Day 24

Did StretchX yesterday, this morning was YogaX. Did it in the dark with my eyes closed - a surreal experience. I was able to focus a lot more on what I was doing and it felt like a much better workout. I actually enjoyed it.

Planing to hit the Tobacco Trail today for 13-20 miles at lunch.

Have a great day!

ACTUAL CONVERSATION:
"Dude, I'm having a really hard time finding the right gear today, I'm struggling!"
"Oh hey, you're back tire is completely flat"

That was at mile 9 of the Tobacco Trail. I probably would have noticed sooner if it wasn't a dirt trail. Probably. Awesome workout though! 70.5 Miles to go.

Was a fairly long walk back, ended up conducting a conference call for work out in nature. Yay for blackberry!

Day 22, Recovery week.

Core Syn this morning, feels like I haven't done this workout in a long time. Went well, even did the bonus at the end.

Raining pretty hard this morning, don't know if the Tobacco Trail will get ridden today or not. Going to be muddy if the Mighty Tim and I do go, that's for sure.

BTW, I DID get yogax done yesterday, and it was not too bad for a change.

Tobacco Trail was pretty damp, was filthy when I got home. Good ride though. 13.5 more down, 82.5 Miles to go.

Sunday

45.5 ridden this morning. In the rain. And the wind. By myself. All things considered not a bad ride, only 96 miles to go.

YogaX sometime today. Oh BOY.

I'm going to go lay on the floor for a little while.

Saturday, Day 20, playing catchup.

Lots of house and yard work gettin' done. Did the last Total body and Kenpo for a while and tomorrow's Yo-Gax will end Phase 1 of the Hybrid P180X+. Next week should be fun with a lot of Core/Stretch/Yoga. 8 Days from now I expect to be flexible enough to stick my elbow in my ear. I'm glad it's a 'rest' week, I'm going to have to spend a lot of time on the bike with only 11 days left and 141.5 to roll. Tomorrow's ride will be a big one and should get me well under the 100 mark.

I've probably mentioned it before, but check out www.mapmyfitness.com sometime. It's awesome for mapping out runs/rides/walks and logging your exercise. You can also take physical challenges like the 300 miles in 30 days to push yourself and win prizes. Good stuff.

Time to organize this office and get the house cleaned up some. Catch you later!

Day 17 I NEED MILES

Swapped StretchX for Kenpo this morning, yesterday my sides didn't feel up the all the twisting (after Total Body the day before - Try it, you'll see what I mean). Kenpo went great, feeling great, needing some cycling miles today. Hopefully the rain will hold off and the Mighty Tim and I can hit the American Tobacco Trail again.
The P180X+ routine has seemed to kicked me off my plateau - I'm down 6 pounds from where I finished P90X. Let's hope the train keeps a rolling!

Have a great day, dear reader.

Met up with Tim on the tobacco trail today, ended up doing 20 Miles. Tougher today, trail was wet and I guess I'm tired. We had a good haul though! 141.5 to go.

Day 15, Total Body

Upped the weight and reps some today. Kicked my butt. I got done with judicious use of the pause button and the 13000 cubic foot per minute ceiling fan. Feeling sorta cranky for some reason right now.

Here's an interesting thing, when I first started P90X in Jan I could do 3 unassisted reverse grip pullups. During today's workout I did 41. Eight of those included doing a crunch, bringing the knees to to chin up bar at the top of the pull up, Seven doing 3 'runs' at the top, but most clean pullups.

Bet I sleep good tonight.

Day 14, YogaX and admitted defeat.

Well yesterday was interesting, I rode out with Gene and Dave for a 35-45 mile road ride. Straight out of the neighborhood it was clear that they had had their Wheaties and today was going to be an eye opener. We covered a little over 20 miles in the first hour, faster than I've ever ridden that distance before. At our first break I mentioned that and got surprised looks and 'O RLY?' from them.
Then things got interesting. By interesting I mean painful and embarrassing. :)
Around mile 35 climbing the 6th or 7th long and ugly hill, as I contemplated the seemingly inevitable event where both of my quadriceps exploded like over inflated and rotten inner tubes in a hot sun, when Gene makes a remark about the young guy should be pulling us up the hill. He was talking about Dave who turns out to be 3 years my senior. Later I found out that Gene was 12 when I was born.
The ride ended up being 46 miles all told and they didn't seem to mind waiting on me at the top of the last few mountains we discovered. I've got a lot of improving to do.
161.5 Miles left to ride.


In semi related news, I'm admitting my over ambitiousness in taking on two 30 day challenges along with P180X+. In trying to do all three, all three are suffering. So I'm dropping the 100 miles in 30 days run challenge. The cycling can be done in an hour 2-3 days a week at the distances I'm used to riding with a big weekend ride, but the run is another hour just about everyday.

