Inspiration

This has been discussed previously in this blog, but I do have one very important and defining characteristic: I'm lazy.

This makes for an interesting dichotomy for someone training for marathons and doing P90X.  It's a constant mental struggle to just workout instead of playing video games or run a bit instead of sleeping, when I have to work a lot it certainly doesn't make it any easier.  I still do a reasonable job but I need to do better...and I will.

The only real reason I keep myself doing it is simple: my wife is awesome.  She can wake up, do some P90X, drive to work, work all day and evening and come home.  Then she will go running with me, clean up, fix lunches, hang out real quick and go to bed.  Rinse and repeat.

I don't think I need to break down my day, but I will for the sake of fairness.  Wake up, maybe do Abs, head to work, come home, play video games, consider doing P90x, run if Mel is running with me, few beers, video games (assuming I'm not in classes), go to bed.  Rinse and repeat.

Personally, I like my way better...but those little caveats of me working out during the day wouldn't happen if my wife wasn't so amazing. So thank you Jean-Jacket Woman (tm), you make me a slightly less completely lazy and incrementally better man.....and no one else could.

Story Time

Before I became the road running monster that I am today, there was a time when I didn't exercise much. I know it's hard to believe there was a day when I wasn't mercilessly pounding the pavement, but I had more important things to attend to at the time (I'm sure anyone who reads this blog can guess).

Prior to getting married, I was still in the mode where we actually try to impress our partner, called dating.  My wife was going to run the half-marathon in Nashville and I said to myself...I used to be in shape, how hard can a half marathon possibly be?....so I said, "Sure I'll do it, I'm an idiot" (paraphrasing).  Now, there was still a few months till the race, so I had time to prepare and I swear I had every intention of doing so, but instead I chose to continue to attend to the aforementioned important things and maintained the status quo. I did knock out one solid training run a couple days prior to the race, that was maybe 2 miles.

We get to Nashville the day before the race, head to the Expo and get our race packets, which was an insane madhouse and then hung out with Mel's family, had a nice Spaghetti dinner, etc. etc.  After everyone else settled in, my future wife and I decided we would just go out for a quick beverage and then come back and go to bed.  As I'm sure many of you can relate to, this simple beverage magically multiplied exponentially and we found ourselves back at the hotel around 2:45AM, with a wake-up call at around 5:30.  Solid preparation.

Woke up a few hours later and I was still "feeling the effects" of our late night shenanigans, so I was still happy and felt decent heading into the trip to the race.  This feeling crashed and burned as we jogged to the race start and I knew we were in serious trouble.

I threw up by the sidewalk prior to the race start and people looked at me like I was crazy, but I'm sure they just thought it was nerves.  We found our place in the corral and I just started laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation.  When that gun went off I had no idea what I was in for, but I knew I was going to try and approach it as slowly as possible.

Everything started reasonably well, the first couple miles went extremely slowly, but I completed them without too much trouble....then I fell off the proverbial cliff.  I was an absolute mess...my body began shutting down mile by mile.  First it was the side cramps, then the hamstrings, then my calves tightened up like baseballs.  I was eating jelly beans and drinking water, but it was no use.  When we reached mile twelve my wife's father tried to coax me into running again so that we could finish before they shut the race down probably...I slowly started my weird hunchback of Notre Dame herky-jerk run style and shambled my way closer to the finish.

The crowd was roaring as I neared the finish and I spotted my nemesis...an at least 85 year old woman who was ahead of me. I picked up my shamble to a trot despite basically having Lieutenant Dan legs at that point in my last ditch effort to best the near-centenarian.  There is actually photo evidence (I'll see if i can find it and post it) of me doing a sprinters lean across the finish line and still losing to this fossil by a half step.  Adding insult to injury, I injured my side doing when I threw my arms back in the sprinters lean.

Final Time: 3 hours and 59 minutes. Blazing.

Moral of this ridiculously long post:  If you are going to do a race, even if you don't compete, train.  If you are going to do an endurance competition, save the celebration until afterwards, or be prepared for a soul crushing period of time that takes at least twice as long as it should.

Core Synergistics and a Pep Talk

So you think it's an off week.  You really only have two real workouts, both being Core Synergistics.  You start off streching and warming up for an extended period and then think you can take time off and have a relaxing workout.

Wrong.

If you do it right, Core doesn't mess around. It works nearly your entire body in some capacity and is typically one exercise after another. Crazy pushups and stupid banana/supermans.  Bottom line, don't shrug off the rest week.

