P90X Day 73 KenpoX

Another replacement day, instead of Shoulders/Arms today I did Kenpo. It's new years eve and I'm working on the resolutions for 2009. Also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY WIFE! You're aging like wine, not like milk!

P90X Day 72 Plyo

Knocked out plyo this morning, love this workout. Good sweat. Still kicking it at the beach, getting lots of outside time!

P90X Day 71 Yoga

Well I'm on vacation and getting to a gym is turning out to be more of a headache than I thought. So instead of the Chest/Back workout that was scheduled, I'm going to swap for the rest week Monday workout (Yoga). I can do those workouts without special gear and will still get them in this way.

P90X Day 70 Makeup yoga, run, beachtime.

Sister and I headed out to run down near the water this morning, did 2.3 miles to break in the new shoes. Got some yoga scheduled and family time to visit the ocean.

P90X Day 69 Kenpo and a drive

Knocked out Kenpo before leaving, then headed to the beach. Our 5.5 hour drive turned into a 8 hour nightmare. Seems everyone up north was headed to Florida, I have never been in traffic like that before. Kids held up pretty well though and we finally got there.
Dinner and a few soothing cocktails and all was well, then we fired up Candlelight Yoga with Sara Ivanhoe and went to bed feeling good.

P90X Day 68 Legs&Back, Abripper

I'm really tired of this workout. Have to sit and drive for 5.5 hours tomorrow and butt still hurts from Monday&Tuesday, so didn't really crank it today. Thinking about new challenges for 2009.

P90X Day 67 Merry Christmas

Took today as a rest day, will do yoga on Sunday. Happy Holidays.

P90X Day 66 Back&Biceps, Abripper

Not much to report, not an 'A' workout, sort of dragging this week. Not sure if still recovering from being sick or just holiday hoohaa. Oh well, next week should be better.

P90X Day 65 Plyo and Run

Okay, I understand the the wisdom that went into laying out the routines in P90X. Doing Plyo the day after Legs&Back was absolutely miserable. Wasn't up for the run, my glutes and legs feel like someone beat them with a meat tenderizer.

P90X Day 64 Chest/shoulder/tri, Abripper, Legs/back

Note to self, don't skip workouts. Doubling up is rough. Just owe a Kenpo now, think I'll do it Weds since tomorrow is Plyo and a run.

Feeling a lot better today, but boy am I tired.

P90X Day 63 Still not so hot

Well I woke up this morning and it was pouring outside. I said to myself 'great, I can gracefully cancel the run and have that off my plate.' Then about 9:30 the sun came out, it warmed up and I had to go anyway. No one from the neighborhood showed up but another buddy did with his whippets and the four of us had a good run. Actually felt really good afterwords but have started to sag now. I still owe a legs&back workout and Kenpo session. I WILL get these workouts in.

Went and got fitted for some new running shoes today, never done that before. I highly recommend it. These fit my feet differently than any I've ever had before, I've just bought whatever looked like a good shoe in the past. I was told I had really high arches and was asked a lot of different questions for what my running goals were and then had about 4 different shoe types to try out. Tested a couple on the treadmill some were 'nah' as soon as they went on the foot. The shoes I chose were twice as much as what I usually pay, but for marathon training I'm willing to get the right gear and negate any injury I can. I'm saving them for 2009 and will then log every mile I put on them. They're rated for 400-500 miles.

P90X Day 62 Still not feeling great

Feel a bit better, got Abripper knocked out anyway. Jury is still out on legs and back. I really don't want to skip it since I haven't missed one yet. May push it back one more day but that means tomorrow is leg&back, Kenpo, and the neighborhood run. Doable but maybe not pleasant.

P90X Day 61 SICK.

Been suffering cold like symptoms for a couple of days, hit me pretty last night and this morning. Taking some medicine today, going to inject my Sunday rest day here and pick up legs&back and abripper tomorrow.

P90X Day 60 Yoga and a run

Definately recommend picking up different yoga dvds to broaden the yoga horizon. I have come to really appreciate and respect this aspect of fitness, there is no doubt that I'm getting a lot more out of P90X by not ignoring yoga as I have in the past.
Legs are still sore but loosened up after two miles on the treadmill.

P90X Day 59 Shoulder&Arms and Abripper

Man my legs and butt are sore from yesterday! Good upper body workout, really like this workout. Upped the weight again.

P90X Day 58 Plyo and run

Good sweat today, have taken to doing the sports bonus with just my right side since I never ever intend to throw a baseball with my left hand. :)

P90X Day 57 Chest and Back

This is definately one of my favorite P90X workouts and it's cool to see progress being made on it. Have gotten a lot stronger with pushups and pullups, really cranked them out this time. Now if I can just stay away from the holiday goodies...

Day 56 Rest day, yeah right

Did not do XStretch today since there was a lot of yoga yesterday. Did yardwork and housework as well as 1.5 mile neighborhood run. Had two new people come, including the Mighty Tim for his first run evah he claims. I'm not so sure, he did pretty dang good for a first timer. Good run, good times.

P90X Day 55 YogaX

YogaX in the morning and Candlelight Crunch w/ Sara Ivanhoe for evening/relaxing yoga. Good stuff.

P90X Day 54 Core Syn

Decent sweat, this is probably my least favorite workout. Ready to hit the next 4 weeks hard. Getting excited about following up with P90X+!

P90X Day 53 XStretch and a run

A little out of it from the 2 hour time change, good to be home.

P90X Day 52 KenpoX

Hit it hard, great sweat. Time to get cleaned up for a 4 hour flight back home. Yay.

P90X Day 51 Core Syn and a Run

Well, no core syn so I really pushed it on the run instead. Really ready to get home, get back to eating something nutritional, and back into my routine.

P90X Day 50 Yoga

While not YogaX, I was able to stream a workout from netflix and workout in my room.

P90X Day 49 XStretch and a Run

Well nuts. I overlooked my P90X stuff when I packed. Hmm, will have to wing it. The hotel has a nice exercise facility so at least I got today's run in.

P90X Day 48, KenpoX and 4 hour flight

Headed to AZ today, good that this coming week is a recovery week. Should be able to get everything done in the hotel facilities. Glutes hurt.

P90X Day 47 Legs and Back, AbripperX

Just for giggles I did abripper backwards, was fun to shake it up and do it from memory. Legs and back are going to make my butt hurt all day tomorrow I bet.

P90X Day 46 Yoga & Run

Got some yoga done with daughter. She's 7 and is just sickeningly flexible. Sitting crosslegged she can lean all the way forward and put her forehead on the floor. I tried it and nearly broke myself in half. Oh well, it was a good workout and I was more relaxed when it was over with while she got to learn some new 'sentence enhancers'.

I'll run tomorrow.

P90X Day 45 Back & Biceps - HALF WAY

And I'm angry. Cranked this workout today and google docs didn't save 3/4 of the data. Oh well. Abripper went fine, I've got it memorized and may try doing it in reverse next time.
I think I'm ready for the next break week and/or I'm not eating enough - just don't seem to have as much motivation and enthusiasm this week. Maybe I'm coming down with something.

P90X Day 44 Plyo and Run

Not feeling super today, struggled with both plyo and the treadmill. Wondering if I'm eating enough, need to get back in the habit of tracking and posting.

P90X Day 43 Chest/Shoulder/Tri

Another day in P90X land, kicked Chest/Shoulder/Tris pretty hard and knocked out abripperX - haven't missed one yet! Not much to report.

P90X Day 42 XStretch/Rest and a Run

Been pouring out so I rearranged all the furniture in the bonus room today. Now the exercise equipment can see the TV so treadmilling shouldn't be such a drag. No Sunday group run because of the rain and cold so I did a mile as per the schedule and called it good for today.

P90X Day 41 Kenpo

My glutes are hurtin'. Looks like I finally brought it enough on Legs and Back to make myself sore. Hopefully Kenpo will help loosen me up some.

Ah, that's a little better. Kenpo and a shower.

P90X Day 40 Legs&Back&Abripper

Today was the first time this round that I really, really, didn't want to work out. Still lazy from the turkeyfest yesterday I suppose. Knocked out abripperX and then got into the groove about a quarter of the way through Legs&back. 90% of success is just showing up, even when you don't want to.

P90X Day 39 Yoga and a Run

Knocked out some YogaX and did a mile and half on the treadmill. Now for the final cleanup on the house for guests and the hopefully controlled turkey eating frenzy.
Happy Thanksgiving!

P90X Day 38 Back and Biceps

Upped the weight today, good workout. Doing more pullups and even increasing the reps with the chair, think that helps for more reps next time. Did Yoga for Kids with son and daughter last night, son mixes up yoga and kenpo so the there were more punches and kicks than you'd usually get from a yoga workout. We had fun though.

P90X Day 37, Plyo and Run

Legs got a workout today. After plyo did my 15 minutes on the treadmill. Should sleep good tonight.

P90X Day 36 Chest/Shoulders/Tris

Decent workout, was running really late so had to cut it a little short. Did get AbripperX done. Tried out some more Yoga dvds.

