Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Chicago Marathon Training - Recap

In light of the celebrity deaths of the last week I feel I should dust off my blog to let people know that I'm still here. The last few weeks have been incredibly busy but I've managed to continue my marathon training to the best of my abilities. P90x however has been chosen as the sacrificial lamb of my schedule.

The core issue with my time suddenly vanishing is that I picked up some side work for a company I know and that has been consuming my nights. Where I would normally be dozing off around 10-11 I'm now up till 1-2 banging out code for money and it makes waking up early impossible. I did it for 2 days before I was so worn out I could barely function. I could maybe find a way to fit the training in somewhere but with running my main focus now I'm just going to cut back on the amount of open time commitments I have outstanding right now in favor of sanity. This project will likely only last a couple more weeks and when it's done I'll look at picking up elements of P90x again. I don't believe I'll be able to do a full routine until after my marathon but I can likely do strength training of the off days.

Running has been going well. My weekday runs are going as planned and while I haven't been able to hit every run perfectly I've done almost all of them or done the best I could on the ones I did. Two weekends ago I was suppossed to run 7 miles but I could only get 2.5 miles in the morning before the heat stopped me and then I only got 5 miles that night before fatigue stopped me. That's a combined 7 miles, but I still wish I had done that distance non-stop. Last weekend cut back to 5 miles and I finished that without issue and it was one of my best runs ever.

This week is 3 mile Tuesday, 4 miles Wednesday, 3 miles Thursday, 9 miles on Saturday. 9 miles!. I really really am intimidated by this distance. I haven't ran anything farther ever in one continual run thatn 6.5 miles or so. I'm desperately hoping that I can complete this run without walking and "on pace" because I think if I can it'll be the exact thing I need to motivate me to keep going. If I'm not able to do it or have to start walking at 5-6 miles I'm worried that it's going to discourage me into the "if I can't do this what makes me think I can do that" mentality. I mean afterall it does only get harder every week.

I'm trying not to let negative thoughts into my head so we'll see where I end up.

Eating has been poor the last week or so. Not sure why I went off the page so much but I did. I haven't got on the scale but the last time I did I was down to 230.5 so we'll see where that number is on Friday when I weigh in again. Maybe I'll weigh in Saturday post-run to see what that's like.

Things are well overall and I'm going to attempt to revive my blog. I'm going to wish I had blog entries for all my runs in the future so I need to get back on the wagon.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

P90x Round 2, Day 31,32 No Workouts, 3 Mile run, 1.25 mile run

P90x Round 2, Day 31 & 32 No Workouts, 3 Mile run, 1.25 mile run
Diet :
Poor

Summary:
I hit the bottom the last two days but I'm hopefully on the upswing. Diet Wednesday was good for breakfast and then at lunch I decided to throw that in the trash and just eat junk. Same after work and then at home for dinner I ate more just to do it. Today's breakfast was ok, but lunch wasn't as good as I wanted it but dinner was ok. I think I've got the mental stuff worked out now and can get back focused.

Running Wednesday was really tough. I had to walk some which I wasn't thrilled about, but I finished. I thought that maybe my problem was that I was getting bored with the course so I tried a new run today down around my local park. I'd never tried the trail before and it was unbearably hilly. At some points it was almost like climbing. I got 2 laps around the trail in at about 6pm and called it a day. It was too hilly to realistically "train" and while I should have gutted it out I didn't.

I'm really looking forward to my longer run Saturday. I'm hoping I can work out some of my issues with an hour to myself.

I think instead of marking this whole week as "missed workouts" I'm just going to pretend it didn't exist and start over with this week again next week. It'll put me a week behind on finishing, but I think I'll feel better about it overall.

