Day 16: Plyometrics

I felt pretty ready this morning for plyometrics. Last week it was a joke. I could barely lift my feet off the ground. Today though I either harnessed more energy or had more energy. I'm not sure why or which, but I'll take it!

Day 15: Chest & Back

Finally I got up for a Monday morning run! It felt good, too, but I was extremely slow. I was just crawling along Piedmont Park. When I hit the track at the end to do one lap, I was on track for an eleven minute mile (I range between 9 and 10 depending on how far I'm going). I didn't let it throw me off though because I still felt good and literally couldn't have picked up the pace.

I decided to follow through tonight with chest and back. Since this P90X has been taking up so much of my time, I wasn't sure if I was going to stay with it. But curiosity keeps getting the best of me, so I stuck it out. Though my reps went down on several of the push-up exercises, I was working as hard as I could. Mike says the reps are supposed to go down this week since we're tired and then they shoot up again after a rest week. So we shall see.

Most improved award goes to me in Ab Ripper X. It was tough, but I was strong through the exercises and felt good instead of hopeless. Progress!

Day 14: X Stretch

I did my stretching in the late afternoon while the pizza dough we were making in the bread maker was kneading and rising. It was perfect timing because although I do enjoy the stretches, stretching for an hour seems like such a looooong time. But I felt all the better for it and was a bit more flexible.

Day 13: Kenpo

Kenpo tonight exhausted me again. I actually felt stronger the first time I did it (which was only last week, wow). I just didn't have the bounce I had before. I felt like I was walking through the movement. My arms and legs were just heavy and tired. I got through the whole routine and still felt like it was a decent workout. I think being up so early on a Saturday to do it (7:30 a.m) may have had something to do with it.

Day 12: Legs & Back

This morning I was up for my speedwork at the track. Unfortunately, when I got to the high school track I use, I found it to be under construction... for the entire summer. So I just kept running. At least I was out there.

I was running on empty during this workout. If we work out at night, Mike and I always eat dinner first. However, he really wanted to get to Whole Foods to pick up some things first for the weekend, so we worked out right when we got home. I've never seen such a better example on why you need fuel to workout. I just had zero energy. Even though I actually like this workout (or at least remembered liking it), I struggled. I was borderline ready to just give up. I'm glad I didn't, but man, I'll never workout without eating first.

Day 11: Yoga

Morning yoga felt pretty good. Mike and I were talking about how it's a bit boring though. Lots of Warrior 1s and Warrior 2s. I like my warriors, but I don't need to do a half hour of them (the DVD is a total of 1 hour, 32 minutes). I have come to terms with the routine, though, because the P90X Fitness Expert, Tony Horton, has designed a program that focuses on specific muscles or whatever. That doesn't always make for crazy diversity. But I still do like the Yoga X program. It's definitely tough (I love taking my vinyasas, but I just can't keep up with him). Maybe a couple weeks from now.

Day 10: Shoulders & Arms

Somehow I got myself out of bed for my morning run. I'm not sure why I got up at 6:30 only to finally leave for the run at 7:30, but I suppose that doesn't matter too much now. I felt pretty strong on this run, considering I'd done such intense jumping yesterday morning. My quads in particular felt powerful. (One thing I'm learning from getting more into shape is body parts. I can identify my hamstrings, triceps, etc., now way better than I ever could before).

I also have to say that I LOVE my new Under Armour shirt. It definitely kept me cool this morning (it's "HeatGear" specifically, which is supposed to help in the heat). I think I may have to go back to Dick's and pick up another one or two (they have 22 colors)!

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Tonight was hard. I was unmotivated because I really wanted to attend this free movie showing. Just because it seemed like a fun summer thing, and I do like Clive Owen & Julia Roberts. But no, being somewhere at 9 p.m. interferes with P90X. Curses! But the exercises went well... I kept toying with my weights today. Sometimes I think I was going a little too heavy and my wrists started to hurt so I had to cut back. I also didn't do Ab Ripper as well as I did on Monday. I have no idea why...

Day 9: Plyometrics

Morning workout again... this was some intense jumping. A lot of these exercises involve jumping and kicking up your knees, but when I wasn't able to raise my knees, I just jumped. It was still hard. I try to pay special attention to the lunges because I'm always concerned about injuring my knees. That's the last thing I'd want to do. But if I remember correctly, all this jumping made me feel so spunky the next day, so we shall see.

