Cardio Confession

Ummmm... 16 days until the Peachtree! 

Cardio Confession,

I have not run since Memorial Day Weekend.

We completed 2 miles during "Murph" on Memorial Day.

Prior to that we spent "military weekend" in Jacksonville, Fl . 

We completed a little over 3 miles.

I need to do some serious cardio over the next few weeks or the Peachtree will be brutal!

I guess nothing will be worse than the 1st yr I ran it. No training, never more than 6 miles. I was a giant ball if knots at the end.

Hopefully my strength will get me through the run. 

I usually adhere to a strict training regimen, but this season I have been focused on lifting and Crossfit. I looked up and it was nearly race day! 

So your turn. Tell me:

What is the shortest amount of time you've prepped for a race? 

I think I see some cardio in my future today after work! 

Health and Happiness

- L 

Insanity Tracker

Have you seen the infomercials for the newest fittness DVD from BeachBody?

Heres the link: http://www.beachbody.com/product/fitness_programs/insanity.do?code=BBHOME_CONTROL_INS

Summary, fitness professional Shaun T, the face behind Hip Hop Abs ( my lil sisters favorite beach body workout series), has put together a group of cardio and strength exercises and organized them into high intensity cardio intervals.

What is the benefit to Interval Training?

Interval training is training the emphasize progression between work and rest ratios to allow you to work at your highest maximal rate and burn the highest amount of calories at a given time.

With a standard cardio program you would generally have a warm up and then maintain a certain heart rate level througout... for examples sake we'll say 145 ( 220 - age * 75%).

Interval training will send that heartrate way above 145, and bring you back around 145 or lower during the recovery. The higher your heart rate - the more oxygen your muscle use - the more calories you burn. Plus you get the added benefit of EPOC (excess post oxygen consumption) or "after burn", the calories your body continues to burn trying to return your body to homeostasis or baseline, the harder you work the longer this takes, and the more energy or calories are used.

Still with me?

Exercise hard and vigorous - burn more calories during and after your workout.


Insanity Week 1:

The Fitness Test - so the first thing you do before you begin your workouts is take the fitness test. I did decent on the strength test but the cardio/plyo test were pretty brutal.

OMG I have never been so sweaty doing an at home workout. I am dripping sweat in the warm up. By the end of the workout my chest is heaving my entire body is covered in sweat, but I feel amazing. Energized! And I feel this way during every workout during the week, I am so thankful for the "recovery workout" midweek, cuz my muscles are kinda hating me by day 3.

After one week I am already feeling stronger and more confident about the workouts. The workouts themselves aren't that complex its the sequencing and the speed that are really challenging. I am sweating buckets every workout. One of the things that I love about the DVD is that the people in the video are in really good shape but they as well as the instructor have to take frequent breaks during the exercise, which makes you feel comfortable when you need to take a break yourself, frequently.

I have also been following their "elite nutrition plan" that reccommends you eat 5 small meals a day with 10 options for each meal that include tasty options like cream of wheat and sushi. It gives you areound 1700 kcals a day , based on your current weight.

I am just so proud of myself for making the commitment to do this for the next 60 days.

I'll post an update on my progress week 4, and week 8.


After week 1: - 2 lbs, - 1% body fat