Slow Start to 2012

Even with the Rock n Roll USA Half in DC looming (less than 2 months away), motivation is still lacking. Not really sure what it is, maybe its just the cold weather. Don't get me wrong now! I am in now way complaining, I'd much rather have it this cold than in the 90s with 90% humidity. But still, running in any kind of extreme weather is not very pleasant, but I'll take the chill over the heat/humidity as the lesser evil.

So its only been 5 measly runs since the new year, totaling under 20 miles. Got the ball rolling, with 9 weeks left, on the "serious" training last week, doing one hills session and an EZ run. Was going to do one more "long" run, but got scared away by the cold (did i really just say that?). This week so far, its been one hills session, a short EZ run, and I have 7 miles planned for tonight. That will put me around 13 miles for the week, which I guess is not terrible for week 2 of training (though is terrible if you consider I'm only a little over a month removed from the Half in vegas).

Otherwise, nothing spectacular on all fronts. Just trying to get the ball rolling again and find that same motivation that got me up to 12 mile long runs for Vegas. I guess I should just be happy that I'll have done 3 runs this week. I've yet to get myself to cross train, which I wanted to break out Yoga, Plyo and Core from the X. Or even some swimming at the Aquatic Center, which I payed $75 membership for. Until next time!

Another Milestone...

So far for 2011, with last night's run, I've done a little over 210 miles. To put that into perspective, from NY, I'd be somewhere in between Washington, DC (209 miles) and Alexandria, VA (214 miles). Or if I were to head north to New England, I would be right around Concord, NH (211 miles). Crazy huh? And, since I started this whole running thing February of last year, I just broke the 500 mile mark. That would put me somewhere between Detroit, MI (488 miles) and Toledo, OH (508 miles)! I know for the more serious runners out there, this doesn't really amount to much, but for me, someone's who never really run before, and has had terrible conditioning all my life, its a pretty big deal!

A little bit of whats been going on. As mentioned above, I went for a quick 1.72 miles around the small loop in CP last night. My first run since the Tri (over 2 weeks ago already!). It went alright, considering it was in the mid to high 80s, but low humidity. My legs felt strong, but could tell my conditioning has already started to decline. Actually, I noticed it last week when I attempted Plyo X, and had to extend the breaks in the second half to 60 seconds instead of 30, and that was on top of heavily modifying the moves already. The day before that I did Yoga, and boy did I need that. Everything was tight all over and I felt like I was going to tear my hip flexors, thats how tight they were.

So, a few things I'm considering on the horizon: 10/29- Urbanathlon! Not sure if I'll be ready for that. Its a little over 9 miles long I believe, which is where I should be in my training for the Half in December, if not further. But I'll need to be dedicated with my P90X workouts if I want any chance at those obstacles. I've all but tossed Warrior Dash out the window. And, I'm eyeing a couple Tri's in late Sept, early Oct, but worry about the timing with Urbanathlon. Not sure which my priority would be. The Tri's would of course be Sprint distance again, not going to try an Olympic distance until I have a couple Sprints under my belt.

So thats it for now. Will continue to take it easy through July, then start kicking up the training in Aug (once I decide on whether I'm going to do another Tri, Urbanathlon, or both).  And then somehow mix in the half-marathon training. Fun!

Full Phase 2 Week

It's been a very good past week, in which I've completed an entire Phase 2 week! With some extras sprinkled in. So, since last update (had done C/S/T and ARX on mon, vball on tue):

Completed Plyo on 12/1, it went pretty well, bonus round and all. Legs felt strong and the ankle didnt bother me much. Been actively trying to go deeper and jump higher to boost the intensity, like I need that! Thursday (12/2) was Back & Biceps, followed by ARX (which I did, AGAIN). I'm starting to see some decent progress on pull ups, which is very encouraging. I could only use the 30's on bicep work for maybe the first couple of moves, then had to resort to the bands. And I must add ARX was harder this time than compared to last time. Probably had to do with the fact that I was still a bit sore.


Friday, as a replacement for Kempo, I did another 5 mile run (in the cold! and dark!) in Central Park. Time was a bit slower than my previous few 5 milers, but was happy with my pace given the conditions. I was also still a little sore from Plyo, which was done 2 days prior. I should also mention I did a few "strides", which from what I read, is interspersing some sprints, so every half mile I threw in a 30 second sprint.  I went to get my gait analyzed at a running store afterwards. Had me walk, then jog on a treadmill. He determined that I'm a very mild pronator. I'm a bit skeptical of his assessment though. I'm almost pretty sure I land on the outside of my feet, which wouldnt make me a pronator at all. But oh well, I already have my next pair of running shoes ready to go!

