Two weeks ago, I switched over from weights to HIIT cardio to cross train for the marathon. I did this for a few reasons. I got a little bored with the weights and wasn’t really looking forward to my workouts as much anymore since I can’t go heavy (I’m limited to the weights I have at home since weights are still not available for purchase anywhere.) The same moves every other day were also getting boring and monotonous and I was no longer feeling like I had an effective workout - the soreness has dissipated and the results were stagnant. Another reason was to finish my workouts sooner. With weights it would take a few hours to finish a good lifting session. With HIIT, I’m easily dead within the first 10 minutes of the warmup.
I haven’t done HIIT cardio in a while so I figured I’d give it a shot again to switch things up. Welp, it’s still as difficult as it is every time I start up these workouts. I just finished week 2 and it was definitely hard but I’m feeling good! In the past two weeks, I’ve definitely noticed progress from the first time I did the workout circuits compared to the 2nd and 3rd rounds this week of each circuit. My first few days, I was out of breath a lot and finding myself needing to take more breaks and rests than usual to recover before continuing on, but this week I found myself doing the total opposite and being able to continue through the workout more seamlessly without interruption. I was able to finish strong.
In the past I’ve never recorded my Insanity workouts because I was self-conscious of my form and my stomach chub bouncing around. I feel more confident this time around since I’ve been recording my gym workouts for the past 2 years, so I started doing these workouts live on Instagram and saving them to my IGTV. At first I thought to myself that I would probably fall off the wagon after 3 weeks because of how hard these workouts are. No lie, they still definitely are, but I think doing them live on IG is really helping me stay consistent, accountable and on schedule. I still can’t say with 100% confidence that I’ll finish out the full 60 days but I do want to try and stick through it and get as far as I can. Maybe it’s too soon to say this but this time around, I feel like I don’t hate HIIT workouts as much as I used to.
And because I do these workouts live, once I press play, I focus all my energy on the entire workout until it’s complete. So I spend a lot less time resting, and no wasted time mindlessly scrolling on my phone during those rests and thus, finish my workout much faster than a lifting session. Don’t get me wrong, I still love weightlifting, but I’m enjoying this change of pace for right now. I love being done with my workout in under 45 minutes compared to 2-3 hours or lifting (although if I get to the second month of Insanity, those videos are an hour long! RIP me). The numbers on the scale are still stagnant unfortunately, but I am definitely seeing visible results in the mirror. If you watch my first video of the Insanity series on my IGTV, you’ll see I’m looking very bloated and the chub is visible. As the videos progress, the definition on my stomach gets better since a lot of the workouts call for a focus on your core as well. So no complaints here.
I’m still running as well on top of the HIIT workouts. Currently I’m running every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, with Saturday reserved for long runs and Sunday for long walks to help recover from Saturday’s damage. I’m logging my results with a Facebook group of Disney runners all training for the WDW Marathon/Goofy and Dopey Challenges to further help keep me accountable and motivated. Everyone in there working on their performance, distance, stamina and endurance helps me to keep pushing hard to keep this goal on track and not give up. Sometimes when I’m out there running, I still have doubts shooting in and out of my head but at the same time, I really want to see this through so fingers crossed, we crush this dream goal too! I just got to think of it as another mountain yet to climb, crush and conquer. I honestly have no idea if this race will even still be on in January but it really helps to keep me on track and have something to work towards. I need something to hold onto, I hate just working out with no concrete goal/timeline in mind. I’m a creature of habit and structure and right now, both the Insanity workouts and the marathon training schedule is a challenge I’m showing up for every day! It feels really good to push through and complete all my workouts, especially when my results are coming through. Hopefully I can be back here at the end of the month with an update that I finished the whole month of Insanity so that’s going to be my mini goal for the month. Progress is progress!
