Day 56 - Rest Day & Week 8 Analysis

I'm not going to bother with my normal weekly analysis, as I can sum this one up with one word: Rubbish.

This is my third "Rest Day" in a row, and I'm starting to feel human again.  It has obviously helped that a large chunk of the stress from work has almost gone, so I'm sleeping better, but a bit of a break from the workout has definitely helped.

So that's it for week 8.  I failed miserably, but am not too bothered, provided I can get through week 9.

Day 55 - Speed and Agility & Back To Core

I'm throwing in the towel for this week. The stress from work, and resulting lack of sleep has caught up with me, and at 5 this morning, sat in my exercise clothes ready to push play on Speed & Agility I just couldn't do it. I'm going to have a couple of days off, get some rest, and hopefully start week 9 on Saturday.

Day 54 - Max Recovery

Well it finally happened. Day 54 of my Insanity/Asylum/Asylum 2 hybrid, and my first DNF. 10 minutes into Max Recovery, and I'm just not enjoying it. Feel a bit guilty, but it has been a git of a week, and the double Asylum workout tomorrow might make things feel a bit better.

Day 53 - Verical Plyo, Overtime & Relief

Just a quick update this evening, as I need some sleep.  Workout done, but was again disappointed with myself.  Looking forward to finishing this week,

I gave up half way through Relief, as I had children who wanted feeding, and I still had work to do.

Max recovery tomorrow.  Night night.

Day 52 - Back and Six Pack & Relief

Am still having a rubbish time at work, which is having an impact on my workouts.  I did manage to do day 52's workout on day 52, but it was after dinner (not recommended) and just before I went to bed (again not recommended), so I'm now posting this on day 53.  I've yet to do day 53's workout, but am hoping to fit it in before eating tonight.

As I was doing Back & Six Pack, I thought I was doing pretty well.  Whether it was the food in my stomach, or the long day at work, something made me think I was giving it 100% when in fact I didn't even match last week's calorie burn.  Oh well.

I've accepted that I'm not going to improve on last week's calorie burn, and that's ok.  It has been a weird start to the week, and I doubt it's going to improve.

It's Vertical Plyo, Overtime and Relief later today.  I'm not really looking forward to it, but hopefully I'll find some motivation before then.

Day 51 - Power Legs & Relief

Well it has been an interesting morning.  We had a fire at work, which luckily was contained in time and didn't reach my server room.  Lots of water damage, and a very stinky office, but otherwise everything seems ok!

I was definitely distracted during this morning's workout.  Hardly surprising, but annoying, as my calorie burn dropped from last week.  Not much I can do about it.

It's Back and Six Pack tomorrow.  I might have to do that one after work, as I suspect that I'll need to head into work early.

Day 50 - Upper Elite & Ab Shredder

It's week 8, and I'm still going.  Last week was a beast, but this week I planned to do better.  I think I managed that in Upper Elite, but was running on empty by the time I got to Ab Shredder.  Even so, I slightly improved on last Saturday's calorie burn, so that's good enough for me.

I attempted to Periscope this workout, but the camera on my phone doesn't really have a wide enough angle.  I got fed up with having to move the phone, so gave up.

I did my normal Saturday morning weigh-in and measure before my workout;

Not a huge difference.  My body fat did go up slightly, presumably due to the Pizza I had on Monday, but it did taste really good, so I'm not too upset about it.

It's more jumping and squats in Power Legs tomorrow. 

Day 49 - Rest Day & Week 7 Analysis

The workout has finally begun!  I've been complaining for the past few weeks about the falling duration and calorie burn, but this week things got turned back up to 11.  I did six full Asylum/Asylum 2 workouts (two in one session) along with the normal relief and a round of Insanity's Max Recovery.

I should be feeling pretty good about completing that lot, but I feel that I didn't really push myself again.  Let's take a look at the data and figure out why.

As per normal, I pulled the data from my Polar H7 Bluetooth 4.0 Heart Rate Sensor and recorded totals for duration and calories burnt.