*edit* - ok, I guess I had this whole "pronation" thing misunderstood. I'm a mild pronator, meaning I'm probably normal. Further, pronation, apparently, is more about how you roll from foot strike to toe-off, and not where you land. Glad I cleared that up for myself...haha

Saturday, after a long day of laundry, I still did Yoga. It's getting better and I can now do all the push ups again. BIG NEWS: I was able to do the ENTIRE Warrior 3/Half Moon sequence!! In fact, I felt like I wasn't even struggling on the right side! I was in utter shock! Big pat on back for me! haha....And Sunday, I was about to complete skip legs & back, as it was a tiring weekend and my legs were sore from running and yoga from the 2 days previous. But thanks to my wonderful wife, who is piecing together the workouts herself now, provided the encouragement and motivation for me to pound out L&B, along with ARX! Pretty decent workout, my left knee is still problematic. Though there are days where it feels FANTASTIC, yet others, like I'm a 90 year old man.


Yesterday was Vball, same ol' same ol'. So that wraps up the last week, havent had a rest day yet, and dont think I will. Tonight I'm flips back to C/S/T. Will get back to do my Plyo push ups again soon. 'Till next time!

Quick Recap

Been updating more frequently with scheduling updates, but havent really given recaps, so, here goes. Since the last real recap, its been going pretty well. Currently wrapping up Week 2. Some high- (or low) lights:

I'm struggling more with pull ups than I thought I would. Didnt see much improvement this past C/B session, which really is the third time, since I did a Week 0. Legs & Back went well, first time I've done it this round. But I was REALLY sore for about 3 days. Mostly in  the glutes and calves (since I did the calf raises on the stairs). Thighs were a bit sore, but nothing crazy, which was expected after months of running. Did plyo this past wed, and it seemed tougher than the previous time, probably because it was a humid day. Was still able to complete it without extra breaks, and keeping up pretty decently with "the kids". Nothing spectacular with Shoulders and Arms last night, only highlight is that the biceps are feeling stronger (and the reps/weight show it). Still need to expand my weights....

So I'm keeping up with my plan so far, will hopefully knock out Yoga tonight. I may do a run tomorrow instead of Legs & Back, but I really dont want to skip it. But I know if I do L&B on tomorrow, I would be able to run for a couple days after. Maybe I'll run on Sat. then L&B on Sun, but I want a rest day.....hmmmm....

'Till next time!

Still On Track (Sort of...)

I'm not to sure how my recaps ended up on a Tues, but I guess I'll keep that going until it changes again. So I had volleyball last tuesday, worked up quite a sweat. Took Wed and Thur off (was significantly sore from Yoga!). On Friday, I went out to CP and ran 5 miles.  Being that its been about 2 weeks since I last ran (Cow Harbor 10k), it was a pretty good run. After using the first couple miles as a warm up, I actively tried to push the pace a little bit, to be just outside of my comfort zone, with my average pace being 10:30 for the entire run. Broken down into mile splits (which Nike+ now has), after my warm up mileage, I was actually closer to a 10 min-mile, which is much faster than I had been running.  So all in all, was very happy with that run.

Had every intention to bike at least one day over the 3 day weekend, but it was nixed by trips to Ikea! haha...so though I did not take the bike out on saturday, I did remain active. How you ask? By putting together Ikea furniture! Ok, a bit of a stretch, but it beats sitting around doing nothing.

"Day 1: Chest and Back (~50 min)
One word describes this work out, INTENSE. workout essentially alternates chest (push-ups) and back (pull-ups). and on top of that, after you're done with that, you tackle Ab Ripper X, which is 339 reps of various ab exercises. the key to chest and back? PACE YOURSELF. you think you're all manly and do as many reps as you can in the beginning, when you repeat the set, forget it, i was down to 3 reps because i ran out of gas."

