DAYS 15 & 16 - First Milestone Up Ahead

Dear P90X Diary,

Now that we're into Week Three, it's time to go full out, time to push everything to the limit. Next week is the first rest week, so i need to go hard all the way until then. Tonight, for example (Day 16).

I was at work late dealing with a nightmarish situation, got home and ate dinner (probably a little too much because i had been crushed all day at work and didn't get a chance to eat), then i realized that Plyometrics was tonight. As in, the routine that had me thinking i was having a heart attack the last time i tried it. So i knew i had to wait an hour or two after eating. That put me around 10:00.

Do you think i did a friggin' Plyometrics workout at 10:00 PM when i have to be up at 6:00 the next morning? Am i writing this at midnight?

Damn skippy.

I worked my ass off and did every last one of those moves. I'm gonna bring it all right. Next week means the end of Phase I, a third of the way through P90X. And time to take pictures again to show some progress. I feel it, but i don't see it yet. So i gotta push a little harder. Go flat out. Balls to the wall, all those platitudes that are so overused, but still come to mind when you need to remind yourself to keep going. I kicked ass tonight!


By the way, i'm still laid out on the basement floor. I don't think i can climb stairs.

Could someone come carry me?

Please?

DAYS 13 & 14 - Back on Track

Dear P90X Diary,

I'm back on schedule. Since i rested the day i should have been working, i worked the day i was scheduled to rest.

No more missed days, okay?

m

DAYS 11-12 – A Fumble, A Recovery.

Dear P90X Diary,

I slipped. Already. Saturday was just one of those days i couldn't motivate myself to do anything. I mean nothing. So i missed my Yoga X workout. (And i actually like that one.) Before i went to bed, though, i had a plan. Yoga in the morning, Legs & Back in the evening, and i'd be good to go. Except for the fact that since i didn't motivate myself to go into work on Saturday either, i ended up having to go in on Sunday night. Which kind of rolled into Monday morning. As in, i'm just getting home from work at 1:00 in the morning. And have to be back at 7:00.

Okay, Plan B.

I started this whole thing on a Wednesday, which means my "rest day" is on Tuesday at the end of my week. (Tuesday is my sabbath and i shalt honor it. Don't mess with me.) So i just carry things forward a bit: Yoga was Sunday morning, Legs & Back will be Monday evening, Kenpo X on Tuesday morning, and X Stretch on Tuesday evening. Easier to double up on the day when you're supposed to be resting, especially if you rested on a day you were supposed to be working.

We'll see how this goes. I think i've said that before. I'm still committed to P90X in 90 days.

DAY 10 - Like A Song in My Head

Image courtesy of Soul Food Music

Dear P90X Diary,

It was Shalamar who sang "The Second Time Around," right?

Yes, in a lot of ways it's better than the first time. Having a better idea of what's coming up lets me pace myself and work harder. It's a good feeling. Of course, there is that small problem i'm having with feeling like i'm actually a bit weaker this week than i was last week. Could be a couple of things: fatigue from working out (sort of the dip before the rise), or the fact that i still haven't found the right nutritional balance.

I think i need to revisit the calorie calculator in the nutrition guide. According to that, i should be shooting for something along the lines of 2400 calories a day in food. Keeping in mind that i've cut out a lot of carbs, virtually eliminated fried and processed foods (except for protein bars), that just seems impossible. I wanted to keep better track of what i was eating, so i did test runs on several [FREE] iPhone apps designed to help you count your calories. I settled on one by – and i hate this name – Fat Secret. Don't believe me? Check out the FatSecret.com web site. Or download the Calorie Counter App for yourself. According to the calculations on the app, i'm averaging about a 700 calorie deficit every day. That's either accurate and i'll be dead next week, or inaccurate and i need to recalculate some things.

In any case, i'm really appreciating the design of the P90X program overall. Just as soon as you're likely to get settled, it's three weeks in and time to switch things up. Also, the second time around i realized there was a version without the music overlay on the DVD. Which means this week i'm listening to Tony's instructions, but bouncing around to my [now vintage] iPod shuffle. My music, his moves. It works.

On to Yoga X tomorrow...

DAY 9 - I knew i was in trouble when...

Photo by Tambako the Jaguar on Flickr

I started yawning.

Not the "I'm so sleepy and tired, i think i'll skip today" kind of yawning. I mean i started yawning in the middle of a Plyometrics workout. As i was hopping up and down on one foot in a cross pattern (don't ask), i yawned. Then i yawned again. This is in the middle of the workout, i tell you. I'm jumping and hopping and leaping and sweating like a horse stretching for the finish line at the Preakness, and suddenly i'm yawning?

So *hop* i start to wonder *hop* what could be making me *hop* yawn. Then i remember something i heard once. *stop* Check heart rate. Yawning is a signal that the body needs oxygen. Now i'm not entirely sure what my target heart rate should be during intense aerobic exercise, so i decide to check on the Team Beachbody site. ('Cause, seriously, i know they're gonna have it.) *pause dvd, go to site* And they do.

Well. Seems a man my age pumping at 168 bpm is in what's known as the "Redline Zone." That's past the Aerobic Zone, straight through the Threshold Zone and right before the Heart Attack Zone. Or at least that's what went through my brain. I decided to take a new approach to Plyometrics this time: pause the DVD between each superset, check the heart rate, walk it out a bit and let it come back down if it was too high, then start the DVD up again and jump back in.

