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!