How Committed Am I to Working Out?

Yesterday I had hopes to run on a track while my bf went to school. However, by the time he had to leave, I had only gotten 5 1/2 hrs of sleep. I chose to sleep some more because I have come to the conclusion my work outs are terrible on lack of sleep. When I woke up, I did a round of Insanity to make it 3 days in a row. I have partially fallen off the Insanity wagon. I follow the order of the DVDs but not the schedule. I throw some running in there and have days off when I'm busy. Days off are important. My joints are starting to get sore.

But that's the thing. I will be busy soon. What if the days off get longer and longer? I went to Sports Chek the other day. I wanted to buy a pair of shorts or maybe another dri-fit tank top. But they were around 35-50$. I only have 2 pairs of shorts I work out in so I'm constantly doing laundry now. And then I asked myself, will I really stick to working out? Is it a worthy investment? In just under 2 weeks, I'm going to be starting my nursing preceptorship. I don't know what my schedule will be like. Is it 4 days on 5 days off? I sure as hell won't be working out in the early mornings. When I leave the hospital, the first thing I want to do is take a shower. I definitely could on days off but seems kind of counterproductive to have that many days off in a row.

Or maybe I should just stop making excuses and just do it. My baseline motivation right now is that there is no reason for me not to do it with all the free time i have. But I'd like for this to be a regular part of my life.

Too Much Cardio is Bad?

That is the question.

Recently I read how cardio can make you skinny fat and cardio is counterproductive to building muscle. My personal aim is cardio. When I only do it 3x/week, it feels like a cop out. I like Insanity (despite how hard it is) because it feels like both cardio and working my muscles. I do like running too. I think the amount of cardio I'm doing is fine. My bf thinks I should do less cardio and do more weights. I'm getting somewhat bony and some muscle padding would help alleviate that. Today, I saw I was to do Cardio Recovery on the Insanity schedule which is muscle strengthening and zero cardio. I was tempted to do a cardio dvd but figured some anaerobic exercise would do me good. My legs were sore. I sweated. I suppose it was a productive workout.

Anyway, I still don't think I'm doing too much cardio. To me, too much is doing cardio for long periods of time every day. At 45 mins-ish 3-5x/week, I think I'm good.

I'm going to run on a track on Wednesday. I'm pretty stoked. It's been years since I ran on one and I like it because it gives me a good gauge of my distance. I don't have anything fancy that measures my distance for me. I'm going to aim for 5km and see how my time is.

Too Busy to Workout

I filled out an entire month (well except those four days of not working out due to hurting my foot) of workouts. It's more than I expected of myself from when I first began in May. You know what the push for me to work out is? If I can spend 10 hrs a day on twitter, facebook, youtube etc, I can sacrifice at least 30 mins of that to get my heart pumping. 

However this week, I felt swamped. I had two finals and a project. My family went to Hawaii so I was in charge of making lunches and dinners for 6 people. I had to take care of my dog who's still hobbling on 3 legs. I was still on my go to bed at 3 am (it's 3am as I type this) and wake up at noon schedule which really screwed up my productivity. So I was too busy to workout. And it sounds so lame. It makes me worry about what it will really be like when I'm at the hospital 48 hrs/week plus paper writing in between. I was only able to squeeze 3 workouts this past week: P90X Cardio X, Running 5.2 km, and Insanity Cardio Power and Resistance. 

But I have 2 weeks of freedom so we all know what that means! Enjoying myself to the full max. I am hoping that within these two weeks, I will be able to run 5km without stopping. The thing I love about Insanity is that I feel like it really improves my stamina. 

Here's some pictures. A friend sent me this pic the other week. I was in Gr 11 or 12. Man how time flies. 

Like my amazing photoshop skills? Pretend I'm in a field with my dog. 

So Much of Running is Mental

An elementary school classmate of mine msg'd me the other day highlighting the above quote. While I was out for my run, I debated that. I initially mapped out a 5 km route but halfway, I had to run home for a bathroom break. I altered my running route and ran that half route twice. Too bad majority of it was in the sun. I started getting a bit wheezy from the heat and wondered if I mentally thought I couldn't run anymore or I physically couldn't. I ended up slowing to a walk for a few meters then picking back up again. My HR was strong at 160-184. A little bit on the high side but I think the heat had something to do with it. I'm really pleased that I can push myself a bit further with each run.

I am totally obsessed with Pinterest.  gillybean604 exercise inspiration is my pinterest board. I do find it motivating. Although right now, my own interest in working out is motivating enough. I actually enjoy exercising!