Firstly, lets look at the last seven weeks of this Hybrid.  We'll start with the total duration;

Just over 7 hours of workouts in 6 days - Not too shabby!  If nothing else, it's been the longest workout week of the programme.

Now we look at the calorie burn;

 

A 5302 calorie burn for this week again isn't bad, but that week 2 record of 5443 was just out of reach!

You can probably guess where this is going.  Let's look at those two graphs combined anyway;

 

Yup - Week 2 still takes the crown!  It also surprises me just how close last week's recovery week is to this week - they felt incredibly different, but the pace was very similar.

What can I say about this week?  It felt harder, but I feel like I could have done better.  Week 2's data shows that I'm capable of pushing harder over a similar duration, so why didn't I?

If we look at week 2 vs week 7, we see many similar workouts - Strength matches Upper Elite, Game Day matches Speed & Agility, but the two Insanity workout days in week 2 is where I think the difference could be.

If we look at how this week compares to the standalones, hopefully you'll see what I'm getting at.  As we've now run out of Asylum/Asylum 2 data, I'll be comparing this week to an average week in Insanity/Asylum/Asylum 2;

Insanity just kicks butt at burning calories.

It's not hugely surprising then that a week including a few Insanity workouts would have a higher calorie burn than one without.   So if I'm not burning calories with high intensity cardio, then am I building muscle with strength and power?  That's pretty hard to gauge, but maybe tomorrow's weigh-in and measure will show some improvement.

In summary, this week was looong, and a lot of work.  I feel I could have burned a few more calories if I'd either pushed harder, or paced myself better, but I'm not hugely disappointed.

Next week, I get to do all this again.  Yay!

Day 48 - Speed and Agility & Back To Core

Damn that was tough!  Still not as bad as Day 8's 1345 calorie burn, but even so;

That's what two full Asylum workouts look like back-to-back!

Could I have beaten that 1345 record?  I think so.  I think I overdid it at the beginning of Speed and Agility, as I was struggling towards the end of that first workout, and was burnt out by the time I started Back To Core.  I was taking breaks during the Back To Core warmup, which is pretty bad.

That's week 7 done. I know I could have done better, so that's my goal for the next two weeks.  If I can beat this week's calorie burn total, I'll be happy.

It's rest day tomorrow, and I'm looking forward to seeing how this week compared to the others.  It felt like I got a few good workouts in there.

Day 47 - Max Recovery

Just for fun, today I broadcast my workout on Periscope.  Not sure how successful it was, or if I'll make this a regular thing.

Today was Max Recovery.  It went pretty much as expected.

I'll be finishing off the week with Speed and Agility & Back To Core.  That's two full Asylum workouts back to back!

Day 46 - Vertical Plyo, Overtime & Relief

That didn't go well :(

Yesterday I said that today's workout would take just over 100 minutes.  It turns out that the three videos did indeed have a combined duration of 103 minutes, but I'd forgotten about the 10 minute Shakeology ads after each video.  So today's workout only lasted 78 minutes, and I didn't need to get up at 03:30 after all!

It was bloody cold when I started my workout.  The heating hadn't yet kicked in, and I didn't want to wake my wife or children by turning it on early.  It wasn't until 23 minutes into Vertical Plyo that I started to feel warm, and by then I'd wasted half a workout.

I can only describe this morning's performance as "half arsed".  I struggled to keep my heart rate above 80%, so my calorie burn was down on what it should have been.  It did mean that I wasn't completely burned out for Overtime, but I didn't do particularly well there either.

It's Max Recovery tomorrow.  I plan to regroup, and hopefully do better on Thursday.

Day 45 - Back and Six Pack & Relief

I feel like I'm improving!  I made it till half way through the 14 pulse set of the pulse up/mountain climbers before needing a break.  A quick breather got me back into it, and I completed the 16 pulse set.  Pretty happy with that, and should make it all the way through fairly soon.

There are still plenty of other areas that need improvement.  My side planks are still useless, as are my hip flies.  Hopefully I'll see some improvement there.

It's Vertical Plyo, Overtime & Relief tomorrow - That's 100 minutes of Asylum!  Think I might have to postpone that until after work so that I don't have to get up at 03:30!