My routine has been really thrown off lately. I've picked up some side contract work and have been doing that after hours. Unfortunately it's been getting me to sleep later which makess waking up harder which I believe is at the root of this week's issues. Not sure how I'm going to resolve this because I can use the work and I'm not sure I can get enough done and get to sleep in a position that would get me up and feeling rested. We'll see. It's probably only going to last a few weeks, maybe I'll suffer through it.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

P90x Round 2, Day 30 - Missed Workout, 3 mile run

P90x Round 2, Day 30 - Missed Workout, 3 mile run
Diet :
Breakfast: Raisin Bran
Lunch: Salad with Turkey, Cottage Cheese, Carrots
Snack: Jello Pudding, Fruit Cup
Dinner: Spinach Ravioli, Leftover Pizza, piece of lemon pie
Unplanned Snack: None

Summary:
I'm up too late tonight which means tomorrow I'll be in the same boat that I was in this morning. I was exhausted and couldn't get out of bed and when I finally did I managed to get my run in and nothing else.

I have to keep focused on the fact that running is my main goal right now, but that doesn't mean I can just start blowing off P90x unless I just agree that I can't do a full P90x regiment and maybe I'll do M,F,Sunday and use my other days for running. I could do my weight days on those and maybe overload saturday with stretching.

I'll think about that idea.

Day 30 was today. Weighed in and am down to 232. That's a total of 14 pounds lost for the first 30 days. My "goal" is to be under 225 at day 60 if not closer to 220.

Feeling good today, just tired.

Monday, June 8, 2009

P90x Round 2, Day 29 - Chest, Shoulders, Triceps

P90x Round 2, Day 29 - Chest, Shoulders, Triceps
Diet :
Breakfast: Raisin Bran
Lunch: Salad with Turkey, Cottage Cheese, Carrots
Snack: Granola Bar, Jello Pudding, Fruit Cup
Dinner: Healthy Vegetable and Chicken soup
Unplanned Snack: None

Summary:
Not the best workout today, but I did give it a decent effort I suppose. For some reason I seem to have lost some strength or at least some motivation over the last week. I definitely do not enjoy this workout as much as the other workouts in the first week.

Tomorrow is the weigh-in day for Day 30. I'm actually not going to be surprised to find out that I'm down a bit from last Friday. I just don't feel like I've done enough to take any backwards steps.

Plyo tomorrow. I have to run as well, so we'll see how that goes. Might cut Plyo short for running, maybe not. Running is the focus now but don't want to use that as an excuse.

P90x Round 2, Day 28 - Rest

P90x Round 2, Day 28 - Rest
Diet :
Breakfast: Healthy French Toast (WIN!), juice
Lunch: Leftover Pizza
Snack: None
Dinner: 6" meatball sub (subway)
Unplanned Snack: None

Summary:
For opting out of the stretch and choosing to "rest" I sure didn't do much of that yesterday. I woke up to some super awesome healthy french toast. It was pretty much just egg whites, splenda, and whole wheat toast with some "healthy" syrup but it was awesome. I wanted to eat another 20 slices, but only ate 2.

Anyways, after breakfast I went down to my basement and began working on finishing that. I'm attempting to finish my basement but haven't made alot of progress on it over the last few weeks because every time I went down there I'd find a way to talk myself out of working on it. But yesterday I pretty much spent all day either working on it or driving to the store to get things to work on it. BUSY!

Diet was a little higher than a "clean" day, but I'm not worried about it. Still was pretty low in consumption even if the things I ate were a little higher calorie.

I haven't done the best at putting 100% into the "recovery" week and I can tell. At least I've been able to stay focused on my running.

I AM OFFICIALLY SIGNED UP FOR THE CHICAGO MARATHON. This will only end badly :)

Saturday, June 6, 2009

P90x Round 2, Day 27 - No workout, 6 mile run

P90x Round 2, Day 27 - No workout, 6 mile run
Diet :
Breakfast: 3 egg veggie turkey and black bean omelet, Juice
Lunch: Grilled Chicken Sandwich
Snack: None
Dinner: Caesar Salad and PIZZA! (planned cheat)
Unplanned Snack: None

Summary:
Today was very plus/minus. I had a friend come into town that I haven't seen in a few months and he ended up hanging out at the house all day. So I opted to skip Yoga and the begging of my wife who desperately wanted to skip her workout as well.

