P90X - into week 3

I've been going along pretty good with P90X. With 2 weeks in the bag I can say there have been improvements. For example, total push ups of varying types for this workout in week 1 totaled 100. Tonight I did 139. Total pull ups in week 1 was 43, tonight I managed 68. Some of those, a lot of those, were assisted pull ups where I used 1 leg on a bucket to give a just little help in order to get enough reps to make it worthwhile. And weight bearing exercises where I started with 15 pound dumbbells I am now using 25's, and even 30's in some cases.

My abs are really taking a beating. I am completing much more of the ab ripper workout, but I'm still not able to keep up with it. I can definitely tell my core is getting stronger every time I come back and try to make it the full 15 minutes of the ab workout. Like tonight I made it through 5 moves before I had to curse at the DVD and then curl up in a ball to dissipate the burn. I rest for 5 reps or so and then jump back in. Maybe by week 12 I'll be able to make it straight through.

The 50/30/20 (protein/carb/fat) diet has been tough. It's not easy to eat that much protein w/o getting carbs along with it. You have to be careful. And finding 7 servings of vegetables a day is equally as hard. I've been using protein shakes to help supplement the protein requirements and V8 juice to help out with the veggies. The rest is from normal foods that you chew and swallow. I definitely have not gone hungry, that's for sure.

By the way I haven't been running because I don't have time, P90 takes 1 to 1.5 hours at the end of every day and that is all I got. So my 60K effort this Saturday will need to be strategized and executed perfectly in order to fake that distance.

P90X and me

I'm going balls to the wall in Ironman Louisville next year. I will do everything it takes to set myself up for an opportunity to go sub 12 hours. I'm coming in with the same feverish excitement that I had for my first ironman in 2008. I need a stronger core. I need more muscle, not really muscle mass but definitely strength. And I need to get my body fat down. To help with that I started P90X this week, finished up week 1 today. P90X, though plagued by somewhat cheesy marketing, is a 90 day extreme workout and nutrition plan that includes weight lifting, plyometrics (which is a lot of ballistic jumping movements), yoga, stretching, Kenpo, and cardio. It stands for Power 90 Extreme, the 90 is how many days it was designed to take before you either repeat it or move on to something else. Since I still need to get some running in to at least be able to finish the races I'm already signed up for between now and January, I'm doing what is called P90X Doubles, which just means I am supplementing the program with additional cardio in the form of running. Doing Doubles is really hard for me to do it in terms of both time and effort, I wish I didn't have any races on deck like I do. But it is what it is. I did a 12 mile run today and felt OK considering P90X slapped me around pretty hard this week. My butt/glutes were so sore from doing the plyometrics Tuesday that it hurt to sit down on Wednesday during the ab workout.

I took half naked before pictures and measurements so I can see if progress is being made. I'll need this most of all to stay motivated. I suppose I'll reveal some before and after shots after 90 days. I can say after only 1 week that this is the real deal. You don't get big results from watching a DVD 7 times a week. The workouts are pretty intense, and I don't even come close to being able to keep with the 3x a week ab workout called Ab Ripper X. There are also a lot of body weight type workouts like pushups, pullups, etc. I struggle there too, sometimes I can only do 3 pull ups on my own and have to put one foot on a chair to assist. Most workouts are about an hour long and you work your butt off.

But the other key ingredient is diet. The P90X nutriti0nal guidelines are very good. All the principles I paid a certified nutritionist to tell me last year are all covered...and more. Phase 1, the first 30 days, is a fat burn period so carbs are way down and protein is way up. You slowly up the carbs and lower the protein over phase 2 and 3. The idea I guess is to put your body in a deficit for energy from carbs to make it use fat stores instead. I won't go on and on, but their nutrition plans are quite good and they make it pretty simple to follow. I'm following the 2400 calories a day plan which will provide enough fuel to build muscle and complete the workouts, so you can see it is not a starvation diet.

My plan is to come out of this in February with a solid, strong core and lower body fat, ready to start ramping up my endurance training for IMLOO and have a season of personal bests. Rock. Out!

Race Report - Bimbler's Bluff 50K

This was my first race longer than a marathon. Technically, anything longer than 26.2 miles is called an ultra marathon but in my book ultras don't start till 50 miles. That was my thinking before the race.

I drove up to Guilford, CT on Saturday afternoon and stayed over at an old buddy's house - Rob Cohen and his beautiful wife Chrissy, who are the proprietors of Cohen's Bagels. Sunday morning I had a bowl of oatmeal with maple syrup and bananas and a cup of coffee. The race started at 8am and I got there about 7am, as this type of race was an unknown to me. I signed up for this race thinking I could cruise an easy 31 mile jog in maybe 6 hours or so - even on zero training. I clearly had NO idea what I was getting into.

As I milled around the start I checked out the other runners and what gear they were using. I had nothing. One dude asked me "you just gonna run with nothing, no food, no water?" I told him this was my first time and wanted to come in naked and learn my lessons the hard way. There were 5 aid stations, usually 6 to 8 miles apart. I thought that was a stretch I could make easily with no aid. Let me explain why that was stupid...

The race started and after a short lap of a soccer field we were on the trail. The trails were riddled with rocks from the size of a can of soup to a 1 liter soda. These were loose rocks and mixed in with leaf cover so you really had to pay attention to where you took your next step. It was like running through a bed of hot coals, jumping back and forth to get that foot hold you spotted. If you can imagine, between the concentration required to pick a path and the agility to spring around like that - it was incredibly tiring. I realized within the first 30 minutes that I was in way over my head on this one.

About 10 miles into it, we hit the Bluff. The Bluff is a ridge line along a high cliff with incredible views of the area, especially in the prime fall foliage right now. It was a steep, hand over foot, climb to get up to the ridge line with sections that were even difficult to walk up. It seemed like we were constantly going uphill and I was quickly becoming spent. So the reason is was stupid not to bring at least a water bottle was, even if an aid station was only 6 miles away - it would take 1.5 hours to get to it. 2 hours to reach the ones 8 miles apart. That's a long time to go without any fluids or calories.

So lack of conditioning and dehydration completely kicked my butt. I walked most of the last 2 hours of the race and even that was taxing. I am well aware now that trail running is NOTHING like road running, it is 15x more difficult. You use so many little stabilizing muscles to keep from falling and to land your footings, muscles and tendons you don't use when running road. Even if I was in good road running shape this race would have destroyed me. It is a superior workout and I would like to do more trail running to get better at it. It is definitely a skill that needs to be practiced.

Out of 101 people who started the race, 88 finished. I was finisher #81 in 8:32:15. It was an incredibly long, hard day and I got the punishment I deserved for not training. While walking to work today from the Port Authority I had to stop and rest against the side of a building. My legs are screaming. I won't take any pain killers though...I earned this pain...and I plan to savor it all week long.

Next stop - 60K in Central Park in November!