So, on another topic, some of you that follow this blog supposedly will actually be getting entries via email now, as I added you to the list.  As far as I know, my good friend Mauzy is the only one here doing anything related to P90X anymore, besides him Matt may be the only one actually exercising.  Since I haven't been blogging to motivate you, I blame myself. Now that I am going to be blogging again, you have no choice and no excuse but to get back at it and take care of business.  Partying is a legitimate use of free time, but most of you are probably just throwing your time away doing other worthless activities when you could be getting healthier, feeling better, looking better and getting absolutely shredded like me.

Start doing sprint triathlons or running races to give yourself a goal.  If actual competition isn't your thing think about the sweet, sweet ladies (or guys) that will be far more attracted to you.   Think about how having diabetes would really suck or just keep in mind that if you drink 4 days/nights a week minimum maybe you need something to offset the havoc wrecked upon your body, so you live past 40. (Unless being old doesn't appeal to you, but seriously, if wearing sweatsuits out to dinner at 3:30PM, speaking complete gibberish to children and stealing anything you want doesn't appeal to you, then I'm not sure I want to know you).

Either way, start getting healthier and you'll feel better about everything, I'll see what I can do to help.

Starting Fresh

Now that I have my new dumbbells, I am starting fresh today. I was only 2 weeks from completion of the program, but I'm not really worried about that. This isn't something I am going to do and then just quit, so restarting really doesn't matter. After midweek I'll give a review of the new dumbbells, but so far, I'm loving them....

On another note, yesterday I watched like 13 hours of RescueMe with Mel. Which is completely against the P90X lifestyle, but it is an awesome show.

The Price of Perfection

In my life there are some costs associated with fitness, but presently there is one cost in particular that is worse than the others: $400.

That is the cost of Bowflex Selecttech 552 dumbbells. Mel, with her Samson-like strength obliterated our red band over the weekend. For a while now I have been considering it, but it just seemed like too much of an investment. Now that I know I'm sticking with it (and my wife has participated as well) it doesn't seem as unreasonable. It will be a better workout and make some impossible exercises much easier to do from a form standpoint.

As far as the workouts, I've been pretty solid. The San Diego trip delayed me a bit, but I'm rockin' out week nine currently and feeling pretty solid about it. I'm much stronger than I was at the beginning of the summer and feel pretty good in general. My running will be increasing, so I will no longer be doing Plyo until the marathon in January. That leaves me with the three strength training workouts a week. Still solid, I might take it down to 2 closer to the marathon and run 4 days a week, cutting out legs & back. Not too much though, legs and back has really helped by muscular endurance while running, something I hope will help me decrease my marathon time significantly this time around.

I'll be updating again from time to time, no promises on regularity, but stay tuned for some new diet and exercise tips from my wife. Oh and a quick shout-out to my sister, who ran her first half-marathon this weekend in Chicago and is still standing....congratz.

Keep On Keepin' On

The brilliance of Joe Dirt really isn't in question here, but perhaps my dedication to P90X has fallen under scrutiny. The fact is however, I'm still going strong. After my original restart after 5 weeks, I am now halfway through week 7 and feeling pretty decent about it.

With the San Diego trip coming up right in my rest week (I won't rest the first half of next week and I'll do week 9 stuff to get workouts in) it's decent timing. I'll run while in SD, but the lifting will have a short hiatus while some moderate, well heavy.....maybe borderline illegal fun ensues.

I think Mauzy is pretty well going along although maybe more hit and miss these days, everyone else seems to have fallen to the side of the road like the pansies in an Ironman race. Alex, you're exempt from this scathing remark with your effort induced dislocation of a semi-important knee related bone. The rest of you, now is a good time to get back on the horse, especially those of you in SD. If you ignore my nearly translucent epidermis, you'll be embarrassed by how good I look and how flabby and pathetic you have become when we're on the beach in 10 days or so....

Improvement

Last night I ran about 3.5 miles with the lady and was actually reasonably impressed with how I felt. I've ran maybe twice in the last 40 days, but have continued doing P90X (strength training at least). During the run I didn't feel like I was in marathon shape or anything, but I felt fine and only got stronger as time went on...maybe there is something to this P90X strength training thing.

I'm going to need it: This weekend I'm dong a mini-triathlon (200M swim, 6mi bike, and 5k run), considering I haven't swam in god knows how long and I use a mountain bike, it should be interesting.

Shout out to my good friend Mick out in Cali, heard about your unfortunate Softball accident, as long as your mended up in time for the labor day bonanza there will be no problems...get well soon buddy.