This could have been a wasted day fitness wise because I didn't get up in time to run this morning but I made the right decision and went for a run later in the night. The planned distance was 5 miles but I ran a "penalty" mile for missing the last two distances. It wasn't the best run ever because I was burping up pizza for potions of the run and it was hot and humid. BUT I GOT IT DONE. 6 mile in just under 1:02:00 which I'm pleased with. Because I was able to do this I'm going to sign up and pick my official charity tomorrow for the Chicago marathon and my official training starts next week.

So not the best last 2 days but not the worst either. Will probably "rest" tomorrow instead of stretch because I have alot of work to do around the house, but if I'm feeling like I need a good stretch I'll change my mind.

Friday, June 5, 2009

P90x Round 2, Day 26 - No workout

P90x Round 2, Day 26 - No workout
Diet :
Breakfast: 4 egg Vegetable and chicken omelette, Diet Coke
Lunch: Salad with Turkey, Cottage Cheese, Carrots and Celery
Snack: Granola Bar
Dinner: BBQ Chicken, Cauliflower and cheese
Unplanned Snack: Skinny Cow Ice Cream Bar

Summary:
Today didn't start off very well and it just sorta ebbed from there. I woke up and tried to workout. I had no interest in Core Synergistics so I tried Cardio X. I got about 10 minutes into that and realized I was just faking the motions so I quit that.

I went to eat breakfast and didn't have enough eggs, so for some reason that put me into a funk. I went to work and ate there hence the slightly raised level of eating at breakfast.

That slight binge seemed to quell the damage and I managed to get through the rest of the day on the plan.

BUT IT WASN'T ALL BAD!

I got up this morning and weighed in. 233 total puts me down 13 for the first 4 weeks. I'll probably jump on the scale on day 30 to see how it goes officially. So that worked well, somehow it wasn't enough to keep my morale really high for the morning, but hopefully I'll bounce bad and get a good run in tomorrow followed by some Yoga.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

P90x Round 2, Day 25 - X Stretch, 3 mile run

P90x Round 2, Day 25 - X Stretch, 3 mile run
Diet :
Breakfast: Oatmeal, Juice
Lunch: Salad with Turkey, Cottage Cheese, Carrots and Celery
Snack: Granola Bar, Jello Pudding, Strawberry Jello w/ Fruit
Dinner: Pork Tenderloin, Mashed Potato, Green Beans
Unplanned Snack: None

Summary:
Today went exactly according to plan. Got up early and rocked out 3 miles on the run. Probably the best run to date and I finished 3 miles in just under 28 minutes which is really fast considering my normal time. I felt really really good and finished feeling great.

The workout this morning was Stretching. It's usually my Sunday exercise, but during the "recovery week" I do it on Thursdays. It was nice to stretch out after my run and I was sweating bullets during a good portion of the stretch.

Diet 100%.

Looking forward to weigh-in tomorrow.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

P90x Round 2, Day 24 - Kenpo X, 2 mile run

P90x Round 2, Day 24 - Kenpo X, 2 mile run
Diet :
Breakfast: Oatmeal, Juice
Lunch: Salad with Turkey, Cottage Cheese, Carrots and Celery
Snack: Granola Bar, Jello Pudding, Mixed Fruit Cup
Dinner: Vegetable Fritata
Unplanned Snack: Serving of Vegetable Pasta, Skinny Cow Bar

Summary:
Another day in the books. I went out for another run this morning BEFORE my Kenpo workout to try and change things up and it worked out for the most part. I only got 2 miles instead of 3 in because I had to head back to the house and use the restroom. I have no idea what I will do if this happens during a longer run, I guess I'd go back to the house, use the restroom and then continue my run. Same thing I'd have to do during a race I suppose.

