Insanity is insanity: So, while my family are on... - Couch to 5K

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Insanity is insanity

Rignold profile image
6 Replies

So, while my family are on holiday I have been taking advantage of the extra time available to run every day and experiment with different workout options, and new vegan meals and all sorts of fun stuff.

Yesterday was a really horrible day. From dawn till dusk one disaster after another. Some very bad news about a close family member's serious illness, our best friends suddenly deciding to get divorced, monumental work cockup which will cost thousands, three hours in the car due to road closures and an accident on the diversion road, the joiner who was supposed to fit my daughter's bespoke bed while they are away cancelled without notice... it went on and on and on. Today was more of the same.

six months ago I would have come home and had a very large drink. And then another. and several more after that, but part of the reason I started doing all this running etc involved me giving up alcohol, and even after a day like that I didn't feel tempted to have a drink. The accusation that I have simply replaced one addiction with another is quite true, though, and now I do just get stress out of my system by doing exercise. Last night I went and hammered the pedals in spin class for an hour, then did an hour of kettlebells and finally took the dog for a trail run at dusk. By the time I got home I was no longer thinking about all the stresses of the day, or thinking at all in fact. I iced, I elevated, I ate some quinoa while bathing and fell straight asleep.

This evening I went straight from work to an Insanity class.

ZOMG, as my kids would say.

Insanity is absolutely the right word for it. I do not think I have ever worked so hard in my life. It is utterly relentless. It just goes from one exercise to the next to the next and then repeats, seemingly for ever. My lungs were burning and my legs screaming by the end of the warmup. I had my hrm with me, and my heart rate did not dip below 90-95% once, on the occasions I was able to focus or see through the sweat at the Garmin. I was going to go for an easy 5k this evening, but my legs are just jelly, as are my arms, the tip of my nose, everything. I am utterly drained. I am going to go to a friend's house and sit in their hot tub for the rest of the evening, by way of completely Dozzer's Discombobulated challenge. Running will have to wait till the morning.

Insanity. You would have to be mad to do it. Although I am quite looking forward to doing it again.

I am sure I once read someone quoted as saying that the difference between getting drunk and doing exercise was that with the former you feel good while you're doing it, but terrible after, whereas the latter is the other way round. I shall take a view on that when I see how much muscle ache I have in the moming.

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Rignold profile image
Rignold
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6 Replies
Irishprincess profile image
IrishprincessGraduate

What a fab post! Yesterday really was the day from hell, but I'm really impressed that you overcame all that "stuff" and worked your body instead. I agree that exercise, in whatever form, makes you stronger and enables you to deal with the shi**y things in life.

I'm with you on the last paragraph - it's so true!

Hope tomorrow is a better day for you and well done for getting out there.

poppypug profile image
poppypugGraduate

Absolutely fab post Rignold, sorry about your day from hell but you certainly kicked its ar*e for sure.

That was some serious exercise you did there and Im glad it helped to get all the days stress out of the way. I have heard about " Insanity "- it is proper hardcore , brutal stuff

Hope you have a much better day tomorrow ! :-) xxx

IannodaTruffe profile image
IannodaTruffeMentor

That's life. Your current way of coping with it seems much more rational and will leave you able to be proactive and energised, rather than the inevitable result of inebriation, which will do the opposite. I would still be careful about running every day though. Have you seen the link Aussie posted today?

I hope all the crap happened at once. Keep running, keep smiling. Cheers!!

misswobble profile image
misswobbleGraduate

I would always make time for a day's rest. I think you could stoke up problems by exercising every day.

Good news on giving up the booze. I did the same thing and never regretted it for a second. Ditto the fags

You're on your own with the Insanity. Eating quinois in the bath! LOL

GoogleMe profile image
GoogleMeGraduate

OK, so phase 1 is complete: you've ditched a psychological coping method that had no upside to it for one that can have lots of benefits. Yay!

Phase II - shaping it into something sustainable (or you will injure yourself (possibly your heart), not be able to use this method and risk falling back on the old one...). This may be hard - thinking of oneself as 'insane' has its attractions... it's wacky, it's special.

Good luck! Sounds as though it would have been good if you could have been on holiday too!

Rignold profile image
Rignold

Googleme - I am not thinking of myself as 'insane' - Insanity is the name of a brand of high intensity workout which my gym are now doing.

beachbody.co.uk/product/fit...

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