Day 8: Chest & Back

My arms are jelly and for a while there I thought I was going to throw up... not sure if that has something to do with the Ab Ripper I just did or the tilapia cake (crab cake... but with tilapia) I had for dinner.

Anywho, I just had my recovery drink and am starting to feel a little better. I sure gave this workout my all. It was hard to get motivated since this is probably my least favorite workout in the set. The pull-ups just frustrate me. Today I decided to use a chair and stay standing on it but keep as little weight as possible on my feet and put as much as I could in my arms. It was still hard as heck doing that. I definitely improved on everything this week.

Like I said, I felt a little sick during Ab Ripper. But I still feel a little sick now, so I don't know what's causing it. But I tried really hard and where I used to have to support myself on my forearms, I now can just use my hands. I'll take that as a nice improvement.

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And this morning was a running fail. I set my alarm for 6 a.m. but didn't get out of bed until 8 a.m. Not a chance for running. I feel if my body needed to rest that much, I should let it.

Day 7: X Stretch

Day seven is labeled a rest day. You have the option of resting for real, or you can do the stretching. Mike did the stretching in the early afternoon, and I did it a couple of hours later. It was similar to the yoga workout's poses. Man, did I feel good though. It first loosens up your neck, then back and hamstrings. Very nice. I'm still really sore, but feel a lot better.

I'd really wanted to run this morning, but didn't get up in time. It was so hot throughout the day that I didn't even try (I did hit the pool for a couple of laps, but it's strange to swim when it's crowded like a pool party). Maybe tomorrow.

Day 6: Kenpo X

There's nothing like starting your Saturday morning with some fast-paced Kenpo when you're already sore. Thank goodness I'd taken kickboxing classes at UNC because it going right into jabs, crosses, hooks and uppercuts (and different combinations of these moves) with no explanation. There's no starting slow to get the form down: you either have to know already or watch the video first and then start it over to do it. I'm surprised how easily I remembered the moves.

But I loved this workout! I was concerned my knees and hips would pop and feel uncomfortable like they did during kickboxing (though I did it once a week with friends all freshman year, I had to give it up sophomore year because of the discomfort in my joints). But no! I felt pretty good. I found I'm much weaker on my left side than my right when it comes to the kicks (specifically: back kick). I'll have to work on getting that side stronger. I have a strange suspicion it has something to do with strengthening my core...

Day 5: Legs & Back

This morning I was up for some speed work on the track. I tried to go about a half-hour earlier than usual, but it still got really hot in the middle of my workout. My laps were strong, though, and I hit my goal on the nose every time. I love the track because before you know it, you've run three miles.

Because Mike had secret plans for our weekend dinners, we went to Whole Foods before our workout. I picked up some vanilla soy protein powder because it was on sale. They also had a chocolate flavor, but it had only 14 grams of protein per serving as opposed to the 24 grams in the vanilla. I have no idea why the protein amounts were different.

So back home, we warmed up and hit the gym for legs and back. I felt really good about the leg part of this series. It was lots of intense squats, but squats are something I've been incorporating into my workouts for years, so even the one-legged wall squats felt challenging but doable.

The back ones were still a lot of pull-ups, so I couldn't do too much here... I did manage more hanging with some pulses. Mike helped support me on one of the pull-ups, and that definitely helped. I still couldn't do more than one!

Tonight was another set of Ab Ripper. I finally gave it a solid try and was impressed by what I was able to do once I decided to go for it. It was still hard, and I certainly couldn't complete all of the sets, but at least I gave it 110%. No more wimping out on this core workout for me.

It was pretty late when we finished up, so I decided to mix my protein powder with water. I actually liked this concoction. It had the faintest taste of my vanilla soy milk (as I figured it would being vanilla soy powder) but because of the water, it had a thin consistency. I look forward to enjoying it in more substantial smoothies!