As I'm trying to restart the X, I thought it'd be fun to revisit my first post, from 2 years ago, when I first started P90X.  I quoted it above. I thought I was more descriptive, but I was not. And that last part about being down to 3 reps, yea, that was ON MY KNEES. So Monday I did in fact jump into Chest & Back. and man, its every bit as tough as it was on that day over 2 years ago. I tried to take it easy, but even so, I was pretty spent, ALMOST thought about not doing Round 2, but was determined to. I did have to skip Dive Bombers cuz quite frankly, I couldnt even do 1 at that point. Hoping next week will be better.

and FINALLY, another pat on the back as I, WOKE UP EARLY TO DO PLYO THIS MORNING!! Go t up at 6am, washed up, changed, downed a protein drink, and got started around 6:20.  Overall, it went well, I was able to keep up and not add any extra breaks (thank you half marathon), and my legs did get a good workout. Jump knee tuck and Rock Star hops are still the 2 most exhausting moves, ever. But as of right now, as I write this post, my legs feel fine, and I'm not even really sore from the workout.  In fact, I'm tempted to even say it doesnt feel like I actually DID plyo this morning. Perhaps I dreamt that I did...haha. But no, I KNOW I did =).

Ok, hoping the rest of the week goes as smoothly as the last couple of days, and hoping that I continue to get up to workout in the morning. Thanks for reading, 'til next time!

Running Recap 6/7 - 6/13, 100 miles, Plyo X...

An overall good training week. And since, for me, it was a huge personal milestone, its worth repeating...

I have now ran over 100 miles for the year!!

Go me! In any case, since I made last week a recovery/taper week, I started the week off with a long run. 6.4 miles in Central Park- going in the reverse direction (clock wise). This direction seemed to be a touch easier, as the uphill wasn't quite as long as it is going the opposite way. Improved my average mins/mile, compared to the last long run.

On 6/10, I had intended on doing 4 miles. It started to drizzle as I started the run, and didnt think much of it, and thought as long as it stayed like that I would be fine. Well, it DIDNT stay like that. It started coming down in buckets at one point, so had to cut the run short to just once around the southern loop for 1.74 miles. And just as luck would have it, it cleared up as soon as I left the park. So to make up for the rain shortened run, I went back on the following day, 6/11, for a 4 mile run at the CIP path.  Made it a quasi-tempo run, where I averaged a 10:20 min/mile. The first mile I was able to do in under 10.

And as a bonus....I did Plyo X yesterday (6/13)! The first time in a very long while. And I'm happy to report, I was able to get through the WHOLE thing, bonus round included- WITHOUT ANY BREAKS. So it appears my condition is improving. Good stuff.

Coming up: This week will be the JP Morgan Corporate Challenge. It will fill in good for one of my runs for the week. 'Til next time!

A Good Start to a New Month

So, the plan is PlyoX tomorrow, and maybe Intervals X Plus on Sunday.

We'll see how I end up.

Lets just say, I ended up very well! Okay, let me back off a little bit and just say it went well. I really wanted to continue my half-marathon training, but that was virtually impossible with the sub-zero wind chills. I mean, I'm one that can take the cold reasonably well, but even I have my limits! I really wanted to hit some resistance training and cardio, though, so my solution? I did half of Chest & Back followed up with 25-30 min of Plyo X. I wanted to take it light on C&B, since its been a while. So I capped the push ups at 10 reps, and pull ups at 8 (doing what I could unassisted, and finishing up with the chair). And let me tell you, even doing that, was HARD! By the time I got to the dive-bombers, I was spent. And to imagine, I only did one round. Plyo went ok- though was disappointed with my perfomance. Thought it would be a touch better from my *four runs...wishful thinking I suppose. Perhaps I was spent from just doing C&B.

So, I woke up Sunday morning, motivated, and tackled Intervals X Plus. I actually did pretty well with this. It wasnt as hard as I last remembered it. Was able to do all the moves, except 2, which were the push up moves. I was incredibly sore from the day before, so there was no way I could do those. So they were pretty much extra 60 sec breaks, and I didnt take any more than that, which I was proud of. So to revisit the question of which is harder, Plyo or Intervals X? Hands down, PLYO X.

One thing I tried this weekend, which I read was good to do, was I did all my workouts with no sneakers. It was interesting. My ankles did get sore, since my ankles are all kinds of messed up, but I think I did alright. I find shoes get in the way sometimes, so I enjoyed it. It'll even help with stability, so may help out my ankles in the long run. I'm working out on carpet so impact wasn't much of an issue.

So I'm still incredibly sore today, but its such a nice feeling. Was going to pound out Shoulders & Arms this morning, but once again, failed at waking up. So, I should get it done tonight, which watching the Bachelor....haha. Dont ask.

'Till next time, BRING IT!

R3 P90X Day 2: Plyo X

Plyo X- complete.

notes:
-paused extra 30 seconds for each "break" except first break.
-no bonus

Day 2: done.
On deck, Day 3: Shoulders & Arms