YogaX today and I swear on my daughter's Garfield plush toy that I'm getting through the whole thing.

*******
Yoga is done, Garfield lives another day.

not dead

Thurs and Fri been insanely busy with life. Back to the grindstone tomorrow!

Day 10

Decent 5 mile run at lunch today, did another 2 after dinner. That leaves 67 to go and only one behind schedule. Next up StretchX.

Found out that StretchX is pretty worthless when the rest of the house is in turmoil, will try again after the kids get to bed.

Day 9

Kenpo for breakfast, 13.5 miles on the mountain bike for lunch with The Mighty Tim, 2 miles on the treadmill for dinner.

I'm slipping behind on the run challenge, now 3 miles in the hole (74 to go). Doing okay on the bike, 207.5 to go there.

Whoo.

Day 8

Well, just went to sign up for the 100K Raven Rock Ride and they're full, no more slots. Will have to remember to sign up for these things a little earlier.

Total body+ workout today and a 2 mile run scheduled. Since I'm behind on my run, think I'll up that distance.

Well, got 5 miles done before the rain rolled in. Not really feeling up to Total Body+ workout but maybe will recover enough by tonight. So, 76 Miles left to run, I'm still 1 mile short of where I should be on my schedule.

8pm
Got Total Body+ knocked out. Didn't wanna, showed up anyway, glad I did. It's getting easier.

Day 7 of 182

Sorry about yesterday, my folks were coming up to visit and return my vacationing daughter. I was pretty much cleaning house and yard working until they got here although I got a decent amount of YogaX done. I'm switching the schedule up a little to accommodate the weekends better. YogaX on Sat and StretchX on Sunday with the mega ride. I should have run Saturday but found myself out of time so I'm behind where I should be for the 30 day run challenge.

Today Gene, Dave and I went for 41.25 miles on the road bikes include one monsterous road where you climb 250 feet in 2 miles. It was very steep with a couple of platues. I'm calling it Heartbreak Hill from now on. All in all I'm pretty pleased to hung in with these guys, they are much more experienced cyclists and riding with them pushes me pretty hard while giving me a lot of good info about riding with a group.

Bonus! When I got back Daughter wanted to go for a ride, so we did another 1.8 miles in the neighborhood.
221 Miles left to ride! I'm ahead 3 miles on the cycling schedule but behind by 4 on running.

Still have StretchX scheduled for today, I'm going to rest a little before then.

************
StretchX done.. So sleepy...

Day 5 I'm a whipped pup

Kenpo for breakfast, 5 mile run for lunch. Coffee for dinner.

81 Miles left to run, need to get on a bike soon.

Supposed to have done the new ab workout yesterday, maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow!

Day 4, Total body+ again

I would love to say that the second time through the Total Body+ workout is much easier than the first time. And I can! But that would not make it true. What is true is that I am pleased to have gotten through the whole thing and did not quit any of the 4 or 5 times that I wanted to. Just took a(nother) break, then got back to it.
Good workout.

3 more miles down, 86 to go. yeesh.

Day 3, the drums have stopped...

5 sad miles this morning, low energy, cruddy time. Got passed by a lady with a chihuahua which was embarrasing even though the chihuahua looked like he might be on the juice (or he was a labrador). Anyhoo, made it back to the house before wife reported me missing, so thats good.
StretchX today and I'm hoping to hit the Tobacco Trail with Tim at lunchtime for a bike ride.

Need to perk up before then.

5 Miles run, 89 left to go.

Dang good ride with Tim on the Tobacco Trail although I underestimated how far my route was. I was expecting 13-14 miles and ended up pedaling my washing machine of a trail bike over 21 miles instead. Doh!

Oh well, 21 more ridden, 265.5 to go!

9:48pm
StretchX. Man am I glad I did that. I didn't really feel motivated to, but showed up anyway and now I feel all sorts of relaxed, unwound and ready to sleeeeepp. Not feeling any pain anywhere.

Goodnight.

Day 2

Kenpo was fun as usual, good sweat there and felt really good to stretch out some. My lower back is feeling a little abused right now but I think it's just soreness from yesterday's workout(s).

4Miles in 39minutes. 94 Miles to run.

Day 1 of 182 - Total Body

I felt that.

Wow. My whole body is in a state of WTF. I feel great, but I'm pretty sure that later I'm going to be sore in places I didn't know existed. This workout is unlike anything I have EVER done before, it moves really really fast and is all over the board for what body parts you're using. Each exercise works multiple muscle groups and is varied so that you don't really realize how much you're hitting them until after it's all done. I'm going to have to print out my worksheet again, the one I used today got sweat dripped on it to the point it's nearly unreadable. After 4 days off, this was EXACTLY what I needed. I think the next 3 weeks is going to be a lot of fun and burn off a bunch of calories. I'll be posting the new schedule as a google doc later in case anyone is interested in watching the progress.