Got a good Kenpo workout in after the run. I fast forwarded through the breaks to keep my heart rate up and give me a better workout. All in all a good workout.

Diet today went well until after dinner. Was pretty hungry so I ate a small portion of leftover vegetable pasta and a 100 cal ice cream snack. Feel better after eating it, but I might have been able to get along without it.

Running and Stretching(?) tomorrow. Strange to have stretching mid-week. I think I'll do the stretching after the run in order to maximize the stretching.

P90x Round 2, Day 23 - Core Synergistics, 3 mile run

P90x Round 2, Day 23 - Core Synergistics, 3 mile run
Diet :
Breakfast: Oatmeal, Juice
Lunch: Salad with Turkey, Cottage Cheese, Carrots and Celery
Snack: Granola Bar, Jello Pudding, Mixed Fruit Cup
Dinner: Shrimp and Rice, Corn on the Cob
Unplanned Snack: 3 orders of celery and some ranch.

Summary:
I can't believe I didn't post the blog last night. It's irksome, but I honestly forgot. I went out with some friends and on the way home made the mental note several times to blog when I got home. But when I got home I let the dogs out and went to sleep without it even crossing my mind. Go Figure. At least I only missed the blog and not the workout.

Yesterday was Core Synergistics. I'd like to say that after the 100% with Yoga on Monday that I turned around and rocked out this workout as well, but it didn't happen. I gave a mediocre effort to this workout and only made it about 30 minutes into it before I just lost interest. Rather than refocusing and finishing the workout I ended it early and went for my run.

The run was the highlight of my morning though as any effort I neglected during my workout came out during my run. I as able to run 3 miles running the slightly tougher course loop than I usually run and finished in 29:50 which was really satisfying to see.

I felt good about the effort as a whole for the morning workout even though I didn't do as well as I wanted to with Core synergistics.

Diet was good. Went out with some friends and they hadn't eaten yet so we ended up at a Buffalo Wild Wings playing trivia. They got food and while I didn't avoid eating, I did order alot of celery and ate that instead. I ate probably 50 pieces of celery or some retarded amount like that. But celery is good for you I guess. I also drank probably 2 gallons of water yesterday so that was good I suppose.

Monday, June 1, 2009

P90x Round 2, Day 22 - Yoga X

P90x Round 2, Day 22 - Yoga X
Diet :
Breakfast: Oatmeal, Juice
Lunch: 6" Subway Club, Baked Lays
Snack: Carrots and Celery, Granola Bar, Jello Pudding, Peaches and Strawberry Jello
Dinner: Vegetable and Chicken Pasta, Dinner Roll
Unplanned Snack: None

Summary:
I am rather reluctant to commit to "recovery week" for some reason. I'm not sure what it is but it probably has to the fact that this week is such a departure from the other weeks in the program. The first round of P90x I barely ever did Yoga and when it came to recovery week and was two times in the week it pretty much ended up as two days I didn't do anything and that really threw off my momentum so for some reason I'm still apprehensive about the recovery week.

BUT, so far so good. I think that today's Yoga might have been the best Yoga workout so far. Usually this workout really feels like it drags on, but this time the first 45 minutes really zipped by. I've stopped looking at the clock as much as possible during Yoga and for some reason that really seems to help the time not feel like it's slow.

Diet went well today. I'm really thinking I can stay clean eating till this Friday and have some good progress, I mean it's practically Tuesday already so I can make it another 4 days without temptation. If I can't do that I've got bigger issues.

Running tomorrow morning again. This is my last week before I start Marathon training in earnest. All the work to this point has really just been pre-training and it's been tough so I'm really not sure what to expect once the mileage starts increasing. But so far I have been doing well on the longer runs so we'll keep our fingers crossed.

Core Synergistics tomorrow. This sometimes stresses my back, so we'll play it cautiously.