Day 4: Yoga

Mike and I opted to do the yoga DVD this morning. We didn't realize it was an hour and a half long! Which is almost a reason why I would want to do it in the morning. I love having my workouts done since I get home so late. Anyways, I really enjoyed this yoga program. It's a good thing I'm familiar with yoga, though (I took classes twice a week at my gym in New York for about 8 months) because the poses aren't explained very well. At least I am able to help Mike because form is really important in yoga (as it is in everything). I'll definitely look forward to Thursdays for this yoga DVD! I'd been looking for a good one, and this is it.

Day 3: Shoulders & Arms

I went on my morning run even though I was scared my legs would kill after those plyometrics. Instead, I felt really spunky on my run. My muscles felt bouncy and loose but strong. It was nice except for the heat. It's almost too hot to run in Atlanta at 8 a.m.

P90X was after dinner tonight. I wasn't sure what to expect since the last time we actually hit the gym, I was unable to really do half the stuff. I opted to play it safe with my weights, mostly picking 5 pounds since I was unfamiliar with these workouts. I have a worksheet for recording my weights and reps, so when it was too easy at 5 lbs., I made a note of it and switched up to 10 lbs. the next time.

Another round of Ab Ripper tonight. It's hard to come back up after you feel done to do 20 minutes of ab work. I still wasn't really feeling it (mostly a mental thing, thinking how I don't mind doing core work, but I would really prefer to do other types of core work than the ones in this program). But I gave it a go (kind of) and did better than the first time. But if it felt too hard, I was quick to give up.

Day 2: Plyometrics

Because Mike and I play trivia with friends on Tuesday nights, we did this workout in the morning before work. I didn't know what to expect from the plyometrics DVD at all. I did know that it would require a lot of energy, so I tried to perk up without my coffee (I get it in the office because we have one of those personal cup brewers... love it).

Plyometrics was hard, but fun. It was lots of jumping around the living room. I hope the people who live below us were already awake because it was lots of landing in sneakers on a hardwood floor.

Day 1: Chest & Back

I came home today from a weekend in St. Louis visiting my brother. Over the weekend, we ran about 3-4 miles on Saturday and about 10 miles on Sunday. It was great, but I was a little tired.

So of course today is the day my boyfriend Mike reminded me we start our P90X routine. P90X is an intense workout program designed to get you ripped in (can you guess?) 90 days. Last week I'd played around with one of the cardio DVDs just to see the style of the videos. I was very impressed and felt really worked out! So I figured this Monday was good as any other Monday (and the sooner we start, the sooner we finish).

Tonight after dinner, Mike and I got ready to go downstairs and hit the gym in our condo for some chest & back. Right off the bat, I was not thrilled about this first day lineup. It was a combination of pull-ups and push-ups, which are two things I can never do well. There are twelve exercises that you go through twice. I won't bore you with the different variations, but my arms felt like jelly at the end. And I wasn't even able to do the pull-ups (not that I expected to... I mainly just hung there are long as I could).

After our cool down, it was back upstairs to do Ab Ripper. It wasn't just crunches. It was total core work. One of the reasons I'm doing this program is to strengthen my core. My chiropractor told me during my last visit that since your core is the biggest muscle in your body, it make sense that you should work it out the most. (Then you work out your next biggest muscles a little less and so on). Well, this workout was so difficult. It didn't help that my heart wasn't in it. I was tired and frustrated from working out already for an hour with the back and chest, but feeling like I hadn't accomplished anything. So I did some of the stuff, but I could have pushed harder.

Mike let me try his whey protein powder mix for a recovery shake. The flavor is banana cream, and it was disgusting. I may have to look into other tastier options. Normally after a long run, I crave chocolate soy milk. Since I'm going to be running and lifting now, I think I need to pack something with a little more protein.

What's this about two-a-days?

In celebration of taking running seriously for about a year now, I am planning on racing in a half-marathon (or two... I can tell once I get that first medal, I'm not going to want to stop).

Around the same time I decided to do this, my boyfriend discovered this workout program called P90X. It's a 90-day commitment to a toned body.

Because I'm not willing to stop my running routine (it's gone from something I loathed in high school to something I love now), I figured I have to step it up and do two-a-days.

Note: I won't actually be working out every day twice a day, but it'll happen a couple of times a week, which is a lot for me!

Stick around if you're interested in the P90X process because that's what I'll be covering mainly in this blog. We start next week.