I need to find some new ab moves for my ab routine. I'm already doing 3 sets of 5 different exercises. I could add more reps or find something more challenging. Currently the best one is the basic plank. I think I will increase  to 1min 20 secs/plank. It's an improvement from when I first started at 30secs. I seriously googled how to get washboard abs. I liked this article because it discussed different type of plank exercises. Plus it didn't suggest crunches or situps which I hate. I don't think it's rocket science to get a six pack. Eat well and exercise seems to be the underlying tone of all the articles I read. There are no shortcuts! Currently, my abs are still hiding.

P90X Cardio X

My bf suggested I try the P90X Cardio X dvd today. I've never done it but I assumed it was a cardio dvd. I had an off day on Sunday so I was hoping to do some cardio today. Turns out Cardio X is a low impact workout. I personally thought it was low intensity (or maybe I'm slowly adapting to Insanity?). After the warm up, I didn't even break a sweat. Stretching involved yoga which was nice. The rest of the dvd involved kickboxing moves, various jumps, and some ab exercises. I altered some of the moves for preference. For example, instead of jump shots (pretend you're jumping up to shoot a basketball), I did squat jumps where you start in a squat then jump up.  My HR was around 146 which I wasn't too happy with. I'd like it to be at least over 150. Afterwards, I went out for a quick 1.5km run around my neighbourhood hoping to boost up my HR. But if anything, my HR dropped down to 130. Maybe I'm becoming more cardio efficient? Definitely won't do Cardio X as a cardio workout but it's good as a low impact activity and to develop some muscle strength.

Anywhos, gotta study for a final now. Here's my current favourite workout song.

Day 8 Insanity Workout Whoops

Day 8 Insanity involves Pure Cardio. The plus side for the 2nd week is that I know what to anticipate. Except I couldn't remember what this dvd entailed. All the squats and jumps blur together for me. But as soon as Shaun T mentioned that he's nervous for the workout, then I remembered. It's the dvd with no breaks. Cardio straight through. It went great. I didn't have to take as many breaks as the first time and I was able to go longer. My HR was at 160. I'm assuming my heart is adjusting to working out.

Well look at that, I did the wrong dvd. Apparently Day 8 is supposed to be Cardio Power and Resistance. Whoops.

Oh well, I got a workout out of it. Also afterwards, I had some left over energy so I went for a quick 10 min (1.5km) jog around my neighbourhood.

I'm kinda embarrassed to confess that my workout today was fueled by a small Wendy's Chilli. Was out running errands and bf want to stop there for lunch. But that combined with my usual fruit/veggie smooth breakfast gave me enough energy to sustain my workout. Now, post workout, I'm eating a concoction of mapo tofu dish, spinach, tomato, a bun and Laughing Cow cheese.

Insanity describes that you can burn up to 1000 calories doing these workouts. Not sure how much I'm burning. I'm not losing weight. But I'm suspecting I'm losing some fat and replacing it with muscle. Or so I'd like to think.

Yesterday was another off day because I was out. I tried doing the elliptical at night but got kicked off for being too noisy. I did my usual yoga by Sadie Nardini but still felt restless. Found this yoga video to complement it. I loove the stretch at the end but I don't know where the rest of the video is.

Running Groove

That picture of me was from 5 years ago. I was running then. I have this one memory of one run I did. I was at a track and it was packed. The usual runners and walkers. There was track & field practice. There were two different camps going on. I no longer had a running buddy so I was on my own. I started doing my laps. I like tracks because it's easy for me to measure the distance I've run and I don't have to carry my water bottle. I ran and ran. I ran more laps than I normally did and I didn't stop. As I finished another lap, the track and field coach started cheering me on. He encouraged me to keep going and I was doing a good job. After each lap, he'd stop coaching, turn to me, and gave me encouragement and I ran by. He didn't have to do that. He had his own team he was coaching. And yet he took the time to motivate me too. I really appreciated it and I think it helped to keep me going. I always thought of this as being in my running groove.  

Too bad I stopped running after that year and for 5 years following. 

Today, I went for a run. I haven't gone for one in 2 weeks since I started Insanity. I was a bit apprehensive as usual. Old habits die hard. Brings me back to my elementary and high school days where I was always one of the last ones to finish laps. It was also 25C and last time I tried running in the heat, I was hot and wheezy. I ate oatmeal again this morning as a pre-workout food. 

The run went.. amazing. 1 run around my block = 1.5km. The first lap, was a breeze (besides the sharp cramp in my upper right quadrant under my rib which forced me to stop and massage out). I stopped to stretch and drink water. I ran another 2 laps to finish off at 4.5km. I stopped only to drink water and a little to catch my breath. But I ran it without walking. My HR stayed elevated between 160-172. I'm thrilled. I'm finally feeling my running groove again.