P90X Day 35 First Neighborhood Run & XStretch

So I invited the entire neighborhood to join me at 7am this morning for a 1 mile run. It turned out to be a crisp 28 degrees and only one other person braved the time/temp to join me but the invite had the intended effect: I got out of bed and RAN.

Later, XStretch felt great. End of week 5!

P90X Day 34 KenpoX and housecleaning

Got up and knocked out KenpoX, worked up a decent sweat. I've read where some people criticize that workout for not being intense enough. I think that's silly. A workout is a workout, YOU bring the intensity. I no longer do the set numbers of punches or kicks for all the reps, instead do as many as I can as fast as I can with good form in the time allowed. Also with the kick combinations, not putting your foot on the floor between transitions is a lot harder. These sorts of tweaks can make the workout as mean as you want it.
So next we get to clean the house up for the Thanksgiving visitors. Yay.

Oh and AbripperX and Legs and Back yesterday, the whole day was nonstop and I didn't get to update. Sorry.

P90X Day 32 Yoga & Run

Yep, I am SORE today. Yoga definitely helps. Tried another Yoga dvd today, not particularly impressed. I'm really getting a kick at how varied and diverse 'yoga' is. There are lots of similarities with the moves themselves, but the pace and duration is all over the board between instructors/classes.
One thing I will say and mean this with all my heart. I wish I'd discovered yoga as a young man - the women in these classes are amazingly healthy and limber. If my wife ever decides to kick me to the curb, I'm signing up for nightly yoga classes. :)

P90X Day 31 Back&Biceps

Oy, another workout I'd forgotten about. This is probably my least favorite workout after yogax, I hate being humiliated by the corn cob pullups and crying like a little girl at the final strip set of bicep curls. It is definately a good workout though, my biceps hardly ever get sore, but I bet they will be tomorrow. Good stuff.

Almost forgot our buddy AbripperX but remembered a few minutes into the B&B warmup. Swapped over to it and knocked it out before continuing with the regular workout.

P90 Day 30 Plyo and a run

Holy Cow, day 30 already!? This round of P90X has flown so far. Did plyo at a pretty high intensity and then ran a mile in 10 minutes as part of the marathon training. First time on the tread mill in a LOOONG time, seemed harder than running outside. I'm glad I've got it though, was in the low 40s outside today and I have a hard enough time running as is.

P90X Day 29 Phase II Chest/Shoulders/Tris

OOOoooowww. Gonna feel that tomorrow. Week off from AbripperX and then a new workout. I'd forgotten about Chest/Shoulders/Tri, but it's good times and a good workout.

P90X Day 28 StretchX

Swapped out XStretch for another Yoga series, I'm enjoying yoga more and getting more out of it. Today's was 10 Minutes Yoga played 'on demand' from Netflix. May start using it a couple of times a day for yoga breaks. More on that later.

Got a sore throat and feeling a little run down today. I really, REALLY don't want to be sick right now.

P90X Day 27 Yoga

Swapped up yogaX for a different yoga workout. Different, more experimentation needed.

Had my first cup of coffee in over 4 weeks this afternoon. It was okay, wonder if I'm losing my acquired taste for it. Definitely don't crave it or anything.

P90X Day 26 Core Syn

Cranked up the intensity with Core Syn this morning, did the bonus and added weights. Good workout.

Day 25 XStretch

Got up this morning all resigned to do YogaX and discovered it was just XStretch day! Yay!
Not much to talk about, raining and work is busy. Frankly I'm ready for this week to be over and get back to the heavy routines.

P90X Day 24 Kenpo

KenpoX today. Good sweat, diet was all over the place today, subsisted on leftovers mostly, didn't track very well. Will do better tomorrow

P90X Day 23 Core Syn

Standard day, did Core Synergistics for the first time this round of P90X. Was a pretty good workout, later this week I'll pick up the intensity and add weights. Not much else to report.

P90X Day 22 Recovery week

YogaX this morning. I still feel like a tool doing it and it still kicks my butt, but I keep pressing play.

So I started P90X at 180.4 lbs, today I'm 174.2. Showing loads of progress. I'm very pleased with the week 3 results. If you can tolerate the "I'm a goofy goober" expression in the Day 0 picture then check out the slideshow here. BTW, I am in fact one of the few survivors of the doomed government project "Operation Asynchronous Nipples". So, you know, be nice to me.

In other news, I put together a 300 day running plan to kick off in Jan 09 to prepare for the local Marathon on Nov 1st 2009. I'm going to need new shoes.

Also, working on week 4 without coffee!

P90X Day 21 StretchX - End of week 3

Alarm went of at 4:15 but I was already laying awake as I'd been for two hours or so. Didn't get up and finally got back to sleep. Son got up at 6:45 so I got up and made him some breakfast and we hung out for a while. Getting ready to knockout stretchx and then take week3 pix. Hoping to just chill out today. We'll see.

P90X Day 20 KenpoX

Woke up and my glutes were sore from Legs&Back. Kenpo workout seems to make them feel better. Glad I got it in before wife left to volunteer at an Autism event. Rest of the day was a blur of daddy duty until dinner time. Went over to the neighbors to hang out and watch some football and pretty much blew up the diet. 3 beers, bbq chicken pizza, etc etc. Should have stuck to tea or diet dr pepper, beer really screws with my night's sleep.

P90X Day 19 Legs&Back

Another cruddy night, spent half of it trying to sleep on the sofa. My neck feels like I slept with my head tucked under my armpit. Probably feel better after the workout.

Almost screwed up, was about halfway through the Legs&Back warm when I realized I'd forgotten Abripper. So I stopped L&B and did it. My son is 5 and has recently been hanging out a lot with me when I exercise, today he hit the deck and did some abripper. He's got some pretty wild 'modified moves'. :)

Anyway, feeling good today. Got the workouts done and it looks like at the end of week 3 I'm going to be down about 6 pounds from where I started P90X. Will do another set of pix on Sunday. PROGRESS!

P90X Day 18 Yogax

Well, woke up sore and tired so stayed in bed for a few more hours. Got up and knocked out YogaX. Still suck at it though. Work kicked off early so I'm busy busy busy today.

Be nice to each other.

10pm
Just about time to go to bed, had a decent day! Wife fed me steak, baked potato, and green beans for dinner. Wonder what I did right? Anyhoo, still feeling pretty stuffed although I took it slow. Cut a bite, put in the mouth, put the fork down and chew thoroughly and ENJOY the food.

Will try for 6-6.5 hours tonight.

P90X Day 17 Shoulders&Arms

6:30am
Drank too much green tea watching the election last night, went to bed late and didn't sleep well so I'm running a little late this morning.

6:30pm
Been a busy day! Got AbripperX then Shoulders&Arms done before it all went hooey, but something has to be done about the Halloween candy. I don't think about, crave, or buy candy and chocolate - but when it's in the house I seem to lose my flippin' mind. I'm sure I'm underestimating my calorie intake by grazing on the 'fun sized' candy packages.

Guess it's better than beer.

Going to do 6 hours tonight, been a little lax on the sleep experiment.

P90X Day 16 Plyo/AbripperX

I am back in the saddle. Knocked out plyo and abripper from yesterday and I'm feeling pretty good. Went out and voted.

Breakfast: 2 bowls of cherrios w/ 1% milk

45.5 miles per gallon

Created by The Car Connection

P90X Day 15 Chest&Back and Bleaaarrrrrrggggg

So I'm not feeling too good today. Got halfway through Chest & Back, putting off abripper until tomorrow.

P90X day 14 StretchX

4:15am
I'm up. My glutes and shoulders are pretty sore, looks like I 'brought it' for legs&back and kenpox. StretchX will help but I'm going to do that later. Maybe some advil for now. (first I've taken this round of P90X!)

P90X Day 13 KenpoX

10am
Family (and I) had a hard time shaking off the sugar coma and getting moving this morning. Biphasic sleep plan really took it in the shorts this week, perhaps I can get back on track tonight or Sunday. Both kids are congested and coughing but at least they're getting it up. Just makes it hard to get a peaceful block of sleep time.

Knocked out KenpoX first thing, cooling off from that now then shower and breakfast. Doesn't look like we'll be to busy today.

Later...
Well so much for the chilling out plan, stepped into Home Depot for air filters and came out with faucet, towel and toilet paper hangers, mirror and toilet seat for the downstairs bathroom. Should have known better to bring wife with me to the hardware store.

9pm
Bathroom turned out well. Also finished my hot sauce that's been fermenting for the last two weeks by running it through the blender and adding about 1/2 a cup of everclear. I think it's pretty tasty and took some over to Neighbor Ben who's also a pepperhead. He seemed to like it. It's HOT but has a good flavor to it. I also tried the everclear - think I'll just put the rest of THAT away in the cabinet. May need some paint thinner later.

P90X Day 12 Legs&Back

So about 3:30am last night I'm dreaming I'm at sea and the boat I'm in is sinking. Then I wake up to find that my son had gotten into bed with my wife and I and had brought his water cup - which had leaked all over my side of the bed and puddled around me.
That was fun.