I know, the automated, estimated calculator can't tell me for sure what MY target heart rate is. And i did redo the calculations for a 40 year old and a 35 year old just to see how different they would be (since my heart at least seemed to be in good shape even before i started this). There's a significant difference, but they still had it in the Threshold Zone.

We'll see what happens with next week, but i may be going to the Cardio X for the rest of the initial 30 days. And i probably need to get more cardio in on different days of the week too.

Week Two Day Two... survived.


Oh, and it turns out that whole "yawning because you need oxygen" thing is just one of several theories about why we yawn. It seems nobody actually knows...

DAY 8 - Here We Go Again

Dear P90X Diary,

Today is the first day of the rest of my life. No, wait, that's the wrong sentiment.

I won't put of until tomorrow what i can do today! Um...

The sun'll come out tomorrow! (Ouch. It's getting worse.)


Basically, today i started the whole thing over again. Chest & Back. And Ab Ripper X. And then i remembered why i hate Tony Horton. So... nothing much to report other than that.

Week Two.
First time repeating.
Hate Tony Horton.

Still going.

DAY 7 - AAAAAAAAAHHH....

Dear P90X Diary,

Today i feel good. For a few reasons:

1. Today was X-Stretch. No jumping, lifting, running, pulling (well we did pull ourselves around quite a bit). Today was about keeping my body in condition to keep working. A nice change, and i'm glad i did it.
2. I found a few calorie-tracking apps for iPhone that i'm trying out. That should help me be less concerned about losing count of calories during this first phase and let me keep up with my eating.
3. I did a full week of P90X!!! Okay, so that's burying the lead a little, but i saved the best for last. Day seven means one complete set of exercises for this phase of the program. Starting tomorrow, i do it all again, but this time i'll know exactly what i'm in for. And the best thing about that is i have a better idea of where i can push more for the next couple of weeks. 

So that's the good news. Stretching. Calorie counting. Accomplishing.

Yeah. I can do this...

Vegan Bodybuilding

I found a resource that i forgot about until my P90X Coach* brought it back to my mind. Thinking i might be better able to work with a raw foods diet, i did a quick web search and came up with this rather promising site:

Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

Okay, so i have NO intentions of becoming a bodybuilder. It's not that i don't think i could do it, it's just that the bodybuilder body type is not what i'm going for. But i knew i'd heard about vegetarian bodybuilders before, so i knew there had to be something somewhere. And this site has some great tips and info for vegans who are into bodybuilding and fitness. Naturally, if you're vegetarian but not vegan (like me), you can still find some great info. Check out the Articles section for tips on bodybuilding, nutrition, and training.

*My coach is John Cowart – check out his site, Where's My SixPack? If you're thinking of doing P90X or one of the other BeachBody programs, you can sign up on his "Make Me Your Coach" link to have him coach you too.

DAY 6 - In the Groove

Dear P90X Diary,

Kenpo-X is great! One hour of martial arts moves that's a great aerobic workout. And i could do the entire thing! HELL YEAH!!!

Okay, that's a lot of exclamation points.

I love this one. I almost put it on repeat and did it again. (Okay, not so much.) Trust me, it wasn't easy, but i rated it a "3" on the difficulty scale, since i could actually do the bloody thing. I also got a strange feeling that if i did this enough times, i'd be better prepared to kick somebody's ass. Not planning to test that theory anytime soon.

Such a good kind of tired feeling this week. I'm looking forward to tomorrow's X-Stretch session. On the schedule, you have the option of taking the day off to rest, or doing the stretch. I contemplated taking the day off, but since it's my first time through, i figured i'd go ahead and try it. I'm actually looking forward to getting more limber through this process too, so that's a good thing.


Food.

The eating is still what's going to get me. Based on my initial calculations, i should be eating about 2,400 calories a day for this first phase of the program. (There are some specific recommendations i won't go into here, largely because i'm still not sure i get it.) Since it's Labor Day and i'm at home, i made it a point to pay very careful attention to everything i ate today. Well, here it is 7:00 PM, and i've only got 1200 calories down. I still need to have dinner and there's room for another snack later, but i'm afraid i'm just not eating enough. Strange for me, since i already was eating all the time. I need to get some meal replacement bars to amp up my total caloric intake in a balanced way. Or learn to cook.

Day six done. One more to say i've made it through a full week's cycle.

DAY 5 - Um... easy? WTF?!?!?

Dear P90X Diary,

Okay, weird. I couldn't shake the feeling i was doing something wrong. I actually did all the exercises, in most cases at all the reps they were doing in the DVD. I think i confirmed what i already suspected: my legs are stronger than they look. Must be all the walking i do (or used to do) on a regular basis. That means i'm going to have to work extra hard to actually see some development in my legs. WHAT?!?!? A routine that i'm going to have to push HARDER on? Well, that definitely made my day. I was starting to second guess my decision to jump into P90X without any preamble. Now i know i have at least two routines each week that i have some competence in.

Feels good.

Then, of course, there was Ab Ripper X again. I actually felt better about this today. I was able to execute all the maneuvers for the first time. Even if i couldn't do all the reps. Now my focus is on perfecting the form. The reps will come as i get stronger, but it won't matter much if i'm not doing the moves the right way.


*****UPDATE 9/6/2010*****

Yeah, it's confirmed. Today my legs feel fine. Like i just walked a few miles yesterday or something. Definitely will have to push harder on leg days. Gotta get some more dumbells (i only have 5lb and 15lb now), for this and for a couple of other exercises. I figure it's an investment, since i'll be moving up in weight anyway as i get stronger all around.