P90x Day 80 - Back, Biceps, No Run

Today just flew by. I swear that for every hour that everyone else had today, I got 20 minutes, it just went by that fast.

Workout this morning was sub-par but I got some back and bicep work in. I've now mentally convinced myself that I have to baby my back, so I allow myself to skip alot of exercises I shouldn't. I need to work on that.

I should have ran today, but I got home late from work and between that and trying to get out the door to play poker (I do this every Wednesday) I just didn't get my run in. No excuses, I just chose not to do it. I'm not in my "training schedule" yet so I won't knock myself too much for missing it, but come June I hopefully won't be missing any runs. I could have done it when I got home from cards, but I figured running at 11pm was counter-productive. I'd probably end up awake all night.

Big Winner tonight at poker. I always love when that happens. Took some advice and worked on my game about 3 weeks ago with a friend of mine. It's been paying off. Still feels weird to play this way.

Yoga tomorrow, but will be stretch X I'm sure.

P90x Day 73 - Shoulders, Biceps, Triceps, 1.5 mile run

I actually missed this blog update last night because I got in late from playing cards but yesterday was a good workout.

I got an excellent Shoulders and Arms workout and only had to skip a few workouts (bent over flys) in order to play it safe for my back.

1.5 mile run in just over 15 minutes. I think I pushed the 1 mile pace a bit faster than I had recently because about the time I rounded 1.25 I was really starting to feel it. Between increasing the distance this week and running back to back days I got to 1.5 and decided that it was good enough. I've got another run tonight that I'm hoping to get 2 miles in.

Overall I'm feeling really good the last few days. My back issues haven't bothered me in a week or two and I seem to be mostly back on the P90x wagon although I'm not sure the intensity is there to the degree that it was the first 30 days. Something I need to look at.

Next workout is supposed to be Yoga. I think I'll sub out stretching instead and get my run in.

P90x Day 66 - Back & Biceps, 1 mile run

3 days into this week and so far I'm still alive.

I can feel that my back is pretty sore but it's not enough to hinder me from anything or make me change my schedule...yet. It always seems to be worse in the morning so I'm hoping that tomorrow morning won't be me waking up and going "what have I done". That was pretty much what happened last Thursday.

Another good workout today. Much better than my Monday workout. I have noticed that some of the exercises on P90x assume that you have a rockin' core and a strong back because things like bent over rows and whatnot are really putting a strain on my back. I realized that pretty early into this DVD and had to skip some of the exercises that really involved my lower back. Better safe than sorry.

Today's run was ok. I'm still slowing it down alot which makes finishing the jog alot easier. I know I could do it alot faster, but for some reason I think that was jarring my back more. However I'm starting to notice that the slower runs seem to be more stressful on my knees. Can't win for losing I guess.

Diet is still a weak point. Correcting that slowly, but it's far and away the hardest area to reign in.

Tomorrow is Yoga. We'll see how that goes. I haven't been good about doing Yoga recently and If I don't get up in the morning my chances of doing it tomorrow go down drastically because of the time it takes to do that routine. Between that and running it'd be a 2 hour workout easy. Here's to wishful thinking.

P90x Day 59 - Shoulders, Triceps, Biceps

Feeling really good today. Got up again this morning and knocked out a great workout. I got up a tad later than I wanted to this morning and if that happens tomorrow I won't have enough time to get my Yoga X workout in because of the additional time sink.

I took my dog into the Vet this morning so I hope everything is ok with him. He's got a bump on his snout that's very tender to him that's been there for a couple of weeks. We've watched it and gave him benedryl thinking it might just be a ant bite or something, but it's still there. In light of the things that went on this month with John Stone's dog Turtle I'm going to go ahead and get him a clean bill of health.

Workout today was Shoulders and Arms. It's nice to get back to this workout as I've been "push/pull" for the last month. My arms are really tired today, and it's funny how you can do the same exercises, but based on what order you do them in or what you pair them with you can get entirely different results.

Anways, Yoga X tomorrow. I'm going to be disappointed in myself if I miss this workout.

P90x Day 45 - Back and Biceps

Without even being aware of it until I started typing this entry today is a huge milestone day. Day 45 is OFFICIALLY HALF WAY! I can't believe I'm already on the back 9 of my fitness challenge. This is so far by far the most successful I've been on a "resolution" before Even if I didn't start until the beginning of Feb.

Maybe that's not entirely true, I did spend several months last fall running consistently 4-5 times a week and did 15+ races, so that was proof that I could put my mind towards something and stick to it.