Anyway, rocked AbripperX and Legs and Back, the morning was shot so I only got Abripper done then, Legs and Back had to wait until lunchtime, but that was okay. Didn't hold back and performed all the reps for all the exercises as well as adding 20 lb weights to the exercises that used them. Cranked out a lot more pullups today as well. Things seem to be WORKING this round.

Today is Halloween, deliver me from candy. Ate like crap.

Sleep today? no idea.

P90X Day 11 YogaX

Oh man, another screwed up night. Ended up spending about 5 hours in a kid's bed after finding it impossible to ignore the snorts/wheezes/coughs and hacks emanating from the TB ward of a bed that I was occupying at the time.
I feel like I've been beaten with a 'stupid bat'. Usually I'd say this is a job for coffee, but I don't drink that any more. Green tea here we go.

YogaX today, I don't like it but I'll do it.

9pm
Got YogaX done today, getting better at it. Ate okay I guess, upper body is a little sore but not bad.

Sleep total 6:23

P90X day 10 Arms&Shoulders Round 2

5:45 am
I'm up. So is sick son. Guess we'll see how the morning goes.

4:15pm
Well the morning didn't go to well, but I got AbripperX done (25 to go!) and Shoulders&Arms got the dumbells upped by 5 lbs. Good workout.

Haven't felt that great today, wondering if I'm picking up what son has. Didn't help that work started early and it was 11 when I realized I had yet to fix breakfast.

Green smoothie w/ 2 scoops of Whey and popcorn for lunch, Lasagna for dinner, not great on the nutrition front today.

Sleep total: 6:23 (estimating the core since it was up and down all night)

P90X Day 9 Plyo round 2

5:15am
I'm up.

8:00am
Plyo went well today and I'm not feeling any soreness in the upperbody (yet?) from yesterday's chest&back. I won't complain - got more than I bargained for with the salsa yesterday anyway.

Breakfast:
8oz 1% milk, 1 scoop Whey protein, 1 banana, 3/4 oz walnuts
8oz lsV8, 12oz green tea
Snack:
Popcorn
Lunch:
Green smoothie
Snack:
Yogurt
Dinner
Chicken wrap from Chic-fil-a and side salad

9pm
Feeling pretty good, tired and hope everybody sleeps tonight - interruptions are killing me.

Sleep total: 5:26 (5 hour core, 26 min nap)

P90X Day 8

5:10am
I'm up.

9:55am
Busy morning today. The boy has a fever so he'll be staying home today. Hate it when the kids are sick.
Knocked out Abripper and Chest and Back this morning. Abripper was a little more of a struggle today but I did all of it. Chest and Back was a good workout, showed good gains in 90% of it.

Breakfast:
8oz 1%milk, 1 scoop whey, 1 banana, 1/2oz walnuts <--This makes a great shake, try it!
4.5oz of apple, 12oz tea (hot), 8oz LSV8 (put too much hot sauce in today, but still good)

7:52pm
Lunch/dinner/snacks, pretty much standard fare, check the dietpower outputs below if you're really interested. Did upgrade the 'bad end salsa' with a 1/4 pound of habaneros. Pretty sure that's going to end up being 'DEAD END salsa'. After a few bites I could feel the insides of my ears sweating. I'm afraid this one may leave a vicious exit wound.

Dang, I just realized I missed my nap.
Sleep total 7 hours.

P90X Day 7 StretchX

7:00am
Slept in, sue me.

9:00am
Knocked out XStretch and a green smoothie w/ whey for breakfast. Also had half a bagel and a little cream cheese. 16oz of hot green tea.

Here's the X Stretch routine, do it, you'll feel great afterwords.

- Sun Salutations
- Neck stretch
- Back-up-the-car stretch
- Head Rolls
- Upper back & chest stretch
- Topas Shoulder Stretch
- Wrist-forearm flex
- Dreya Forearm Stretch
- Seated Spinal Stretch on each side
- Cat Stretch
- Glute stretch
- Arm Circles
- Shoulder-Tricep Combo stretch
- 30 Seconds Ballistic Stretches
- Wide-feet forward hamstring stretch
- Side twist
- Camel
- Standing side stretch
- Rolling like a ball
- Shoulder Stand to Plough pose
- Back Hero
- Kenpo Quad stretch
- Bow pose
- Low Squat
- Frog-One hands and knees
- Seated Single-leg Hamstring stretch
- Seated Two-Leg stretch
- Ballistic Hamstring Stretch
- Standing split leg Hamstring Stretch
- Toe Flexor
- Downward Dog with calf stretches
- Upward Dog with Ankle stretch
- Child's pose with right and left side stretches

8:10pm
Fairly uneventful day, mowed the grass did some grocery shopping. Lunch was a slice and a half of leftover pizza and an apple, dinner was a chicken stirfry w/ brown rice. Drank a tankload of tea today.

First Week Down! Feeling pretty good, been off coffee and even remembered to floss. :)
Sleep total today: 7.5 hours core. Back to Biphasic tonight.

P90X Day 6 KenpoX

5:29am
Hiya, going to be a busy day, so I'm glad I took the extra hour of sleep. Plan to do KenpoX, build a workbench for the garage, and cut down a tree in the back yard. Scads! of! excitement!

7:15am
That was the first KenpoX I've done in a very long time. Worked up a good sweat but it wasn't as hard as I remember it. I felt in much better control of my body and actions, not like I was flailing all over the place as I remember feeling in the past. All in all it was a fun and sweaty workout. Here's the layout for anyone interested:
1. Twist & Pivot
2. Twist & Pivot with Hook & Uppercut
3. Jabs
4. Jab/Cross
5. Jab/Cross/Hook
6. Jab/Cross/Hook/Uppercut
7. Cardio Break
8. Step Drag/High-Low Punch
9. Jab/Cross Switch
10. Hook/Uppercut Switch
11. Knee Kick
12. Ball Kick
13. Side Kick
14. Cardio Break
15. Back Kick
16. Three-Direction Kick
17. Side Lunge With High Sword/Low Hammer
18. Step Drag/Claw/Low Punch
19. Cardio Break
20. High Block
21. Inward Block
22. Outward Block
23. Downward Block
24. Star Blocks
25. Cardio Break
26. Front Shuffle with High Block/Low Punch
27. Knee/Back Kick
28. Front & Back Knuckles/Ball Kick/Back Kick
29. Hook/Uppercut/Low Side Kick
30. Elbow Series
31. Vertical Punches

Breakfast:
2 eggs, 8oz V8, 12oz tea. 8oz 1% w/ 1 bananna and 1/2oz walnuts (this was good!). 1/2 bagel w/ light cream cheese.

Dropped the tree in the backyard and carted it out. Missed my snack, built a workbench in the garage and completely rearranged it into a more usable space. Hung some more shelving in the laundry room. Missed my morn and evening snack as well as my noon nap.

Lunch was a six inch chicken breast sammich from Subway. Dinner was 2 pieces of Papa John's pizza. Eating like crap this weekend, have to do better tomorrow.

I am dog tired but the kids are ready for bed, I'm showered and ready for bed and looking forward to sleeping hard and a rest day tomorrow. I do plan to do stretchX, I think that makes me feel a lot better than simply doing nothing.

P90 Day 5 Legs and Back

6:05am
I'm up, terrible night. Soldier on. AbripperX on deck.

7:30am
Went straight from AbripperX to Legs&Back, throttled back a little bit on the reps for some of the leg exercises since in previous rounds this workout is the one the hurts worst and for the longest. I went into it still sore from Plyo from 3 days ago, but now after finishing and a hot shower I'm feeling pretty dang good. Time for Breakfast.
3 Abrippers down, 27 to go!

Breakfast
Eggs & salsa, 8oz 1%milk w/ whey protein, 8oz V8 and 12oz hot tea

Snack/lunch/snack
popcorn, green smoothie, v8, chocolate chip cookie
26min nap at lunch. I'm sore, but not nearly as sore as I thought I'd be.

Also, it's been a week without coffee, haven't notice difference except I seem to be on a more even keel and less likely to get irritated or lose my temper.

Dinner
Oh man, I torpedoed the diet this evening. Two soft tacos and two bean burritos from Taco Bell. Was pretty tasty though!

Total sleep 6 hours + 26 min core nap

P90X Day 4 (BD8) YogaX

4:30am
I'm up. Went to bed at 10:30, so call it a 6 hour core sleep.

