Insanity As A Raid Boss

For you non-geeks out there, you may not understand this, but for those of you who play video games, you're totally going to get this.

I have tried three times, yes THREE, to do Insanity for a second time.  I had such fantastic results with it the first time, that every time I try to do it again, I'm super excited, motivated, and ready to get my sweat on.  This last time, I even re-made my goals, started to line up meals with my Team Beachbody Club Membership (that I thought I cancelled but didn't), set my workout schedule in the SuperGym, and received a pair of workout shoes from a friend of mine.

Then something weird happens.  I completely and utterly lose interest in doing the workouts by the end of Week 1.  It's like something just clicks off in my brain and I get bored.  I half-ass the workouts, or do something incredibly stupid, like thinking I can power through the warm-up stretches and end up hurting myself.  By the way, don't power through anything - hurting yourself because you're being stupid and think you're awesome isn't fun.  Just ask TH.  He had to listen to me whine about my back for about a week after I pulled it doing a freaking Hip Flexor stretch (the one where you have to put your arm up in the air).

Anyways ... I think I finally figured out why I do this.

I've always looked at Insanity as a raid boss.  I even split each video into "phases", which I mentioned in a previous posting.  For those who don't know what a raid boss is, it's a big bad meanie you and 9 to 24 of your online guild mates have to go kick the crap out of to get item upgrades to make your character better.  It can take weeks (or months) to kill the baddest of bad, which would be the "end boss".  Insanity is an "end boss".  I spent 2 months working to kick the crap out of myself and Insanity, to make me better.  And once I did, it was the best feeling in the world, just like when my guild mates and I kick the crap out of the "end boss" in a World of Warcraft raid.

But, just like in WoW, once we beat that raid boss, the subsequent kills are less engaging after a while.  Pretty soon, the big bad meanie is "just another boss" and you really don't have to put as much focus or effort into it.  You can be drunk as a skunk and STILL beat the raid boss that initially took you two months or more to kill.

So, what do I do about this?  I tried making each "phase" longer, meaning I couldn't stop for a rest or grab a drink of water until that phase was over.  I tried convincing myself that I had never ever heard of Insanity before, and this was the first time I was ever doing it.  I tried pulling a reverse psychology on myself by telling me I couldn't do it because it was too hard and I was a puny wimp.  Then I tried the opposite of that - telling myself how awesome I was and Insanity was the puny little wimp.  :)

Sadly, nothing worked.  Which really sucks for me, because I actually love Insanity.  I need no equipment besides myself, I don't have to dance around or look like an idiot in front of the cats (I swear, they laugh at at me).  It's just "Do this as quick as you can without using bad form.  Now GO!".  I love it. 

So, I would love some suggestions on how to make Insanity all shiny and new again.  A never-before-killed raid boss.  Maybe I should get my Guild Master to demand I do it again.  LOL! 

Or, maybe you know of workout program that uses no equipment but yourself and is kinda sort of like Insanity.  I say kinda sort of, because there can only be one Insanity.  And yes, that was a really lame reference to a Robot Chicken reference in their parody of "Highlander".  :)

MoP Videos - Beta Release of Panda Dances

So - the beta dances are up for the male & female pandas.

I'm not impressed.

At all.

Hopefully they change them before release, because really?  I used to think the Undead Female dance was my least favorite, but I think these take the cake.  What they should do is give the male pandas the Ogre Dance.  How freaking cool would that be?

All credit for these videos goes to the folks at www.mmo-champion.com.

Check them out below:

Insanity - Day 13, Week 2 - Complete!

Today was my first "double" workout - Pure Cardio & Cardio Abs.  If you remember from my post on Friday, I had to swap Saturday & Sunday, so this means 7 days in a room of working out in the coming week - which includes the Week 3 Fit Test tomorrow.

Pure Cardio kicked my butt.  I felt the rueben and fries I had for dinner yesterday, with the 2 shots, 2 amber ales, and 3 sodas.  Cardio Abs is deceptively hard.  The exercises themselves don't seem terrible, but when you're actually doing them, oh my God you can feel it burning.

And TH woke up halfway through Pure Cardio, so I had to pause it and closet him in the office with the door shut so I could finish swearing at Shaun.  He didn't mind though; he's building a farmhouse in Minecraft, so I don't even think he noticed my swearing or jumping around.

After my 10 minutes "I'm dying don't talk to me", I made a Chocolate Shakeology with 2% milk and 2 cups of frozen strawberries.  It's freaking awesome.  Coach Brandy sent me a couple to try, and I'll post a review of my testing of it when I finish them.  But right now, it's getting an A+ from me - in taste, effects, and pure awesomeness.  I was dog-tired after my workout, but since I've been drinking it, I'm a bit more perky then I was before. 

Now, I'm sitting here typing up my blog post, drinking a kick ass shake that's actually chocolatey and healthy for me, with random cat hair stuff on my legs.  TH was sleeping, so I couldn't vacuum before I did my work out.  Nothing like a little extra fur to motivate you to workout out faster & harder so you can clean it up.  :)

On another note, I got my Beta Invite for World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria yesterday!  Yay me!  I've got it installed and ready to go, but had to work the body before the video games.  Now I just have to decide what I want to do first: Panda, Priest, or Paladin.  :P

See ya tomorrow!