I turn 30 this year on November 5th. On my 29th Birthday I made a goal to run a marathon before my 30th birthday. Right now it's the only thing on my "things to do before I'm 30" list but I'm thinking of adding a few more fitness and non-fitness related things to that list. Anyways, I looked up the date last night for the Chicago Marathon and it's Sunday October 11th. That's 206 days away from today and while that seems like a long time that means I have to start seriously training and moving up my distance around the first week of June in order to be where I need to be by October. So that means that I have between now and June 1st to get back to the point where I'm running 3-4 miles, 4-5 times a week. My P90x challenge ends May 1st and I'm supposed to start another one after a week off. I think I'm still going to do that, but it might mean that I have an awful lot of "fitness" going on this fall.

Today was back and biceps. I like the bicep workout for this series alot more than the phase's bicep workout. You do alot more focused bicep work and by the end of this I can barely pick anything up. I'm definately going to miss this workout when I go back to the other Phase's routine.

Yoga tomorrow. I'm hoping I can get up (finally) and get Yoga X in my system. I've had to compromise and do other Yoga workouts recently because of time and I'm wanting to try this again and see if it's any less brutal than it was on week 1.

P90x Day 38 - Back and Biceps

I'm alive, but I'm exhausted.

Last night was a really good night. I was able to decompress and let alot of my issues go away. Working out and getting out and running did alot for my mental health.

This morning I managed to get back to working out in the morning. I haven't done that in almost two weeks so I'm pretty tired even as I type this.

It was back and biceps this morning and I got a really good workout in. It's always nice when you finish a workout and your arms are too tired to do some activity. I'm absolutely going to feel this workout tomorrow I'm sure.

I didn't do Ab Ripper this morning, I probably should have tried but my lower back was pretty sore and given my history of injury with that I figured I wouldn't force the issue. My back and shoulder have been feeling much better since I started P90x. The workouts all use your own body weight and they have modifications for when you can't do the tough stuff. I think all of that leads into something of an almost rehab like situation and it'll be nice if when I'm finished with this I'm able to actually be physically strenuous and not notice it in my back the next day.

I think running is probably going to kill me with this sickness I have. I felt like I was getting better, but today I feel like I've taken a few steps back on the wellness trail. I may or may not be related to the fact that I'm opening up my lungs while running. Although running yesterday I felt better than I did last week so who knows.

Tomorrow is Yoga. If I can get going in time I believe I'm going to make another attempt at Yoga X. I'm sure I'll regret that decision. Can't believe week 6 is almost half way over. This weekend can't come soon enough.

P90x Day 31 - Back and Biceps, Ab-Ripper X

Today's workout was a great workout. I love bicep workouts for some reason and this one was a doozy. I hadn't done the new back and bicep together workout, but so far that and the workout from Monday I much prefer to the first phase. I'm feeling it already and I'm sure tomorrow my arms are going to be jelly. It was funny while working out my hands started cramping up from the forearm workout. I figured that's how you know you're giving it your best. I also feel like back workouts now are better since I got the resistance band. I look forward to the day I can do one of these workouts without having to use bands, but there is no way I could do the workout they did today on pullups. Even if I could do pullups, I think this one would have been rough. "Corn Cobb Pull-ups", you gotta be kidding me.

I can't believe I'm 30 days in already. So far I don't feel like I'm going to burn out (knock on wood) and while I'm sure this next 30 days will be much tougher I can see myself making it through the 90 days. I'm really enjoying getting to work out again, and once I can get back into mornings I'll be fine. The last 3 days I've had to do my workouts in the evening because I feel like crap in the mornings. I've been getting in some good workouts, but it's much tougher to make the time when I get home after work. It's been a chore that I'm looking forward to getting rid of. I'm still not 100% and now that my sinuses are "draining" I think I'm probably a day or so from getting this behind me. I think my throat is going to be killing me tomorrow but we'll see if I can't get some cough drops to mitigate that.

For all the effort I've put into the workouts this week, my diet has had some backsliding. Lunches haven't been pre-made because my whole house is sick and as a result my choices have not been ideal. Not horrendous, but not good either. I'm looking forward to getting back on track tomorrow.

Tomorrow is Yoga day. I'm thinking that I'm going to try Yoga X again. I haven't tried it since week one and have been doing another hour long Yoga workout (YRG) and I think I'm going to attempt it. It's just so acrobatic and it seems like some of the moves in the DVD are just done to show you that Tony Horton is really flexible. Maybe it's just me, but I don't see the value in all of it. We'll see how much time I have and when I can get the workout in.

I was hoping to get progress pictures taken tonight, but my picture taker is asleep already. We'll do them a day late tomorrow.

Looking forward to pressing play tomorrow. It's nice to be able to focus on workouts, they are my constant this week with everything else being so chaotic.