8:51am
Been a busy morning, did a truncated YogaX before the kids got up. I know I said I hated YogaX and wasn't going to do it but I've been pleased and surprised at how well this week is going and think it has a lot to do with previous weeks of AbripperX and YogaX. So I came to a compromise. I did the beginning yoga moves to the first break (first half hour) then skipped the advanced moves to the balance postures at 42:30 and did the rest from there. By the end of this round of P90X I want to be able to rock YogaX like I do Abripper now, so I can't stay negative about it. Fact is, I respect YogaX. I suck at it, and it is difficult for me, but there is no doubt in my mind that it does good things to my body. For anyone interested, here's a breakdown of the routine:

Yoga X Sequences

5 breaths in mountain pose
Wide leg hamstring stretch
Wide leg bent over torso stretch
Split leg hamstring stretch
Standing side stretch
Astanga sun salutations (3 Vinyasas)
1:20 Vinyasa Runners pose R, Vinyasa Runners pose L
1:17 Vinyasa Crescent pose R, Vinyasa Crescent pose L
1:15 Vinyasa Warrior one R, Vinyasa Warrior one L
1:13 Vinyasa Warrior two R, Vinyasa Warrior two L
1:11 Vinyasa Reverse Warrior R, Vinyasa Reverse Warrior L
1:09 Vinyasa Triangle pose R, Vinyasa Triangle pose L
1:05 Vinyasa Twisting triangle pose R, Vinyasa Twisting triangle pose L
1:02 Vinyasa Chair pose
1:00 Twisting chair pose

59:30 FIRST BREAK

59:20 Downward dog with leg raise
Vinyasa into this sequence:
Downward dog with leg raise
Warrior 1 then 2 then reverse warrior then 2
Right angle pose
Extended right angle pose and grab
Right angle pose
Warrior 2 then reverse, 2, 1 and out
= repeat series on other side =

53:10
Vinyasa Prayer twist
Side arm balance to
Vinyasa… and repeat on other side

49:42
Vinyasa to:
Crescent
Warrior 3
Standing Splits
Half moon
Twisting half moon
Crescent
Runners pose to
Vinyasa… and repeat on other side
One final Vinyasa
----------------------

42:30 Balancing postures begin:
Tree
Royal Dancer
Standing leg extensions with 3 variations
Crane (child’s pose is the alternative)
**brief water break**
Seated spinal stretch
Cat stretch
Frog
Bridge or wheel to knee hug to bridge or wheel
Plough to shoulder stand with leg variations
Table
Cobbler pose
One legged hamstring stretch
Two legged hamstring stretch
----------------------
17:30 Yoga Belly 7
Touch the sky
Boat
Half boat
Open scissors
Torso twist hold
Deep torso twist hold
Touch the sky - 3 parts
----------------------
9:35 Feel good stretches
Side twist
Glute stretch
Happy baby
Child’s pose
Corpse shavasana
Fetus pose
Lotus pose
----------------------

Couple of things about this workout. I recommend doing all the pushups when transitioning from plank to downdog. Yoga belly 7 is tough coming between two AbripperX days, fair warning!


Breakfast:
Same as yesterday, 2 eggs, salsa, 8oz 1%milk, scoop of Whey protein, 8oz V8, 12oz green tea (hot).

Snack:
Popcorn, serving of salsa

Lunch:
23 min nap then Green smoothie w/ 2 scoops of protein. 12oz hot green tea

Afternoon Snack:
8oz lsV8

Dinner was left over chicken pot pie and a few chips and a lot of salsa. 16 oz green tea. Sugar free popsicle for desert.

Total Sleep: 6:23

P90X (BD7) Arms & Shoulders

5:00am
I'm up. Took an extra hour to sleep, then another 15 minutes to talk myself out of bed. My glutes and calves have joined in the pain party with a vengeance, upper body is back to a dull roar. AbripperX time now.

5:23am
Can check off AbripperX the list for today, 2 down and 28 to go! Going to chill out for a few then start the main workout at 6.

7:20am
Shoulders and Arms, how I've missed thee. Didn't go heavy today and I'm glad - was work enough just getting through it all. Started out with the same weights as I started with on the last round but had a boatload more stamina and rocked the bonus section which I didn't touch until 3-4 weeks in last time. Drinking 16oz of Lipton Energize green tea during the workout vs just water seems to help a lot too.

Breakfast:
2 eggs microwaved, 1 serving of salsa, 8oz 1%milk, 1 scoop of protein, 8oz lsV8, 12oz hot green tea.

10:00 Snack:
1.25oz plain popcorn

Noon
23 min nap and a green smoothie with 2 scoops of Whey protein for lunch. More lsV8 and tea.
Legs and back are SCREAMING at me, stairs are a physical challenge.

Dinner
1 Serving of chicken pot pie, green tea and a cupcake for desert

Sleep total: 7:23

P90X day 2 (BD6) PLYOMETRICS

5:55am
I'm up, I'm SORE. I saw 3:45 come and go as and then 4:45, I hurt and kept shutting off the alarm clock for another hour of rest. Probably would have been fine getting up and getting started, on the other hand, maybe the rest was for the better... Plyo, here I come!

7:55am
Well, I have to say, I knocked Plyo OUT! That was the most fun workout and best sweat I've had in a good while. I'm not nearly as sore as I was when I got up although I still feel tender in my lats, pecs, triceps, and abs. Strong workout and hot shower FTW!
Breakfast time, bbl.

Breakfast:
2 microwaved eggs (scrambled) with serving of 'bad end' salsa
8 oz low sodium V8 (wit a couple of splashes of Habanero Tabasco -TRY IT!)
8 oz 1%milk w/ scoop of EAS Whey protein mix
12 oz green tea (hot)

BAD END SALSA
1/2 pound raw jalapenos (mix/add habanero or other pepper to match your sadism level)
1 pound red tomato
3/4 medium onion
3 garlic cloves
1/2 large red pepper
1 tablespoon lemon juice
-Blend. Eat. SUFFER!


The Plyo workout
The exercises are grouped into rounds, and each round gets repeated once. The breakdown is as follows:
1) Jump squat, run stance squat, airborne heisman (lateral leaping), swing kick
2) Squat reach jump, run stance squat with direction switch, double airborne heisman, circle run
3) Jump knee tuck. jumping lunge, leapfrog squat, twist combo
4) Rock star hop, gap jump, squat jack, military march
5) Run squat with 180 jump, lateral leapfrog, monster truck tire, hot foot
6) Bonus round: pitch & catch, jump shot, football move (60 seconds each)
Good Sweat!

10:15 Snack
1.75oz plain popcorn, 1 serving of salsa, 1 diet pepsi (I know, should have had tea)

Lunch
20min nap, green smoothie
8 oz V8
16 oz green tea (hot)

2:00pm Snack
1.75oz plain popcorn, more salsa, 16oz green tea (cold)
1 Snickers bar (3 funsized bars, damn Halloween candy)

Dinner
1 Serving of Garlic Chicken Voila with added vegetables. Green tea to drink. 0 cal popsicle for desert.

Already feeling some soreness in my glutes to go with my upper body pain, looking forward to rounding it out with Arms and Shoulders tomorrow. :)

Sleep for today: 8:05 (7:45 core and 20 min noon nap)

P90X Begins - Chest and Back (BD6)

3:45am
I'm up. Abripper time.
****
WooHoo, knocked AbripperX OUT, did 25 reps of all exercises and all of the Mason twists! Need to work on my form but I'm starting this round of P90X with better Abripper performance than I've ever finished other rounds of P90X before. 1 down, 29 sessions to go!

I case you are curious what Abripper looks like:

In and Outs (Hip Flexors) (25reps)
Bicycles Forward (Hip Flexors) (25reps)
Bicycles Back (Hip Flexors) (25reps)
Crunchy Frog (Hip Flexors) (25reps)
Cross Leg/Wide Leg Situps (General Core) (25reps)
Fiffer Scissors (Hip Flexors/General Core) (25reps)
Hip Rock and Raise (Hip Flexors/General Core) (25reps)
Pulse Ups (Hip Flexors/General Core) (25reps)
V-Up/Roll Up (General Core) (25reps)
Oblique V-Ups (Obliques) (25+25)
Leg Climb (General Core/Obliques) (12+12)
Mason Twists (Obliques) (50 Reps)

349 Reps total!
AbripperX is done three times a week during the non rest weeks of P90X (10 out of 13) for a total of 30 sessions.

5:30am
Lousy night sleep last night, estimate I only got 4 hours of actual sleep time. Pretty dead right now, going to take a 26Min polynap.

7:45am
Just got showered up and cooled off from Chest and Back. That's a great workout. Looking back I've definitely lost some strength, but I'm starting out much stronger than I started out last time. I followed Tony's advice and paced myself first round and pretty much did reps to failure on the second round. Using push up bars this round too, that seems to make push ups more intense.
Drank 16oz of the Vita Splash tea during the workout. Time to rustle up some breakfast now.
Breakfast:
1 Egg scrambled, cooked in Microwave and seasoned with Tabasco
8oz 1% milk w/ 1 scoop EAS Whey protein
8oz Low sodium V8 (w/ Tabasco)
12oz Slim life green tea (hot)

Chest and Back
This push and pull workout is two rounds of the following exercises with water breaks every 4 exercises.
Standard Push-Ups
Wide Front Pull-Ups
Military Push-Ups
Reverse Grip Chin-Ups
Wide Fly Push-Ups
Closed Grip Overhand Pull-Ups
Decline Push-Ups
Heavy Pants
Diamond Push-Ups
Lawnmowers
Dive-Bomber Push-Ups
Back-Flys

10:15am
Morning snack
1oz plain popcorn, 8oz LS V8 w/ Tabasco
16oz cold green tea.