Appearances

If you follow my blog (and no one does) then you would think that I simply quit working out and eating healthy...this is not true. I am still doing P90X 90% and following the diet 90% and I have certainly improved in strength and general health. I guess it comes down to priorities and again, blogging loses.

I restarted the program of course and am now in week 5. There is a very probable speed bump when I take a trip over labor day weekend to sunny San Diego, but I'll still exercise and that can;t be avoided. Friends in Cali seem to have either quit or been injured in P90X or sports related activities, so I guess I should feel lucky I am relatively unscathed.

I still have the Phoenix marathon in January looming on the horizon, so my training for that needs to start ramping up now. I did Back & Biceps yesterday and today I'll be running with Mel. From now until the marathon, I will run at least 3 days a week while maintaining strength exercises. Once I get done with the initial 90 days, I will move to a more lean based P90X with 2 strength days a week and 4 running.

I could make promises about posting, but we all know how that would work out. I'll try to be more active, but we'll see. Either way, keep pressing play unless your maimed or injured, I'll be doing the same.

Blogging Laziness

I actually find it easier to work out then i do to update this blog, but I thought I would take another crack at it today. I'm still rocking the P90x and still feeling pretty good about it. About to go into a rest week next week for the second time and then back to the second phase again, the change of pace will be nice. I always felt like after a couple weeks everything would be come easy and then last night I did a chest & back and almost threw up....so I guess it really is what you put into it.

As far as I know Mauzy is still doing his thing as well, but i haven;t received much update from California. Also, my wife claims she will be starting it again soon, so I guess we'll see how that goes. I give her a much better chance than Jondle, so that's something.

Should I actually put effort into making this blog entertaining, or even writing it? Does anyone actually read or pay attention to it? Let me know, if it's useful, I'll do more than just blankly type out text as an excuse to update the space.

Dropping Like Flies

So I have been trying to hold myself together with my neck injury, which turned out to be much worse than anticipated. I did do most of the workouts last week and ran a couple times, including a 5k on Saturday which was a good time even though it had been raining and it was a trail run. I lost a full minute trying to fish my shoe out of a muddy ditch.

Yesterday my necks till wasn;t right, so I just ran, but tonight I am going to try Chest, Shoulders and Tris. We'll see, if I hurt myself again, I'll just run and do abs until my neck heals and then restart the whole program, but hopefully everything will be allright. Alex doesn't have a knee and Mauzy has had a jacked foot for a couple weeks, so I should be able to tough it out.

Diet is still doing pretty well, if I complete the workout today then I'll switch into Phase two of the diet, if not, I'll just stay in Phase 1 for the forseeable future.

Sorry I left this page cold for a week there, crazy at work and was half embarassed about the slacking due to injury...how is everyone doing?

Fallen Soldier

Just wanted to take a second and hand out a Purple Heart to Alex out in Cali. During Legs & Back at the end of last week apparently he managed to dislocate his knee/kneecap. I guess he just isn't cut out for this, but nevertheless the doctors are discussing whether or not he will be able to do the program again, or if we should go ahead and have him put down. Stay tuned.

Meanwhile, good luck Alex, hope you heal fast and get back at it....my P90X Army can't afford casualties.

Day 19-21 - Near Catastrophe

I went out of town this weekend, I was best man in a buddies wedding down in Springfield....definitely drank more booze than is recommended in the P90X diet book, but kept the diet pretty clean.

I couldn't work out Friday with everything going on, so I woke up saturday and did Legs& Back. About halfway through the workout I was rocking out some pullups and felt a massive tug through my neck and shoulder. It hurt like hell and then I tried to do some more, bad mistake. I finished the workout (skipping pullups) but I still struggle looking left. Luckily, it's recovery week this week, so I'll do alot of running and just core synergistics, so it should be healed up for week 5 when it rolls around....hopefully.

I feel almost lazy now, I don;t know what to do with myself on recovery week. I realize I'll still be running and working out, but it seems like I'm slacking off....I guess getting injured was my bodies way of saying I needed some lower impact stuff for a week anyway though.

One of my ambitious coworkers is starting the program soon now as well...slowly but surely I'm creating a ripped P90X Army, I should get paid for this....

Day 18 - Running and Treats

So, yesterday I ran instead of doing Kenpo, dudn't get heat rash related hives, but still probably lost 15 pounds worth of sweat. Not much else to say, so I thought I would drop a real easy recipe/meal for you guys that you can fix in less than 10 minutes for dinner. This is set up for phase 1, so High protein and low carbs.