Day 44 - Power Legs & Relief

This morning's Power Legs went as well as expected.  It started as an uncoordinated mess, and ended in pain.  That's not a bad thing.  I tried to make up for my inability to remember a simple ladder sequence by just improvising, and I made it through the final set of squat pulses.  I'll chalk this one up as a successful workout.

There's certainly plenty of room for improvement, in both form and pace, so I'll try to do better over the next couple of weeks.

It's Back and 6-Pack & Relief tomorrow.

Day 43 - Upper Elite & Ab Shredder

Well I asked for it!  I wanted to step things up, and I got just that.  This morning's workout utterly destroyed me!
 

 I'm not quite sure what's wrong with me, but I'm pretty happy with that.  My good mood was probably helped by this week's measurements;

It's not a huge improvement, but as last week was very light, I'm happy that I didn't stand still, or take a step backwards.  I was careful with what I ate, and lost a little more body fat.

The madness continues tomorrow with Power Legs & Relief.  It has only been a couple of months since I last did Power Legs, but I can't remember anything about it.  I'm guessing there will be many squats........

Day 42 - Rest Day & Week 6 Analysis

Reaching the half way mark in this 12 week programme should feel like an accomplishment, but this recovery week has wound things down a bit too much for me.  I'm not convinced that a recovery week was needed at this stage.

When I think about Insanity's recovery week, it made sense (at least the first time I did it anyway).  The first four weeks of Insanity gradually build up in in terms of duration, whilst maintaining a fairly consistent calorie burn per minute;

That meant that the first time you did Insanity, by the end of week 4 you were pretty worn out, and needed a break before stepping up a gear in month 2.

The Hybrid is a very different workout.  Firstly, it's intended for people who have already completed Insanity, Asylum and Asylum 2.  I'm not an elite athlete, but after completing all three of those, I'd consider myself above average in terms of fitness, and after five weeks of the Hybrid, I'm not feeling burnt out.  Secondly, both the duration and intensity of the hybrid has been dropping since week 2.  Even when I pushed extra hard in week 5 (read about that HERE) I still couldn't match the week 3 numbers.  Lastly, and most importantly, compared to the standalone workouts, this Hybrid has really been looking after me.  Weeks 3, 4 & 5 all included at least four rounds of Relief/Recovery - That's two hours of stretching per week on top of the normal cooldown stretches!

So, how did this recovery week compare to the previous 5 weeks?  As per normal, I pulled the data from my Polar H7 Bluetooth 4.0 Heart Rate Sensor and recorded totals for duration and calories burnt.

I won't be looking at the standalone workouts for this analysis, as neither Asylum workouts have a recovery week.  Let's start by looking at the total duration of each of the last six weeks;

That's more than a 100 minute drop compared to the previous four weeks!

Now we look at the calorie burn;

Unsurprisingly, there's a significant drop in calorie burn.

Now if we combine the two graphs to look at the calorie burn per minute;

Now that's a bit more interesting.  By throwing in a couple of proper workouts, the week's workout intensity hasn't dropped by too much.

How do I summarise this week?  Initially I thought it was just a waste of time, but I clearly got some work done.  I'll know tomorrow after my weigh-in and measurements what affects it has had on me physically.  Mentally, I'm ready to work out, and that's got to be a good thing.  I know I shouldn't look too far forward, but the next few weeks don't look quite so daunting;

Before I started this programme, I looked at the second half, and thought "Holy ####!"  Now I'm thinking "Bring it on!"  Was that the point of this week?

So, I have three weeks of solid Asylum/Asylum 2 ahead of me.  I've done it before, and was fatter then.  I'm rested, and feel like I'm in reasonable physical shape.  This could be fun.

I've just added a "Totals So Far" widget to the top right of my page.  It's just a little table showing what I've done, and how it's affecting my body.  As my chest, arm and leg measurements have not really changed, I won't track those on the widget, but some of those other numbers look pretty good!

Thanks for reading.  I'll leave you with another cool video.  This week it's more humans doing awesome stuff;