Noon
20min nap, then green smoothie time! 3.5oz turnip greens, 8.5oz apple, 4.5oz banana, 4.5oz mixed frozen fruit, scoop of whey protein, 1.5 cup of water, 1 cup ice.
12oz of Green tea (hot) later.

2pm
Afternoon snack
Need to go shopping, yogurt had expired. Had 1oz peanuts (salted) and a diet pepsi.
Starting to feel a little sore, may need some yoga tomorrow on wake up.

5pm
Dinner
Left over Caesar salad and chicken, made some salsa to go with it. Probably hear more about that later, gotta love recipes that start with 1/2lb of jalapenos...

9:45pm - Evening Report
Did pretty well, walked away from the laptop and hung out with kids then made a quick run to the grocery store for a few items. Pretty sleepy now. Did remember to floss!

Total sleep for today: 5 hours (4 core + 2x 26 min naps)

Ground Rules/Goals

100% attendance to all P90X workouts including AbripperX.

All calories consumed will be logged, blogged, and accounted for. If I gorge on Halloween candy, I promise you will get an accurate account of it. I'm counting on you to be my backup self control.

Alcohol is allowed in moderation on Saturday evenings in the presence of other imbibers ONLY.

Abripper workouts get done as soon as I roll out of bed, P90X workouts are scheduled for 6-7am.

The evening is laptop-free FAMILY time. I fear I'm going to struggle with this one.

Everyday after dinner I'll post my diet-power calories in/out results to this blog.

Floss every night.

I'm sure there will be more.

Burning Ring of Fire

3:45am
I'm up!

So yesterday I took a pound of jalapenos, 1/4 pound of habinaros, and a white onion and fed it all to the food processor (out on the deck, do NOT do this in your house). About half of the result was then put aside covered with boiled cider vinegar to ferment for about 2 weeks. Later we'll run that through a blender and add some everclear and hopefully end up with some awesome hot sauce.

The other half pretty much got eaten on chips and on a burger at dinner. It was a lot of pepper relish. This morning has been.. Painful.

Later today I'll be doing the fit test, measurements, and pictures. Tomorrow, P90X!

Breakfast: Green tea, 8oz V8 (low sodium - add Tabasco for spicy!), 2 scrambled eggs from the microwave.

Lunch:
Buffalo Chicken wrap from Jersey Mikes. Not part of the diet but I figured what the heck, one last hurrah.

Dinner:
Grilled chicken (6.5oz) & light caeser salad, lots of green tea today. One cupcake and one Reese's peanut butter cup.

7pm
Fittest results were not too surprising, other than I realize just how un-photogenic I really am. Yeesh. Images to frighten children. I'll get them online for the more sadistic of you later.

Sleep total: 6:05 (5:45 core, 20Min nap)

BD4

5:40am
Well, I guess I didn't turn on the alarm or turned it off without waking up. Just woke up on my own and checked the time. Overslept by 2 hours. Oh well.

So here are the teas I've got so far:

Yogi Tea - Slim Life
I drink this one hot, throw a bag into a cup of water and nuke for 2:30. It's okay, have started experimenting with adding milk with drinkable results. This tea has 35mg of caffeine.

Bigelow - Earl Grey Green
An Earl Grey and Green tea mix, tastes pretty good and is a nice change up when I get tired of the Slim Life tea. Not sure about the caffeine content. I also drink this one hot.

Vita Splash Green Tea with Goji, 60mg caffeine
Lipton Energize to go (Blueberry Pomegranate), 50mg caffeine
Lipton Green tea to go (Citrus), caffeine not listed.

I drink these teas cold. They're in individual serving packages and very quick and easy to use. Add to a 16.9oz water bottle or tall water glass, mix and add some ice cubes. Also great for taking to restaurants.





Sleep total: 7:40

BD3

3:45am
I'm up. Culled 15 minutes off the core nap. It died hard.

7:59am
So I'm attempting to switch off coffee to Green Tea. Yeah, I know what you're thinking. Forget the insane physical challenges, forget the sleep experiments, forget the rest of the nutty life modifications. No COFFEE? YOU... MAD MAN!

Other acceptable answers would include "Won't someone think of the children?!" and "Meh."

The above may or may not make sense. I'll try reading it later when my brain a'worky again.


Sleep total: 6:05 (5:45 core & 20 min nap)

BD 2

4:00am
I'm up.

7:15am
Feeling good right now, took probably 30-45 minutes to perk up and I caught up on some research and a movie that came in via Netflix. (The Contract, pretty meh, oh well). Got some coffee on now and ready for the day.

Got Abripper (23Reps) and StretchX knocked out.

Sleep Total: 6:26

Biphasic Day 1

4:05 am
I'm up and other than a strong reluctance to get out of bed I feel fine.

6:30pm
All in all it's been a pretty good day, work was a zoo but I definitely felt more alert if not a bit grouchy in the morning. Around 11:30 I went for a 3 mile run and got it done in under 25 minutes. That's pretty fast for me. One thing I have noticed this past 7 days is that physical exercise like cycling and running seem much more intense - I feel a lot more aware of myself. It's like the sleep dep strips away some of the comfort we usually exist in and everything is a little more raw.

Then again, maybe I'm just talking out my wazoo.

Grabbed a quick shower and took a 20 minute nap. Will probably do another 6 hour core tonight with the 20 min nap tomorrow as well then start tweaking down a little and see how it goes.

A quick note on naps. I use the MP3's found HERE for a 20, 23, or 26 minute nap. They're white noise until the end where various farm animals and such bring you out of the nap without being obnoxious. I sleep on my back and drape a black sock over my eyes for a poor man's sleep mask. It works great (THANKS SEAN!).

***
I've been tapped to go to a conference for work in Dec so yesterday I laid out P90X so that I'm out of town over a recovery week. That pushes my start date up two week and I kick off next Monday. I guess Sat and Sun will be fit test and pictures and setting up some rewards for different achievements (not missing a single workout, not missing a single AbripperX, etc). I'm pretty stoked about this round. I do plan on making one minor modification however. Over the last few weeks I've tried to get into YogaX. I really, really have. I've pretty much got the entire routine memorized at this point. Unfortunately, I HATE IT! Yesterday I did StretchX and enjoyed it so I'm seriously considering replacing the weekly YogaX's with either a different routine or StretchX.

Sleep Total: 6:20

9 hours later...

7:15am
I hit the reset button on sleep last night, intended to do a 5 hour core nap which turned into 9. I feel mildly hung over with a fair amount of muscle soreness. I believe StretchX is on deck for today, maybe ride the trail with Tim also. Think I'll start Biphasic tonight with a 6 hour core sleep and TBD nap around lunch tomorrow.

9:29pm
Knocked out Abripper (23reps w/50 mason twists) and StretchX today. Not a bad day, busy and no nap at all. Going to bed down at 10 and get up at 4 with a nap sometime tomorrow.

Monday

2:56am
Hey there, had a nice 4 hour core nap. Up and am ready to rip now.

Later.
Not a good day, been fuzzy headed and sort of out of it. Forgot to weigh in this morning, didn't get any exercise done, and missed the evening nap entirely because of work. I don't think this schedule is working out as a long term solution.

2:35am
Having a hard time getting going this morning, added an hour of sleep at 1:30am instead of getting up then. Feeling the last few days of exercise today too, calves are sore and abs are a little tender from Friday's AbripperX.

8:30am
Uhh, the 5:30 half hour nap lasted until 8am. That was strange. Having some coffee, probably skip the 10:30 nap. Just chilling out today as far as I know. Wife may have other plans. She's commented on me slipping off for naps but I don't think she's realized I'm polyphasic again. I'm attempting to see if my routines are disruptive enough to be noticed.

Later...
Well, mowed then seeded the yard then cut the hedges. Showered then helped clean up the house some. So much for chilling out!

Day 3 Poly sleepy thingy

2:10am
Hello Sports Fans, welcome to the show.
Hard to perk up right now, but I'm awake and that's gotta count for something!

7:10am
Been an odd 'day' so far, crashed hard at 5am and ended up taking two 20min naps back to back. Not sure if that was a good idea or not, feeling okay but sort of out of it right now. Enjoying some coffee and oatmeal w/ whey protein now, getting ready to go meet Rico for the Autism Ribbon Run.

2:40pm
Good run, good shower, good nap. Looks like we're hosting some of the neighbors tonight for dinner, we'll see how that goes. Been out and about for provisions for this evening. Am looking forward to the 4pm nap.

Day 2 Polyphasic

It's 2:33am.
Rough 4 hours, lots of interruptions and I had a serious what the 'heck is going on' moment when the alarm clock went off.

Around 6:15am
Feeling pretty good. Got some work done and watched a movie, had my nap at 5. Going to crank some music (headphones) and see what's up.

