P90X: Day 4

I started the P90X workout this last weekend. I have been concerned that I wasn't getting enough cross training for my core and with a half marathon coming up in November I thought it was a good time to mix things up. I have seen the infomercials and did a quick ebay search to see what I could come up with. I managed a very good deal for the product and I would say that in the 4 days I have been doing that it really does work you. So far I have done:

Chest & Back: This is pretty intense chin-up and push-up program the next day I felt so dead.

Pylometrics: This is an hour of jumping. It is hard, really hard. It probably didn't help that I ran 8 miles that morning.

Shoulders and Arms: This is another tough work out much like the first one. It is hard.

Kenpo: Well I train in Kenpo but his is just a little cardio kick program and for me it is light weight. But it does make you break a sweat and that is good thing, any time you can add an hour of sweat to the day is a good thing. I also, ran three miles before I started. I was supposed to do yoga but that is 1.5 hours in length and I really needed to keep on my run schedule.

Overall I feel good and I think that if anyone keeps with this program for 6 days a week for three months they will have great results. I am hoping that two months will give me extra strength and spring for my half marathon.

I am in Vegas starting on Friday, I will let everyone know how it went.

What a week

This has been a heavy exercise week. The running went well. I was able to run 4 times. I started with a short 3 miler, just a recovery run, on Tuesday. On Thursday, I did some mile repeats for 3.5 miles. Saturday, was a little longer as I was feeling good and managed 4.5 miles. I finished with an 8 miler on Sunday. This gave me a total of 19 miles for the week. This was a great total and I felt pretty good, well aside from being dead at the start of my run on Sunday.

Why was I dead? Well on Friday, I received my P90x kit in the mail. This is a very intense cross training program for those who have not seen the ads. I did the first installment on Saturday as well as having done my martial arts class. When I woke up on Sunday, I was tired to the bone. But I did my 8 miles like a good boy, it just was about a minute off my normal pace. I finished Sunday, with installment two of the P90x and now I am tired from my 5 workouts in two days. Whew!!! I mean it really I do.

I will say this so far about the P90x, it is as hard as you want it to be. Tough stuff if you want it to be. I started this as I was looking to build my muscles before the half marathon in November. Plus, if I can gain some more tone, I would be happy with that as well. I will keep everyone posted.

Injuries ... Again

I was doing fine with my program and then I went to my martial arts class on Saturday and ended up with a weird injury. We were doing these drills where your opponent holds your leg and then you hop. The drill is intended to help you practice keeping your balance and prevent take downs. I am not sure how well this works. But it is a good concentration drill and hoping for a couple of minutes is difficult. It is very difficult for me. Since I did my marathon last year, my right hip is not 100%. When you are not 100% your body adjusts to keep the injured part from taking all the impact of an activity. This is what happened. As my hip was crying over the impact I was subconsciously turning away from the impact of the hopping and this meant I was landing to the side of my leg and I ended up with a bit of a high ankle sprain in my right leg. So as last week was a down week anyway, I took two days off to recover.

I ran last night without incident but sometimes things happen and you have to adjust. Today is for speed work so wish me luck.

A Decent Rest, but you know....

I am not very good at resting. This is a rest week but I have a hard time cutting back. I was supposed to do just 4 easy runs this week. Nothing fancy and no real goals just get out there and be steady. I hope I don't regret it later but today I did some speed work. I did a warm up half mile and then did two mile repeats with a half mile cool down in between. My pace was 8:45. I don't make too much of this speed as I was on a treadmill and I tend to find that pace easier there than on the streets. Everything is harder on the streets. But it was quick and at the same time serves the recovery week theme. There was less impact on my body after all. But I did break the rules of the 4 easy runs. Oh well, I am sure I will be fine.

Next week I am back into action with tempo runs and what not. Well happy running.

Strong Week

Last week was an excellent one. I managed to put in 19.61 miles, this is a big number for me these days. On top of that my Sunday run was pretty difficult. I happen to live part way up an incline that goes on for miles. I usually do not run north from my house as it is almost all hill. That is an intimidating thought to know that you are going to be running up and up with almost no break until you decide to turn around. But Sunday, I decided to take it on and went 3.5 miles up and then 3.5 miles down. I will say that I did like the last half better. The first half felt like I really did something difficult. Monday, my muscles complained over my motivation but Sunday was a good day to be a runner.

This week is a rest week so I will be toning down the miles to recover a bit.

August is Over

I am glad August is over. For running it is the worst, it is a month to be survived more than anything else. Now that it is over, I think I will run much easier. I did a little three miler and the cooler weather really made a difference. I did 53 miles for August and considering that I spent the first week swimming I think that is good. I am going to shoot for about 75 miles for September. I think this is a reasonable goal and not quite 20 miles average per week. I would like to add 100 miles for October and another 100 for November. There is no plan for December. Here is to plans and hoping it all goes to plan.