Ingredients:

6-8oz Thawed Chicken tenderloin

1 Sliced Whole Wheat (no processed flour) English Muffin

1 Cup mixed vegetables

4oz juice

Crushed red pepper

Minced Garlic

Salsa of Choice

1 slice fat-free swiss (or fat-free Cheese of choice)

Ok, it's very simple:

1) Preheat the foreman grill

2) Place chicken on grill and add crushed red pepper at your discretion

3) Add 1/3rd cup water, cup of veggies, crushed red pepper and some minced garlic in some tupperwear, seal it and microwave for 4 minutes.

3) Monitor chicken and turn over when crushed red pepper side is well cooked, doesnt take more than 5 minutes

4) Add more crushed red pepper to other side of chicken at your discretion

5) Toast english muffin

6) Add slice of cheese to allow it to melt over the muffin

7) Remove chicken and cut up to fit easily on the muffin, add desired amount of salsa, build sandwich

8) Veggies are done and you're eating in less than 10 minutes. ( I like to slice my sandwich in half)

9) I usually drink 4oz of juice to add some simple carbs.

It's extremely simple, fast and very cheap. If you guys come up with any meals that fit P90x criteria, but aren't in the book, post them or send them to me and I'll put recipes up peridically.

Day 10-11 - Shoulders & Arms + Running

So I had some health complications yesterday, worked from home and chose not to post.

Wednesday night I worked out late and dominated S & A. Stepped up my weight and felt really good about it. I'm definitely noticing an improvement in strength and appearance, but I'm sure alot of that is the diet as well.

Then yesterday morning I went to the dentist because of a broken tooth. Apparently I'm now old enough that my early childhood fillings are cracking and breaking my teeth, it's kind've depressing. They jacked around near my nerve quite a bit, it hurt like a bitch, then told me I had to wait a month to get the pieces of my tooth replaced and put in some temporary BS on the tooth and told me not to eat on that side. I left the office, mouth still aching wanting to punch someone else in the face, so I worked from home(something I really need to figure out how to do every day). Answering a serious question from the head of another department while wearing your underwear is my kind of professionalism.

It was 95 with a heat index over 100 yesterday and Mel and I waited to run till after 8:00 when it was still like 90. Actually we waited because I had a burger that was over a half-pound at 6 and was still feeling the after effects. I decided to run instead of doing Kenpo, which kind've seemed more likely to hyperextend my joints then actually give me a workout. So, we're running along, it ridiculously hot and hard to breathe, the burger is like a rock in my stomach and I'm about to vomit. We run maybe 3.5 miles and I'm extremely hot, but not overly sick. I knew I was dehydrated because I hadn't drank much water that day, but once we go inside I start itching everywhere.....and then it gets worse. I jump in a cold shower while my skin starts to change into something resembling tree bark. I had heat rash related hives apparently, which if you've never experienced them, is sort of like the physical manifestation of the feelings you get when watching Nancy Pelosi on TV.

It finally passed after an hour or two and some benadryl, but yesterday was quite eventful regardless....in a sad, I live in the middle of Missouri kind of way.

Legs & Back today....plus it's friday, so I've got that going for me, which is nice.

Day 8 - Chest & Back

Chest & Back. Solid workout, still with the embarassing faceplant Divebombers at the end. This week going in my energy was gone, I think it's due to a lack of carbs. I had my carbs at dinner and later on did Ab-Ripper X and tore it up, so I might add an additional carb serving with some fruit during the day.

On another note, if you havent seen The Hangover, you need to. Now. Soon. It's very funny stuff and deserves all of the accolades it gets. Also, if you aren't doing P90X, but you have access to the discs, then get off your ass and do it already. You should see me, I've been doing it for a week and I'm already irresistably sexy ( according to my wife, but I'm convinced all the ladies feel this way). Seriously, it's the real deal, do it already.

You know you have time, you just aren't making time.

Lifestyle Changes

This weekend was Memorial Day weekend of course and my wife and I went to a Cardinals game, hung out with family, my friend Mauzy came over and then my wife's family came over for a BBQ yesterday afternoon.  All in all a good weekend....there was one common denominator to all of these situations which will prove interesting during our P90X run: drinking.  We drank heavily all weekend and this isn't an isolated incident.

It is certainly going to be interesting to see how difficult it is to remove drinking ( not entirely) from the diet along with all the other sacrifices.  Regardless, I'm still looking forward to the program and also laughing at Mauzy when he fails miserably and quits within two weeks.