7:10am
Little behind on my workout schedule but did knock out AbripperX, 22 reps of everything and all of the Mason Twists. Feel much more awake now than I did yesterday at this time.

3:20pm
Been a good day so far, feeling good/awake but weary enough to be looking forward to the next nap. Rode the trail with Mighty Tim and enjoyed a green smoothie (added whey protien today) for lunch. Today has been quieter so far than the rest of the week. I'm thankful.

7:45pm
Still feeling good, cut the naps to 20 minutes each and feel like I'm starting to get back into the groove of them.

Sleep today: 5 hours (4 hour core + three 20 min naps)

Well Hey There!

It's 4am, do you know where YOUR children are?

Let's see, where to begin - I finished the 100 day drinky-dink challenge without incident and finished just in time to go on vacation to see the other side of the family in AZ. Got to take in the Grand Canyon while we were there which absolutely floored me. Did you know there's no air there? Diet and exercise took a pretty good hit while we were gone but I stuck with the Hacker's diet 'ladder of life' 15-20 minute workout in the hotel and at least tried to moderate myself. Only gained about a pound surprisingly enough but it looks like I may also be dehydrated. Since we've been back I've been drinking water like crazy.
Plan is to keep on track with YogaX, AbripperX, and nutritional focus for the rest of October. The Halloween cookies and candy onslaught started yesterday and I was caught flat footed. Glad I've only got two hands or things could have gotten ugly.

Newest Challenges:
Starting today I'm going to record EVERYTHING that I eat or drink as accurately as possible at http://fitday.com . This should help keep me from going crazy with the Halloween junk and nip the annual fall weight gain trend in the bud.
Also starting today I'm going to BLOG everyday multiple times during the day. I feel like I've been letting you down and by extension, letting myself down. I've come to enjoy and depend on this accounting of myself and need to be better with my attendance. Like confession I guess.
Lastly, I'm kicking off another round of polyphasic sleeping! I started last night with a 5 hour core nap from 10pm-3am which will eventually be closer to 10-12:30 then 1/2 hour naps at 5, 10:30, and 4pm. This is a modified everyman polyphasic routine custom fit for my daily obligations and I'm pretty excited about it.

All for now!

5:31am
Up from first 1/2 hour nap, will call it semi successful. Not sure if I actually went to sleep, was too worried about getting the nap. Feel a little odd now. Not bad, just fuzzy. Going to get some water and start YogaX.

7:40pm
Been a long day and I'm getting pretty tired. 10:30 nap got pushed back until 12, made the 4pm one on time. Work has been a zoo for the last two days and I found myself pretty grouchy by the end. I believe I'll be ready for my core nap tonight. Think I'll do 10-2am this time.

I'm noticing my eyes are feeling pretty gritty, may need to take more frequent PC breaks and/or get some drops.

Sleep today: 6.5hours (5hour core, 3 half hour naps)

BIG TEST

Last week was okay, didn't hit all my workout goals but did get a run, a ride and a fair amount of yoga in.  I've discovered that I really don't have the room in my for Tai Chi without a fair amount of re-arranging of furniture so I think that project is going to be on hold for a while.

Friday my mother-in-law arrived for my brother-in-law's 40th birthday and his daughter's first birthday (they are a day apart).  Additionally, my sister-in-law's parents also flew up for the celebrations.  My mother-in-law has had some recent foot surgery so most of the celebrations happened here at my house.  I thought this would be bad for my adult beverage consumption but was happy to discover it just wasn't that big an issue.  Mom-in-law is on pain meds for her feet and shouldn't be drinking anyway and I volunteered for daddy-duty and watched the kids while the rest went out to eat (and drink).  I'm up a little from the two rounds of birthday cake and ice cream but not bad.

Days left: 11

Drink log: 30/56 and 8 day with none.

Miles Ridden: 334.5/750

Miles Run: 53/100

Sunday Bloody Sunday.

After 71 days culminating with 6 hours of daddy duty (entertaining the 7 and 5 yr olds by myself) I decided I would break my beer fast. Last night I had the equivalent of 4 beers. Didn't seem to get buzzed, just sleepy. Woke up at 2am and stayed awake until 5:30ish. Finally got back to sleep just as the rest of the household started waking up. Now I feel like crap and and have a headache.
Oh, and my weight is up 5.2 pounds from Saturday's post run weight of 176.8. NICE!

I have absolutely no interest in drinking beer again. Call me a quitter if you want. I'm done.

Days left: 18
Drink log: 30/56 and 1 day with none.
Miles Ridden: 323/750
Miles Run: 48/100

FRIDAY

Well exercise-wise today fell right in the pot. Work was a complete zoo, started early and straight through lunch. Will have to do better tomorrow. Weight is still tracking down into 178 pound range. The flaxseed chip replacement is working great, tasty and holds up strong in both salsa and hummus!
Hoping to do today's run in the morning, maybe even hook up with the marathon trainers for a while.

Did get 16 miles worth of the tobacco trail ridden with Tim yesterday, they're working on parts of it so we didn't get to do it all and may not for a while. We'll see.

Days left: 21
Drink log: 26/56 and 70 days with none.
Miles Ridden: 323/750
Miles Run: 43/100

Well, I'm surprisingly sore. Did the 5 mile run on Monday and 16 Mile ride with Tim yesterday. But even splitting up yogax and kicking off Abripper with just 17 reps has put the whoop-ass on me in places I'd forgotten about. Oh well, pain is weakness leaving the body right?

Weight is still tracking down, 180.4 today. Green smoothies FTW!

I'm trying out a new raw recipe today, put tomatoes, flax seed, lemon juice, garlic and some red onion in the food processor, and am dehydrating the spread out results to make a potato chip replacement. I love salsa and hummus but don't like the extra salt and so on from regular chips, so I'm going to try this as a substitute. Hope it works, also made salsa since I was making a mess anyway and right now the house smells REALLY GOOD.

Not sure if I'm going to run today or start Tai Chi, looks like rain so maybe that'll be the deciding factor.

Days left: 23
Drink log: 26/56 and 68 days with none.
Miles Ridden: 307/750
Miles Run: 43/100

8 Weeks to go

I'm planning to kick off a round of P90X Classic starting Nov 3rd, only 8 weeks from today. I'm going to spend these weeks preparing by cutting weigh and working on my weak spots, especially yogax and abripper. Started back today with the first 1/3 of yogax and abripper set to 17 reps this morning and then did a 5 mile run at lunch. The plan is yoga every morning & abripper 3times a week in the morning and run twice a week, cycle twice a week, tai chi twice a week for lunch. I've got some 'maybe' plans for 10-15 minute workouts around 10:30am and 3:30pm to complement snack time - we'll see how that shakes out.

So I made a green smoothie with turnip greens today. Threw in frozen mango, blueberries, apple and a bananna. I can honestly say this is the first time I've ever successfully consumed turnip greens. The smoothie was pretty dang tasty.

Around 181 pounds today, hoping to be around 170 at kick off. I think it's doable.

Days left: 25
Drink log: 26/56 and 66 days with none.
Miles Ridden: 291/750
Miles Run: 43/100

14 years ago today, a year ago tomorrow

14 years ago today I met my wife.  That seems like it should be a long time, but its passed in the blink of an eye. 

A year ago tomorrow I posted to this blog for the very first time.  A lot has changed in the past year, and there's no doubt that in that time I've built a better Wes.  However, there's always room for improvement (and Jello!) and I'm looking forward to what comes next.

Monday and today I did rung 27 of the LoL (Ladder of Life) as decribed in the Hacker's Diet, yesterday I met with Rico for a 17 mile road ride.  Think the Green Smoothies are doing good things to me, we cranked that ride and it felt GOOD.

Wow, over two months without a single adult beverage.  I don't think I've done that as long as I've been of legal drinking age.

Days left: 30
Drink log: 26/56 and 61 days with none.
Miles Ridden: 273.5/750
Miles Run: 38/100

Holy Carp! A new plan!

Okay, so commencing tomorrow I'm off on another zany, whirlwind adventure to cut some weight. The plan is that when I kick off the NEXT P90X series in November, the progress and results will be more obviously evident. I'm shooting for 170 pounds and considerably lower body fat by Nov 1.

I've reread The Hacker's Diet and am charged up to follow the guidelines it presents for the next 9 weeks. If you haven't checked it out I highly recommend you do so now. It's a fun, free, and enlightening look (if at times slightly oversimplified IMHO) at how the body gains and loses weight. I'm incorporating the free online HD tools to avoid the elation/depression associated with logging scale readings and Fitday to track caloric intake.

Did a 5 mile run with Rico this morning, I'm going to keep up running a few times a week and some cycling (Can't let Tim ride the trail by himself too often or he'll give me grief about it). I'm also going to start doing the 'ladder' in HD with chinups added to prep a little for P90X.

We're slipping into my big gain period of the year, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas are historically bad fitness times for me. I think setting these goals now and having a plan in place may help to mitigate some of the temptations and defuse the opportunities to indulge.

