I feel like I just climbed Mt. Everest, or completed a marathon!  The journey has come to an end.  I am feeling a range of emotions right now from happy to relieved, to proud.

Today’s last workout was the Max Cardio Conditioning, my favorite of the workouts for the second Month.  As usual it went by fairly fast.  I have to admit though I was clock watching through the entire thing . .  . “only 33:22 left for this ENTIRE journey” .  . . “wow, only 11:43 left”.  By the time I got to the final exercise, which is doing the speed bag jabs in a squat position, I was feeling pretty proud of myself.  I think I flexed every muscle in my body and punched harder than I ever have.  Then the final count down “3, 2, 1, ” and we are DONE!  A fist pump and a celebratory yell was in order. 621 calories burned today out of the tens of thousands I assume I burned over the past 2 months.

Tomorrow is the final fit test and I am looking forward to killing it.  I will definitely be reflecting more over the coming week and will share those thoughts with you all.

And to all of you following along on your own Insanity adventure, always remember:

SUCCESS IS A JOURNEY, NOT A DESTINATION

Day 61 – The Last Max Interval Plyo

This is my least favorite routine of this month.  I think it is mostly mental just because I know it is the longest.  I mean, working out at your max for a full hour?

I left work a bit early today (hey it’s Friday) to get home and bust this out before my brother came over.  He was passing through for one night on his way to Florida and I didn’t want to spend my time exercising while he was here.

The routine went fairly well.  I am definitely getting better conditioned as the weeks go by.  I was able to power through most everything it felt like, until I got to the last circuit.  By the second round of that last circuit I start to fade.  I did my best and kept form and dug through it.

The knee is doing doing fairly well too.  I mentioned yesterday it was feeling better and I am happy to say that has carried into today.  Although I still feel it, it is less painful than before.  I am extremely conscious of form of course and slow down through the many squat and knee pounding exercises.  I am fairly sure when my 9 weeks are up it will come back to full strength after a few days of good rest.

Pushing it burned a ton of calories today. . . . 727 to be exact!

Day 53 – Max Recovery

Ok, back in the saddle!  After missing my first workout yesterday I am motivated to push through these last 11 days and finish strong.  Today is one of those days where you are supposed to do both Max Cardio Conditioning and Insane Abs.  I have resigned to the fact that I am not going to do Insane Abs.  I plan on picking it up after the 63 days are up and will write my reviews and experiences then.  So for now, I am pretending I didn’t see that on the calendar.   As people have posted in the forum, we have our whole lives to get in shape, not just these 63 days!

Max Cardio Conditioning went pretty well for me today.  I felt like I performed most of the exercises and was able to keep the heart rate up and pumping the entire time.  My cardio conditioning is definitely improving.  Some of the exercises they just go too fast for me, but I slow them down and try to keep good form and push through as long as possible.

My knee was bothering me throughout the workout.  I noticed it almost immediately in the warm up.  This did change the workout for me in some ways.  While doing anything with a squat I was very very conscious of my knee being placed behind the big toe.  I almost have a built in warning system now since if  the knee is too far forward I can feel the twinge.  I made sure to slow down on those exercises and concentrate on the form.

I still think this is my favorite workout of the month.  It is non-stop, but seems very doable for me.  Today’s calorie burn: 563 calories.

Day 51 – Max Nothing Circuit

Day 50!  Wow, that is a lot of days when you think about it.

As these workouts progress, it is getting more and more difficult for me to figure out the time constraints and how I am going to get in all of the remaining workouts.  It may end up that I get up at 4:30am and do some of them.   That is not ideal, but I HAVE to finish this program and will do whatever it takes to get them done.

Today was Max Interval Circuit.  This is the longest workout of the month at a full 60 minutes.  I was unable to do this workout when I got home from work due to some other commitments I had to attend to.  So, I had to do it at night.  I wasn’t able to get started until 8:45pm.  I begrudgingly put on my shoes and started the warmup.  It’s really hard to get going when kids are already sleeping and you have already eaten dinner!

But, like all days, I dug deeper and got into the groove of the workout.  I felt pretty good afterwards and had a nice protein shake as a reward (my special mix of vanilla protein powder and chocoloate soy milk!).  Exercising at night did sort of wake me up as would be expected and kept me up later than normal.  But I got it done and that is what was most important.

Day 49 – Rest Day