Signed on for two 30 day challenges starting today, Run 100 Miles and Cycle 300 Miles. Yeah, I'm a masochist.

13.25 Miles down, 286.75 miles left to ride.
2 Miles down, 98 miles left to run.

Aaaand I'm Spent.

I'm calling it done today. Maybe I'm not eating enough, maybe I should have taken the rest week, maybe I've got a cold, but I've been TIRED this week. Going to relax and recoop then hit it with a vengeance on Monday. Got some logistics and planning to do before then, with a serious overhaul of my nutrition plan.

In case you're interested in the 11 weeks I did of this round of P90X, I dropped 2 inches from my waist, went from 23% body fat to 16% and replaced 13 pounds of fat with more than that of muscle. Doubled or tripled the number of pull ups and push ups that I could do, added considerable mass to my arms and shoulders while trimming down the flab around my mid section and seriously enhanced my endurance and threshold for pain. :)
I'm quite pleased with the results even though I played pretty fast and loose both with the program (I'm looking at you, YOGAX) and eating plans. I'm very much looking forward to the next challenge.

Peas out!

W12D3 - Final Back and Bicep

Okay workout this morning, seem to be sort of dragging this week. Updated the W2 vs W7 vs W11 (this week) comparison pix, they're at the bottom right of this page. These are the actual weeks of the program, although I'm calling this W12 since I skipped the last rest week. Tempted to do Legs and Back tomorrow then rest for Fri, Sat, and Sunday before starting the 6 month monster. We'll see.

W12D2

Plyo went well today, its still one of my favorite workouts. Triceps are pretty sore, I must of 'brought it' yesterday.

Have you seen the P90X+ DVD's yet? I'll be honest, they frighten me. Then again the P90X videos had the same effect when I started with them so I'm pretty excited about it too. Below is the the hybrid 6 month workout I found online, I've got a week long conference in May so to have that fall close to a rest week I'm going to kick it off next Monday:

Phase 1: Weeks 1‐3
day 1: P90X+ Total Body / P90X Ab Ripper
day 2: P90X Kenpo
day 3: P90X Stretch
day 4: P90X+ Total Body / P90X+ Abs‐Core
day 5: P90X+ Kenpo
day 6: P90X Stretch
day 7: P90X Yoga

Recovery Week: Week 4
day 1: P90X Core
day 2: P90X Stretch
day 3: P90X Yoga
day 4: P90X Core
day 5: P90X Stretch
day 6: P90X Yoga
day 7: Rest / Stretch / Yoga (your choice)

Phase 2: Weeks 5‐7
day 1: P90X+ Upper Body / P90X Ab Ripper
day 2: P90X Cardio
day 3: P90X Legs*
day 4: P90X Yoga
day 5: P90X+ Full Body / P90X+ Abs‐Core
day 6: P90X+ Intervals
day 7: P90X Stretch

Recovery Week: Week 8

Phase 3: Weeks 9‐11
day 1: P90X+ Upper Body / P90X Ab Ripper
day 2: P90X Legs*
day 3: P90X Plyo
day 4: P90X+ Upper Body / P90X+ Abs‐Core
day 5: P90X Legs*
day 6: P90X Kenpo / P90X Yoga (Balance Section)
day 7: P90X Stretch / P90X Yoga (Power Yoga Section)

Recovery Week: Week 12

Phase 4: Weeks 13‐15
day 1: P90X Chest / Back / P90X Ab Ripper
day 2: P90X Legs*
day 3: P90X+ Kenpo
day 4: P90X Shoulders / Arms / P90X+ Abs‐Core
day 5: P90X Cardio
day 6: P90X+ Total Body / P90X Yoga (Balance Section)
day 7: P90X Stretch / P90X Yoga (Power Yoga Section)

Recovery Week: Week 16

Phase 5: Weeks 17‐19
day 1: P90X Chest / Shoulders / Triceps / P90X Ab Ripper
day 2: P90X Legs*
day 3: P90X+ Intervals
day 4: P90X Back / Biceps / P90X+ Abs‐Core
day 5: P90X Plyo
day 6: P90X+ Total Body / P90X Yoga (Balance Section)
day 7: P90X Stretch / P90X Yoga (Power Yoga Section)

Recovery Week: Week 20

Phase 6: Weeks 21‐26
Week 21: Phase 1
Week 22: Phase 2
Week 23: Phase 3
Week 24: Phase 4
Week 25: Phase 5
Week 26: Recovery Week

Legs* is the legs & back workout, skipping the back portions.