Oh, here's a thing. I've also completed a week of green smoothies for breakfast. I wanted to do a week's worth before talking about it in case it turned out to be too nasty to sustain. I'm really happy to report that far from nasty, I've gotten pretty much addicted to them.
What's a green smoothie you ask? Weeeell, here's what you do. Go buy a big honkin' blender - I got this one and it's working out great. Add 2-3 hand fulls of a green leafy veggie - spinich, kale, chard, lettuce, your choice. Throw in several servings of fruit. I bought a couple of bags of mixed frozen fruit and put in 2 cups of that, apple and bananna with about a cup of water and set the whole thing to blending. The smoothie blender includes a ramrod for making everything blend which is good since sometimes it needs a little additional help to get started. When it's ready just pour it up and enjoy - keeps in the fridge until you finish it all.
This is an novel way for me to vastly increase my intake of fruits and leafy veggies, which otherwise I struggle with. There are boatloads of green smoothie recipes out on the web, just google or youtube it for more info.

Days left: 33
Drink log: 26/56 and 58 days with none.
Miles Ridden: 256.5/750
Miles Run: 38/100

Why So Sad Emo Exercise Boy?

First of all, thank you all for your support, I was surprised at how much heartfelt encouragement I received and it is nice to know I'm not the only one to have visited the fitness doldrums.

In answer to all the 'Why' questions (anyone else get images of Nancy Kerigan at that question?). Well, I do these things that I don't particularly love because I know the payout is better than temporary suffering they cause. I am stronger mentally and physically and I am more robust and durable. I am a better Wes than I would be otherwise. And that is the point.

Balance still needs attention. Meh, it's a work in progress.

Hey, I found this article this morning, good to see I'm on the right track: http://zenhabits.net/2008/08/7-little-habits-that-can-change-your-life-and-how-to-form-them/

Ran 2 miles yesterday between thunderstorms. Almost made it back without getting wet.
Days left: 36
Drink log: 26/56 and 55 days with none.
Miles Ridden: 256.5/750
Miles Run: 33/100

So I owe you some updates

Been suffering an existential crises last few days. Let me explain...

For a few weeks I've been reading about the health benefits of fasting and raw food diets. So last Thursday, sort of on a whim, I decided to try a 3 day fast starting after dinner. I made it 2 days and I'll sum it up with one word: HUNGRY. On Friday and Saturday we saw a lot of our friends and neighbors and the reoccurring questions about the fast was 'WHY?'. I got sick of going over all the alleged health benefits to glazed over eyes and eventually just answered 'To see what it is about'.

But the 'why' kept bugging me.

Why am I fasting?
Why am I exercising a minimum of an hour a day?
Why am I running?
Why am I spending my quality time sitting on a bike out in the middle of no where?
Why do I care what I look like?

Seriously, why AM I doing this? Is it some sort of midlife crisis? What am I trying to prove? Am I subconsciously building some sort of Warrior-geek persona? Honestly, what is the point?

I'm definitely not trying to prove that I've still got it - frankly, I've never had it. I'm not and never have been an athlete of any particular caliber. I've challenged myself and pushed through to complete some fairly arduous tasks, but it wasn't like I was driven by some deep rooted vision to do these things. I did them to see if I could.

Here's the thing - I don't take any great joy out of running, cycling, and swimming. I don't particularly care for being astoundingly sore in one part of the body or another everyday. I do like the way my body looks better and, when not in agony, I overall feel better I guess, so I suppose I'm weighing if that is worth all the time spent to get here and how much more do I have to do to myself...

I have noticed that I have become a pretty self absorbed, selfish jerk. All of my time has become research on how to get better, or exercising, or thinking about my body fat or diet. I become a jackass when the family interferes with a scheduled workout session. My conversations with our friends and neighbors end up circling back to what I'm doing etc etc.

I've gone from Uberslob to Deacon in the Church of Fitness.

I guess I need to work on some sort of balance. So I'm struggling right now...

-Wes

Days left: 38
Drink log: 26/56 and 53 days with none.
Miles Ridden: 256.5/750
Miles Run: 31/100

Did the Trail w/ Tim today, went for a lunch walk with wife yesterday.

Days left: 43
Drink log: 26/56 and 48 days with none.
Miles Ridden: 256.5/750
Miles Run: 26/100

Rode 21.5 during lunch, was really hot.

Days left: 45
Drink log: 26/56 and 46 days with none.
Miles Ridden: 242.5/750
Miles Run: 24.5/100

Well, that didn't work.

I got up on time but the boy got up early. Going to have to figure out another plan for early morning.

Got a 5 mile run done at lunch, 48:28. I think the foreseeable future of outside morning workouts is pretty bleak, so I'm going to rework things a bit. Checked out a 24 move Tai Chi video last night which I'd like to learn so maybe that and/or yoga will get done in the morning. That'll probably be better as we slid into fall anyway. Not sure how things will work out with TurboJams but don't not sure wife is feeling the love there, she mangled her foot yesterday so we skipped it today.

Days left: 46
Drink log: 26/56 and 45 days with none.
Miles Ridden: 221/750
Miles Run: 24.5/100

Cha cha cha cha cha cha changes...

So Saturday I bought an Omron Fat loss Monitor with Scale, Model HBF-400. In addition to weight it also apparently harnesses black magic to measure percent body fat and calculates BMI. The information it provided was.. not as good as I was expecting it to be. The results from my tape measure calculations to deduce body fat seem have been overly optimistic. My only regret is that I didn't buy a scale to provide this info earlier. Anyway, now I feel like I have a better picture of my physical state which will help guide where to go from here. I'm in the process of finalizing the next 7 weeks (or so) exercise plans and am excited about the direction I'm heading.

Change is good.

Speaking of change, check out the new fitday.com, I'm digging the new look and feel. Give it a spin when you've got a chance.

Kicking off tomorrow with a run, I'll say 'hi' before I head out.
-Wes

Days left: 47
Drink log: 26/56 and 44 days with none.
Miles Ridden: 221/750
Miles Run: 19.5/100

P180X+ Game Over

Well, not exactly what I had in mind, but things have a funny way of working out.

I've had a stomach virus for the last couple of days, which seems to be working its way through the family. I get a kick out of how much harder these things hit adults than the kids. My daughter went from:
I don't feel good.. Hoooorrruukk.. It looks like eggs! Can I go play? All in one morning.

I've spent the last couple of days subsisting on sips of water and dry cherrios and venturing more than 10 feet from a toilet was a bold and daring adventure. I felt like some nightmarish double ended chum cannon. Yeah, that's pretty much sums it up.
On the upside, body weight's down about 6 pounds, half of that was probably my speen.

Anyway, I'm quitting on the P180X+ plan. It's too long for me and my excitement, attention, dedication, and motivation have all dropped below acceptable levels. I'm bored and burned out *for now*. It seems that the decision to make these programs 90 days is a solid one and next time that's what I'll stick with. For now I'm going to try some other stuff - catching up and sticking with my running and cycling goals, TurboJams (I feel like a tool doing it, but it's good for me and fun to workout and support Wife), maybe some Tha Chi, Yoga, or Karma Sutra (Ancient nocturnal martial arts and interval training). Just shake it up a little.

I'm sure I'll be back to P90X or P90X+ before long. Today is halfway through my 100 Day drink challenge and when it's done I'll have concluded the riding and running challenges as well. So I'll probably get the P90 itch again in October and use it to fight the fall fat food feasting fracus and subsequent weight gain.

Any hoo, I'll be recovering and figuring out what the next plan is going to look like this weekend and will report in soon.
Be nice to each other.
-Wes

Days left: 49
Drink log: 26/56 and 42 days with none.
Miles Ridden: 221/750
Miles Run: 19.5/100

Day 121 I may be burnt out

I've been pretty cranky lately. Not really feeling the love in the P90 workouts. May be time to put a little space between me and Mr. Horton. It's not him, it's me.

Here's a thing. Since I seem to have quit drinking (even the O'Doul's) and instead of drinking the water I should be, I've been playing around with different mixtures to entertain myself. Most of it has been pretty gross however I did get one that I like.
Get a tall glass, fill halfway with light cranberry juice. Fill the rest of the way with diet pepsi. Serve cold.

I call it Crapsi. Enjoy!

Days left: 52
Drink log: 26/56 and 39 days with none.
Miles Ridden: 221/750
Miles Run: 19.5/100

Day 119

Got caught in a wicked rain event on the bike today. Not fun. Got 28 miles ridden today, 6.5 run yesterday.

Days left: 54
Drink log: 26/56 and 37 days with none.
Miles Ridden: 207/750
Miles Run: 19.5/100

Day 116

Core Syn and a bike ride scheduled. Frankly right now I don't feel like doing anything. Just being honest.

Yesterday did a 5 mile run, TurboJams w/ wife and StretchX.

Did the trail with Tim, 17.5 ridden. Maybe try Core tomorrow. Feeling pretty meh today.

