Run Test - 2 miles just over 16 minutes.

Ok, so I had a couple days off from P90X but came back with a vengeance. I hit the run test with a fast first mile (well, fast for me) at 7:40 minutes and with my BPM at 160, I pulled back a bit. Second mile was in a HIIT format peaking HR at 168 bpm and maxing speed at 9.5 mph for .25 miles or 400 meters. That was HARD but doable. My lungs were on fire. And sorry for the short sentences, but I'm still catching my breath. :)

My HR dropped 30 bpm within 2 minutes so that's a fast improvement.

Now to cut up some trees and then hit up Power YogaX for my daily workout.

Any ideas out there?

What do you do to motivate yourself when you don't have someone pushing you to workout?

Bonking Hurts! Adjust Your Diet

I completely forgot to adjust my calorie intake and type of calories for this month. Last month, in Africa, I was supposed to be in Phase one, zero to minimal starch. All calories were SUPPOSED to be from pure protein foods like fish and chicken, fruit, and vegetables. That wasn't possible there due to selection out there.

So this morning I was making breakfast and noticed that I was bonking really early in my workouts. So I had a little glycogen boost in my meal. I have my typical 4 egg whites with sauteed veggies and 3 strips of turkey bacon. But I added a half cup of Go Lean cereal with some blackberries.

Wow, I feel like I just gave myself a shot of something incredible, because that pump I have this morning is something I haven't seen or felt in a long time.

Looking forward to Plyometrics today and a 4 mile run. Tomorrow, I'll have a two mile test to see how much I improved and if I'll hit my sub 16min goal for next week.

Don't do Plyo Pushups on Laminate Wood Floors

You probably already guessed what happened to me, and you probably already started laughing. I've done them before on this type of floor and never had problems, but this time was different.

Funny thing about this, or more like karma, I was reading Sam's P90x blog right before I went on my mission and laughed (to myself lightly - Sam, in case you're reading this...) about his reason. I laughed (more like a light "ha") because I noticed that I don't grit my teeth when working out, but, in a very odd way, almost dislocate my bottom jaw in some weird breathing form. Kind of like how my son pouts.

So after I was midstream in the workout, Plyo Pushups came around. I wasn't ready for this at all. I had a week and some time off healing from being sick and by the time this torture came about, I was WASTED - and not in the fun, with your friends, on a Saturday night way. More like in the "I Can't Hold Myself Up" way.

So there I was, in the push up position ready to beat gravity and push the ground when I flew up in the air and landed onto a slippery hand. BAM. Face Plant. 'Nuff said.

I was OK, no physical injury but I actually looked around, in my basement, to see if anyone saw me. Found my two dogs just laughing to themselves. I knew they were. I could see it on their snouts. Friends huh...

Ego hurt aside, I finished Ab Ripper. Man, a FEW weeks off from this and I knew it! I was killing it before I came back from Africa, now it was teaching me a lesson in ass kicking.

I finished it thinking that I can't have that hanging over my head. What would me Army friends think? And then to finish it off, I did about 15 mins of HIIT on the tread mill just so I could say that I did. I'm done.

Mark out...

Starting the Log Late, But Better Than Never...

I started seeing more and more people logging their experience and I started getting a little motivated watching other people get motivated - make sense? It's almost a combination of the "total immersion" concept with "self-fulfilling prophecy" concept.

What I mean by that blah, blah, blah, is that if I continue to tell myself something over and over again, then it starts to happen. The part about total immersion is simple really. Keeping things in sight and in mind help me keep on track without getting too distracted with life.

So I started P90X AGAIN after some injuries and stop/starts. I'm in week 5 now after a kick ass week 1-4. It was really 1-5 and a half, but I was in Africa for 6 weeks and didn't have my two upper body DVDs for phase 2. So I just took a cardio week and did another week of Phase 1. When I came home, I had the flu, chills, and massive jet lag, but that part was expected.

While I was out there, the food was not allowing for the right diet so I was on a massive deficit and training a lot. I did double workouts about 3 or 4 days a week. This was basically 30 minutes of cardio in the early morning (3 or 4 times a week), then did P90x in the afternoon when I returned. And during the day, we were pretty active walking the in Africa. All in all, major calorie burn.

Food was very clean and natural: natural sugar (only with coffee), liters of water a day, fruit, fish, chicken, veggies, some french fries (had to do it). I didn't have access to a pure protein and veggie diet called for in Phase 1 for the glycogen depletion part of the program, however I am really happy with the results from month one.

Now getting motivated for Phase 2. I took a little rest to acclimate myself to the new weather and access to really bad food - which is killing me.

In a matter of a week, I reset my high intensity heart rate from 155 bpm to 174 bpm in my morning runs. For my fit test, I'm using the military fitness test of push ups and sit ups in 2 minutes, max pull ups, and two mile run. My two mile run time dropped from 18:30 to 16:10 in a week. This is obviously because of the intensity boundary that was raised in my heart rate. Next goal is to bring the run sub 15:50 by May 4th.

I am now doing the run 3 or 4 times a week, alternating a two mile sprint with 25-35 mins of a moderate to fast pace. The afternoon/ evening is open for P90X.

Today was a 30 minute run this am. Started sweating after 12 mins with a constant heart rate of 142 bpm.