Days left: 57
Drink log: 26/56 and 34 days with none.
Miles Ridden: 179/750
Miles Run: 13/100

Day 114

Busy busy busy.
Yesterday got Core Syn done for breakfast, Turbojams done w/ wife at lunch.
Today just did 22.5 riding out to the tobacco trail where I met up with Mighty Tim. Blew off StretchX but wish I hadn't.
Run scheduled for tomorrow morning.

Days left: 59
Drink log: 26/56 and 32 days with none.
Miles Ridden: 161.5/750
Miles Run: 8/100

Day 112

Pretty busy weekend, ran 5 miles yesterday, rode 21.5 with Rico on the MTN bikes over to the tobacco trail then mowed the grass this morning.

Days left: 61
Drink log: 26/56 and 30 days with none.
Miles Ridden: 139/750
Miles Run: 8/100

Day 110 Interesting Times

There's an old Chinese curse that goes along the lines "May you live in interesting times." Well my friends, this week has certainly been interesting times. I have made maybe half of my workouts, not much sleep, decent nutrition (especially if you consider coffee nutrition). I did get a 20 mile bike ride in yesterday after declaring 'chuck it' or something similar just to clear my head. Mornings have been really hard to get moving lately and discipline about it is in the dump. I am very ready for this week to be over, next week is a recovery week and maybe I can regroup.


Days left: 63
Drink log: 26/56 and 28 days with none.
Miles Ridden: 117.5/750
Miles Run: 3/100 <- This looks grim.

Day 106

Been a wild day, both kids started back to school, 2nd grade and kindergarten. Morning routine was shot all to pieces but managed a shortened Chest&Back and wife and I got turbojams knocked out too.

Days left: 68
Drink log: 26/56 with 23 days with none.
Miles Ridden: 97.5/750
Miles Run: 3/100

Day 105 R&R

Surprisingly the only real soreness from yesterday's event is in my neck. I imagine that's from holding my mellon at a 45 degree angle for four and a half hours. Legs feel just fine although over all I'm still feeling tired and slow. Don't have any physical plans for today except StretchX.
BTW, I'm down 4 pounds from Friday. Betting that's mostly fluid loss.
Have a great day!

Day 104 100K bike ride

So Rico peer pressures me into signing up for this 100K Ride (67 Miles) then gets sick and can't make it. I really didn't know if I was up for the whole distance, and you can turn around at the 15 Mile or 24 mile rest stops. I got to the 24 feeling pretty strong and since I told you, dear reader, that I was doing the 67, I turned right and headed on up the road. I noticed something as I hit the halfway mark and started back, the wind was picking up and was straight in my teeth. It was a long ride back.
But there was ice cream!
I'm going to take a shower and maybe flake out for a while, it occurs to me that I haven't ridden anything over 20 miles for the last 3 months. What on earth was I thinking?


Days left: 70
Drink log: 26/56 with 21 days with none.
Miles Ridden: 97.5/750
Miles Run: 3/100

Day 102

Won't be able to ride the trial with Tim today so I took Craig's bike for a test ride this morning instead. Good ride, was cool and rode through the greenways. Craig's bike doesn't have a computer but I think it was a good 16 miles. May try to map it out later but the new google aerial views have the greenway covered with trees.
BTW, Craig? Come get your bike out of my garage. You successfully left it long enough for me to fix it. You rapscallion you.

Will work in a Shoulder/Arms workout sometime today.
*****
Oh well, mapmyride.com says I only did 14 this morning. Was fun anyway.

Days left: 72
Drink log: 26/56 with 19 days with none.
Miles Ridden: 30.5/750
Miles Run: 3/100

Day 101

6:24am
I'm up. I was sleeping so well too. Oh well. Feeling some discomfort in the lower body from the legs workout but it isn't terrible right now. Have a 3-4 mile run schedule for this morning and TurboJams with wife at lunchtime.
Back later.
*****
3 miles in 26 minutes.
*****
Lunchtime
Round 2 of TurboJams, just did the 'burn' part of learn&burn - Wife and I are getting better. Workout section is only 17 minutes long so I expect we'll be trying something different for Friday's workout.

Days left: 73
Drink log: 26/56 with 18 days with none.
Miles Ridden: 16.5/750
Miles Run: 3/100

Day 100

6:31am
I'm up. Starting up Legs workout right now.
8:00am
Legs workout went well, feel good this morning. lower back and obliques are pretty sore, upper back and chest a little less so. TurboJams was fun yesterday and going to hit the Tobacco Trail with Mighty Tim today. Tracking again on Fitday.

2pm
Well Mighty Tim bailed on me today so I rode the tobacco trail alone. What an adventure. I discovered a wicked quadricep workout. Here's what you do:
1) Adjust your seat before setting out. Leave it just a tiny bit loose.
2) Ride about 5 miles then figure out why you're bumping yourself in the chin with your knees.
3) Get back to the car by working the seat up then going as far as you can before it slips down again. Feel the burn!?!

Bonus points if like me you do it in 100 degree temperatures.
*Drink your water*

Here's another free tip. Don't forget that P90X Recovery drink in your water bottle even if you drank it all. When that stuff turns rancid it can gag a maggot. Blegh.


Days left: 74
Drink log: 26/56 with 17 days with none.
Miles Ridden: 16.5/750
Miles Run: 0/100

Day 99 Announcements!

6:35am
I'm up for Chest and Back this morning.
8:00am
Not a great workout this morning, left side of my neck has (what I call) a crick in it. Definitely affected my workout this morning and is still bugging me. Oh well, I'll keep trying to stretch it out as the day progresses.

Some announcements!
Most exciting, wife has asked me to do Turbo Jams 3 days a week with her over the next 75 days! I'm really stoked about it, I've been thinking about adding something different into the mix for a while, and think it'll be good to workout with wife.
In addition to TG I'm setting a goal of cycling 750 miles and running 100 miles over the next 75 days.
What's special about 75 days? Well that's how much I have left in the 100 day drink challenge. Yep, already a quarter of the way done, haven't had a single alcoholic drink in 16 days and even did without the O'douls last night. Have also put away all the protein bars, myoplex and so forth and intend to focus more on less processed food for this time frame. I've put on a lot of muscle in the last 90 days, now I really want to get lean. I've been chasing 6 pack abs for a long time. I fully intend on having them 75 days from now.

Oh, and I'm get a jump on the 725 miles of cycling with the cup 'n cone ride for MS this Saturday. It promises to be challenge, 67 mile round trip with 2750 feet of hill climbing. I've ridden the nasty hilly part before with Gene and Dave but was either April or May. Been a while.

That's all for now dear reader, have a great day!

1:00pm
Oh man, I'm gonna feel that later. Wife enjoyed it too. Turbo Jams that is.

Day 96

Not much to report, swapped cardioX out for a tobacco trail ride with Mighty Tim today. 17.75 miles in 83 minutes. Spent the evening on daddy duty watching the kids with neighbor Ben while the mommas went to a girl party of some sort. We killed a six pack or so of O'douls, some pizza and habinaro Doritos. Another wild and crazy Friday night in suburbia. Oh well, should make for some interesting dreams anyway.

Day 95 Shoulders&Arms

Pretty good workout today, chest and back appreciated the shoulder&arms workouts. Lower part of the body was really sore this morning, not unbearable after getting moving. Still working on the next physical challenges, will have them nailed down sometime this week for kickoff on Monday.

Day 94 KenpoX+ and test run

Lunch was busy, did KenpoX+ and then ran a 5K. TIme wasn't great (30:27) but it felt pretty good to run. Not sure where all this energy and motivation are coming from, guess I'm still happy to have survived the Tri. Drying out may be helping too, definately sleeping better. 12 days without so far. Thinking about some other 30 day challenges, cycling and running. Need to nail those down before the weekend to kick off next week. Think I may try a mental challenge and stop swearing completely. Rats!

Day 93, legs and abs

Work started early and went late, just now finishing up legs, abs and subsequent shower. Sore but feeling good today!

Day 92 Chest and Back

Good mornin!
I'm sore and slept in but I feel good! I'm looking forward to Chest and Back today at lunch and working up some plans for the next physical challenge. Rico mentioned a 67 mile bike ride with 5 stops for ice cream along the way, it's in a couple of weeks and looks like fun. I'm also thinking about working in 100 pushups in 6 weeks challenge and maybe modifying that for 100 Pullups too. Not sure if that would help or hinder P180X+, but it should be interesting to try. More later!

Did Chest and Back at lunch time and used pushup bars for the first time. Veeery different workout. I'm going to feel that tomorrow.

Day 91 Triathlon

I'm done, I did it. The swim was not pretty, laps in the community pool was completely unlike a 1/2 mile open water swim with 50 other people. Got pretty hairy there for a while. Cycling and running were much better although getting on the bike after flailing around in the lake took a lot of willpower.
I finished in 1:47 - Rico says that's pretty good for a first timer. I'm just glad to have it done. I am mighty tired.

Here's a life lesson I learned from the swim. If you ever find yourself surrounded by people of equal ability, do whatever it takes to get away from them. Otherwise you're just going to spend a lot of your time kicking each other in the head.

Drinky-Dink log stands at 26.
I'm off for a much earned shower and possibly a nap.